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The Other Side of the Ledger An Indian View of the Hudson's Bay Company
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foreign [Music]
[Music]
1670 Charles II granted the company of
Adventures trading into Hudson's Bay
otherwise known as the Hudson's Bay Company
Company
this Charter giving the company an
absolute trade Monopoly over one million
square miles of land in what is now Canada
Canada
at this time in history this vast area
called Rupert's land was exclusively
occupied by the Indian and the Eskimo [Music]
inside everybody there's a bed and
there's some good
don't let anybody's 1970
the Hudson's Bay Company is celebrating
its 300th anniversary
showing its corporate Spirit of
Brotherly Love and Good Will to all men [Music]
thousands of Canadians are here waiting
in the rain to see their own history in
the making [Music]
[Music]
here too along with the odd cabinet
minister our directors of the company
and top people of Canadian Society [Music]
[Music]
it is a royal occasion the queen has
come to add further Prestige to the moment
two Elks and two black beaver when so
ever here his health and successes
should happen to enter into his
territory of Rupert's land
and we therefore beg your midst and to
accept these two Elks and two black
beavers which we now offer to you under
the terms of their Charter [Applause]
[Applause] [Music]
[Music]
are you ready and willing to render your
suit and service
ready indeed and we tender A to your majesty
majesty
um uh two shares also come to collect
the rent and two beavers as the
expression of our loyalty our love and
this ludicrous ceremony is not to be
taken lightly it represents an
incredible bargain made between crown
and Company a bargain which we feel
resulted in the misery deprivation and
exploitation of Canada's indigenous peoples
think that a king in England could just
buy a sort of a uh sort of a few words
give a great portion of Canada to only a
and of course in this giveaway they also
included the Indians who lived in here
and the Indians had absolutely no say
like I was reading in the paper the
other day how the government is having a
really hard job trying to determine who
to allow into the country what with all
the draft Dodgers and all these people
coming into the country the government
doesn't know what to do and I can
sympathize with the government because
unfortunately we didn't know either
I can't place my things on any real
development that the Hudson Bay has done
in this country other than exploit
especially the Indian people foreign
foreign [Music]
the past 300 years the history of Canada
has been written by the white man it
tells of the heroics of the pioneer
the generosity of the trader
the benefits brought to the Indian
we have a different viewpoint [Music]
[Music]
our people in the north lived in a
region which was cold and inhospitable
we were nomadic peoples living off the
land ownership by the individual was
unknown for our people believed that the
among these people the first white men
felt immense power and superiority
he said we were Caesars there being none
to contradict us
the first White Trappers came looking
for Beaver
they brought new tools metal traps and
above all else the rifle [Music]
[Music]
after the Trappers the Traders for first
they gave the rifle
the introduction of this one weapon
revolutionized our way of life
whole hunting methods were abandoned as
our dependence on the rifle increased
throughout North America a white man was
the sole supplier of this new weapon
in Rupert's land the supplier was the
Hudson's Bay Company
because the company had a monopoly over
rifle and powder it could fix the going
rate of exchange
if we did not wish to trade we would
and be repelled could fetch a yard of flannel
flannel
or a cheap brass Kettle or four spoons
markups of 300 or 400 percent were
common and there are recorded cases of
markups of two thousand percent
as George Simpson a 19th century
governor of the company wrote
philanthropy is not the exclusive object
of our visits to these Northern regions [Music]
the company prospered successive
Governors made personal fortunes and
lived in the style of the English Gentry
by the 1850s the company had shipped out
of Rupert's land some 20 million pounds
worth of furs
by the 19th century the company had
established trading posts throughout the territory
territory
each was run by a manager are a factor
as he was then called
the position was not well paid but many
factors had ways of making extra money
at our expense and practice tolerated
and even encouraged by the Bay
short waiting was not uncommon
if the company exchanged rate for a
rifle was seven beaver pelts
factors often extracted 14. keeping the
but such inhuman actions on the part of
the company's servants were not the root
cause of the Indians misery and poverty
in the 17th century two cultures had met
head on and as a result we had lost our
independence and in so doing had lost
