Social Studies
Coureur De Bois and The Fur Trade
Patrick Sikora
Imagine a country called Canada, with lots of development, religions, and backgrounds. Well this is were coureur de bois and the fur trade comes in.
The Coureur de bois and the fur trade, were small parts, that helped our country, called Canada to develop. The fur trade helped the First Nations, to discover new things to make improved items, like we have now, such as technology. The coureur de bois helped the First nations in a unpradictable way. They traded European items, on there way through the forest, but they did something else. Some of the Coureur De Bois had relastionships with the Native woman. Yes, it may seem different, but it is true. The woman that were wives with
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It all started when the fur trade began, in the late 17th century and in the early 18th century. When the fur trade began clothing also started. Animals would be hunted for there food, and also for there fur. There furs would be traded for tools such as axes, and weapons such as muskets. The First Nations would barter to find the best deals since they didn 't know each other 's languages. Most trading posts were lead by European traders, because there was not much of tree land left in Europe, so there was less fur in the area and that lead to trading in Canada. Beaver fur was the most valuable, because it was the best fur for making felt. To trade, groups such as the First Nations and the Inuits, would bring there furs to the trading posts, and trade for there goods. Later a group of men at the trading posts, decided to go look for there own furs, and they were called the coureur de bois. The coureur de bois were french-Canadian’s that traveled through New France and North America. The coureur de bois, were people that would usually travel by themselves, or in small groups, because of the weather or just because of the danger in that area. They would usually travel by canoe, but sometimes they would use snowshoes to walk through the snow in the winter, or in the spring they would usually walk through the forest on there feet. The coureur de bois learned from the aboriginals. They learned