Indigeneity of Fur Trade Forts in the North American Pacific Northwest

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "Colonial Forts in Comparative, Global, and Contemporary Perspective", at the 2023 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

Acquisition of animal pelts, including sea otter and beaver, drove the initial wave of 19th century mercantile colonial settlement of the Pacific Northwest. This vast area, comprising Canadian British Columbia, and Idaho, Oregon, and Washington of the United States, contained an extraordinary diversity of Indigenous peoples who supplied raw materials and labor that fueled the fur traders’ economic success. Earlier archaeological endeavors focused on colonial settlements, but recent work addresses the changing material dimensions of Indigenous landscapes that hosted fur trade forts and their settlements. Material consequences accompanied the transition between earlier and later forts. Throughout the region, concentrations of Indigenous people near forts and environmental consequences of settlement led to fundamental changes in social relations, economy, and the material expressions of identity. Descendant groups fractured by fur trade colonialism persisted and in the aftermath of colonial settlement are connected in complex ways with fort sites today.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Colonial Forts in Comparative, Global, and Contemporary Perspective   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2023

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Nicole Haddow