Explorers, Exploiters & the Fur Trade
Encounter, Colonization, and Devastation: Tribal Homelands
To the explorers in 1772 the northern Pacific Rim was the then unknown, an area of the world barely explored because of the vagaries of the ocean currents. In a lesson not to be lost, the potential for revenue focused on the Otter. Spain and Portugal (Brazil) were authorized by Pope Alexander VI to colonize the Americas and its Native Peoples as subjects, also to convert and enslave. The Spanish at Nootka Bay were soon followed by the American use of the Portuguese flag and the building of the schooner, the North West America by Chinese. The Spanish had a reason, the Russians were soon to have forts in both Hawaii (1817) and then the San Francisco area in their almost 100% unthinking effort to exterminate the otter. Sailing was not the only to reach Cascadia, it was the Scot Alexander Mackenzie (1793) who first walked the walk, financed by the English Hudson’s Bay Company, later followed by the Montreal based French Canadian North West Company. Thomas Jefferson lived then (by a miracle) and he mentored a youngster Lewis (who partnered with Clark). It is a confusing story, but two things to remember: History starts with Food and Shelter (not necessarily who writes it … the latter is too often incorrect) and almost always in history, foot soldiers win the war. Summarize Pacific West Coast history: America had more shoes on the ground. For related Topics: French, Search for Longitude & Latitude, Spanish, & Japanese Iron, the Quinault, Stone Age Use of Metals, Vancouver, Puget & the Saturna and Who killed Isaac Ebey.
time-immemorial-tribal-sovereignty
Because France is unmentioned among the Explorers and Exploiters at Nootka Sound, is it correct or incorrect to say they were not involved in this “free for all” event (that gives meaning to this phrase) of sorting out who thought they owned/controlled what land?
Incorrect, often what is not said is what is important
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Explorers, Exploiters & the Fur Trade
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Ethnobotanicals and native animals also mentioned: Scurvy: Roses, Bitter Cherry and Black Hawthorne; Sea Otter, River Otter, and Stellar Sea Cow; Hemlocks, Western Hemlock, Pacific Yew.