An excerpt from the long history of Hudson Bay would show us how Western Canada became what it is now and why it did not become a part of the northwestern United States.
The Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) was established in the 1670s and the company is now over 350 years old. The HBC is often seen as a British monopoly. However, history shows that it is what is now because of the unions between a small group of frozen Englishmen and the local Cree.
The marriages between these two cultures brought about hundreds of thousands of children of the fur trade, also known as “country-born.” They were considered as the first group of essential workers of the HBC with their own culture and they spoke a variety of new languages.
Another example of the alliance that reinforced the links between the HBC and the local Cree was Thanadelthur. She was a young Chipewyan woman who became the Ambassadress of Peace between the Chipewyans and the Crees. This paved the way for HBC to expand as the partnership established an important channel for trade with the local Chipewyans for goods and minerals.