1. How were Aboriginal people depicted in early accounts of the fur trade?
    They were described as having played minor and subordinate roles, and becoming quickly and hopelessly dependent upon European technology and supplies. They would have starved without the Europeans’ assistance.
  2. What does newer evidence show to be more accurate about Aboriginals in the fur trade?
    In 1958 History of the Hudson’s Bay Company noted “the marked tendency for Indians to become dependent on the traders, and the danger threatening the trader and the Indian alike if shipping failed and they became completely dependent on the resources of the country.” In fact it was the English who were in danger of starvation without the fish, caribou, and geese supplied by Cree hunters. There is no evidence that Cree hunters were  relying on the English and the HBC did not ship food to Hudson’s Bay.
  3. In what ways did Europeans adapt to Aboriginal economic traditions?
    The Europeans had to adapt by trading goods using the immense geographical network. Europeans were forced to bargain within Aboriginal terms of reference, the trading companies also had to learn to give gifts as a central part of the trading process.
  4. Why did Europeans have to adapt to Aboriginal commerce?
    They had to Adapt because they were not trading the aboriginals for necessities and were gaining more from the trades in the long run.
  5. How would you characterize Cree and Assiniboine economic ability and methods?
    Both the Cree and Assiniboine were ecologically flexible and they were able to change depending on the habitat, and the new European ideas, methods, and technology allowed them to make quick adjustments to the changing economic systems.
  6. After 1670, how did the Cree and Assiniboine show their economic flexibility?
    After 1670, these allied groups quickly assumed the role of middlemen in the HBC trade. They pushed their trapping and trading area northwest with the assistance of European arms.
  7. How would you describe the Cree and Assiniboine inland trade strategies?
    Many groups of aboriginals competed with each other.   In the early eighteenth century, a great variety of people visited York Factory, the leading center of trade for the Western interior, but the various Cree and Assiniboine bands increasingly took over control of the inland trade of York Factory. They created a trading blockade, with a virtual monopoly on trade during most of the eighteenth century. They held the upper hand in this trade, and to a considerable extent dictated the terms of trade. The Cree and Assiniboine traded with interior groups, including the Blackfoot and Mandan, and, as they determined the kind and numbers of goods to be made available to them, they ‘largely regulated the rate of material culture change, and to a considerable extent they also influenced its direction.’
  8. How and why did the Aboriginal middlemen’s role change in the late 18th century?
    In the late eighteenth century, the Cree and Assiniboine began to shift southward as a result of changing economic orientation. When the HBC started to establish inland posts, the middleman role of these groups was undermined, as Europeans could make contact directly with the trapping bands. When the fur trade rapidly spread far and wide in Western Canada in the period from 1763 to 1821, the fur companies encountered supply problems for their increasingly lengthy transportation routes.
  9. How did the Cree and Assiniboine retain independence from European technologies?
    They did not, for example, rely upon firearms for hunting buffalo. Guns often required repairs, and the flintlock was not well suited to the cold weather of the Western interior. In contrast, for the people of the forest, participation in the fur trade led to a growing dependence on the trading companies. They required a variety of metal goods, consumed more ammunition, and placed a higher value on cloth and blankets than the groups living in the parkland and grasslands.