Fur War (1765-1840)

Some men and women involved in the Fur War were heroes, some psychopaths and others just survivors or observers. Ruthless killers who considered the natives less than human often set unwitting traps for those who came next. These traders and workers came from many nations and tribes and sometimes married and worked very well together.

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As you read consider yourself in their shoes. Could you command a ship around the world with twenty-two men, most older than you as crew, at the age of 19? Could you survive being constantly wet and cold for weeks and months at a time? Could you hike, ride, and camp in the snow for five months every year while caring for several children under the age of 15, preparing food, skinning beaver, and nursing an infant? Could you stop for a day in the ice and snow to give birth — and then get back on your horse to ride another 15 miles? Could you continue after nine out of ten people in your family and village died of new diseases? Could you endure a winter shipwreck in Alaska, salvage the wreckage, and build a new vessel? Could you survive a 14-month drift across the north Pacific only to shipwreck on the coast — and be made a slave?