Pemmican empire : food, trade, and the last bison hunts in the North American plains, 1780-1882 / George Colpitts, University of Calgary.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Colpitts, George, 1964- author.

Series:

Studies in environment and history.

Studies in environment and history

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Bison industry--Great Plains--History.

Food industry and trade--Great Plains--History.

Pemmican--History.

Fur trade--Great Plains--History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xii, 303 pages) : digital, PDF file(s).

Place of Publication:

Cambridge : Cambridge University Press, 2015.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the British territories of the North American Great Plains, food figured as a key trading commodity after 1780, when British and Canadian fur companies purchased ever-larger quantities of bison meats and fats (pemmican) from plains hunters to support their commercial expansion across the continent. Pemmican Empire traces the history of the unsustainable food-market hunt on the plains, which, once established, created distinctive trade relations between the newcomers and the native peoples. It resulted in the near annihilation of the Canadian bison herds north of the Missouri River. Drawing on fur company records and a broad range of Native American history accounts, Colpitts offers new perspectives on the market economy of the western prairie that was established during this time, one that created asymmetric power among traders and informed the bioregional history of the West where the North American bison became a food commodity hunted to nearly the last animal.

Contents:

Changing food energy regimes in the northern fur trade, 1760-1790

The pemmican bioregion, 1790-1810

Food fights and pemmican wars, 1790-1816

Selling bison flesh in the British market after 1821

Commercial war zones in the bison commons, 1835-1850

Ending the pemmican era.

Notes:

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1-316-14693-6

1-316-14720-7

1-316-15050-X

1-316-14946-3

1-107-62289-1

1-316-14972-2

1-316-14920-X

1-316-14998-6

1-107-04535-5