Economic Life

Northern plains economic practices emerged from the pragmatic act of making a living. Plains Algonquians participated in a resource-based economy, hunting, fishing, harvesting plants, and practising techniques of food storage designed to preserve surpluses for later consumption. This indigenous economy was self-sustaining, but it did not survive the shifting patterns of trade and resource harvesting that accompanied the historic era. Still, in the midst of all sorts of changes, the Plains Algonquians have demonstrated a remarkable capacity to reinvent themselves economically.

In the pre-historic period, several types of mammals had disappeared as their habitat was transformed into a warmer realm. Horses as well as giant species of mammoth, bison, ground sloth, and beaver – all staple food sources for early aboriginal peoples on the plains – became extinct. At the same time, one species, bison, came to dominate the grasslands. Although the plains supported many species of hoofed animals, such as antelope, elk, and deer, the bison was especially successful in adapting to the plains environment.

Throughout the pre-historic era, bison was integral to the subsistence economy of aboriginal hunting cultures. Bands of hunters would ambush small herds of giant bison and other prey; they would store what they could and, once the food was consumed, they would repeat the process. This method, while successful, was later replaced by the larger, more complex communal hunts associated with pounds and jumps. Scattered across the northern plains are locales where ancient Indian hunters drove herds over cliffs or lured them into corrals for slaughter. There is no clear reason for this change, but a rising population may have increased the demand on the food supply. The change also required an intimate knowledge of bison ecology and behaviour.

The availability of bison promoted self-reliance among the many bands, just as seasonally available resources, like berries and tubers, influenced settlement decisions. Simultaneously, the need for specific stone materials fostered interregional and intertribal trade. Tools made from flint and other such material have been found hundreds of kilometres from their parent quarry, a fact suggesting extensive aboriginal trade routes. As early as 11,000 years ago, silicified wood was traded into southern Saskatchewan, where no local quarry existed.

Indian groups living in proximity to known quarries would be expected to profit by controlling the traffic in stone materials and limiting foreign access. Some groups may even have specialized in processing tools rather than exporting stone, particularly since trading the finished product rather than the raw material would increase its value. Considerations like quality of workmanship, transportation distance, competition, production costs, and even negotiating skills would be factors in setting prices. Early historical accounts indicate that meetings for the purpose of trade occurred at regular intervals and followed standard protocols; representatives were selected, prices set, and disputes resolved. Bison hunters would visit the agricultural communities located along rivers and exchange meat and dressed hides for corn and other garden produce. It is probable that, during their visits to these communities, plains Indians acquired knowledge of how to cultivate small plots of tobacco.

Pre-historic trade networks were more likely to run along a north/south axis than an east/west one, likely because major river-drainage systems were used as transport corridors for hauling goods by canoes. The presence of exotic items like conch-shell masks and ornamental shells on the northern plains, thousands of kilometres north of their origin in the Gulf of Mexico, is evidence of this movement. Overland trade routes brought obsidian and flint from the central plains and copper from the Great Lakes. Knowledge was also transported along this trade corridor, as the diffusion of ceramic technology from agricultural peoples in the south to hunting cultures in the north indicates.

One last modification in the plains economy occurred in the decades preceding the arrival of Europeans. After a 10,000-year absence from the North American plains, horses reappeared out of the southwest by the 1730s, moving from Mexico on existing intertribal trade networks along the familiar south/north axis. Their presence transformed the prairie economy in a manner analogous to the effect that automobiles have had on twentieth-century society. New concepts like animal husbandry and pastoralism accompanied the rapid spread of equestrian culture. As well, once incorporated into native commerce, the horse became an important form of currency. Mobility, personal property, and wealth all increased for some groups and individuals with the introduction of horses. Native manufacturing was the immediate beneficiary because of the constant demand for utilitarian items like saddles, bridles, and blankets. The esthetic trades also benefited as artisans created decorative products to complement an owner’s pride in his horse. Finally, horses became the cause of intertribal animosity, with warriors of one tribe raiding another tribe in search of the precious animal.

The arrival of the horse was only a harbinger of greater change. As early as 1750 an entirely new economic system – the fur trade – began to realign the indigenous economy, replacing the north/south axis with an east/west one and reorienting the traditional pursuit of game for subsistence towards an economic model characterized by exploitation. Because of geographical isolation, the Plains Algonquians were among the last aboriginal peoples to be brought into fur trade’s sphere of influence. Like so much change that later proves to have radical consequences, it began innocuously enough with the arrival of products like metal pots, guns, cloth, and tobacco, and, initially at least, the quality of life for natives even improved since natives themselves often controlled the terms and rates of exchange.Their pre-existing traditions of intertribal trade worked to their benefit, for it was often noted that they were shrewd traders who knew how to strike a bargain. They even adapted some of their traditional pursuits to take advantage of new opportunites. For example, the Ojibwa custom of harvesting wild rice was only partly for domestic use; bushels of grains also found their way into the fur-trade network. Similarly, communal buffalo hunts were modified to supply the trading posts with pemmican – meat that was dried, pulverized, and mixed with berries and grease.

By the time the fur trade finally declined in the 1870s, the cultures of the Plains Algonquians had been transformed beyond recognition. The enduring legacy of the fur trade was to leave the Indians in a state of chronic dependency that persists to the present day. Ultimately, by destroying the animal resources of their environment, it eroded not only their traditional economy but also their very way of life, forcing them to leave hunting behind for a sedendary existence on reserves.

The purpose of the treaty process was to encourage Indians to settle on reserves and adopt a farming lifestyle. Treaty 7, for example, stipulated that band members who were ready to start a farm would be given cattle, seed, and farm implements. The government also agreed to provide the natives with farm instructors. The Plains Algonquians experienced many obstacles as they embarked on this new enterprise, the greatest being government policy. The policy of “the Bible and the plow” – implemented by missionaries and Indian agents – was thought to be the key to a successful termination of savage ways of life. Furthermore, as agriculture became increasingly mechanized in the twentieth century, farming on native reserves remained tied to hand-tools and horse power. By explicit government direction – stemming from a desire to protect white farmers from Indian competition – reserve farmers languished in preindustrial modes of agriculture. Indian farmers were not even at liberty to sell their crops since strict controls were placed on the marketing of their produce. With Indian agents in charge of all trading between natives and non-natives, reserve farm produce often never arrived at market. As a result of these policies, and of the ban on homesteading off reserves and the surrender of reserve lands, Indian farming stagnated while communities surrounding the reserves succeeded.

In spite of these obstacles, some did well as farmers; indeed, the Blood became successful large-scale farmers after 1900. On some reserves, ranching became equal in importance to farming; here, again, the Blood led the way, starting a hugely successful ranching operation in the 1890s. Whether it was because of their pastoral experience with horses or the resemblance of cattle to bison, some Indian ranchers amassed large herds of cattle, and rodeos, cattle drives, and round-ups became integrated into local cultural practices. Owning a large herd of horses remained an essential display of wealth.

From the 1870s until the present, agriculture remained the mainstay of reserve economies. However, by the middle of the twentieth century, agriculture had reached its limits as a viable occupation. Increasingly, welfare replaced work and dependency supplanted self-reliance. Indian reserves became pockets of rural poverty amid the wealth created by prairie farming. Today, efforts to spur economic development and to improve the quality of life on reserves utilize sectors of commerce as diverse as service industries and entertainment. Small businesses like gas stations, convenience stores, restaurants, and laundromats are visible signs of a new entrepreneurial culture. As in the larger society, occupations tend to divide along gender lines, with men comprising the blue-collar workforce while women dominate white-collar jobs, including those in local band administration.