pride in our culture
we had no voice in our own land and in
1869 when the decision was made to sell
Rupert's land to the government of
Canada it was the company that made the
decision not us
the land that was taken by the Hudson
Bay Company was given to the provinces
and then
given to the crown you know it's sort of
a a funny kind of a deal land deal you know
know
like selling land that doesn't belong to
you the Indian became the responsibility
of the Canadian people in their Parliament
Parliament
through various treaties written in
English and never understood by the
Chiefs the government compelled one
tribe after another to sign away their
rights to the land Valley
wouldn't sign the treaty nonetheless
they give him the money that Hudson Bay
got for selling his Valley
and his excuse was there that he just
invited the Hudson Bay to stay there and
then they saw the land the valley to
the Queen of England for three hundred
thousand pounds
the original occupiers of Canada we
found ourselves pushed into the isolated
areas unwanted by the white men
apart from these reserves we received
little compensation
the first treat him mid-year Road
Road
negotiated the terms of a treaty with my
great-great-grandfather chief Pegasus
and sometimes
all they got in that treaty was a 100 pounds
pounds
of tobacco
but it would not be quite fair to say
that we never received further
compensation in fact each treaty Indian
was given three dollars a year
he also received some material Goods
a couple of balls of twine a certain
amount of ammunition purpose for
convenience sake Only Money payments are
made today
the sum of three dollars has been
adjusted accordingly and now every
treaty Indian receives from Her
Majesty's government and grand total of
now the fact is that treaty Indians live
on the reserve they get all their money
every year from the government
non-treaty Indians live off the reserve
they don't get any money I'll never
forgive my grandfather for moving off
the reserve because it must be really
nice having five bucks a year coming in regularly
regularly [Music]
[Music]
it is a pathetic handout
any pretense of real compensation has
gone now it is merely a symbolic gesture
symbolic because it is a yearly reminder
to us of who controls the money and who
in the North like here at Dipper lake in
North Saskatchewan many live by hunting
trapping and fishing
a traditional way of life with
traditional problems
a life of hard work and no luxuries
Indians don't have to stay on the reserve
reserve
legally we are free to leave the land
move into the cities and enjoy the same
opportunities as any white Canadian
but to do so we would have to abandon a
culture thousands of years old
for the dubious benefit of modern city life
life
to many of us the white man's world
seems an absurd frightening and
impersonal place
where people lose their humanity and
nature is destroyed in the name of
a government May solemnly acknowledge
our right to retain the Indian way of life
life
but so far it has only attempted to
solve our problems by integration
after all we are very small minority
group and minorities must learn to adapt
the fact that we were the original
inhabitants of Canada and the fact that
we opened up this country for the white
man his past history have no material
importance today
the Indian isn't an anachronism a social misfit
misfit
if we will not conform we must suffer
Indians are the lowest income earning
group in Canada three-quarters of the
Indian families earn less than two
thousand dollars per year
one-third of the Indians are totally
dependent on welfare
the infant mortality rate is more than
twice the national average
life expectancy 36 years is one of the
in short life for us has become worse
but what of the Hudson's Bay how does
the bay is proud possessor of a large
chain of department stores throughout
the country and has a yearly turnover
which has reached 500 million dollars
but it has not forgotten its original
trading partners
most stores carry our handicrafts [Music]
[Music]
and of course the company still deals in furs
furs
most of the wild pelts that go to make
up these coats come from the north
where the Trappers are still the Indian
the price the company pays per Pelt is
low and the average Trapper earns only
500 a year
in other words his yearly income is
equivalent to the markup on a single coat
but if the company won't pay a better
price why don't we take our first to
this is a company Trading Post in
cementawa Manitoba
one of over a hundred in Indian and
Eskimo communities scattered throughout
the North
almost invariably The Company Store is
the only store
the only place we can sell first and buy
what we need from the outside world
this virtual monopoly means that the
company can even now set the prices of
goods it sells
and the prices are high
many items cost double what they do in
why is it that the lowest income earners
in Canada have to pay the highest prices
for the goods they buy we have a
standard markup for every item we sell
