The Fur Trade Revisited: Selected Papers of the Sixth North American Fur Trade Conference, Mackinac Island, Michigan, 1991

“No less than 7 different nations”: Ethnicity and Culture Contact at Fort George-Buckingham House

"No less than 7 different nations": Ethnicity and Culture Contact at Fort George-Buckingham House Lynda Gullason This article summarizes archival research undertaken as part of an historical archaeology project on contact and culture change in the early fur trade era in western Canada (Gullason 1990). The purpose of the project was to identify the selective changes in Native material culture and behaviour upon contact with Europeans, using archival and archaeological data from two trading posts in east-central Alberta. But how does one even begin to examine culture contact with Uno less than 7 different nations" trading at a post (Morton 1929: 72)? Accordingly, one research objective was to examine ethnic differences in European interaction among visiting tribes at the Fort GeorgeBuckingham House site complex using documentary evidence. A second objective was to understand how these differences would be expressed in the archaeological record of a plantation, or encampment of Native traders, associated with a trading post. Ethnic differences in European culture transfer are potentially detectable through the study of items brought into trade and European goods acquired. The problem lies in identifying these contact differences through archaeological remains of multiple, short-term, contemporaneous occupations of a single site. RESEARCH AREA The sites selected for this research, Fort George and Buckingham House, are two forts established in east-central Alberta, 200 km east of Edmonton on the northern edge of the aspen parkland (figure 1). They are located on the north side of the North Saskatchewan River, deliberately situated to take advantage of the fur-bearing woods to the north and meat for pemmican production, in the form of bison, to the south. The location of the posts in the Parkland transition zone suggests that the companies were attempting to encourage trade from both Woodland and Plains tribes. Both of these groups made regular use of the Parklands (Ray 1972: 1974). Buckingham House, the Hudson's Bay Company 117 LYNDA GULLASON (HBC) post, lies 300 metres upriver from the North West Company (NWC) post, Fort George and separated by a small ravine. They were both occupied from 1792 to 1800 (figure 2). ALBERTA' o 50KM I ..._ _ _ _---'1 • N Figure 1. Map of East-Central Alberta Showing Fort George-Buckingham House Site Location. 118 ETHNICITY AND CULTURE CONTACT AT FORT GEORGE-BUCKINGHAM HOUSE • Oatum__ _ Woodland Contour interval 7.6 metres Figure 2. Topographic Map of Fort George-Buckingham House Site Complex (modified from Cornerstone Planning Group Limited, 1983). The site complex represents a well-documented, brief occupation during the initial period of fur trade contact in the province. The advantages of this data base include the following: 1. The period of occupation is early and relatively short. There is no problem of differentiating among periods of culture contact. There has also been no subsequent re-occupation of the area. 2. Both forts have been previously excavated (Kidd 1970; Losey 1980; Losey, et al. 1978; Losey and Pyszczyk 1979; Nicks 1969; Nicks and Hurlburt 1977). Thus their location and layout have been delineated and comparative collections have been made. 3. Documentary records exist for seven of the eight years of occupation (1792-1800). These accounts (by several different authors) identify, to some extent, the tribes who visited the posts, their number, and their home region, as well as the country goods they brought into trade and the European articles they acquired through gift or purchase. These are the basic categories which frame the following discussion of ethnicity and culture contact. 119 LYNDA GULLASON ARCHIVAL SOURCES AND LIMITATIONS The archives examined include the daily journals, correspondence, and personal accounts relating to Buckingham House and Fort George. They represent the major source of evidence for tracing culture change through contact despite the drawbacks of variability in the periods covered by the journals and in the amount of detail provided. The six journals and one personal account of Buckingham House were written by seven different people. Given the variety of authors and writing styles in these documents, it is not surprising that the coverage is uneven. The journals cover a period ranging from six to fourteen months. Only two of them extend through the summer period. Accounts have not survived for the 1795-1796 trading season. Two drafts exist of the 1796-1797 journal written by Peter Fidler. His rough draft (HBCA B.49/a/27b) includes copious detail, omitted from the sparer, more formal final draft...