Relations between the Blackfoot-speaking peoples and fur trade companies

The five Blackfoot shirts in the Pitt Rivers Museum collections were acquired by Sir George Simpson, Governor of the Hudson's Bay Company, and his secretary Edward Hopkins in 1841. Simpson was on a tour of the Company's western posts that year, and spent a few days at Fort Edmonton in late July. During this visit, many Blackfoot-speaking people came to the post, both to trade and to see the Governor. In trying to understand the context in which the shirts were acquired by HBC senior officers, we will look here at the nature of relationships between Niitsitapi and the trading companies in the years from 1830 to 1840. We have used Niitsitapi in this short introduction to refer collectively to all the Blackfoot-speaking peoples or to those people who were from one of the three groups (Piikani, Kainai and Siksika), but who are not clearly identified in the historical record.