Trappers and Traders: A Fur Trade Game {Review} (2024)

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Trappers and Traders: A Fur Trade Game {Review}? ›

If you have educators looking for an engaging way to bring the fur trade to life for middle years and secondary students, I highly recommend the Saskatchewan Archaeological Society's Trappers and Traders: A Fur Trade Card Game as it's affordable, interactive, culturally relevant and fun” J.

While some positives came out of the fur trade for the Indigenous population, Europeans brought many bad things as well. These included guns, diseases, and alcohol. However, the most devastating result of the fur trade was the colonization of Indigenous lands by European settlers.

The fur trade prospered until the mid-1800's, when fur-bearing animals became scarce and silk hats became more popular than felt hats made with beaver. Today, almost all trappers sell their pelts. Eskimo and Indian trappers in Canada still trade their furs to fur companies for various goods.

Quality beaver pelts set the value of what things were worth and it seems that most trades were based on this value. For example, 1 beaver pelt could be traded for: coloured beads, gunpowder, a shirt, a set of knives, or even some sugar. It cost 11 beaver pelts to get a musket.

Indigenous women made pemmican, which was essential to the fur trade. It's dried bison meat pounded into a powder and mixed with melted animal fat and maybe some dried berries.

Yes, in 2021 Israel became the first country in the world to ban real fur sales. In the United States, California became the first US state to ban the sale of fur in 2019 (the ban came into effect in January 2023) following similar bans in cities including Los Angeles, San Francisco, Berkeley and West Hollywood.

The U.S. has a Fur Products Labeling Act, which mandates that garments containing fur be properly labeled, and it has a Dog and Cat Fur Protection Act, which prohibits dog and cat fur trade in the U.S. This is due, in large part, to the alleged killing of dogs and cats in China for their fur.

You cannot sell vintage items in any of these furs, thanks to CITES – Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species. CITES says that you cannot deal in furs from all primates (monkeys and gorillas), all big cats, and all bears.

Eighty-five percent of the fur industry's skins come from animals who were held captive on fur factory farms, where they were crammed into severely crowded, filthy wire cages. Many were later beaten or electrocuted—and sometimes even skinned alive.

Is beaver fur worth anything? ›

Top quality beaver pelts may bring in $25 or more, but you can also sell your lower-quality beaver pelts for the hat market. “Beaver pelts can be an exception because they can be ground up to be used as felt to make Stetson cowboy hats, so thick fur isn't required,” Wood says.

Laws and Regulations

FGC § 4000-4011. Trapping Provisions(opens in new tab). Trapping conditions and license requirements. It is unlawful for any person to trap any fur-bearing mammal for purposes of recreation or commerce in fur.

Throughout the 18^th century, the demand for beaver pelts continued to rise. As demand rose, so did the price which increased more than 300 per cent between 1700 and 1800. Using current values of the dollar, a single pelt was worth about $31 in 1700. By 1800, a single pelt was worth $94.90.

Many different species of furbearer are used in the fur trade, catering to different market segments. For the top luxury market, some of the most important types include mink, sable, and chinchilla. For less-expensive options, the most popular are rabbit and various forms of sheep fur: sheepskin, lambskin or shearling.

They harvested a wide variety of furs (beaver being the most valuable) in the region's woodlands and waterways. In exchange for these furs, French, British, and US traders provided goods such as blankets, firearms and ammunition, cloth, metal tools, and brass kettles.

Beaver pelts were in the greatest demand, but other animals such as mink, muskrat, fox and sable marten were also trapped. In the 1830s, when beaver lost its value as a staple fur, HBC maintained a profitable trade emphasizing fancy fur. Although the fur trade continues today, HBC is no longer in the fur business.

The fur trade was both very good and very bad for American Indians who participated in the trade. The fur trade gave Indians steady and reliable access to manufactured goods, but the trade also forced them into dependency on European Americans and created an epidemic of alcoholism.

Fur-farm pollution is further compounded when all aspects of farmed-fur production are considered: Fur processing requires transporting feed to animals; removing animals' waste; providing electricity for housing facilities, the slaughter process, and other operations; using pesticides, vaccines, and antibiotics; ...

Compared with other textiles, fur production is extremely inefficient and resource intensive. Every stage of fur production requires significant resources that impact the environment, from the massive amounts of feed to the toxic chemicals used for pelt processing.

Roughly 100 million of these animals are killed every year for their fur, to be used in coats, shoes, and accessories; about half are killed for fur trim alone. Confining these naturally active and curious animals in such conditions has severe physical and mental health effects.