Hudson Bay, Fur Trade: French-Indigenous Relations in New France

In this podcast episode, Greg Marchildon to Scott Berthelette about his book Heirs of an Ambivalent Empire: French-Indigenous Relations and the Rise of the Métis in the Hudson Bay Watershed. The book is based on Bethelette’s PhD dissertation which he completed at the University of Saskatchewan in 2020. He explores how relationships and family ties were involved in the relations between sovereign Indigenous nations and the French colonial government of the 17th and 18th century. His focus is on the fur trade and the relationships between the French-Canadian (Canadien) men who traded with Indigenous trappers and hunters. Scott Berthelette is an Assistant Professor in the Department of History at Queen’s University. His research focuses on the history of Indigenous Peoples with a focus on the Métis and their relations with New France and the English through Hudson’s Bay Company. He is also a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation. Image credit: Hudson Bay Exploration Western Interior map by Alexrk2 This podcast was produced by Jessica Schmidt. If you like our work, please consider supporting it: bit.ly/support_WTY. Your support contributes to the Champlain Society’s mission of opening new windows to directly explore and experience Canada’s past.