Native American trade
Native American trade refers to trade among the Indigenous people of North America and with European settlers. Trade with Europeans began before the colonial period, continuing through the 19th century and declining around 1937.
The term Native American Trade in this context describes the people involved in the trade. The products involved varied by region and era. In most of Canada, the term is synonymous with the fur trade, since fur for making beaver hats was by far the most valuable product of the trade, from the European point of view. Demand for other products resulted in trade in those items: Europeans asked for deerskin on the southeast coast of the United States, buffalo skins and meat, and pemmican on the Great Plains. In turn, Native American demand influenced the trade of goods brought by Europeans.
Economic contact between Native Americans and European colonists began in the early stages of European settlement. From the 17th century to the 19th century, the English and French mainly traded for animal pelts and fur with Native Americans. In the late 1700s, Spanish explorers started settling in southern California and initiated the establishment of missions. These missions served as focal points for interactions between Native Americans and Spanish settlers, encompassing cultural exchanges, political negotiations, trade activities, and economic developments. Evidence of these exchanges and developments were kept by the Spanish who maintained detailed ledgers documenting items that were traded in Santa Barbara between them and the Chumash that lived in the missions. Eventually, wars, the dwindling of Native American populations, and the westward expansion of the United States led to the confinement of tribes to reservations and the end of this kind of economic relations between Indians and European Americans.
Other economic relations continued, especially in the alcohol trade around many reservations, and for Native American arts and crafts that are now shown for everyone to see. Today, many Native Americans satisfy a different kind of demand with the associated trades of their gaming casinos on reservations. These have been developed as entertainment and conference resorts, serving a wide market of customers, and generating very little revenues for tribes to use for economic development, as well as welfare and education of their people.
The first explorers to conduct trade with Native Americans were Giovanni da Verrazzano and Jacques Cartier in the 1520s–1540s. Verrazzano noted in his book, "If we wanted to trade with them for some of their things, they would come to the seashore on some rocks where the breakers were most violent while we remained on the little boat, and they sent us what they wanted to give on a rope, continually shouting to us not to approach the land." As visits from Europeans became more frequent and some Europeans began to settle in North America, Natives began to establish regular trade relations with these new colonists. The ideal locations for fur trading were near harbors where ships could come in.
Trade between Native tribes
During the pre-Columbian era, Native American tribes often traded between themselves and outside bands. Throughout the Americas, Native American tribes had been trading for thousands of years using different material goods and/or currency.Shell beads
Shell beads have been used for around 9,000–10,000 years in the Americas, both pre-contact and post-contact. It was most commonly used as a form of trade, either as a material to be exchanged, or as a form of currency.The Olivella biplicata, or the purple olive shell was used during the early Holocene period, around 200–1835 CE, spanning around 1,500 years. Typically used by the Chumash, it was crafted and shaped into 160 different variations of shell beads, which were used as a form of currency and status. Some examples of these variant styles include; needle-drilled disks, lipped beads, cupped beads, thin rectangles, thin rectangles. Made in the Santa Barbara Channel, they were distributed throughout Chumash territory and was used throughout different areas as currency, allowing for trade between different bands, making its way up California, the Great Basin, and in Western North America.
The Cahuilla used beads traded from the Serrano to create their own form of shell bead currency. Specific lengths were assigned for different amounts of money. An example of this is a "witchu", a string of shell beads from the forehead to the ground, then multiplied by 4 equal to 50 United States cents. Another example is the "napanaa", measured by wrapping around the wrists and fingers, equal to 20 cents.
Basketry
Trade played a central role in spreading basket designs among California tribes through active exchange networks involving ceremonial events, visits, and intermarriages. This facilitated the advertising of design styles across neighboring communities, resulting in highly similar systems among tribes in close proximity. This uniformity in basket weaving shows a strong trade network, contrasting with the variability observed in tribes like the Pomo, who lived in more isolated communities in northern California. However, tribes such as the Yurok, Karuk, and Hupa, located along the northwestern California coast and in the Klamath Mountains, exhibited nearly identical basketry.The intertribal commerce of Native American tribes across California and adjacent regions was characterized by the exchange of baskets as valuable commodities. Tribes engaged in the exchange of baskets to obtain goods, forge alliances, and foster social connections. For instance, the Yokuts tribes, located in the Central Valley and Sierra Nevada foothills, engaged in extensive trade networks with neighboring tribes such as Miwok, Coast Miwok, and Tubatulabal. Similarly, the Salinan people, residing along the Central Coast of California, participated in basket trade with the Yokuts and Chumash tribes from the coastal regions. Tribes engaged in trade also obtained a variety of goods in return. These included natural resources such as obsidian, fish, salt, acorns, pine nuts, and manzanita berries.
