Country Wives/Summer Wives Page 1 |
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Of
course the development of the Métis nation is largely due to the women
who married European traders. Women, whether First Nations or of mixed
background, were absolutely invaluable to the men of the fur trade. They
cemented trade alliances, taught their inexperienced husbands how to
survive the elements, and prepared the meals that fed an entire
industry. They played an essential role in the trade.
Initially the HBC forbade their employees to bring their wives with
them to the Bay. Also, relationships between British traders and
Aboriginal women were forbidden. The French or other European traders
married freely in the Aboriginal community as the NWC was far more
tolerant of intermarriages. The HBC were uncomfortable with
intermarriage even after the amalgamation of the two organisations in
1821. The post-amalgamation period saw the HBC hire more young and
educated young officers who in turn brought with them their sense of
Victorian morality. One aspect of Victorian culture dictated that
respectable young men marry equally respectable young women, but men
were allowed to take mistresses whereas women were not. Oftentimes,
Aboriginal and Métis women had no choice but to become prostitutes, when
they discovered that the men they had been having relations with did not
plan to marry them. The result was an increase in prostitution at
trading posts. Many officers of the HBC did not respect the customs of
intermarriage developed during the fur trade.
The first country marriages to leave traces in the HBC records were
of Chief Factors and Traders to women from the tribes that lived around
the post. One of the first intermarriages to appear on record was that
of Governor Joseph Adams who sent his daughter home to England in 1737.
Some of the other early findings in record included a letter Governor
Richard Norton received from the London Committee on the topic of his
"Indian Woman and Family" in 1739 and a record of the death of Humphrey
Martin’s Cree wife in 1771. By the end of the 18th century, the main
records of these families were left in the form of bequests in wills. Matthew Cocking left bequests
for the two of his three wives who survived him. John Favell, who died
in 1784, left bequests to a widow and three children at the Bay. By the
19th century, it seemed that the HBC had relinquished the idea of
control and stipulated only that they not be required to bear the
expense.
The French employees of the NWC, encouraged the taking of "country
wives" because they understood how beneficial it was to the trade. One
pattern that was described among the Great Lakes Métis was the marriage
of the leader of the brigade to the daughter of the head of the
Aboriginal band where they were trading. His men would find marriage
partners among other women in the tribe. The tribe leader would,
somewhat later, take a second wife from among their children. These
marriages had obligations attached to them.
Under the NWC, there were trade practices that made marriage and
family life more difficult. The yearly trips and the mobility of the
work force were two such practises. All fur trade employees were subject
to being moved to a different post or being sent as a courier at any
time, without consideration of family. There was a fur trade
‘arrangement’ to take care of these problems called ‘turning off’. It
was an arrangement by which a worker, knowing he would not return to the
post where he had started a family, would "turn off" his wife and
arrange for another man to take over as her spouse.
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