{"id":44331,"date":"2022-01-31T17:17:25","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T17:17:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.crazycrow.com\/site\/?p=44331"},"modified":"2024-06-21T10:51:49","modified_gmt":"2024-06-21T10:51:49","slug":"history-of-fort-union-trading-post","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.crazycrow.com\/site\/history-of-fort-union-trading-post\/","title":{"rendered":"History of Fort Union Trading Post"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"History<\/span><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div><\/div>
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\"History<\/span><\/div>
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History of Fort Union Trading Post<\/h1>\n

The Grandest Fort on the Upper Missouri River<\/h2>\n

Photo Credit: Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site<\/a>, Public domain, via National Park Service.<\/h3>\n<\/div>

History of Fort Union
\nTrading Post<\/h1>\n

The Grandest Fort on the Upper
\nMissouri River<\/h2>\n

Photo Credit: Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site<\/a>, Public domain, via National Park Service.<\/h3>\n<\/div>
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In 1828 the Assiniboine Indians requested that John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company establish a trading post in their homeland to protect them from hostile tribes. Kenneth McKenzie thus founded Fort Union in what is now North Dakota. Strategically located near the homelands of 10 Northern Plains tribes[1], Fort Union, possibly first known as Fort Henry or Fort Floyd, was built in 1828 or 1829 by the Upper Missouri Outfit managed by Kenneth McKenzie and was capitalized by John Jacob Astor’s American Fur Company.[2] Until 1867, Fort Union was the central, and busiest, trading post on the upper Missouri, instrumental in developing the fur trade in Montana. Here Assiniboine, Crow, Cree, Ojibwe, Blackfoot, Hidatsa, Lakota, and other tribes traded buffalo robes and furs for trade goods including beads,[3] clay pipes,[4] guns, blankets, knives, cookware, cloth, and alcohol. Historic visitors to the fort included John James Audubon, Sha-c\u00f3-pay, Captain Joseph LaBarge, Kenneth McKenzie,[5] Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, George Catlin,[6] Sitting Bull, Karl Bodmer, Hugh Glass, and Jim Bridger.<\/p>\n

At first, Indians traded beaver pelts for Euro-American goods because of the popularity of beaver hats in the East and in Europe. When silk and woolen hats became more popular during the 1830s, demand for beaver pelts decreased, and the trade shifted to bison robes.[7]<\/p>\n

During the historical period, Fort Union served as a haven for many frontier people and contributed to further economic growth on the American frontier. As headquarters for the American Fur Company, it played a primary role in the growth of the fur trade and allowed fur trade entrepreneurs to exert considerable influence in forming policies that affected the Indian nations of the region. The presence of the fort near the northern border of the United States also symbolized national sovereignty in the region.[8]<\/p>\n<\/div>