The Fur Trade and France v. England

The Fur Trade

• Using the Indigenous trade routes of the Interior, the English and French, along with their First Nations allies, developed trade focused on beaver pelts that spread across North America. 
• In England, this trade was overseen by the Indian Department
• The Indian Department was established in 1755 to oversee relations between the government of the United Kingdom and First Nations.
• This political entity is still in existence in Canada and is called Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada.
• French and British explorers, fur traders and soldiers followed the trade routes inland and established a network of forts and posts.
• The fur trade was so profitable and important that the various European and First Nations interests often clashed violently throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.
• Competition between groups such as the Haudenosaunee and the Huron resulted in all-out warfare.

France vs. England

• In 1701, France and 40 First Nations signed a treaty in Montreal known as the Great Peace.
• The various First Nations in the Great Lakes basin promised to stop violent attacks and to share the lands, as "a dish with two spoons."
• Just before this treaty was signed, Haudenosaunee leaders had agreed to sell all of the lands of the Great Lakes to the British in exchange for their protection and the continued right to hunt and fish throughout the territory.
• In 1760, the fall of Montreal put an end to French colonial efforts in what would become Canada.
• The British victory led to a realignment of the First Nations alliances that had been in place for more than 150 years.
• Across the former colonies of New France and Acadia, the British undertook a series of treaties to secure the neutrality of First Nations and to establish peaceful relations.
• In the Maritime region, where lands had been hotly contested since the early 1700s, the British and the Mi'kmaq, Maliseet and Passamaquoddy peoples entered into dozens of these "Peace and Friendship" treaties.
• In 1760, the Indigenous allies of New France called upon the British to recognize their neutrality in the Seven Years War and concluded the Treaty of Swegatchie and the Murray Treaty.
• It is important to note that although Sir William Johnson, Superintendent of the Indian Department, tried to secure good relations with the former allies of the French, he was not entirely successful.
• Shortly after the fall of Montreal, the Odawa leader Pontiac, doubting British intentions and motives, led a series of attacks against British military positions throughout the Great Lakes region

Chief Pontiac