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William W. Cleghorn (1815–1878) was an Indian trader and fur trader who worked in northern Indiana and later in the Kansas Territory. Cleghorn's business and personal papers, held by the Lilly Library at Indiana University Bloomington, are here excerpted with scholarly footnotes, and published for the first time. The papers provide a look into mid-nineteenth-century Indiana and the West through the lenses of Native Removal, the Indian trade and fur trade, the operation of the federal Office of Indian Affairs, and the webs of patronage and influence that made up life for so many people like William Cleghorn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

William W. Cleghorn (1815–1878), a fur trader, Indian trader, and landowner, spent much of his life in the western Potawatomi nation in Kansas, before making his permanent home in LaPorte County, Indiana. His network of personal connections, illuminated by the collection of his papers in Indiana University Bloomington's Lilly Library, included local white officials, tribal agents, enslaved families, and wealthy trading partners like George and William Ewing. It centered on his Potawatomi neighbors and associates, among them the members of his first wife Ann Sharp Rice's Indigenous family. Cleghorn's accounts and correspondence reveal the imbrication of the peltry business with land deals, the extraction of resources from Potawatomi families, and the ongoing dispossession of Native Americans after Removal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To thrive along the Mackenzie and Yukon rivers in the nineteenth century required expertise rooted in generations of living on the land, along with some good fortune. Arriving in greater numbers after mid-century, many fur traders and missionaries lacked the skills to sustain themselves and keep their hunger at bay. These failures, combined with a colonial focus on agriculture and its limits in the North, served to create a nineteenth-century culture of food insecurity. Where northern Indigenous stories about hunger reassured, protected, educated, and enriched, colonial stories about hunger often stoked fear and anxiety; they described northern places as impoverished and unreliable. This essay explores this early culture of food insecurity through stories told by Oblate missionaries about their failed hunts, conflicts between traders and missionaries over securing land for gardens, accounts of starvation, "fasting," and their interpretation, and the experience of one exceptionally hard winter (1888–89) which reinforced southern perceptions of the North as an intrinsically harsh environment and food-insecure place. The essay closes with an examination of the impacts of the whaling industry on caribou hunting among the Gwich'in and Inuvialuit to demonstrate how colonial extraction created new forms of food scarcity, foreshadowing the environmental impacts of twentieth-century resource exploitation. This article argues that food insecurity was both a cultural expression and ecological consequence of nineteenth-century colonialism in the North. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among Hans Ulrich Vogel's important contributions to Chinese and world history has been his work on the outsized influence China exercised in the early history of globalization. In this brief article, we pay tribute to his careful research and deep insights by describing the interconnected circuits of exchange of three commodities – mercury, silver, and sea otter pelts – through which the early Pacific economy was articulated and transformed. Following Professor Vogel's lead, we explain how the Chinese demand that drove these exchanges fueled competitive economic expansion of European powers in the Pacific, setting in motion political, social, ecological, and economic patterns whose influence endures into the present. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Canadian Studies is the property of University of Toronto Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the maritime fur trade and George Washington Eayrs, a notable sea otter hunter, and smuggler. Topics covered include Eayrs' capture off the coast of Santa Barbara in 1813, his role in the maritime fur trade, and the significance of sea otters in the economic dynamics of the region. It mentions trade was fueled by the high demand for sea otter pelts in China, involving various players, including American and Russian traders.

The article is devoted to the study of the economic and social-educational activities of the Yakut merchant of the 1st guild N. D. Everstov. The main purpose of the publication is to reconstruct the historical portrait of N. D. Everstov. The article used the methodology of the civilizational approach formulated by A. Toynbee. The topic has theoretical and applied relevance. The author determined the origin of N. D. Everstov and the original sources of capital accumulation. In 1894, Everstov was the first Yakut to become a merchant of the 1st guild. In 1900, the trading house “N. D. Everstov” was founded in Yakutsk. In 1901, Everstov was awarded the title of commerce advisor and honorary citizen. The article reveals that Everstov organized a wholesale fur trade and an extensive network of agents in the 1860–1870s, entered the fairs of Irbit and Nizhny Novgorod, and had an annual turnover of 200–800 thousand rubles. In 1867–1878 at auctions in Leipzig they sold more than 50 lots of furs, with a total value of 865 thousand rubles. Dynamics of trade with China in 1865–1878 amounted to 50–100 thousand rubles annually, average profit 700 thousand rubles. N. D. Everstov laid the foundations for bill lending to entrepreneurs in North-Eastern Siberia. In 1860–1879, the lending rate was 12–13 % per annum, the total amount of loans was more than 145 thousand rubles. In 1910–1911, the merchant organized a bank with an authorized capital of 50 thousand rubles. A social and educational activity of N. D. Everstov was expressed in the financing of educational institutions, churches, missionary societies of Yakutsk. In 1915, the state of N. D. Everstov was estimated at 1 million rubles. Everstov’s sons continued their father’s trading and financial activities but were unable to create a large enterprise. The Yakut merchant laid the foundations for conducting trade and financial business with large capital in North-Eastern Siberia, organized the wholesale supply of consumer goods to the population of the region through the ports of the Sea of Okhotsk, and formed the trade and transport infrastructure of the macro-region.

