Cuthand: The history of Canada’s oldest company, as HBC closes

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This week, as we watch the Hudson’s Bay Company shut its stores and liquidate assets, we recall the checkered history of Canada’s oldest company.

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In 1670, the Company of Adventurers led by Prince Rupert received a royal charter from King Charles II. Charles and Rupert were cousins and Charles relied on the Doctrine of Discovery to grant the charter since no other Christian monarch claimed the land in question.

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The charter gave the Company of Adventurers the right to all the land that was in the Hudson Bay watershed. They had no idea how much land was involved, eventually it would encompass eight million square kilometres.

Prince Rupert never set foot in Rupert’s Land. He and the other owners lived it up in Britain and enjoyed the fruits of the fur trade.

The company morphed into the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) and, over the years, created enormous change in Indian Country. Prior to European contact, the First Nations of the boreal forest spent their time hunting for food. Trapping was just a sideline to acquire furs for personal use. To encourage trapping, the Bay provided firearms to cut down on the time spent hunting.

The introduction of firearms was unique to Northern Canada and the HBC.

The Spanish and English to the south refused to sell firearms to Indigenous people. Their relationship was adversarial since they were taking their land and pushing them aside. Of course, they received firearms in the black market, but they were expensive and illegal.

Cree and Ojibway moved on to the Plains and allied with Nakota to form the “Iron Nation” — so called because they had firearms. The Plains Ojibway became the Saulteaux Nation.

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By moving onto the Plains, various other nations were displaced. The Blackfoot moved further west, the Northern Shoshone moved to present day Washington state and the Gros Ventre moved to present day Montana. The Gros Ventre attacked and burned South Branch house at present day Saint Louis because the Hudson’s Bay Company was selling firearms to the Cree.

There are stories of the HBC ripping off the Indigenous trappers and no doubt some are true, but I doubt our people were the victims that some historians portray. Our people traded with the HBC on the coast of Hudson’s Bay and took the trade goods inland and became the important middlemen in the fur trade.

Also fur traders developed a protocol in trading with the presentation of gifts to the leaders and created lasting relationships. The myth that our people were ripped off ignores the fact that the initial fur traders went far inland and couldn’t afford to cheat because their lives depended on it. The myth that our people were stupid and naive is obviously wrong.

The owners and leadership of the Bay in England forbade the staff from fraternizing with the locals especially the women, but they were 6,000 miles away and unable to police their clerks and factors.

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The Bay recruited clerks from Scotland and mainly from the Orkney Islands. These hardy individuals adapted quickly to the harsh conditions in the northwest and melded with the community. The result was intermarriage with the locals and children that were “country born.” The Bay even established a girls’ boarding school at Saint Andrew north of Fort Gary to teach the country-born girls the finer social graces.

The Scots clerks introduced bannock to the Indigenous communities and flour became a staple trade good. Of course, bannock was altered to the local taste using grease from local animals and the addition of berries when in season.

We used to spend our summers at Stanley Mission and I recall as a kid going to the HBC store. They had products such as lamp wick, log peelers, traps and snare wire; stuff you just don’t see today.

The Hudson’s Bay Company and the fur trade altered Indigenous history and lifestyle, and the results are still felt today. The closure of the department stores is the final chapter in a story that had a profound effect on the First Nations.

Doug Cuthand is the Indigenous affairs columnist for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix and the Regina Leader-Post. He is a member of the Little Pine First Nation.

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