Hudson's Bay Company Research Papers (original) (raw)

Fort Churchill or New Severn Post was constructed by the Hudson's Bay Company barely fifteen years after the company was incorporated, in 1670. The palisaded enclosure would remain standing for only five years. At that location, more than just European wares were exchanged for furs and vice versa. Two worlds came into contact and would be forever marked by the process. The brief period of occupation attested to at Gllw-1 illustrates some of the probing that was taking place between two distinct of life. Local Indigenous traders and their families learned about new technologies and tools, but also experimented with the properties of these new materials and objects, and incorporated them into their traditional, but changing, lifestyle. The English realized
that trading was not viewed by the Indigenous peoples as exclusively an economic equation, thus entering into social relationships with their Indigenous clients.

In the eighteenth-century, France’s metropolitan authorities and colonial officials tasked the French western explorer Pierre de La Vérendrye to integrate the Indigenous peoples of the Petit Nord – Cree, Assiniboine, Monsoni, Anishinaabeg, and Dakota – into the network of French-mediated alliances emanating from the Great Lakes. The governor-general of New France, known as Onontio by the Natives, sought to ensure the symbolic subjugation of all Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes and the Petit Nord. Unlike the Great Lakes, devastated by endemic warfare and virulent diseases, the Indigenous social formations of the Petit Nord and Northern Great Plains remained politically cohesive and autonomous in the eighteenth-century. Thus, the Cree, Assiniboine, Dakota, and others, resisted creating a “middle ground” with La Vérendrye and other French newcomers, as they had little desire or need of French mediation in their territories. La Vérendrye’s ambitions for a French-mediated peace, or “Pax Gallica,” were thwarted in the overwhelmingly Native political space of the Petit Nord and Northern Great Plains.

- by Scott Berthelette
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- Ethnohistory, Colonial America, Metis Studies, French Empire

Examining communication and information networks during the period of the Régence (1715-23), this article argues that French metropolitan ministers, imperial planners, colonial administrators, and royal cartographers relied heavily upon backcountry specialists-coureurs de bois, runaway soldiers, and veteran voyageurs-to provide ethnographic, geographic, and strategic knowledge, which informed and shaped the policies of post-Utrecht French North America. Subsequently, colonial officials believed that these French frontier diplomats and negotiators were the key to consolidating imperial control over the geographic, political, and cultural landscapes of the Hudson Bay watershed. These backcountry specialists were embedded within Indigenous information networks that criss-crossed North America and were thus important intermediaries between the French state and Indigenous peoples at the edge of empire. Although coureurs de bois and voyageurs became pivotal informants, explorers, fur traders, and military leaders, they not only were unwavering agents of imperial power but also pursued their own agendas and exercised agency in the Hudson Bay watershed. Backcountry specialists initially made it possible for French colonialism to extend into the watershed, but their own ambivalent relationships with the French colonial government and its representatives also fragmented the imperial authority of the French Empire in North America.

- by Scott Berthelette
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- Atlantic World, Indigenous Peoples, Atlantic history, French

This paper discussed maps of the Arctic coast produced by the Orcadian explorer John Rae. Rae’s maps of the Arctic coast of Canada are little known, but represent the completion of the search for the North West Passage. The paper focuses on the maps contained in the only published narrative of Rae’s expeditions in 1846 and 1847, which resulted in the consolidation of knowledge about a previously unknown coastal area of one of the Arctic regions, the Gulf of Boothia. Analysing the methods and approaches contained in the narrative, the paper explains the way in which both Rae’s map and published narrative (re)produce and categorize Artic space and nature. Aspects of Inuit knowledge about the Arctic landscape (and Rae’s interpretation of Inuit knowledge) will also be explored, as they form a significant part of John Rae’s legacy. The resulting topographies and published map relate to wider issues of interpreting maps as social constructs, and the resulting methodological challenges of using maps as historical sources.

The witiko was a monster of mythical proportions in Cree and other Algonquian traditions, but remained frighteningly real, especially in the case of witiko possession of human beings. Imbued with a profound sense of contingency, of dependence for survival on other persons -both human and nonhuman (animals and spiritual beings) -Cree culture gave paramount importance to personal virtues required for competence in interpersonal relations, both to avoid or mitigate hardship, and to maintain selfcontrol in potentially dire circumstances that defy control. For 19thcentury Cree hunters, the human witiko epitomised and embodied social, ethical and epistemological incompetence in the extreme: the rejection of relationships -which are essential to our humanity -and their corresponding responsibilities, the perversion of the distinction between edible (animal) and non edible (human) persons, and ultimately the dehumanisation of self and other. The witiko was the antithesis of selfcontrol, provoking fear, and evoking chaos. Cree culture may no longer have quite the same notion of the witiko, but some notion of the witiko and of the monstrous is perhaps still needed in their culture and especially in western culture, in which -as Philip Rieff argues -the 'therapeutic has triumphed'. In short, if we lie to ourselves enough about reality -especially on the ethical plane where it effects our relations with others and our ability to appreciate and fulfill the responsibilities that flow from these relationships -then we risk becoming monstrous. And that is something we should fear no less than the Cree feared witiko possession.

