Video
Trade House Talk
Transcript
Hi, welcome to Fort Union. Right now, you're standing in the most important room in the entire fort. This is where Indian chiefs, elders, the higher ups of their tribe, would meet with representatives of the American Fur Company. Sit down, smoke a pipe, drink coffee, eat a fine meal, give gifts to one another, make speeches. Eight hours later, or thereabouts, you're hopefully ready to trade.
So this room is a reception room. This is where those chiefs and elders are actually going to be doing most of their work face to face with the American Fur Company. There are over 13 different tribes that are trading out here-- the Crow, the Cree, the Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, the Gros Ventre, the Nez Perce, the Lakota, Dakota, and Nakota.
And the Naokta is a very important one, because that is the Assiniboine tribe. The Assiniboine tribe are the tribe that actually asked for this fort to be built here on their land, and they are going to be some of the most frequent customers for the American Fur Company.
Today, I'm dressed as traders at that time would have been especially, under cold weather conditions. I assure you underneath all of this, I'm wearing a fine three piece suit and a tie. And so, I'm going to be actually meeting face to face with these Indian chiefs and elders, and if I'm working with the Assiniboine tribe, then I'm going to have to say Haú, [NON-ENGLISH], which is, hello, friend. Good day to you. And that's about where my Assiniboine ends.
But this room is that meeting space, and it's going to take eight hours of social ceremony, getting to know one another. Typically, if I'm working with the Assiniboine Tribe, I'm going to be intermarried in with the Assiniboine Tribe, and that holds true for most of these traders out here as well. And they are talking about the price of this Buffalo robe right here. What's it worth? What can they expect to get for their hide? So, the answer is $3 to $3.50, give or take.
But when you translate that out into your actual trade goods which is what they're looking for. It's going to be three knives or a knife and a kettle or one tomahawk, 6 to 10 gets you a gun, usually about eight. 10 gets you a horse, and 25 gets you a very fine chief's coat, which although it's not very functional for cold weather like this, it does look rather nice.
26 different species of pelts are going to be traded out here, everything from grizzly bear to mouse. They're not picky. It's the American Fur Company, not just the American Buffalo company, and they are going to be supplying all these gifts out to this group right here, because this is a group that's setting that price. Send them back out to their people, let them know the deal that has been arranged, and if everyone agrees, they come up to either the small window in the trade store or about nine windows inside the warehouse range and then trade through it. Obviously, if you have 900 people, you're going to want that nine windows, so it's 100 people per window as opposed to 900 to one window.
Description
Learn why the Trade House was the economic center of Fort Union Trading Post with this Trade House talk by Living Historian and National Park Service Interpreter Ranger Flynn. This short program describes why this rustic building is truly is the most important building at the fort complex and discusses the importance of cultural understanding in the fur trade.
Duration
2 minutes, 35 seconds
Credit
NPS / Sawyer Flynn
Date Created
12/30/2020
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