Through an archaeology of Fort La Cloche, a nineteenth-century Hudson's Bay Company post in Georgian Bay (Lake Huron, Canada), this paper explores parallels between historical archaeology and posthumanism. The posthumanities identify and critique three key problems familiar to historical archaeologists: (1) the arbitrary prioritization of certain types of historical actors (usually White, male, settler colonial) as the apex and standard for all humanity; (2) dichotomous modes of thought that cleave the world into discrete (opposed) categories like "nature" versus "culture"; and (3) human exceptionalism, which frames human beings as fundamentally different—and separate—from all other living and nonliving things surrounding them. An archaeology of La Cloche offers insights into how these broader philosophical goals compare with the work of historical archaeologists. The intersection of the archival record with the archaeological collection, a large and varied assemblage of patent medicine bottles, porcelain doll parts, buttons, shotgun casings, and much more, provides new perspectives on the fur trade; it offers insights into the broader community at La Cloche, peopled not just by powerful company men but by children, woman, workers of various kinds and, of course, Ojibwe and other Indigenous peoples. Historical archaeology also focuses on the material conditions of the fort, documenting complicated and sticky relationships of dependence between people of all sorts and humble, nonhuman things. The paper concludes that historical archaeology and posthumanism stand to benefit from further engagement with one another, making recommendations for further growth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author reflects on a recent return to the Orkney Islands, where memories from over thirty years ago intertwined with new experiences. Topics include the blending of Neolithic history with modern landscapes, the Hudson's Bay Company's recruitment of Orcadians for the Canadian fur trade, and the islands' historical significance, from Norse influence to their role in both world wars.

Records related to Fraser Lake Post in New Caledonia and an assemblage of artifacts from a nearby Dakelh pithouse are used to query the early engagements of Indigenous people with fur traders and their materials. The central concern is with what fur traders regarded as theft, which they considered an affront and threat to the norms of commerce and presumed was motivated by a desire for material gain and flaws in personal character. The trader’s rhetoric brings into focus contrasting views of relationship building and the role of material culture in the process. When the exchange relationships are contextualized within sets of entanglements between individuals and social groups at various scales, discordant views of proper exchange and the value of material things can be better understood as resulting from differing ethos of reciprocity, with the material objects as more representative of relationships than technological changes and reliance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stone fireplaces and chimneys have been documented in nineteenth century Indigenous settlement sites in the Northwest Territories. The cabin and chimney designs were adapted by Dene craftsmen based on examples they encountered when engaging with Euro-Canadian traders and explorers. The Indigenous cabins and chimneys were built during a period of transition in Dene culture, at a time when they began the process of integrating into a fur trade economy. The chimneys and cabins are elements of Euro-Canadian vernacular architecture adapted by Indigenous people in the north. The Indigenous cabins and chimneys are an example of cultural diffusion and, in some instances, might have also been expressions of social status. Together, the Indigenous stone chimneys and the extant chimney features at Fort Confidence and Fort Reliance in the Northwest Territories are part of a shared architectural heritage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The commodification of animals as pelt was foundational to the economic success of the colonial project(s) in North America. At the same time, it signified a point of convergence and contention between English and French settlers and Native peoples of the Northeastern and Great Lakes regions of the continent: Most prominently, the Beaver Wars (1603-1701) represent great conflict arising from colonial presence, colonial economic interests, and complex trade relations between Native peoples and colonizers. The fur trade remained central to the North American economy well into the late nineteenth century. In this article, I trace the raccoon in the context of colonialism along lines of race, class, and Anglo-European notions of civilization. I focus primarily on early natural histories and travelogues as well as on historical documents concerning the fur trade of America to uncover how the raccoon and their pelt served as a vehicle for colonial mechanisms of Othering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Context: In this article, we examine how Chinese demand for pelts—of sea otters and other marine mammals—fueled the eighteenth-century competitive expansion of European and later American merchants and explorers in the Pacific islands and along the Pacific coast of North America. Sea otter pelts were a commodity directly linked to the creation of a Pacific Ocean economy, and California’s colonization resulted from imperial dynamics to which this trade gave rise. Methodology: Using both primary and secondary sources, we examine how these merchants’ quest to supply the lucrative Chinese luxury market with furs—“soft gold”—brought them into contact with indigenous peoples whose livelihoods and commercial networks would also be recruited into this global market but on quite unequal terms and with devastating consequences. Originality: The growth of this Pacific trade throughout the eighteenth century fueled geopolitical rivalries that led to the colonization of California with a system of missions and military garrisons (presidios) and, eventually, to a new ecology as a result of plants and animals brought from New Spain before the Gold Rush and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Many, including Marx and Engels, have claimed that the Gold Rush contributed significantly to the dynamics of industrial capitalism; nevertheless, we argue that its conditions of possibility were laid out centuries earlier via the complex geopolitical and ecological connections through which this Pacific economy was articulated. Conclusions: During the eighteenth century, the Pacific’s products were extracted and commodified in circuits whose demand center was China. It is precisely the prior existence of these global markets—centered on silver and “soft gold,” or sea otter furs—that explains the presence of Europeans and Americans in California eager to prospect for the yellow metal in 1848.

