The papers in this book focus on several themes: the identification of Indian motives; the degree to which Indians were discriminating consumers and creative participants; and the extent of the native dependency on the trade. It spans the period from the seventeenth century up to and including the twentieth century. In one of the key essays, Arthur J. Ray questions the theory that modern native welfare societies are of recent origin, and traces their roots to the early fur trade. Papers by Charles A. Bishop, Toby Morantz and Carol Judd focus on the North Algonquians in the eastern subarctic and earlier centuries of the trade, while two final essays by Shepard Krech, and Robert Jarvenpa and Hetty Jo Brumbach shift the focus to the North Athapascans in the western subarctic.