Saskatchewan River fur trade
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Saskatchewan River fur trade The
Saskatchewan River The Saskatchewan River (Cree: ''kisiskāciwani-sīpiy'', "swift flowing river") is a major river in Canada. It stretches about from where it is formed by the joining together of the North Saskatchewan and South Saskatchewan Rivers to Lake Winn ...
was one of the two main axes of Canadian expansion west of Lake Winnipeg. The other and more important one was northwest to the
Athabasca Country In fur trade days the term Athabasca Country was used for the fur-producing region around Lake Athabasca. The area was important for two reasons. The cold climate produced some of the densest and thickest beaver fur in North America. The numbe ...
. For background see
Canadian canoe routes (early) This article covers the water based Canadian canoe routes used by early explorers of Canada with special emphasis on the fur trade. Introduction European exploration of Canada was principally by river. The land has many navigable rivers with ...
. The main trade route followed the
North Saskatchewan River The North Saskatchewan River is a glacier-fed river that flows from the Canadian Rockies continental divide east to central Saskatchewan, where it joins with the South Saskatchewan River to make up the Saskatchewan River. Its water flows eventual ...
and Saskatchewan River, which were just south of the forested beaver country. The
South Saskatchewan River The South Saskatchewan River is a major river in Canada that flows through the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. For the first half of the 20th century, the South Saskatchewan would completely freeze over during winter, creating spectacular ...
was a prairie river with few furs.