- by Cecil Chabot
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- Anthropology, Violence, Cannibalism, Starvation
- by Peter Stanton
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- History, American History, Native American Studies, Nineteenth Century Studies

This second chapter (an updated replacement of Chapter2_ebook) of "Naskapis Emergent: Indianization in the North of Quebec Before 1956" (in progress) surveys and chronicles the influences that Naskapi ancestors dealt with while still... more

There is no other North American fur trade establishment whose longevity and historical significance can rival that of York Factory. Located in northern Manitoba, Canada, at the base of Hudson Bay, it was the Hudson’s Bay Company’s principal Bay-side trading post and depot for over 250 years. The existing site of York Factory is the last of a series of three posts, the first of which was erected in 1684. Completed in 1792, York Factory III functioned as the principal depot and administrative center for the great Northern Department until the 1860s when its importance began to wane. It finally closed in 1957. Archaeological work at the site has revealed many structural features and associated artifacts including a large and varied assemblage of beads, mostly glass, which are the subject of this report.

- by Karlis Karklins
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- Beads, Native American Glass Trade Beads, Glass Beads, Hudson's Bay Company

By examining Peter Warren Dease's role in his and Thomas Simpson's exploration of the Arctic coastline east of Coronation Gulf in the late 1830s, this paper aims to unseat Simpson's long-accepted self-fashioning as the strength behind the expedition's achievements and vision. Dease's veteran skills in wilderness travel can be read in the extant fair copies of his journal. (This essay, published in 1994, preceded and looked forward to the edition prepared by Bill Barr of Dease's journal, It appeared in 2002 under the title From Barrow to Boothia: The Arctic Journal of Chief Factor Peter Warren Dease, 1836-1839.)

- by I S MacLaren and +1
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- Canadian History, Fur Trade Studies, Arctic, Arctic history

Discusses the 1815 decision of the Hudson's Bay Company to hire French Canadian voyageurs out of Montreal to break the domination of the Athabasca region fur trade by the North West Company. Competition between these two companies had been violent, and voyageurs were not easily hired. The article describes the effects of the intense corporate competition on the voyageurs, particularly in terms of the legality of desertion, voyageur identity, and the greater ability of the voyageurs to control the terms of their service.

- by Robert Englebert
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- Fur Trade Studies, Fur Trade, Hudson's Bay Company, Great Lakes Fur Trade

In 1994 I took an initial look at Isaac Stringer’s Western Arctic diary, and based a chapter of my U of Wisconsin, Madison, Ph. D. thesis (a dismal affair) on his 1897-1901 stay at Herschel Island, west of the Mackenzie Delta, where his... more

Excavations undertaken to date within the Fort Simpson Heritage Park, located in Canada’s Northwest Territories, have not yielded anticipated evidence for the early XIXth century North West Company’s Fort of the Forks. Instead, archaeological remains found there indicate that the Park was the location of a sawpit and a York Boat recycling and building facility during the mid to late-XIXth century. These two activities, lumber production and the construction of watercraft used for regional transportation and distribution, were critical to the success of the Hudson’s Bay Company. The archaeological evidence shows that they took place outside of the fur trade company’s precinct which is usually delimited by a palisade or picket fence, and would have been missed by a research approach focused on the enclosed space.

- by Jean-Luc Pilon and +1
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- Historical Archaeology, Hudson's Bay Company, Archaeology, Subarctic Archaeology, Microblades, Subarctic
- by Brett E
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- Fur Trade Studies, Fur Trade, Hudson's Bay Company, Early Modern Buttons

Increased scrutiny of corporate legitimacy has sparked an interest in “historic corporate social responsibility”, or the mechanism through which firms take responsibility for past misdeeds. Extant theory on historic CSR implicitly treats corporate engagement with historical criticism as intentional and dichotomous, with firms choosing either a limited or a high engagement strategy. However, this conceptualization is puzzling because a firm’s engagement with historic claims involves organizational practices that managers don’t necessarily control; hence, it might materialize differently than anticipated. Furthermore, multiple motivations could jointly affect managers’ approach to organizational history, especially when dealing with conflicting stakeholder demands, rendering it difficult to historicize consistently. Examining the relationship between the legitimacy of critical historic claims, corporate engagement with these claims and corporate legitimacy, the present paper performs a historical case study of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s (HBC) long term use of history in stakeholder relations. The data suggest that under conflicting internal and external pressures, the HBC’s engagement with historical criticism became “sedimented” over time, involving both open and stakeholder-inclusive practices of “history-as-sensemaking” and instrumental “history-as-rhetoric”. Enriching understanding of corporate-stakeholder interaction about the past, this finding may stimulate its generation of social value and corporate legitimacy.

