On this date in 1797, fur trader Chaboillez of the North West Company recorded the arrival of Animiikance, Little Thunder, at the Pembina fur trade post. Little Thunder was hired to guide personnel to the Souris River and obtain supplies for the Pembina post from trader McDonnell. The crew was instructed to return their guide to Pembina in the spring.
However, the next day, Little Thunder changed his mind about the job when Chaboillez refused to advance him any pay. Native hunters were not post employees but free agents, pursuing their seasonal round of activity. They might do business elsewhere if it was profitable.
The Souris River Basin was integral to the fur trade. An abundant variety of wildlife and furred game existed there, and the fertile grazing area supported great herds of bison. The production and supply of pemmican powered the rest of the fur trade. During the fur trade era, eighteen posts owned by independent traders, as well as companies, operated in the Souris Basin between present-day Souris, Manitoba, and Minot, North Dakota.
The first Souris River post was established by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1766. Ash House was established there by the North West Company in 1795. Rival traders often built posts at the same locations as their competition.
This was the case at Pembina in 1797. After the next year’s fur season, Chaboillez abandoned the Pembina post. Alexander Henry arrived in 1800 to renew the North West Company trade at Pembina. He came from Leech Lake in Minnesota with a canoe brigade of hunters led by Old Wild Rice, the Pillager chief and father of Little Thunder. Chaboillez had previously traded with “Old Manominee”, whom he called the “Great Chief,” meaning he had influence among a band of men who were themselves tent leaders. Wild Rice directed the seasonal round of activities of the Pembina band, including ten hunting tents of his own. Chaboillez formally negotiated with him when matters of religious ceremony or warfare with the Dakota people might curtail trade activity.
Nevertheless, Wild Rice traded with the Hudson's Bay Company if the profit was better. The HBC monopoly was granted by the British Crown in 1670 and dominated the fur trade, operating almost like a sovereign entity with the power to make laws and raise forces, facing competition mainly from the French-Canadian North West Company until their merger in 1821.
Dakota Datebook by Lise Erdrich
Sources:
- Teyana Neufeld, 2009. Turtle Mountain -Souris Basin Heritage Explorer: The Souris River Fur Trade. https://vantagepoints.ca/stories/souris-river-fur-trade/
- Cambridge Library Edition, 2015: New Light on the Early History of the Greater Northwest: The Manuscript Journals of Alexander Henry and of David Thompson, 1799-1814, Volume I. Edited by Elliot Coues. Roster of Red River Brigade: List of the Indians, page 53.
- Indiana University, 1959: Ethnohistory:Genesis of a Fur Trade Band: Journal of Charles Jean Baptiste Chaboillez, 1797-1798.Harold Hickerson, Editor.
- Pembina Band of Chippewa Indians. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pembina_Band_of_Chippewa_Indians
- Patrick "Au-nish-e-nau-bay" Gourneau, historical writings, letters, and conversations 1952-1973.
- CONTEXT DOCUMENT ON THE FUR TRADE OF NORTHEASTERN NORTH DAKOTA (Ecozone #16) 1738-1861 by Lauren W. Ritterbush April 1991. https://www.history.nd.gov/hp/PDFinfo/fur-trade-northeast-nd.pdf
