The Rocky Mountain Trapping System

1
The Rocky Mountain Trapping System

• Chapter 5, Section 2

2
William Ashleys System - 1822

• Hundreds of men volunteered to join William
  Ashley on a fur-trapping journey into Montana in
  1822.
• This group included famous mountain men Jim
  Bridger, Jedediah Smith and Daniel T. Potts.
• Some of these men operated in brigades like
  earlier trappers.

3
The Free Trapper

• Others chose to be free trappers.
• Free trappers did not work in brigades. Instead
  they trapped by themselves or with a couple
  partners.
• They later became known as mountain men.

4
The Free Trapper

• Free trappers traveled Indian trails, built
  cabins, stockpiled as many furs as they could and
  usually married native women.
• Instead of sweeping through a territory as
  brigade trappers did, free trappers lived and
  trapped in one spot for at least a year.
• Because they were solitary and did not live in
  forts, these trappers were rarely killed by
  hostile tribes.

5
Rendezvous

• Instead of bringing their goods to forts, Ashley
  arranged for the trappers to meet once a year at
  gatherings called rendezvous. (French for
  get-together)
• Fur traders, mountain men and Indians met at
  summer rendezvous to exchange furs for money and
  goods.
• Rendezvous were like fairs, with exciting
  competitions, food, singing, dancing and
  socializing.

6
Rendezvous

• Fur companies liked the rendezvous system because
  it required no permanent forts, which were often
  attacked.
• They lasted only a few weeks, then the companies
  took thousands of dollars in furs back east.

7
The American Fur Company

• While traveling to America from Germany at the
  age of 20, John Jacob Astor heard of the riches
  made from the fur trade.
• That night he decided he would start a fur
  company that would dominate the American fur
  trade.

8
The American Fur Company

• Astors American Fur Company gained a monopoly
  over the fur trade of the Upper Missouri.
• Monopoly means complete control.
• Astors plan included control of all aspects of
  the fur trade.

9
The American Fur Company

• The AFC built Astoria, a shipping port on the
  Oregon coast.
• Astor then bought a fleet of ships to carry furs
  across the world.
• None Astors American competitors could match his
  resources they were forced out of business.

10
The American Fur Company

• The American Fur Co. also built Fort Union at the
  confluence of the Missouri and Yellowstone
  Rivers.
• All of the eastward flowing rivers in Montana met
  at the fort.
• Astors rival, the Rocky Mountain Fur Company,
  often bribed tribes to take sides in the fur
  trade. The competition sometimes became violent.

11
Steamboats Expand the Fur Trade

• In 1832, the steamboat Yellowstone paddled up to
  Fort Union the farthest a steamboat had gone up
  the Missouri. More boats quickly followed.
• Steamboats allowed fur companies to ship beaver
  pelts to market faster than ever.

12
The Blackfeet

• The American Fur Company moved further up the
  Missouri into Blackfeet country.
• An AFC trader named Alexander Culbertson
  developed ties with the tribe and married a
  Blackfeet woman, Natawista.
• The Blackfeet tolerated Culbertson, but when he
  left on a trip, the tribe burned his fort down.

13
The Blackfeet

• The Blackfeet tightly controlled the fur trade in
  their territory, but after waves of disease made
  them weak they were forced to change their
  strategy.
• In 1846, the Blackfeet allowed the American Fur
  Company to build Fort Benton right in the heart
  of their territory.

14
The Trapping Way of Life

• By the 1830s, there were hundreds of free
  trappers in the Rocky Mountains.
• Most were young men in search of adventure and
  wealth.
• When their trapping years were over, many became
  gold miners, farmers, guides, or bison hunters.

15
Women of the Fur Trade

• Women were also important in the success of the
  fur trade.
• The women prepared food, clothing and furs, and
  tanned hides.
• The women of the fur trade often fended for
  themselves, carried heavy loads and negotiated
  with tribes.

16
From Beaver to Bison

• It took only 30 years for trappers to nearly
  exterminate Montanas beaver population.
• Luckily for the beaver, fur hats became unpopular
  by the 1830s and pelts lost most of their value.
• Fur buyers held their last rendezvous in 1839.
  After that, the trade dwindled.

17
The Bison Trade

• Bison robes and hides now became popular.
• Fur collectors no longer needed to wait for their
  traps to fill.
• Bison hunting was done by a new kind of hunter
  keen marksmen could shoot hundreds of bison a day.

18
Wasteful Hunting

• Only bison robes and tongues were valuable in the
  trade.
• Bison tongue was considered a delicacy.
• Bison meat was not worth the cost of carrying it
  back east, so hunters left the carcasses to rot
  across the plains.

19
Tribes Join the Trade

• Most tribes joined the trade too, usually trading
  the tongue and hide while using the rest of the
  bison.
• However, when demand for robes increased, Indian
  hunters also became more wasteful. Tribes
  continued to participate in the trade because
  their economies depended on it.
• The shrinking bison herds threatened the very
  center of Plains Indian life.

20
Close to Extinction

• By the 1870s, 1.5 million bison were being
  killed a year.
• At the same time, many herds were weakened by
  brucellosis (an infectious disease that spreads
  from cattle to bison.)
• Railroads blocked migration routes and cattle ate
  up grasses that bison grazed on. Bison were
  headed for extinction.

21
A New Way of Life

• By 1883, every bison herd in the country had been
  wiped out.
• Without bison, Indians had little to eat or
  trade. They lost their traditional lifestyle and
  many of their cultural practices. Most were
  forced to became sedentary farmers instead.

22
The Impact of the Fur Trade

• The fur trade in Montana lasted nearly 100 years
  (1800-1880s) and had a huge impact on the state.
• The fur trade brought many Indians and whites
  together for the first time. It also made tribes
  more dependent on trade goods.

23
The Impact of the Fur Trade

• The fur trade could not have succeeded without
  Native Americans, but the partnership with
  traders was not an equal one.
• Indians were pressured to collect fur instead of
  working for the good of the tribe. Some fur
  companies even caused trouble for Indians so that
  they would depend more on the companies.

24
The Impact of the Fur Trade

• The fur trade also began an ugly cycle of
  extracting resources from Montana.
• The money that fur companies made in Montana was
  spent in far-off places not spent on improving
  life here.
• This would be the nature of capitalism in Montana
  for the next hundred years.