- by Wim van Lent
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- Legitimacy, Indigenous Peoples, Settler colonialism, Hudson's Bay Company

An exploration and analysis of the visit of the U.S. Schooner Shark to the Pacific Northwest in 1846.

- by Gregory P Shine
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- Military History, Maritime Archaeology, Maritime History, American West

This article analyzes histories of white settler colonial violence in Treaty 6 territory by arguing that the 1870 Hudson’s Bay Company charter and transfer of Rupert’s Land and the North-Western Territory to the Dominion of Canada helped to make past imperial violence an ongoing settler colonial terror structure into the present. It argues that this transition from imperial to settler colonial control of territory is best understood by using a multiple colonialisms framework, to examine the ways in which heteropatriarchal family structures transitioned from Indigenous-European to white settler kin networks that crystallized whiteness as a racialized means to control land as private property. Following Kanien’kehá:ka feminist scholar Audra Simpson’s work, I suggest that this territory’s multiple and overlapping colonial histories (French, English/British, and Canadian) are a crucial lens through which to understand the historical and ongoing formation of Canada as a white settler state, and that these histories still relationally drive anti-Indigenous violence and the settler killing of Indigenous peoples today. The essay concludes by arguing that the seeming daily placidity of white settler violence against Plains Indigenous peoples under Treaty 6 ultimately supports a relational violence that supports a killing state and its armed citizens in the name of protecting private property for white settlers.

Spokane House was founded by the North West Company in 1810. The nearby Pacific Fur Company post was purchased by the North West Company in 1813 and their goods were assimilated into Spokane House. The Hudson's Bay Company abandoned Spokane House and moved to the newly constructed Fort Colvile. The clay tobacco pipes from Spokane House' and Fort Colvile provide a continuum in a single artifact category which spans the Pacific Northwest Fur Trade from 1810 to 1871. Although sample sizes are smaller than some fur trade posts, a clear difference is demonstrable between the pipes of the North West Company era and those of the Hudson's Bay Company.

- by Smoke Pfeiffer
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- History, Archaeology, Historical Archaeology, Material Culture Studies

The Washaho (the Cree designation for the Severn River) Cree Nation at Fort Severn is the most northerly community in the province of Ontario. This small (3,959 hectares), remote Cree reserve of approximately 578 people (449 living on the reserve, and 129 living off the reserve) is situated in the Hudson Bay Lowlands, on the Severn River 9km from its mouth where it drains into Hudson Bay. Rich in fishing resources, the area was a traditional gathering place, and like many traditional gathering places along the shores of Hudson Bay, a fort (Fort Severn) was established by the Hudson Bay Company in the 17th century. As Cree lore and historical documentation attest, the Cree people have been interacting with wabusk for several millennia. This report is a brief summary of these interactions, since European colonization.

In the middle of the XIX century Hudson's Bay Company, expanding its sphere of influence, not just faced with opposition from the Tlingit Indians. Tlingits, using the benefits of intermediary trade of the European goods, successfully blocked the penetration of British merchants. The article deals with unsuccessful attempts of the HBS clerk Robert Campbell found trading posts on Dease Lake in 1838 and on the Yukon River in 1848-1852. The last attempt ended up being the Tlingit from Chilkat-kwaan in August 1852 captured and looted Fort Selkirk.

- by alexander zorin
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- Russian America, Fur Trade, Hudson's Bay Company, Tlingit Indians
- by Kenneth R Lister
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- Ethnohistory, Archaeology, Indigenous Knowledge, Indigenous Peoples
- by Naomi Slipp
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- Canadian Studies, American Studies, History of Science, Scientific Social Networks
- by Scott Berthelette
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- Indigenous Studies, Indigenous Peoples, Fur Trade Studies, Hudson's Bay Company

Interpretations of the significance of early modern corporations have taken a sociological turn. Historians have increasingly emphasized that corporations depended for their business on a multitude of relationships and were expected to provide benefits to other communities in return for their privileges. The attacks on the Hudson’s Bay Company that culminated in a parliamentary inquiry in 1749 illuminate the complexity of these social entanglements and their impact on the political economy of empire. At issue was whether the trade to the Hudson Bay region should be opened to others or left under the control of the HBC. Contemporaries argued this point by examining whether the HBC operated for its private advantage or in the public interest. But interpreting the public interest was a complex act that depended on economic ideas about the operation of imperial market systems as well as calculations about European rivals. Ultimately, the evaluation by members of Parliament of the social function of markets such as Hudson Bay—including the dependency on Indigenous suppliers—and apprehensiveness about French competition supported the company’s privileges. The episode revealed how contemporaries applied their expectations about corporate conduct and how ideas of economic cooperation influenced the political economy of empire.