the standard markup is computed on the
markup that is generally accepted for
the chain stores in the large centers
and to give you an illustration
a pound of potatoes
in Winnipeg say costing five cents will
land at Oxford House at 20 cents now
this is a terrible difference
it's all in the freight
I challenge anybody on our markups the
worst result of this policy is that the
highest freight costs tend to affect the
most needed items that thinks you buy
more that's where they put the prices on
and I think should be less you buy less
that's where they knock the prices down
the high cost of food and the low
payment for furs are not the only points
of concern
the base door is more than a place to
buy and sell for example it is usually
the local post office with not
altogether satisfactory results
my brothers and sisters get their
welfare checks through the mail and so
my brothers and sisters tell me and I
have no reason to to disbelieve what
they're saying that the Hudson Bay
manager often simply gets them to sign
their welfare check right there at the
post office and they're never allowed to
take it out and then simply will shop
for the remaining of their goods at high
prices in the store they're not even
allowed to go and shop at the co-op
store I will deny that completely and totally
totally
if we have a man that'll do that he will
not be in our organization tomorrow if
we get the mail from sudak or any other
for buyers you know
sending the price list prices
you know
and the bay manager would put it in a
garbage can and burned it
and these these were supposed to be
caving over to the Trappers
I've seen it happen
more than once
high prices and low income lead to debt
every customer's name and number is on file
file
he is almost always allowed credit but
this makes him more depend on the company
company
because of his low earning capacity it
is virtually impossible for the Indian
to pay the company back in full
Perpetual debt binds us firmly to the store
store
and having no money we have to rely on
the bay manager for further credit to
buy traps to hunt and food to eat when a
driver went to the Bay store to ask for
credit the bay manager would hardly get
him twenty five dollars buy yourself
maybe a snare wire or three traps your
25 is gone and the bay manager expects
you to go trapping for a month how can
you go driving with your with the MD
stomach in the Hudson's Bay Company has
almost complete economic control
and through this power governs the lives
of our people
but it has no Duty towards us it has no
responsibility for our welfare
this is a free country and the Hudson's
Bay is free to strike the best bargain
it can
the social problems caused are someone
else's headache our position in any of
these communities now
is simply the store keeper
we're there to provide the requirements
and the wants to the community I had the
experience recently for the first time
visiting a remote reserve and one in
which the Hudson Bay was the only company
company
but the fact was very visible
that the Indians were poverty-stricken
they were dependent and their culture
was was very much threatened that was a
reality that's where we are and it isn't
working we are purely and simply store
Keepers in these areas
it is not our authority to do anything
it is the government's responsibility
through the department of Indian Affairs
the department of Northern affairs
this is nothing to do with the Hudson's
Bay Company we are store Keepers just
the same as in the city of Winnipeg the
role of Hudson Bay Company which is
totally addressed irresponsible what is
needed for this first step of the
solution is that a Enterprise that is
more responsible more responsive to the
people needs not just the making profits
Alphonse Doreen Indian trapper
these days a large part of his income
comes from the sale of fish
he sells the fish through a local cooperative
[Music] foreign
s in North Saskatchewan
also Pelican Narrows lies in one of the
richest trapping belts in Canada
the overkill of Wildlife
encouraged in the past by the company's
desire for vast quantities of fur has
left its Mark and now there are strict
government regulations on what can be
but the Hudson's Bay has never
controlled the fishing industry
and in this area the local Cooperative
has done well for its members
under this system alfonse gets a fair
but even so it is a constant struggle in
many of the new generation are leaving
the land
is there any future for this way of life
can trapping and fishing continue to
give us even a bare living
in addition to our present problems we
are faced with a new Danger
a new threat to our existence the result
of yet another form of exploitation pollution
industry has come to the north and here
the Hudson's Bay Company has a built-in advantage
advantage
when it sold our land to the government
the company retained certain mineral
rights which it is now exploiting
industry is finishing off what the rifle began
began
the destruction of the ecological