Overview

The Saskatchewan River was a natural highway for furs going east and trade goods going west. The forests to the north provided beaver pelts. The grassland to the south provided buffalo for food and
pemmican Pemmican (also pemican in older sources) is a mixture of tallow, dried meat, and sometimes dried berries. A calorie-rich food, it can be used as a key component in prepared meals or eaten raw. Historically, it was an important part of indigenou ...
to feed to
voyageurs The voyageurs (; ) were 18th and 19th century French Canadians who engaged in the transporting of furs via canoe during the peak of the North American fur trade. The emblematic meaning of the term applies to places (New France, including the ' ...
in the food-poor country to the north. Pemmican was often more important than beaver. Most was sent downriver to
Cumberland House, Saskatchewan Cumberland House is a community in Census Division No. 18 in northeast Saskatchewan, Canada on the Saskatchewan River. It is the oldest settler community in Saskatchewan and has a population of about 2,000 people. Cumberland House Provincial P ...
, before being sent northward, but from 1790 some was sent via a relatively short overland route to the
Green Lake, Saskatchewan Green Lake is a northern village in Saskatchewan, Canada. Its residents are predominantly Métis people. Green Lake is located northeast of Meadow Lake, and northwest of Big River. It lies in the southern boreal forest, and takes its name from ...
and on to the Athabasca Country. The Saskatchewan has no significant portages between the rapids at
Rocky Mountain House Rocky Mountain House is a town in west-central Alberta, Canada. It is approximately west of Red Deer at the confluence of the Clearwater and North Saskatchewan Rivers, and at the crossroads of Highway 22 (Cowboy Trail) and Highway 11 (David T ...
and its
mouth In animal anatomy, the mouth, also known as the oral cavity, or in Latin cavum oris, is the opening through which many animals take in food and issue vocal sounds. It is also the cavity lying at the upper end of the alimentary canal, bounded on ...
at Lake Winnipeg. Eastbound canoes with that winter's catch had the advantage of the spring meltwater. Westbound trade goods in the summer and fall had to deal with low water and there was significant use of poling and tracking on the upper river. The Hudson's Bay Company built the first proto-
York boat The York boat was a type of inland boat used by the Hudson's Bay Company to carry furs and trade goods along inland waterways in Rupert's Land, the watershed stretching from Hudson Bay to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. It was named af ...
on the river at Manchester House in 1788, but the North West Company seems to have preferred north canoes. In the La Montee country west of Prince Albert, "bosses" would borrow horses and go buffalo hunting to feed the regular voyageurs who had to stay in their canoes and continue rowing upstream. When speed was required one could ride horseback parallel to the river. Around 1825 a horse track was cut from
Fort Assiniboine, Alberta Fort Assiniboine is a hamlet in northwest Alberta, Canada, within Woodlands County. It is located along the north shore of the Athabasca River at the junction of Highway 33 and Highway 661. It is approximately northwest of Barrhead, southea ...
on the Athabasca River to Edmonton. (The easiest route from the Pacific was through
Athabasca Pass Athabasca Pass (el. ) is a high mountain pass in the Canadian Rockies on the border between Alberta and British Columbia. In fur trade days it connected Jasper House on the Athabasca River with Boat Encampment on the Columbia River.Whittaker, Jo ...
to the Athabasca River. The shortcut meant a straighter route and the use of York boats. The Athabasca River route was indirect and required smaller north canoes for the numerous portages.) From the 1870s the slaughter of buffalo, smallpox and the appearance of settlers disrupted Native life. In 1876 an ox-cart road was built from Fort Carlton north to Green Lake. In the mid-1800s, The
Carlton Trail The Carlton Trail was the primary land transportation route in the Canadian Northwest for most of the 19th century, connecting Fort Carlton to Edmonton along a line of intermediate places. It was part of a trail network that stretched from the Red ...
, running along the north bank of the Saskatchewan River, was gradually developed connecting Winnipeg (Red River) to Edmonton. The first steamboat on the river was the ''Northcote'' in 1874. In 1905 the
Canadian Northern Railway The Canadian Northern Railway (CNoR) was a historic Canadian transcontinental railway. At its 1923 merger into the Canadian National Railway , the CNoR owned a main line between Quebec City and Vancouver via Ottawa, Winnipeg, and Edmonton. Mani ...
, following the route of the old Carleton Trail, reached Edmonton from Winnipeg. The boreal forest region to the north was inhabited by
Cree The Cree ( cr, néhinaw, script=Latn, , etc.; french: link=no, Cri) are a Indigenous peoples of the Americas, North American Indigenous people. They live primarily in Canada, where they form one of the country's largest First Nations in Canada ...
who had migrated northwest as middlemen in the fur trade and, in the early and middle 19th century,
Saulteaux The Saulteaux (pronounced , or in imitation of the French pronunciation , also written Salteaux, Saulteau and other variants), otherwise known as the Plains Ojibwe, are a First Nations band government in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Al ...
. Immediately south were the Plains Cree and
Assiniboines The Assiniboine or Assiniboin people ( when singular, Assiniboines / Assiniboins when plural; Ojibwe: ''Asiniibwaan'', "stone Sioux"; also in plural Assiniboine or Assiniboin), also known as the Hohe and known by the endonym Nakota (or Nakod ...
with the
Nakoda (Stoney) The Nakoda (also known as Stoney or ) are an Indigenous people in Western Canada and, originally, the United States. They used to inhabit large parts of what is now Alberta, Saskatchewan and Montana, but their reserves are now located in Albe ...
near the mountains. To the south were the ''Gens du large'' or Plains Indians or
First Nations First Nations or first peoples may refer to: * Indigenous peoples, for ethnic groups who are the earliest known inhabitants of an area. Indigenous groups *First Nations is commonly used to describe some Indigenous groups including: **First Natio ...
:
Gros Ventre The Gros Ventre ( , ; meaning "big belly"), also known as the Aaniiih, A'aninin, Haaninin, Atsina, and White Clay, are a historically Algonquian-speaking Native American tribe located in north central Montana. Today the Gros Ventre people are ...
in Saskatchewan,
Blackfeet The Blackfeet Nation ( bla, Aamsskáápipikani, script=Latn, ), officially named the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana, is a federally recognized tribe of Siksikaitsitapi people with an Indian reservation in Monta ...
in Alberta and
Piegan Blackfeet The Piegan ( Blackfoot: ''Piikáni'') are an Algonquian-speaking people from the North American Great Plains. They were the largest of three Blackfoot-speaking groups that made up the Blackfoot Confederacy; the Siksika and Kainai were the oth ...
near the Rocky Mountains. Across the mountains were
Kootenays The Kootenays or Kootenay ( ) is a region of southeastern British Columbia. It takes its name from the Kootenay River, which in turn was named for the Kutenai First Nations people. Boundaries The Kootenays are more or less defined by the Kootenay ...
. Since the Cree and Saulteaux had beaver-skins to trade and the plains Natives had little more than buffalo and wolf skins, the northern peoples got most of the guns. They used them to expand south. This made the plains Natives hostile to the traders since they seemed to be allies of the more northern tribes. Further, many of the voyageurs were part-Cree and knew the language. The trading posts were too well fortified to be easily attacked and were only destroyed when the traders were away. The only exception was Fort Pitt in 1885 which by then no longer had a stockade. In the east the Gros Ventres destroyed South Branch House and Manchester House in 1793–94. In the west the Blackfeet often damaged the fur trade. They did not trade where there were many Cree and tried to keep the Kootenays from getting guns. Fort Sturgeon was burnt in 1780 and Rocky Mountain House in 1860. Fort Pitt and Fort Carlton were burnt during the
North-West Rebellion The North-West Rebellion (french: Rébellion du Nord-Ouest), also known as the North-West Resistance, was a resistance by the Métis people under Louis Riel and an associated uprising by First Nations Cree and Assiniboine of the District of S ...
in 1885. (Carlton was accidentally burned down as it was being evacuated in 1885.)


