Indians 101: Cowlitz Indians and the fur trade (museum exhibit)

by Ojibwa for Native American Netroots

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Thursday, Apr. 24, 2025 Thursday, Apr. 24, 2025 at 7:15:23am PDT

For more than 12,000 years the Cowlitz Indians have lived in Western Washington along the Cowlitz River and other tributaries that flowed into the Columbia River. As a river people their traditional economy was based on fishing which was supplemented with the gathering of wild plants and hunting. Cowlitz canoes were used for fishing as well as for river travel.

P1520003 — Shown above is a map showing Cowlitz territory.

In his book History of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, Roy Wilson reports:

“Aboriginally, the Cowlitz had the largest land-base of all Western Washington tribes.”

The name Cowlitz means “The People Who Seek Their Medicine Spirit” and identifies them as a spirit seeking people.In their book A Guide to the Indian Tribes of the Pacific Northwest, Robert Ruby, John Brown, and Cary Collins explain the origins of the name this way:

“The name ‘Cowlitz’ is said to mean ‘capturing the medicine spirit” because the Cowlitzes visited a small prairie on the Cowlitz River, a Columbia River affluent in Washington State, to commune with the spirit world and receive ‘medicine’ power.”

The Cowlitz Indians had their first recorded contact with Europeans in 1811 when Gabriel Franchère (1786-1863) led a Pacific Fur Company fur-trading party up the Cowlitz River. At this time, beaver pelts were valuable in the European markets where they were used in making hats. The English (Hudson’s Bay Company), Canadian (North West Company), and American (Pacific Fur Company) traded metal items, guns, glass beads, tobacco, and other items to obtain beaver pelts and other furs from American Indian hunters and trappers.

The Cowlitz County Historical Museum in Kelso, Washington, includes an exhibit on the fur trade.

According to the Museum:

“Native Americans incorporated the beads, thimbles, and metals they got through trade into clothing decoration, necklaces, and bracelets. They sometimes used these new materials alongside the shells, quills, and feathers that had been used in similar ways for thousands of years.”

P1520011 — Shown above are baby moccasins decorated with glass trade beads. These were made in the mid-nineteenth century.

P1520012 — Shown above are trade items from the early 1800s.

P1520013 — Shown above is a beaded bag made in the 1880s. The use of flower designs was inspired by European patterns.

P1520014 — Shown above is the iconic Hudson’s Bay blanket. The stripes on the end, known as “points”, indicate the trading value of the blanket. A four-point blanket is a fairly expensive blanket. (These blankets are still being made and sold.)

P1520015 — Shown above are tobacco twists.

P1520016 — Shown above is a rum bottle (1845-1850). Alcohol was both an important trade item and a social lubricant used in trading sessions. The alcohol used in trade was often highly diluted and sometimes “seasoned” with other materials.

P1520018 — Shown above is a small beaded bag with metal cones from the 1840s.

P1520019 — Shown above is an example of trade beads being used along with traditional beads.

Note: These photographs were taken on October 19, 2024.