Heritage Community Foundation Presents
Alberta Online Encyclopedia

Trade and Early Contact
Read the Heritage Trails transcripts:

28 - Iroquois in Alberta
Summary:During the late 1780s the fur trading companies began to recruit from Iroquois communities around Montreal - in particular Kahnewahke. Listen to hear how the Iroquois came to Alberta.

Treaty 8 signing site - Stony Point297 - Origin of Grouard
Summary: Learn the history of this small Métis community that once was referred to as the "Edmonton of the North".


Mass grave of Beaver Indians372 - Smallpox Epidemics, Part One: Early Explorers and Fur Traders Bring Disease to New World, 1520 - 1726
Summary: Three centuries after the arrival of the first Europeans to North America the population of First Nations was reduced from 1 or 2 million to barely more than 100,000 people - often due to illness from new diseases.

Cairn at Beaver mass grave373 - Smallpox Epidemics, Part Two: First Recorded Epidemic in the West, 1736
Summary: The first known epidemic of smallpox in the west ocurred in 1736 in the Lake-of-the-Woods, as far as historians know. What more do we know about this time?

374 - Smallpox Epidemics, Part Three: Epidemic of 1781 - 82 wipes out Native villages across the West.
Summary: Listen to hear excerpts from the journal of Samuel Hearn and others regarding this terrible and terrifying times in Alberta's history.

375 - Smallpox Epidemics, Part Four: David Thompson's Journals and the tales of Sokumapi.
Summary: Tales from David Thompon's journal - his collections of stories contained the stories of how the epidemic spread. How did the arrival of this terrible disease change the faith of the First Nations people?

376 - Smallpox Epidemics, Part Five.
Summary: The population already incredibly decimated, a new epidemic breaks out. This time, a vaccine was available out west by the HBC. What after effects did this disease leave?

383 - Ateesh-Ka-Sees, Indian Trade Captain, Part One
Summary:This Woodland Cree man was a famous trading captain who guided Anthony Henday - listen in to find out more.

384 - Ateesh-Ka-Sees, Cree Trader, Part Two
Summary:This Woodland Cree man was a famous trading captain who guided Anthony Henday among others and helped set up trading partnerships - listen in to find out more.

View of the Peace River Valley385 - Peace for a Thousand Miles, Part One
Summary:Listen to hear about the great truce made between the Cree and Beaver First Nations - and facilitated by Captain James Knight of the Hudson's Bay Company.

386 - Peace for a Thousand Miles, Part Two
Summary:Listen to hear about the great truce made between the Cree and Beaver First Nations - and the extraordinary woman guide Tha-na-dal-thur.

387 - Peace for a Thousand Miles, Part Three
Summary: Listen to hear about the great truce made between the Cree and Beaver First Nations - and Swan, the prominent Cree Trading captain who made the expeditions to Southern Alberta and made the peace.

388 - Peace for a Thousand Miles, Part Four
Summary:Listen to hear about the great truce made between the Cree and Beaver First Nations. The trade captain Swan also discovered tar sand in the south while attempting to achieve peace between the nations.

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