Not Here: Beaver

Not Here: Beaver

Value was once measured not in coins, but the skins of beaver.  The first export from the colonies, the march west, the directive given to Lewis and Clark.  The mountain men, the rendezvous, the Métis, and so many Indian Wars.  Its favorite food is willow.  

Wool blankets, made in England, were one of the original and most common items traded to Natives for furs.  The Hudson’s Bay Company, Canada’s first business and focused entirely on the acquisition of fur, is so entwined with Canadian history that the classic HBC blanket (white with bands of red, green, yellow and black) competes with the maple leaf as an icon for the Canadian nation.  After 355 years, on June 1st of this year, the HBC closed permanently.

The Chilkats and Chilkoots prohibited others from using their trade routes over the coastal mountains and into the Interior.  The Hudson’s Bay Company had an idea: approach overland from the Canadian east and build Fort Selkirk at the confluence of the Pelly and Yukon Rivers, usurping the traditional trade territory of the Chilkat Tlingits.  Chief Kohklux of the Chilkats led the war party north in 1852, trekking over 400 miles to get there.  Within a year of new construction, Fort Selkirk was burnt to the ground.  

Beaver fur, beaver teeth, paper clay, glass eyes, Hudson’s Bay Company point blanket, beaver form, beaver chews from Juneau