Working the Waters

Connor Birkeland

Working the Waters

Cynthia Kennedy

April 24, 2007

The Westerns

            With the exploration of the western coast of the Americas beginning a rape and pillage of the resources of the Northwest also began.  Right at the end of the Revolutionary war between England and here colonies that soon became know as America the former colonies slowly realized how unprepared they were to start a trading economy with the rest of the world when all of their ship were of small tonnage.  Up to this point the British’s ships were the only large ships to enter American ports, so it was time for the former colonies to build their own.  With their beginnings of a trading fleet and no goods of any worth other than machined goods, the port cities like Boston realized that to make a profit they would need to trade for it.  To make it short and sweet, basically they needed to find a people who would trade great luxuries for items ten to thirty times less valuable.  To fill this role the people of America found the Indians of the Northwest, a people who possessed large quantities of animal pelts, pelts that were soon discovered to be of great worth in the Chinese port of Canton.  But what is worth or value for that matter?  Who is to determine what an item is worth?  To the Indians who were trading beautiful otter pelts for little more than keys, iron hoops, chests and scrap metal they were giving the “King George men and Bostons” (15, Harmon) the skin of an animal plentiful in their lands for goods of much greater use and appeal.  Eventually, like most items that suddenly find a greater worth, the sea otters was soon declining in numbers from over harvesting by Indians trying to make a profit.  The question that bothers me when reading about the fur trade is whether it is right for the Americans, us, to come with goods to trade for something of greater worth to us and of little use to the Indians we get them from.

            The amount of ships traveling to the Northwest coast of America grew from only two in the first year, the Columbia and Lady Washington, to fourteen by 1820.  By trading multiple different types of goods for basically only one items, the pelt, the American traders helped hunt a animal to almost nothing in only 30 years.  So was it right for a developed country to come with wants and encourage the people possessing what they want to get this item in the greatest numbers possible.  If it were a question of history the answer would be yes because it has been happening for centuries, its all about who has something that is little value to them but of great value to others.  But what about the Indians, weren’t they the people who actually killed the sea otters?  Yes, when exposed to and endless amount of goods to trade a simple pelt for and not knowing the effect that they would have on the otters of the area I don’t believe they are the ones responsible.

            In the beginning of the modernization of the northwest coast, many goods were traded for a natural resource until the resource became scarce.  This is the story of expansion and will be repeated thru history.  That it was repeated in the interactions between fur traders and Native Americas is no surprise.