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

Preface

Preface Outstanding, extraordinary, and superb are all adjectives that participants used to describe the Sixth North American Fur Trade Conference at Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island, Michigan on September 25-29, 1991. Its excitement, theme, and flavor all came to a crest at the Saturday evening banquet finale. The orchestra's playing and the audience's stirring singing of the American and Canadian national anthems left no doubt of the international focus which is the hallmark of these meetings. Several gestures that night emphasized the heritage of the fur trade. In the fashion of the Beaver Club, the exclusive fraternity of the North West Company wintering partners, we raised glasses to the fur trade and remembered Marjorie Wilkins Campbell, Grace Lee Nute, and Robert Wheeler, colleagues in fur trade scholarship whose passing we mourned. When Hugh MacMillan asked registrants to recognize their fur trade ancestors, at least a third of the assembly rose. The symbolic handshake between Earl Boon of the new North West Company and Christopher Dafoe, representing The Beaver magazine and the Hudson's Bay Company, also brought to mind the historic rivalry of these companies and the cooperative spirit of scholarly inquiry that brought us together for discussions and socialization. As the orchestra played the old fur trade fiddle tunes such as "Whiskey Before Breakfast" and "Duck Dance," memories of the past bubbled through the audience. Could there be more? Yes! We broke with tradition in selecting a featured speaker. No research paper this time. The speaker, Lily McAuley, from Churchill, Manitoba, proved a most fitting selection. A self-described "halfbreed ," she grew up on the traplines in the Canadian North. Articulate and expressive, Lily touched all in the audience. Lily's early life experience represented the heart and core of the fur trade: following seasonal "circles," learning to live off nature's resources, and mingling Native and European societies. We hope that the transcript of her address will focus the reader as it did the audience on the central fact that the fur trade is a particularly fascinating story of people interacting with nature and of exchanges between Native and European cultures. xv PREFACE Putting together a successful conference involves scores of individuals. We had the good fortune to build on the success of five previous meetings and especially on the preceding one at Montreal in 1985. Indeed, in the excitement of the Montreal gathering, Charles "Chuck" Hoover of the Historical Society of Saginaw County's (Michigan) Museum had envisioned Mackinac as the next site. While Hoover initially explored the possibility of having the meeting in Michigan, credit must be given to the Mackinac Island State Park Commission and its director, David 1. Pamperin, for the decision to host the conference on Mackinac Island. The Commission made a considerable commitment of staff and financial resources. Pamperin, and after June 1991, Acting Director David A. Armour, saw this commitment through to the successful symposium. Since January 1992, Director Carl R. Nold has backed the efforts to publish this volume. The Park Commission and its staff recognized that Mackinac was an appropriate place for the meeting. For millennia Native people gathered here. In Indian lore and religion Mackinac had spiritual and cultural significance. Indians and Europeans paddled through the Straits on their way to and from Quebec and to other important destinations in the heart of North America ranging from Saskatchewan and Alberta to Illinois and Missouri. When the French expanded their quest for furs inland in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries , they quickly recognized their trading posts west of Lakes Michigan and Superior depended on the establishment at Michilimackinac. Mackinac remained a major trade entrepot until the 1830s under the French, British, and finally the American flag. Today, Mackinac State Historic Parks carries on the legacy of the fur trade at its sites in Mackinaw City and on Mackinac Island. Initiated in 1959, the Parks' archaeological research at Michilimackinac, Mackinac Island, and Mill Creek is at the forefront of historical archaeology in North America. Recent initiatives in historical research have contributed significantly to the understanding of the fur trade and of the people who participated in it at Mackinac and throughout a large part of the continent. By sponsoring the Sixth North American Fur Trade Conference, Mackinac State Historic Parks provided a major opportunity for sharing new research and interpretations of the fur trade. Central to the success of the conference was the Parks' staff who served as chairs. Curator of Archaeology, Donald P. Heldman...