This article explores the use of science and technology of the Hudson Bay Company, by examining the company's development department (1925–1931). It focuses, first, on the cooperation between the development department and the renowned animal ecologist Charles Elton. Scientific practices of the department were also instrumental in supporting the company's expansive strategy, of finding and commercialising Canada's Arctic north. While the department remained short-lived, the article largely affirms the general view that science and technology played a minor role for trading companies. Yet it gives us a much better understanding of precisely why such a connection is difficult. The case also illustrates that scientific practices could and did play a role for trading companies, and had a specific value in modernising and expanding trade operations. Especially so in organising new supply chains in remote and new territory, and not only to support diversification operations, as it is usually argued. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective/Context: In this article, we examine how Chinese demand for pelts—of sea otters and other marine mammals—fueled the eighteenth-century competitive expansion of European and later American merchants and explorers in the Pacific islands and along the Pacific coast of North America. Sea otter pelts were a commodity directly linked to the creation of a Pacific Ocean economy, and California’s colonization resulted from imperial dynamics to which this trade gave rise. Methodology: Using both primary and secondary sources, we examine how these merchants’ quest to supply the lucrative Chinese luxury market with furs—“soft gold”—brought them into contact with indigenous peoples whose livelihoods and commercial networks would also be recruited into this global market but on quite unequal terms and with devastating consequences. Originality: The growth of this Pacific trade throughout the eighteenth century fueled geopolitical rivalries that led to the colonization of California with a system of missions and military garrisons (presidios) and, eventually, to a new ecology as a result of plants and animals brought from New Spain before the Gold Rush and the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Many, including Marx and Engels, have claimed that the Gold Rush contributed significantly to the dynamics of industrial capitalism; nevertheless, we argue that its conditions of possibility were laid out centuries earlier via the complex geopolitical and ecological connections through which this Pacific economy was articulated. Conclusions: During the eighteenth century, the Pacific’s products were extracted and commodified in circuits whose demand center was China. It is precisely the prior existence of these global markets—centered on silver and “soft gold,” or sea otter furs—that explains the presence of Europeans and Americans in California eager to prospect for the yellow metal in 1848. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 50th issue of the journal Inner Asia marks the completion of Volume 25. Since its launch in 1999, Inner Asia has published over 250 papers on a wide range of topics, including Chinese ghosts in Mongolia and the otter fur trade in Tibet. The journal has also featured 14 special issues, covering subjects such as Tibet-Mongolia relations, geopolitics in Mongolia, and the voices of Russia's minorities on the invasion of Ukraine. The current issue includes papers on the history of the Baroun Tala Khoshoud Khanate in Tibet, the perception of Tibetan Buddhism in 18th century Korea, the impact of government policies on pastoralists in Tibet, the cultural significance of the Tuvan yurt, the use of digital technologies by Buryat shamans, and the preservation of cultural heritage in Sichuan and Xinjiang. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of Quebec Studies is the property of Liverpool University Press / Journals and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

After annexing Novgorod in 1478, Grand Prince Ivan III adopted a series of policies that resulted in weakening the commercial economy that had underpinned Novgorod's wealth and independence. Among them were policies, adopted in the 1490s and thoroughly studied by scholars, that disrupted Novgorod's relations with its Baltic trading partners and prompted major adjustments to its patterns of export. But even earlier, in the 1480s, Ivan introduced policies that dismantled the long-standing and well-organized system of supplying large quantities of squirrel pelts, one of Novgorod's major exports, to the market. The economic effect of these policies, which had been designed to consolidate his political authority over the subjugated region, was seemingly unintentional. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the life and craftsmanship of Joseph Jourdain, a French Canadian blacksmith who lived in Wisconsin, U.S. during the fur trade era, and his renowned pipe tomahawks. It highlighting their significance in Native American culture and trade, along with characteristics that distinguish his pipe tomahawks from others. It also mentions the presence of fakes and reproductions in the collector's market and the need for caution when acquiring these artifacts.