Maidu baskets originate primarily from northeastern California, the native territory of the Maidu people. The Maidu are indigenous to the Sierra Nevada foothills and adjacent valleys, including areas such as the Sacramento Valley, the northern Sierra Nevada, and the Cascade Range. The Maidu had access to a variety of natural resources, influencing the materials used in their basketry. These baskets are crafted using traditional techniques passed down through generations and are made from locally sourced materials such as willow, maple, redbud, and ferns, abundant in the surrounding forests and valleys. Maidu's skill in crafting high-quality baskets made them desirable trade partners, attracting interest from other tribes seeking their goods. Additionally, engaging in trade allowed the Maidu to acquire resources not readily available in their own territory. Trade served as a means of fostering alliances and maintaining social connections with neighboring groups, contributing to the cohesion and stability of the region. Through trade, the Maidu could also access items of ceremonial significance or prestige, enhancing their cultural practices and status within the broader network of Native American tribes in the region.
Fur trade in California
Rabbit skin blankets were a textile category that was often traded among California groups. Great Basin and other desert groups fringing California, with a good supply of hares and cottontails, were important sources for trade. The Surprise Valley Northern Paiute traded them to the Central and Southern Miwok but also received them, especially from the Tübatulabal.Great Plains trading networks
The trading networks encountered by the first Europeans on the Great Plains were built on a number of trading centers acting as hubs in an advanced system of exchange over great distances. The primary centers were found at the villages of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara, with a surplus of agricultural produce that could be exchanged. Secondary centers were found at the villages of the Pawnee, Kansa, and Osage on the central great plains, and at the Caddo villages on the southern plains. The "Dakota rendezvous" was an important annual trading fair among the Sioux. European demand for fur changed the relations of the plains, increased the occurrence of war, and displaced several Indian nations that were forced away by the Sioux coming from the east. On the northern plains, European trade lay in the hands of the Hudson's Bay Company, although most of the territory belonged to France, and later Spain. European trade on the central plains was controlled by French merchants, first from New Orleans, later from St. Louis. From the mid-1700s, the Comanche became an increasingly important military and commercial factor on the southern plains, forcing the Apaches into the mountains, and exchanging goods and spoils with the Southwestern trading networks hubs in New Mexico.Trade with early European settlers
Plymouth and Jamestown
To set up a thriving colony, settlers in the New World needed the five factors of production that contribute to the creation of wealth: land, labor, capital, entrepreneurship, and knowledge. Often, trading with Native Americans resulted in colonists gaining needed knowledge and natural resources. Examples of this can be seen in the English settlements of Plymouth Bay and Jamestown. Massasoit, a sachem of the Wampanoag people, and Squanto, a Patuxet who acted as a diplomat, helped the Pilgrims of Plymouth Bay establish their colony by teaching them skills in cultivating this land and hunting. In return for weapons and tools, these Native Americans provided the colonists with important natural resources, including food. In 1621, Massasoit established one of the earliest trading pacts between Europeans and Natives by signing a treaty with the Plymouth Colony to engage in peaceful trade. However, as the colonial population in New England began to increase, the Wampanoag became uneasy about being displaced by the colonists. Gradually, tensions escalated, leading to King Philip's War, an armed conflict between the Pilgrims and the Native Americans in the area. The war ended with the defeat of the Native tribe, causing a serious fracture amongst relations between the Pilgrims and Native Americans.Relations between settlers in the Jamestown area and Native Americans ended similarly. Initially, the Powhatan aided the English settlers with food and clothing, helping them survive the early difficult years. However, relations between the two groups deteriorated after three years, resulting in a war.