Reports of devastation made their way to Ottawa. Baker built large fortunes supplying the robe trade. While few of the traders became rich, merchants such as T. The traders were often described as crude opportunists, desperadoes and hard cases-but several went on to become respected businessmen and politicians. Fort Whoop-Up was the largest and most notorious of them all. Soon there were more than fifty trading posts in what is now southern Alberta with names like Slide Out, Standoff, Kipp and Robbers’ Roost. The trail from Fort Benton to Fort Whoop-Up became a major route for bull trains carrying freight north and buffalo robes south. News of Healy and Hamilton’s rich profits drew other traders from Montana. This “fire water,” as it was often called, was diluted with water, and might contain anything from chewing tobacco, to burnt sugar, tea or ink to add flavour and colour. One to two liters of whisky traded for one robe. The most profitable trade good was whisky, which was kept in a large barrel and dispensed by the jug or cupful. First Nations’ demand for certain types and quality of goods sharpened competition among traders.īuffalo robes, deerskins, wolf pelts, and other furs were exchanged for firearms, utensils, blankets, tobacco, flour and other provisions. A whole “head and tail” robe was worth about $12 in trade goods, and a split robe was worth half that. Most of the trade was done in winter months, when the buffalo robes were thickest. At the peak of the robe trade, up to 75,000 robes passed through Fort Benton, Montana each year. The robes were shipped east by steamboat on the Upper Missouri River. Robes were sold in eastern markets as sleigh blankets or coats, while the hides made excellent belts for industrial machines. There was a kitchen, trading room, blacksmith shop, living quarters, stabling for the horses, a well and cellars.īuffalo robes were the main trade commodity. Buildings faced inward to an open central square. It was also equipped with a rifle cannon on wheels and a smoothbore cannon.
Good harvest fort hamilton windows#
It was enclosed by a palisade with a heavy oak gate, bastions, high windows and bars over the chimneys. They hired a former Hudson’s Bay Company carpenter, William Gladstone, to build the new fort with a crew of about forty, mostly Métis, men.įort Whoop-Up, as it became known, was built with squared cottonwood logs, and was designed for defense. Healy and Hamilton decided to build a larger and more permanent fort. Healy and Hamilton made huge profits in their first season, but their fort was badly damaged in a fire. A traditional gathering site for the bands of the Blackfoot Confederacy, the site would become the centre of a booming commercial trading post system.įort Hamilton was a simple structure with six rooms. They set up a trading post at the meeting of the St. Healy obtained supplies from Fort Benton, Montana and headed north. With the arrival and settlement of newcomers in the 1860s the traditional way of life of the Niitsitapi – the Siksika, Kainai, Piikani, and Amskapi Pikuni Nations – changed. We would mark these locations with rings of stone, Momma'pis. There were special places abundant in berries, and lakes where we could easily harvest waterfowl eggs.Įverywhere we moved was for a purpose, and we would camp in the same areas every year.
There were places we went to hunt buffalo, and others where we got elk. Other tribes belong to different waters, but this is our place, and it's been that way for thousands of years.ĭuring certain seasons, especially in the summer, our way of life involved being on the move, A'pawaawahkao'p. It encompasses everything from the North Saskatchewan River here in Alberta, to the Yellowstone River in Wyoming, and from the Rocky Mountains far east to the Great Sand Hills in Saskatchewan.
this is what we call our Blackfoot territory. This is Kitaowahsinnoon, what sustains us. He used a special song and was able to win all the black waters flowing down from the eastern slopes. Long before the arrival of the newcomers, Naapi gambled in the mountains.
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