The fur trade was a middle ground between Indigenous and European cultures. French colonization prioritized trade relations over permanent settlement. The relations were cooperative and mutually beneficial. Relations were very common and kinship networks were vital to the trade. Many French fur traders married Native American women. This I was surprised to learn because I would have assumed the French would think too highly of themselves to start a family with Native American women. However, I was not surprised to learn that they were just business partnerships. Children born to French men and Native women were called “metis.” This term is complex and contentious because “metis” was a racial category developed by the colonizers for the purpose of “othering” people. Moreover, there are different meanings for the lower case m and capitalized M when referring to the term “metis.”
The clothing and accessories made by Indigenous people are considered documents of the past. This is because since there isn’t an actual document or journals from Native Americans, their material culture is a form of historical documents of the fur trade. Most tell stories about their way of living with illustrations, writings, and how they used their materials to survive. Indigenous women sewed, dyed, and embellished the cloth. They became an important status of the entire community. They also had skills in processing peltry, scraping hides, stretching and dyeing the furs. I was very fascinated to learn about the bandolier bag. The details are phenomenal and it’s incredible how it was handmade using thousands of tiny beads. Even though women created the bandolier bags, men were often the ones who wore these bags. These bags were worn across the shoulder and were often carried by European soldiers armed with rifles. With the use of the bandolier bag they were able to store ammunition. Beads and other materials were embroidered on the trade and cloth and hide. The tiny glass beads, called seed beads, were acquired from European traders, and they were prized for their brilliant colors. Porcupine quillwork had a longstanding history but were replaced by glass beads.
Citation: https://smarthistory.org/bandolier-bag/