The fur trade’s influence on North Dakota

Today, we learned a bit more about the fur trade in North Dakota. Specifically, we explored how the trading in the 1830s, including the effect of the steamboat, changed the landscape of North Dakota, both physically and culturally. Students were asked the question of how the arrival of Europeans and European-Americans changed the area that became North Dakota. Several items were brought up, including technology and disease. We discussed how the pattern used to trap beavers caused a massive disruption to their population. Smallpox and the subject of virgin soil epidemics came up again, as we saw how the spreading of the disease by traders to the Native Americans began to sew the seeds of resentment among the Mandan towards whites for bringing the disease to them.