The arrival of Montreal-based fur trader Peter Pond in Athabaska territory in 1778 and the establishment of the first trading post within the watershed of the Mackenzie River marked the beginning of a period of intense northern exploration. Alexander Mackenzie's voyages to the Arctic and Pacific oceans quickly brought the Canadian north west to European attention.

Ellen Smallboy's life spanned a period of immense change among the Cree of northern Ontario. Born in about 1853 near James Bay, for most of her lifetime Smallboy led a semi-nomadic life that revolved around seasonal hunting. By the time she was an old woman, however, Cree lifestyle and culture were undergoing dramatic changes. Regina Flannery draws on her meetings with Smallboy, then aged eighty, to produce a detailed picture of her life during both these periods.

Using unused or little-known documents, Keith fills in gaps and corrects inconsistencies in previous information about the company. North of Athabasca not only includes the extensively annotated texts of eleven North West Company documents but Keith's introductory essay amplifies what is known about the context of the fur trade. His biographical notes provide personal details about the proprietors and clerks involved in the fur trade as well as the engages and aboriginal trading leaders. A sketch of the trading activities of every Native mentioned in the journals is included. Engages are...

Over a three-year period from 1837 to 1939, operating from a base-camp at Fort Confidence on Great Bear Lake, the expedition achieved its goal. Despite serious problems with sea ice, Dease and Simpson, in some of the longest small-boat voyages in the history of the Arctic, mapped the remaining gaps in a model operation of efficient, economical, and safe exploration. Thomas Simpson's narrative, the standard source on the expedition, claimed the expedition's success for himself, stating "Dease is a worthy, indolent, illiterate soul, and moves just as I give the impulse." In From Barrow to...

Louis Bird has spent the last three decades documenting Cree oral traditions and sharing his stories with audiences in Canada, the United States, and Europe. In The Spirit Lives in the Mind the renowned storyteller and historian of the Omushkego shares teachings and stories of the Swampy Cree people that have been passed down from generation to generation as part of a rich oral tradition. Cree spiritual beliefs revolve around the sacred places and rich landscape of the Hudson Bay lowlands. The beautiful narratives in The Spirit Lives in the Mind illuminate the meaning and value of spiritual...

These letters provide a vivid depiction of the lives of a Scottish fur trader and his far-flung family on both sides of the Atlantic.

In A Country So Interesting Richard Ruggles describes and analyses the mapping activities of more than 160 Company servants and surveyors as well as the contributions of more than 50 Indians and Inuit who drew sketches and provided original configurations. Also included are annotated catalogues of all the maps known to have been produced by the Hudson's Bay Company and sixty-six reproductions of the most important maps and sketches. The Hudson's Bay Company was responsible for the largest collection in North America of manuscript charts and maps related to the fur trade and Ruggles has...

George Nelson (1786-1859) was a clerk for the North West Company whose unusually detailed and personal writings provide a compelling portrait of the people engaged in the golden age of the Canadian fur trade. Friends, Foes, and Furs is a critical edition of Nelson's daily journals, supplemented with exciting anecdotes from his "Reminiscences," which were written after his retirement to Lower Canada. An introduction and annotations by Harry Duckworth place Nelson's material securely within the established body of fur trade history. This series of journals gives readers a first-person account...