Friday, September 5, 2008

Historical Reenacting

As a reenactor, the amount of time, thought and detail one puts into their persona, the more enjoyable, and creditable, you are. The Western Fur Trade is a plethora of sterotypes and assumptions.

1. The fur trappers rarely wore beards. This is documented many times, in many trade post ledgers as the men purchasing shaving razors. Also, many of the earliest sketched drawn show no evidence of these men growing a chin full of facial hair.
This isn't to say that shaving was a priority to them; I'm sure on more than one occasion, facial hair was allowed to grow a substantial length, however, if these men planned on visiting with any of the local tribes, or trading posts, I can say for certain that they shaved clean.

2. A common rendezvous camp is full of "stuff." By which I mean a lot of useless items that mountain trappers would have not carried, and are not period.

Let us remember that these men headed into the mountains to trap beaver and other fur bearing animals. The majority of their packs were either the traps that earned their living wages, or the pelts of the animals that these said traps caught. A trapper's camp would have been very frugile and sparce. Everything they owned had to be packed and carried by their pack animals.
Possessions were utilitarian. Period. If an item did not help in the pursuit of obtaining beaver pelts, or in keeping the trapper alive, it simple was not useful, and therefore not carried.
The few exceptions were comfort items wuch as pipes, tobaccoo, coffee, books and even a musical instrument, but taken as a whole, a fur trader carried pelts or traps on his pack animals.

3. Everyone loves beadwork, quillwork, and various other decorations that denote the "Fur Trade" period. I love doing beadwork myself, however, I have had to curtail my production in order to remain accurate to the time era. It was extremely uncommon at the time for everyday clothing to be embellished with decoration.
Tribal differences in bead and quillwork are also important; anyone who spends their time researching this topic will easily be able to tell the difference between Lakota, Cheyenne, or Arapaho designs. This is something to strive for to best portray a person of this era.

Remember that items which had been decorated in such a fashion were produced by the Native people that the trappers had to have come in contact with. It takes no more time or effort to research the correct style of these items than it does the the incorrect ones. Keep in mind that we are trying to reenact history, not rewrite it.

4. On that note, there are hundreds of resources out there that describe the historically correct style to any outfit. Remeber that every article of clothing was handmade; it would behoove anyone to use the same techniques of the period in which their persona is portrayed. If time, money or ability does not allow you to use such techniques, I would ask that at least some thought is placed into individualizing your waredrobe; making it unique and personal.

5. Location becomes very important to a credible persona. While you may be portraying a French fur trader from the Great Lakes region, but live in, and attend reenactments in Nevada, if you have done your research, it will become immensily easy to convience anyone that you have stepped out of history no matter where you are.
For the most part, free trappers (who were in the vast minority), went where they felt the opportunity to obtain beaver pelts was best. This often meant trapping the waters between the Snake and Colorado rivers. This placed the trappers in immediate vicinity of the Arapaho, Shoshone, Crow, and possibly the Cheyenne (in later years).

 

If the trappers were part of the Fur Companies, they kept mostly to the main water routes and would most likely have been exposed to the Arikira, Mandan, Hidatsa, Gros Ventre, Assiniboine, Crow and Blackfeet. Bear in mind that the Canadians (or the English who traded throughout western Canada) were on very good terms with the Blackfeet and Cree. They were not the mountain man's mortal enemy as is commonly portrayed. To understand the tensions that were present between the American fur traders, or "Long Knives," and the Blackfoot, it is recommended that research is done on the Blackfoot as well as English history in the Canadian territories. There were many factors involved that are not commonly known or understood.

6. Trade in the Southern Plains would have put the trappers in contact with the Comanche, the Kiowa (both fairly hostile), the Ute and of course the Mexicans. There is almost no documentation of fur traders working thier trade in this region before the mid 1830's. At best, they may have seen the final few years of the beaver fur trade, but more than likely were around when the buffalo hide trade really took its stride (post-1840's).