The Fur Trade and First Nations


Targets


This lesson is about how the fur trade affected the First Nations people.  You will learn about...

  • how the First Nations changed their way of life as a result of the fur trade
  • how the First Nations became dependent on the forts
  • how a new people began – the Métis
  • the role of the Métis in the fur trade

Introduction



What would the conversation between First Nations and the French have been like?
 
Take a moment now and imagine what would have been said and how they would have communicated. 

Then, go further in the lesson to find how the fur trade affected the First Nations people.

An early photograph of trading for furs. Mistahimaskwa (Big Bear) (4th from left), a Plains Cree chief, trading fur at Fort Pitt, N.W.T., 1884. Library and Archives Canada / C-008183