Shifting baselines can skew species harvest guidelines and lead to potentially inaccurate assessments of population status and range. The North American Fur Trade (~1600–1900 CE) profoundly impacted the continent’s socio-ecological systems, but its legacies are often not incorporated in management discussions. We apply a conservation paleobiology lens to address shifting baselines of nine species of fur-bearing mammals in Vermont, including seven mesocarnivores and two semi-aquatic rodents. Using a database maintained by the Vermont Division for Historic Preservation, we identified 25 existing radiocarbon dates of fur-bearer associated features from 16 archaeological localities spanning the Early-Late Holocene. We also generated 7 new radiocarbon dates on beaver and muskrat bones from the Ewing (VT-CH-005), Bohannon (VT-GI-026), and Chimney Point (VT-AD-329) localities. Our new radiocarbon dates cluster within the Late Holocene, immediately prior to and throughout the European contact period, and overlap with The Beaver Wars. We recover a ~8,000 year record of beaver harvest, affirming the millennial scale importance of beavers, a species that is often the focus of human-wildlife conflict research. Comparison of zooarchaeological occurrences with digitized natural history specimens and community science observations reveals geographic range continuity for most species except for the American marten, which was historically extirpated, and confirms the native status of the red fox. While taphonomic constraints make our dataset a conservative assessment, our case studies demonstrate how wildlife managers can employ zooarchaeological data to better understand long-term properties of coupled socio-ecological systems and highlight the cultural importance of these species to Indigenous trade networks prior to the Fur Trade in Vermont.

Madame Montour, the child of a union forged by an Algonquin woman and French settler, leveraged her fluency in multiple indigenous and European languages to emerge as one of the most prominent interpreters in colonial New York and Pennsylvania. As the fur trade developed and new material culture was introduced in colonial North America, the labor of intercultural interpreters was invaluable as the interactions of diverse peoples, both settler and indigenous, intensified. This paper examines the distinguished career of Madame Montour as an interpreter engaged in intercultural diplomacy during an increasingly tumultuous and violent time that was marked by shifts in the relationship between gender and labor identity. I consider how payments in the form of cash, cloth, and clothing were entwined in the negotiation of an emerging colonial identity and how Madame Montour advocated to be recognized for her labor and to receive timely compensation for her skilled work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The genetic consequences of species‐wide declines are rarely quantified because the timing and extent of the decline varies across the species' range. The sea otter (Enhydra lutris) is a unique model in this regard. Their dramatic decline from thousands to fewer than 100 individuals per population occurred range‐wide and nearly simultaneously due to the 18th–19th century fur trade. Consequently, each sea otter population represents an independent natural experiment of recovery after extreme population decline. We designed sequence capture probes for 50 Mb of sea otter exonic and neutral genomic regions. We sequenced 107 sea otters from five populations that span the species range to high coverage (18–76×) and three historical Californian samples from ~1500 and ~200 years ago to low coverage (1.5–3.5×). We observe distinct population structure and find that sea otters in California are the last survivors of a divergent lineage isolated for thousands of years and therefore warrant special conservation concern. We detect signals of extreme population decline in every surviving sea otter population and use this demographic history to design forward‐in‐time simulations of coding sequence. Our simulations indicate that this decline could lower the fitness of recovering populations for generations. However, the simulations also demonstrate how historically low effective population sizes prior to the fur trade may have mitigated the effects of population decline on genetic health. Our comprehensive approach shows how demographic inference from genomic data, coupled with simulations, allows assessment of extinction risk and different models of recovery. see also the Perspective by Julia M. Kreiner and Tom R. Booker [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sri Lanka, one of the world's biological hotspots, exports wild-caught and farm-bred aquarium fish species to more than 70 countries. This study evaluated the potential for invasiveness of aquarium fish species now raised and traded in Sri Lanka's Gampaha, Kandy, and Polonnaruwa districts. A questionnaire survey of 40 hobbyists, 20 retailers and ten breeders of aquarium fish in each selected district was conducted to assess the causes of aquarium fish releases. The invasion potential was evaluated using a model consisting of species thermal tolerance, propagule pressure and invasion history. Overall, 59 non-native fish species belonging to 14 families (Acanthuridae, Callichthyidae, Characidae, Cichlidae, Cyprinidae, Helostomatidae, Loricariidae, Notopteridae, Pimelodidae, Poeciliidae, Osphronemidae, Osteoglossidae, Salmonidae, and Scombridae) were recorded from the aquarium trade in the country. Out of 17 species with high to moderate invasive potential, six have already been established in the environment in Sri Lanka. Therefore, Astronotus ocellatus, Barbonymus schwanenfeldii, Carassius auratus, Hypostomus plecostomus, Pangasianodon hypophthalmus, Poecilia latipinna, P. sphenops, Puntigrus tetrazona, Trichopodus microlepis, Xiphophorus helleri, and X. maculatus are identified as potential invaders in Sri Lanka. The reasons for the intentional release of aquarium fish into the environment were excessively large size, aggressiveness, diseases and high reproductive rates. The number of fish of each species released into the natural environment is positively correlated to the number kept in home aquaria. A well-coordinated institutional mechanism to control unwanted fish introductions through the aquarium fish trade in Sri Lanka is urgently needed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the decades leading up to the Civil War, American officials established multiple reservations on the west bank of the Missouri River and used it to delimit land for Indian Removal. They expected the wide Missouri to contain Indigenous peoples in the Great Plains to the west of the river, dividing them from white settlers on the east bank. Yet throughout this period, Siouan-speaking peoples in the central Plains—Omaha, Otoe, and Missouria peoples—fought to uphold their navigation rights on the river and preserve access to homelands on its east side. Enlisting Indigenous navigational technologies, they continued traveling on the river and landed repeatedly on its east bank, where they carried out hunting expeditions along eastern tributaries into northwest Missouri and western Iowa and confronted soldiers and settlers attempting to enforce the river boundary of Indian Territory. In doing so, Omahas, Otoes, and Missourias sustained their own deep histories of mobility and communication on Indigenous waterways that spanned American boundaries in the Great Plains. This article addresses how they resisted American authority across the Missouri watershed in the early to mid-nineteenth century. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of the College Of Basic Education is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In Astoria, a book about the American west by Washington Irving, the narrative is centered around Astor's fur trade. As a writer of the first generation growing up with the United States, Irving had a very clear understanding about his literary mission, namely, as manifested in this text, using the fur trade as a polygonal mirror to help America accomplish its literary imagination about continental expansion, wealth plundering, and overseas colonization, thus revealing the imperial complex of the Americans like him. Irving sets up an esthetic paradigm for later western writings by delineating an imagination about the western myths and an American spirit of empire construction in his literary text. However, America's westward explorations were mostly aimed at plundering the land, resource, and wealth. Therefore, its attempt to justify its expansionist mentality and colonial consciousness on the pretext of patriotism and national cause must be firmly condemned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents an analysis of one docent's discussion of Michigan history to a group of third-grade children as part of a week-long state-sponsored history program. By analyzing the docent's presentation about Indigenous and Fur Trade history at the Michigan History Museum, the authors argue that the docent forwarded a violent, settler colonial worldview. Using a dual-lens of Indigenous Studies and critical literacies, the authors detail how these narratives asserted a white supremacist national and state history. The authors offer a critical historical method rooted in the Lands and Waters that constitute Michigan, and propose potential sites of historiographical disruption, contestation, and critical thinking. In turn, they highlight the possibilities for museums as rich spaces for children to examine their relationships to community, nationhood, and social justice through stories told from multiple perspectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On their return to Canada in 1673, Louis Jolliet's group became the first Europeans documented to have passed from the Mississippi River watershed to the Great Lakes watershed via the Chicago Portage. This carrying place, between the Des Plaines and Chicago Rivers, would remain a politically and commercially important location during the fur trade era. A podcast by a group of Chicago historians, writers, and artists has promoted the assertion that a route south of Chicago, different from that recognized as one of only two National Historic Sites in Illinois, was actually the Chicago Portage Region used by such explorers as Louis Jolliet, Father Jacques Marquette, René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, and Henri Joutel. However, the accounts of the seventeenth-century French travelers confirm the 1928 work that established the location of the portage region and served as the foundation for its designation by the National Park Service in 1952. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the end of the French and Indian War elements of the British Empire moved quickly into the western Great Lakes and central Canada in an effort to partake in and control the lucrative fur trade. To do this both the British army and fur traders adopted a piece of Native American technology: birch-bark canoes. What may have seemed like just an expedient tool for travelling from one point to another actually had far reaching implications for all parties involved. Archival research, material culture analysis, and geographic information systems data together demonstrate that the birch-bark canoe's speed and efficiency both facilitated and frustrated fur traders and the army alike. For the army it meant a lack of control over traders looking to skirt imperial oversight. Conversely, the trader's ability to go far beyond the government's reach put them under the power of Native communities. Decisions about how much food or trade goods to pack, which waterways to take, where to trade, where to get the canoes, and how to stay alive were all influenced by the unique characteristics of this remarkable craft. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fur is known from contemporary written sources to have been a key commodity in the Viking Age. Nevertheless, the fur trade has been notoriously difficult to study archaeologically as fur rarely survives in the archaeological record. In Denmark, fur finds are rare and fur in clothing has been limited to a few reports and not recorded systematically. We were therefore given access to fur from six Danish high status graves dated to the Viking Age. The fur was analysed by aDNA and palaeoproteomics methods to identify the species of origin in order to explore the Viking Age fur trade. Endogenous aDNA was not recovered, but fur proteins (keratins) were analysed by MALDI-TOF-MS and LC-MS/MS. We show that Viking Age skin clothing were often composites of several species, showing highly developed manufacturing and material knowledge. For example, fur was produced from wild animals while leather was made of domesticates. Several examples of beaver fur were identified, a species which is not native to Denmark, and therefore indicative of trade. We argue that beaver fur was a luxury commodity, limited to the elite and worn as an easily recognisable indicator of social status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An interview with painter Don McMaster is presented. Topics include talks about first commercial sale of art and examines art is predominantly about the landscape of the prairies; and considered nine Thompson paintings done, that is not the sole body of your historical work and painted "The Sacking of Brandon House" based on the diaries of Peter Fidler who once commanded that fur trade post.

By approaching the Civil War from the vantage point of the American West, this article demonstrates how the wartime collapse of civil administrative and economic institutions upended western life and ultimately accelerated the dispossession and conquest of Native lands. Prior to the Civil War, Indigenous people of the upper Missouri River region relied on treaties and trade to manage their relationships with the United States. The Civil War undermined these structures by disrupting transportation networks, accelerating inflation, exacerbating fraud and deliberate mismanagement by Republican officials, and crippling the fur trade. The region's Native people were plunged into an irreversible state of crisis and found themselves more vulnerable to postwar American empire-building in the 1860s and 1870s. This article builds on previous scholarship connecting the Civil War, the American West, and the Indian wars by emphasizing the profound impact of wartime disruption upon Indigenous communities in the American West. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

By a ceremony of prise de possession held at Sault Ste-Marie in June 1671, a subdelegate of the intendant named Daumont de St-Lusson formally laid claim to the North American interior for France. This incident is frequently cited in early American literature and consistently misunderstood. Though he purported to act in the name of Louis XIV, St-Lusson was actually engaged in a somewhat shady fur trading operation, in defiance of the governor of New France and against the wishes of imperial authorities. The general impulse to expand into the west came from Canadian traders, missionaries, and colonial officials; and the specific origins of St-Lusson's expedition lay in a competition for spoils pitting the governor against the intendant. "France" as embodied by the king and his naval minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, sought to consolidate its hold on the St. Lawrence Valley, avoiding any spatial dispersal of efforts. This article demonstrates that "the French" did not form a monolith with a unified, centrally directed approach to colonialism. Instead, the Sault Ste-Marie case illustrates the complex dynamics of imperial expansion, which typically involves metropolitan governments, colonists on the periphery, and Indigenous peoples, all pursuing divergent interests in fluid circumstances. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]