[R-G] Iroquois activism in Far Western fur trade

[Hunter Gray]

Note by Hunterbear:

This is with respect to well done material relating in part to the
exploitation of fur-hunters -- Native and otherwise -- at the hands of
Hudson's Bay Company et al.

=========================
Hunterbear:

Louis Proyect's excerpts and comment from  the Jack Weatherford book,
"Indian Givers: How the Indians of America  Transformed the World" are quite
welcome.  [I'm sending a copy of this Marxism Discussion post to RedBadBear
 and to several other lists as well.]

Native fur hunters often fought back very vigorously against HBC and other
exploitation -- and one of the most successfully activist groups to do so
was the predominately Mohawk band [with several St. Francis Abenakis,
including Joseph Annance], led primarily by John Gray [Mohawk/Scottish] from
St. Regis. I have some material on my large website www.hunterbear.org on
John Gray and his family, the Iroquois et al. in the Far West, notes on our
Gray [sometimes erroneously called Grey] family name, etc.  This is listed
and easily found in related sections via the upper portion of the inside
Index on our Site.  Here is a bit of that from my writing:



This pattern is suggested as early as 1824, when the devoutly Catholic,
knife-fighting, half-blood Mohawk fur hunter from up-state New York, John
Gray (Ignace Hatchiorauquasha)  rallied other Iroquois trappers in their
successful labor disputes with frightened fur entrepreneur Alexander Ross in
the Columbia and Snake River country -- and repeated such behavior in
striking Peter Skene Ogden's camp a year later in their successful
opposition to an exploitative  pricing system and quasi-indentured
servitude.

In Don Berry's  fascinating account of those turbulent times, A Majority of
Scoundrels: An Informal History of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company   (New
York, Harper & Brothers, 1961), page 97, there is this paragraph depicting
John Gray at Ogden's camp:

"Gray -- Ross had described him the year before   as  "a turbulent
blackguard, a damned rascal" -- then launched into a denunciation of the
policies of HBC [Hudson's Bay Company] in general and the men of the
Columbia Department in particular:  ". . .The greatest villains in the World
& if they were here this day I would shoot them. . ."

Merle Wells, Idaho State Historical Society and one of the region's most
capable and empathetic historians, in his comprehensive essay, "Ignace
Hatchiorauquasha," The Mountain Men and the Fur Trade of the Far West, Vol.
7,  LeRoy R. Hafen, editor, [Glendale  CA, Arthur Clark Co., 1969], pages
161-175,  has commented with insight on John Gray's extraordinary role as a
committed Native rights advocate -- and half-blood -- in the wild history of
the Western fur trade:  "His unusual ability to deal with the whites
enhanced his stature as an Iroquois chief. . .he stood out as a gifted
leader of his people, understanding and following their ways in a manner
that would have been difficult for a white man. . . he not only explored the
wilderness. . .he also helped to bridge the cultural gap between Indians and
whites during the years of the fur trade, even though much of the time the
Iroquois and white trappers did not get along together at all well , and the
whites often resented his position on the Indian side when there were
differences in outlook.  More than that, his leadership of the Iroquois out
of Ogden's camp, May 24, 1825, contributed substantially to the Hudson's Bay
Company adoption of competitive pricing that limited the expansion of the
St. Louis fur trade in the Oregon country."

Hunter [Hunterbear]


Hunter Gray  [ Hunterbear ]
www.hunterbear.org  ( social justice )