Voyageurs
Europeans mainly traded alongside the coast of North America with Native Americans. The early fur trade with Native Americans, which developed alongside the coasts of North America, was not limited to the beaver. Beavers were not particularly valued and people preferred "fancy fur" or "fur that is used with or on the pelt. The fur trade was viewed as secondary to fishing during this era.
The earliest North American fur trading did not include long distance transportation of the furs after they were obtained by trade with the First Nations; it started with trading near settlements or along the coast or waterways accessible by ship. Soon, coureurs des bois achieved business advantages by travelling deeper into the wilderness and trading there. By 1681, the King of France decided to control the traders by publishing an edict that banned fur and pelt trading in New France.
Superior, Wisconsin
For more than a century, the Hudson's Bay Company, followed by the North West Company in 1787 and later, John Jacob Astor's American Fur Company, maintained trading posts with the Anishinaabe, exchanging European tools and goods for their furs and processed leathers. Settlements developed around the trading posts. Many fur traders, the capitalized partners, married high-ranking Ojibwa women; both sides considered such marriages part of building alliances between the cultures. Fur trappers, who lived among the Ojibwa for months at a time and ranged throughout their territory, also married Ojibwa women. Their mixed-race children were called Métis by the French Canadians. Many of the men also entered the fur trade, becoming interpreters and guides as well.