balance by laying waste the land and
ah
now it stands to reason that since the
Indian people are living primarily on
hunting and trapping and fishing and all
this type of thing that as big business
Moves In
the game would be receding into the real
loud references and the native people
the Aboriginal will be caught between
the Hunts and Industry
and so they will be going into industry
to live the poverty life that we see
down in the south
and this is inevitable that it's going
to happen because there is not enough
jobs to be created for the Aboriginal up
in the north
Churchill Manitoba
this Township was originally a
settlement of the chippewan people
in the 1930s when free Traders were
beginning to move into the area the
Hudson's Bay moved its trading post from
here to Little Duck Lake some 80 miles Northwest
Northwest
the cheaper one people were encouraged
to follow
in 1956 the company abandoned its post
at Little Duck Lake because it was no
longer profitable to run
so the chippewans are back in Churchill
on welfare
deserted by the company in which they
had been encouraged to depend for an
early 300 years
for these people and their families the
it is tragic and Churchill where people
have been more forcefully into Churchill
to be left there
big business is not going to go in there
to help train
and give these people a better life it's
impossible for them to do it
and mid-canada development
big industrialist says that we haven't
got the time to do that that better hire
their lawyers and they'd better get the
government to look after their welfare
industry has never benefited us
it has never given us work
it has only brought destruction [Applause]
[Applause]
the queen continues on her rounds of
Duty this time it's a centennial
celebration in Manitoba [Music]
the Indian is here brought out dressed
by the way does everybody know what a
reservation is
Reserve is where the government reserves
Indians because they never know when
they may need one to pray before the
queen or some other very important
Foreigner right [Music]
[Music] now
one thousand times
it has been almost 100 years
since our forefathers signed fetus with
her majesty Queen Victoria
it is with sorrow that we note that the
promises of peace and harmony
of social advancement and equality of opportunity
opportunity
have not been realized by our people [Music]
[Music]
I am sure you will note on your visits
to Indian communities
that Indians have not in effect
profited well by the prosperity of this
great and Wealthy Nation
we are hopeful
that your Majesty's Representatives
will know
through belated recognize the inequities
of the past
and we'll take steps to redress the
treatment of the Indian people of
Manitoba there may be some people who
think that by appealing to a queen or
the great mother or whoever well
whatever you want to call her
um thinking that you might get something
out of it actually you might be getting
you'll have my best wishes for a happy
and prosperous future
as you'll take advantage of modern
material developments without losing the
best of your old traditions and culture
may God bless you all and may the days
of peace and happiness be as sure as the
the whole idea was to make the Indian
very dependent upon the Hudson Bay
Company so that they could control him
very precisely for the purpose of
collecting Furs and of course this was
done very effectively by making him
understand that he really could not make
a living in any other way but then
through the fur trade business now
surely I don't think that it is quite
fair to put all the blame for the Indian
eels at the feet of the Hudson's big
company you know when you had the
complete Monopoly the total absolute
dictatorial totalitarian control you
didn't do anything for them in education
is it not true that the Indian has been
under the jurisdiction of the federal government
government
since 1870
I mean surely for the last 100 years you
cannot blame the Hudson's Bay Company
that they're not schools for the Indians
to attend education doesn't have to be
only in the strictly formal sense there
could have been all kinds of other other
things that may have could have been
developed what about certain uh you know
occupations uh trades and crafts and so on
Rankin Inlet an Eskimo community
a Cooperative has found work for its
members outside the basic fishing
the production of crafts may not be a
solution to the eskimos economic problems
problems
but it keeps him in contact with his
Traditions giving him a sense of
identity his source of pride
for our people to survive and grow it is
essential that they retain pride in
their culture foreign
foreign [Music]
[Music] foreign
[Music]
like the Eskimo we have seen on culture
attacked and almost completely destroyed
we started with not knowing too much
about the culture some of the older
people had seen the dances and from what
I can gather one old fella told me that
the last time that he'd seen our people
dance was 65 years ago our dancing was a
forbidden by the government and the
