Sylvia Van Kirk taught history at the University of Toronto. This volume, which began as her 1975 doctoral dissertation, examines the role that Indigenous women who married European men played in the fur trade. Van Kirk challenges the stereotype that relationships between Europeans and First Nations women were illicit or short-lived, demonstrating that such relationships could result in lifelong unions that shaped the fur trade’s social contours. The volume analyzes gender roles in the fur trade, examines instances of cultural differences/ assimilation, traces the status of children born from European-Indigenous unions, and contrasts the status of European and First Nations women in the North-West. Throughout, Van Kirk relies on case studies and archival documents. Includes endnotes, bibliography, and index. A meticulous study of gender, intercultural relations, and the complex web of social expectations in the fur trade.
