What is an Indian Trading Post - Crazy Crow Trading Post
What is an Indian Trading Post - Crazy Crow Trading Post

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What is an Indian Trader

Providing a Cultural Bridge Through Commerce

By Crazy Crow Trading Post ~ November 1, 2021

What is an Indian Trader

Providing a Cultural Bridge Through Commerce

By Crazy Crow Trading Post ~ November 1, 2021

Crazy Crow Trading Post – Bridging Two Worlds

Both traders and trading posts have provided a way for Native and non-native cultures to come together for hundreds of years. Initially, traders went to where the tribal peoples lived and gathered (as well as the early fur traders and mountain men). Trading posts initially were established at the various military or fur trade company forts that sprang up as America spread westward. These trading posts not only became places to buy, sell and trade, but also to gather.

The availability of European glass beads, factory woven cloth and blankets, mass produced tinware and utensils, changed Native American material culture from the start. In many, if not most cases, the preferences of the Native Americans for color and style, altered the goods produced in the factories to better suit their desires, so while the beads, ribbon, cloth, feathers, etc., may be manufactured overseas and purchased from a “trader”, these items are used to create truly Native American crafts that represented their own culture.

American Indian Craft Supplies, and Living History & Muzzleloading Supplies – Crazy Crow Trading Post

While basic self-interest and curiosity might have been the source of most initial contact, for some, like Rex Reddick, co-owner (with his wife, Ginger) of Crazy Crow Trading Post, it was not the limit of their experience. Many traders came to appreciate that various tribal cultures offered things that they did not find in their own, marrying Native Americans and adopting many of their ways.

Over four decades ago, Rex’s interest in American Indian dancing and regalia led him into the world of Native American culture. His initial efforts as a silversmith provided the beginnings of his activity as a “trader”. The growth of his small trading business from the back of his car, to become the largest in the world, brought him into contact with frontier and mountain man reenactors, whose “material culture” world shared much of that of the Native Americans. It was only natural that a growing Indian Trading Post would be an ideal place to buy beads and leather, whether for pow wow regalia or for rendezvous duds.

One thing led to another. Rex met and married a Comanche gal (Ginger) as a result of his going to pow wows as a dancer and singer. Their two daughters, Roxy and Jessica, are part of this world as well, both working in the family business, and enjoying pow wow activities. Rex has become a member of the Contemporary Longrifle Association, Honourable Company of Horners, and other groups that focus of early American frontier crafts such as rifle and powder horn making. His increasing contacts in both the pow wow, rendezvous, and living history worlds related to the material culture of both. While Crazy Crow cannot offer the physical trading post gathering place, it can, and does provide a place on the Internet that is much larger – and growing!

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Crazy Crow Trading Post Crow Calls Sale

Current Crow Calls Sale

March – April 2024

Take advantage of great deals during our March – April Crow Calls Sale! SAVE 10%-20% on popular powwow, rendezvous, historic reenactor, bead & leather crafter supplies. Don’t miss the savings on many popular items like Missouri River Deluxe Hunting Bags, Plains Hard Sole Moccasin Kits, 18th & 19th Century Footwear: Men’s & Women’s Colonial Shoes with Buckles, Riflemen’s Half Boots & Civil War Brogans, Colonial Clothing: Waistcoats, Knee Breeches, 1850s Waistcoats & Frockcoats, Pow-Wow Drums, Hand Drum Kits, Plains Style Lance & Spear Heads, Dream Catchers & Mandalas, Traditional Serapes & so much more!

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