churches in the olden days some of the
old fellows tell me
they were not allowed to do them because
the church and the government says you
don't do those things and this is why
one of the reasons why our dances died
one of your girls over here
today it's still considered by the older
people as something sacred in their own
minds the younger people it's more a
pride thing
a pride in their brown skin if you want
pride in their feelings as Indians
whether they uh
they happen to drive Cadillacs or a 52
chefs they're here you know the fact is
they're here and they they want to
express something [Music]
[Music]
you know let's let's really look at this
whole business of our culture let's look
at it from every aspect and let's start
talking about it like we're doing today
and let's try and understand it and once
we we developed an understanding
of how it operates and how it works
within our lives as individuals and
within our lives collectively then we'll
be able to develop some sort of uh
uh
movement or mobilization of our own
people we can help each other tremendously
tremendously
and I don't think that anybody else can
at this point you know I think it's
going to be up to entirely up to the
Indian people themselves it's going to
be up to the young people to get
together and say look we're the only
ones that are going to get ourselves out
of this jackpot because the white man is
ain't going to do it for us for many of
us the Hudson's Bay Company is the main
we have been conquered as natives we
have been colonized and we are still
under the control of that same company
the only way we'll ever get out of it is
through National Liberation movement
therefore I say in the 300 year under
the festivities and propaganda that's
going out that we should be radicalizing
and revolutionize our brothers and
sisters so that we will move and
mobilize to take over these stores and
the company
take them over of course it means we
will have to seize them we don't expect
the Hudson Bay Company to give them to
us that's for sure
but they are our property we paid for it
many times over and I think it's time
that we simply made it our property in a
physical sense now the reason that we
have to do this it's not necessarily
that we want to take over the
hudson-based stores they're not such
great Industries for us and won't apply
that many people but the thing is the
Hudson Bay Personnel are the key people
in decision making in our communities
which holds there's a small wide power
structure in each of our communities
the national Indian Brotherhood is a
different approach
by bringing pressure on government by
making people aware by helping Indians
achieve their rights within the
framework of the Canadian Constitution
it is slowly bringing about chains well
I'm in the national office now and I'm
just in the process of having a meeting
with Dieter because this one is charging
us yeah they're charging us but in the
final analysis we know that one of the
major obstacles to overcome is the
economic domination of the Hudson's Bay
hopefully this was the best thing that
could happen would be for the Indian
people to take over all the Hudson Bay
stores in the north and run themselves
the Hudson spay company has been with us
for more than 300 years
its progress through the centuries can
be viewed as an outstanding success story
story
from the humble beginnings it has grown
to become one of the richest Mercantile
companies in the world
we see the Hudson's Bay
as a symbol of the white man society
which places so much emphasis on the
making of money
and when we speak out against the company
company
we question the whole social political
political
an economic system
which helps it flourish
we see that while the bagu rich the
Indian remained in Desperate poverty
and many successive government many
generations of Canadians stood by and
in 1971
a special senate committee reporting on
poverty in Canada had this to say
clearly we have failed to do right by
our native peoples and their plight is a
blot on Canada's record and a cause for
shame for all Canadians
I have pity the country
a Pity the state
and the mind of a man
who thrives on hate
smaller the lies
the cheats and a flyers
of bigoted News Press
fascist Stone crier
perception annoys me
deception destroys me
the Bill of Rights Rose me your jails
they all know me
frustrated our church men
saving a soul man
Tinker the tailor
the colonial Governor the label only
Paul me
they're seeking to draw me
[Music]
silly civil servants
they Thrive off my body
their trip is with power
back bacon and Welfare
please they arrest me
material has to test me
hallucinate chokes me
movies they joke me
politicians exploit me
City Life cheats me
Hudson they fleece me [Music]
government is bumbling
revolutions rumbling
to be ruled in impunity as tradition continuity
continuity
I pity the country
I pity the states
and the mind of a man
thrives on him [Music]
[Music] foreign
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