Exploration

*1691:
Henry Kelsey Henry Kelsey ( – 1 November 1724) was an English fur trader, explorer, and sailor who played an important role in establishing the Hudson's Bay Company in Canada. He is the first recorded European to have visited the present-day provi ...
reached the lower Saskatchewan from Hudson Bay. *1731-1743:
Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye (17 November 1685 – 5 December 1749) was a French Canadian military officer, fur trader, and explorer. In the 1730s, he and his four sons explored the area west of Lake Superior and e ...
pushed west from Lake Superior. *1739:
Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye Louis-Joseph Gaultier de La Vérendrye (November 9, 1717 – November 15, 1761) was a French Canadian fur trader and explorer. He, his three brothers, and his father Pierre La Vérendrye pushed trade and exploration west from the Great Lakes. He, h ...
was somewhere on the lower Saskatchewan. *1741:
Fort Bourbon Fort Bourbon was one of the forts built by La Vérendrye during his expansion of trade and exploration west from Lake Superior. Besides providing support for the important fur trade in what is now Manitoba, La Vérendrye wanted to conduct explora ...
at the mouth of the Saskatchewan and
Fort Paskoya Fort Paskoya or Paskoyac or Pasquia was a French fort and trading post on the lower Saskatchewan River above Cedar Lake. Around 1740 La Vérendrye built four forts to control the chain of lakes west of Lake Winnipeg. These were Fort Pascoya, For ...
on west side of Cedar Lake. *1753:
Fort de la Corne Fort de la Corne was one of the two French forts established on the Saskatchewan River in the 20 years between the end of La Vérendrye's push west from Lake Superior in 1731–1743 and the fall of New France in 1763. (The other was Fort La Jo ...
about 20 miles below the Forks. *1755:
Anthony Henday Anthony Henday ( fl. 1750–1762) was one of the first Europeans to explore the interior of what would eventually become western Canada. He ventured farther westward than any white man had before him. As an employee of the Hudson's Bay Compan ...
, after almost reaching the Rocky Mountains from Hudson Bay, returned down the North Saskatchewan from near Edmonton. *1759: With the conquest trade collapses. It takes the English about 15 years to restore it. *1768: James Findlay at Nipawin. *1774: HBC builds
Cumberland House, Saskatchewan Cumberland House is a community in Census Division No. 18 in northeast Saskatchewan, Canada on the Saskatchewan River. It is the oldest settler community in Saskatchewan and has a population of about 2,000 people. Cumberland House Provincial P ...
downstream from Fort de la Corne. ('first' HBC inland post and gateway to Lake Athabasca.) English "Pedlars" from Montreal below the Forks. *1776: North Saskatchewan reached at
Fort Sturgeon Fort Sturgeon (1776–1780) was the first trading post on the North Saskatchewan River. It was located about 4 miles west of Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. It and was also called Peter Pond Fort, Fort Pond, Fort la Prairie, Fort des Prairies, Lower S ...
. *1781: Cold Lake House (NWC). *1786: Manchester House. *1789: Angus Shaw of the North West Company built a post on the northwest shore of
Moose Lake (Alberta) Moose Lake is a relatively small lake in North-eastern Alberta, Canada, which drains north into the Beaver River (Canada). It is located a few kilometres west of the town of Bonnyville, Alberta, Bonnyville. Note there is a second body of water ...
called Fort or Shaw House. *1792: First post in Alberta on the North Saskatchewan River in Alberta at
Buckingham House (fur-trade post) Buckingham House (HBC) and Fort George (NWC) were two trading posts on the North Saskatchewan River near Elk Point, Alberta, from 1792 to 1800. Buckingham House belonged to the Hudson's Bay Company and Fort George to the North West Company. For back ...
. *1795:
Fort Edmonton Fort Edmonton (also named Edmonton House) was the name of a series of trading posts of the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) from 1795 to 1914, all of which were located on the north banks of the North Saskatchewan River in what is now central Alberta, ...
at present-day Fort Saskatchewan *1799: Rocky Mountain House. *1807: David Thompson crossed the Rocky Mountains at Howse Pass.


Map and table

Most of the posts lasted less than ten years because the area became depleted of beaver and because the wooden stockades tended to rot. The major or permanent posts on the North Saskatchewan River were Cumberland House, Fort Pitt, Fort Carlton, Edmonton and Rocky Mountain House. Especially in the east there were a number of minor temporary posts that left few or no records. Until 1811, fur traders affiliated with the NWC and HBC maintained very amicable relations to the extent that the rival posts were often enclosed within the same palisades for mutual protections. After 1811, however, competition between the HBC and the NWC became increasingly intense (Blondal et al. 2008). . In the table below locations are given by longitude and approximate straight-line distance from the post or landmark to the east. The straight-line distance from Lake Winnipeg to Howse pass is about 1,200 km or 750 miles. For Pedlars see
Pedlar (fur trade) Pedlar is a term used in Canadian history to refer to English-speaking independent fur traders from Montreal who competed with the Hudson's Bay Company in western Canada from about 1770 to 1803. After 1779 they were mostly absorbed by the North Wes ...
. For the XY Company see North West Company#Organizational history.


References


Sources

*Arthur Morton (1939), ''A History of the Canadian West''. *Elizabeth Browne Losey (1999). ''Let Them be Remembered:The Story of the Fur Trade Forts''. New York: Vantage Press. *Myrna Kostash (2005), ''Reading the River: A Traveller's Companion to the North Saskatchewan River''. *Blöndal, A., J.P. Foster, S. Graham, Y. Kjorlien, A. K. Peach and M. Porter. 2008. Alberta Fur Trade Post Pre-Field Inventory and Assessment, Volume I: Fur Trade Post Inventory. Manuscript on file, Historic Resources Management Branch, Alberta Culture. Edmonton, Alberta. {{Fur trade regions Economy of Manitoba Economy of Saskatchewan Economy of Alberta North Saskatchewan River Saskatchewan River Fur trade Economic history of Canada