Friends Foes And Furs

George Nelson (1786–1859) was a clerk for the North West Company whose unusually detailed and personal writings provide a compelling portrait of the people engaged in the golden age of the Canadian fur trade. Friends, Foes, and Furs is a critical edition of Nelson's daily journals, supplemented with exciting anecdotes from his "Reminiscences," which were written after his retirement to Lower Canada. An introduction and annotations by Harry Duckworth place Nelson's material securely within the established body of fur trade history. This series of journals gives readers a first-person account of Nelson's life and career, from his arrival at the age of eighteen in Lake Winnipeg, where he was stationed as an apprentice clerk from 1804 to 1813, to his second service from 1818 to 1819 and an 1822 canoe journey through the region. A keen and respectful observer, Nelson recorded in his daily journals not only the minutiae of his work, but also details about the lives of voyageurs, the Ojibwe and Swampy Cree communities, and others involved in the fur trade. His insights uncover an extraordinary view of the Lake Winnipeg region in the period just prior to European settlement. Making the full extent of George Nelson's journals available for the first time, Friends, Foes, and Furs is an intriguing account of one man's adventures in the fur trade in prairie Canada.

George Nelson (1786-1859) was a clerk for the North West Company whose unusually detailed and personal writings provide a compelling portrait of the people engaged in the golden age of the Canadian fur trade. Friends, Foes, and Furs is a critical edition of Nelson's daily journals, supplemented with exciting anecdotes from his "Reminiscences," which were written after his retirement to Lower Canada. An introduction and annotations by Harry Duckworth place Nelson's material securely within the established body of fur trade history. This series of journals gives readers a first-person account of Nelson's life and career, from his arrival at the age of eighteen in Lake Winnipeg, where he was stationed as an apprentice clerk from 1804 to 1813, to his second service from 1818 to 1819 and an 1822 canoe journey through the region. A keen and respectful observer, Nelson recorded in his daily journals not only the minutiae of his work, but also details about the lives of voyageurs, the Ojibwe and Swampy Cree communities, and others involved in the fur trade. His insights uncover an extraordinary view of the Lake Winnipeg region in the period just prior to European settlement. Making the full extent of George Nelson's journals available for the first time, Friends, Foes, and Furs is an intriguing account of one man's adventures in the fur trade in prairie Canada.

Written when Nelson was between the ages of 15 and 17, these journals track his growth from homesick boy to weathered and experienced trader. The volume also tells of his daily work as a fur clerk, and the goings-on of the world around him; and it provides details concerning the lives of the other fur workers and the neighboring Objiwa peoples. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

"In The Spirit Lives in the Mind the renowned storyteller and historian of the Omushkego shares teachings and stories of the Swampy Cree [Winisk Northern Ontario region] people that have been passed down from generation to generation as part of a rich oral tradition. Cree spiritual beliefs revolve around the sacred places and rich landscape of the Hudson Bay lowlands. [James Bay region also.] The beautiful narratives in The Spirit Lives in the Mind illuminate the meaning and value of spiritual maturity and power, the parallels between Omushkego morality and Roman Catholic teachings, and the importance of maintaining the traditional stories. Bird also offers explanations of shamanism and demonstrates how Catholicism affected Cree tradition. Bird collaborated with Susan Elaine Gray, who worked from many years of learning about and teaching Aboriginal culture and traditions in compiling his narratives and personal testament for The Spirit Lives in the Mind. It is a remarkable evocation of aboriginal storytelling about the Cree peoples, their landscape, and their places in the sky."--Pub. website.

Money, often portrayed as a straightforward representation of market value, is also a political force, a technology for remaking space and population. This was especially true in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Canada, where money - in many forms - provided an effective means of disseminating colonial social values, laying claim to national space, and disciplining colonized peoples. Colonialism's Currency analyzes the historical experiences and interactions of three distinct First Nations - the Wendat of Wendake, the Innu of Mashteuiatsh, and the Moose Factory Cree - with monetary forms and practices created by colonial powers. Whether treaty payments and welfare provisions such as the paper vouchers favoured by the Department of Indian Affairs, the Canadian Dominion's standardized paper notes, or the "made beaver" (the Hudson's Bay Company's money of account), each monetary form allowed the state to communicate and enforce political, economic, and cultural sovereignty over Indigenous peoples and their lands. Surveying a range of historical cases, Brian Gettler shows how currency simultaneously placed First Nations beyond the bounds of settler society while justifying colonial interventions in their communities. Testifying to the destructive and the legitimizing power of money, Colonialism's Currency is an intriguing exploration of the complex relationship between First Nations and the state.

A vital part of A Country So Interesting are the annotated catalogues of all the maps known to have been produced by the Hudson's Bay Company: 838 maps and 557 sketches. While most are in the Company's archives in Manitoba, Ruggles has tracked down maps in other collections, particularly in various libraries in London, England. Also included are sixty-six reproductions of the most important maps and map details.

Inhabited by a diverse population of First Nations peoples, Métis, Scots, Upper and Lower Canadians, and Americans, and dominated by the commercial and governmental activities of the Hudson’s Bay Company, Red River – now Winnipeg – was a challenging settlement to oversee. This illuminating account presents the story of the unique legal and governmental system that attempted to do so and the mixed success it encountered, culminating in the 1869–70 Red River Rebellion and confederation with Canada in 1870. In Law, Life, and Government at Red River, Dale Gibson provides rich, revealing glimpses into the community, and its complex relations with the Hudson’s Bay: the colony’s owner, and primary employer. Volume 1 details the history of the settlement’s establishment, development, and ambivalent relationship with the legal and undemocratic, but gradually, grudgingly, slightly, more representitive, governmental institutions forming in the area, and the legal system’s evolving engagement with the Aboriginal population. A vivid look into early settler life, Law, Life, and Government at Red River offers insights into the political, commercial, and legal circumstances that unfolded during western expansion.

The fur trade has been an important building block in Canada's history. While much is known about the Hudson's Bay Company, information about the North West Company in the Slave Lake and Mackenzie River Districts has been scattered in various archives. In North of Athabasca Lloyd Keith provides the first detailed, document-based history of this pioneering company.