Fur Trade
A brief History of Canada: 500 years in 2 minutes
Excerpt from a Story by Harry Robinson
Fur Traders
They tell the Indian to get fur.
Put in trap and get fur.
Then they buy that and trade ‘em.
They trade, you know.
They cheating the Indian at that time.
See that gun?
See this gun here?
See?
They put this gun,
They stand ‘em on the ground like that.
Well, the gun is higher.
In those days the gun is long.
And he stand that gun.
Then they pile the hides from the ground.
Build ‘em right up even with the gun.
“All right, you take the gun. I take the hides.”
And the gun, it was only about $30.
And then the hide, it was about $900.
See?
They traded that way.
That was wrong.
Harry Robinson was a highly respected storyteller from the Interior Salish people. Harry was born in 1900 and learned storytelling in the Okanagan language from his grandmother and other oldtimers. In later years, when more and more of his listeners understood only English, Harry became a skilled storyteller in English. Beginning in 1977, over a twelve-year period, an ethnographer (a person who researches cultures) named Wendy Wickwire tape-recorded over 100 stories told by Harry. Selected stories were later published in two books: Write in on Your Heart: The Epic World of an Okanagan Storyteller, from which the following is a short excerpt, and Nature Power. Harry’s stories were transcribed as he told them; they are set in short lines that mirror as closely as possible his rhythms of speech. Harry died in 1990.
Explorers
John Cabot
Jacques Cartier
HBC Beaver Trade
HBC Beaver Trade Animation from Kelly John Rose on Vimeo.
Hudson Bay Point Blanket
HBC Point Blanket Animation from Kelly John Rose on Vimeo.
- Includes a learning Centre and many teacher resources including the HBC Hamper section below.
- Information, pictures, short video clip of the history of the Hudson’s Bay Company and the fur trade in Canada.
Teacher Resource Guide:
Fur Kits
There are kits in our LRC that have fur samples in them. For SD71 staff, search Fur Trade Kit in Destiny.
In the following PowerPoint you will find some of the animals that people gathered furs from Animal Furs
