Pemmican Empire
Food, Trade, and the Last Bison Hunts in the North American Plains, 1780–1882

Pemmican Empire explores the fascinating and little-known environmental history of the role of pemmican (bison fat) in the opening of the British-American West.

George Colpitts (Author)

9781107044906, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 27 October 2014

318 pages, 25 b/w illus. 7 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 2.2 cm, 0.57 kg

'Herein lies the greatest strength of Colpitts' work, and the aspect of his scholarship which may prove most influential. Pemmican is understood here not merely as a product, but as a process - the name comes from the Cree pemmican or pemigan, meaning 'he makes grease.' This draws our attention to the work involved in making pemmican, and to the work which its amazing caloric capacity facilitated. It also highlights pemmican as more than just a combination of meat and fat: it was the result of human decision-making, a tangible expression of the producer's relationships with the animals, people, and economies around them.' Scott P. Stephen, British Colombian Quarterly

In the British territories of the North American Great Plains, food figured as a key trading commodity after 1780, when British and Canadian fur companies purchased ever-larger quantities of bison meats and fats (pemmican) from plains hunters to support their commercial expansion across the continent. Pemmican Empire traces the history of the unsustainable food-market hunt on the plains, which, once established, created distinctive trade relations between the newcomers and the native peoples. It resulted in the near annihilation of the Canadian bison herds north of the Missouri River. Drawing on fur company records and a broad range of Native American history accounts, Colpitts offers new perspectives on the market economy of the western prairie that was established during this time, one that created asymmetric power among traders and informed the bioregional history of the West where the North American bison became a food commodity hunted to nearly the last animal.

Introduction
1. Changing food-energy regimes in the northern fur trade, 1760–90
2. The pemmican bioregion, 1790–1810
3. Food fights and pemmican wars, 1790–1816
4. Selling bison flesh in the British market after 1821
5. Commercial war zones in the bison commons, 1835–50
6. Ending the pemmican era
Conclusion.

Subject Areas: Food & society [JFCV], Colonialism & imperialism [HBTQ], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Modern history to 20th century: c 1700 to c 1900 [HBLL], History of the Americas [HBJK]