This archaeological excavation has helped to document the prominent roll Native American women played in the day-to-dat activities of the trading post. They traded with travelers, provided food for guests, and at times, actually ran the post.
Needles, pins, and stone tools were recovered from the floor of one of the structures. Along side these tools, beads and buttons from women's clothing and a solitary women's wedding band were found on the dirt floor of the trading post. Women living here between 1843 and 1853 labored to tan hides, manufacture and repair clothes, and grind wild seeds and newly introduced wheat. The contributions women to the economy of the trading post cannot be overlooked.
"Here are about twenty-five Indians, or rather white trapper lodges occupied by their Indian wives. They have a good supply of robes, dressed deer, elk and antelope skins, coats, pants, moccasins, and other Indian fixing, which they trade..." — Joel Palmer, 1845
Comments 0 comments