History

The lucrative fur trade drove the expansion of European trading posts into Na-Dene territory for over two centuries and the routes used by fur traders diversified as the volume of trade increased. Chipewyans, the first Athabaskans to come into direct contact with Europeans, met explorers on the coast of Hudson Bay in the early 1600s, but the Cree used newly acquired guns to dominate trade between York Factory, established in 1682, and the interior Athabaskans. When the post of Churchill was established in 1721, Chipewyan dealt with the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) directly and leaders such as Matonabee established their own trade routes to the interior. During this period, European diseases such as smallpox, measles, scarlet fever, diphtheria, and influenza plagued Chipewyan as well as other groups. One of the worst epidemics of smallpox killed more than half of the Chipewyan population in 1781–82 and most groups were unable to avoid periodic devastation.

In the 1770s a number of explorers established fur-trading posts in the interior as far as Lake Athabasca. These included Canadien traders working for the North West Company (NWC) as well as those employed by the HBC. The two companies established numerous posts throughout the interior prior to their merger in 1821. These posts brought such groups as the Beaver, Slave, Dogrib, and Gwich’in into direct contact with white traders for the first time.

On the northwest coast, Russian explorers and traders found the Tlingit to be tough bargainers defiant of Russian authority. The Tlingit took two Russian boats in their first encounter and they also captured the Russian fort at Sitka in 1804, two years after it was constructed. The Tlingit remained independent of Russian rule and established an extensive fur-trading network with the interior Athabaskan groups during the 1800s. The HBC also attempted to take command of the trade in this area by leasing part of Tlingit territory on the coast from the Russians in 1839 and by establishing posts in the interior to trade with the Kaska, Tahltan, and Tutchone directly. The Tlingit resisted this threat to their trade with the interior by maintaining tight control over the coastal passes and by destroying the HBC post at Fort Selkirk at the confluence of the Yukon and Pelly rivers in 1852.

Haida met and traded with many European expeditions beginning with the Spanish explorer Juan Perez in 1774. They traded large numbers of sea otter pelts until these animals were virtually exterminated in the early 1800s. The Haida themselves were decimated by disease in the early nineteenth century and eventually abandoned many settlements. Commercial fishing, potato farming, work in the fish canneries, and later lumbering became important economic activities for Haida.

As a result of the fur trade, the Na-Dene became more familiar with the Christian beliefs of European traders. By 1820 Catholic and Anglican missions had been established at the Red River settlement in Manitoba and in 1844 a Catholic missionary was sent to the Chipewyan. In the following two decades a number of Anglican and Catholic missions were established among the Chipewyan, Dogrib, Slave, Gwich’in, and Beaver. During this period native religious leaders, such as the Carrier prophet Bini, adopted elements of Christian belief which they combined with traditional practices. In the late nineteenth century and continuing into the twentieth century, several religious groups, including the Catholics, Anglicans, and Baptists, operated residential schools for native students. Students were often isolated from their families for long periods of time and many recall being harshly treated.

On the west coast, Canadian Haida were evangelized by Methodists and Anglicans who discouraged some native customs such as potlatches. Potlatches are native ceremonies commemorating such events as the death of an individual, the anniversary of their death, the naming of a child, or the bestowal of a prestigious name on any person. The sponsoring clan often gave a large number of valuable presents to the invited guests, a practice that non-natives thought excessive and tried to discourage. A significant number of Tlingit became members of the Russian Orthodox Church while most in Canada became Anglicans or Catholics. More recently, other religious groups, including fundamentalist Protestant sects and Bahais, have attracted significant followings, particularly in Yukon and British Columbia.

Within the last century the fur trade in the north has been overshadowed by other economic activities. Large numbers of gold miners came to the Cassiar region of British Columbia in 1873 and many thousands descended on the Klondike goldfields of Yukon after 1896. Oil was discovered in large quantities at Norman Wells in the Northwest Territories in 1920, an event that triggered another influx of people. In many cases the development of these resources followed cycles of boom and bust. The construction of roads, airports, and modern communications networks has further facilitated the development of resources since World War II.