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 lost, capitalism focused on the Otter. Paired with the Papal Decree (or Bull, Pope Alexander VI’s “Inter Caetera,” authorizing Spain and Portugal to colonize the Americas and its Native
Peoples as subjects, asserting the rights of Spain and Portugal to colonize, 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% 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 (& Clark). It is a confusing story, but two things to remember: History starts with Food and Shelter (not necessarily who writes it … that is too often incorrect) and always, always, and always … the foot soldiers win the war. Summarize West Coast history: America had more shoes on the ground.
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)?
Incorrect, often what is not said is what is important
State Insect of Washington,
the Green Darner Dragonfly
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Explorers, Exploiters & the Fur Trade (4)
Washington State History