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Fur Trade From a New Perspective

By Beacon Staff

Neil Van Sickle never thought it would take 17 years to finish his book on the Native American fur trade, but he just kept finding new things to write.

Yet after years of digging through archives “from Churchill to Santa Fe, Quebec to Vancouver,” Van Sickle, 97, has finally completed “The Indian Way: Indians and the North American Fur Trade,” with the help of fellow historian Evelyn Rodewald. The two Flathead Valley residents finished writing and editing the historical book earlier this winter and it began rolling off the press a few weeks ago.

But in some respects, Van Sickle has been working on the book his entire life. Born and raised in North Dakota, Van Sickle was surrounded by the lore and legend of the fur trade, one of the early economic movements that pushed Europeans west across the empty frontier to trade guns and tools for animal fur.

“By the time (I was born) the fur trade was over, but the stories remained,” Van Sickle said. “I think it’s safe to say that the fur trade was the most important westward economic force in the early 19th century.”

Van Sickle graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1938 and retired from the Air Force in 1968. He then owned and operated a ranch and moved to Kalispell in 1984. After moving to Montana, he started to study the fur trade and specifically how the Native Americans had been overlooked in literature written about it. In the late 1990s, he decided to write a book.

Rodewald first met Van Sickle in 1998 and was quickly wrapped up into the legend of the fur trade. Having a master’s degree in history from Washington State University, she decided to help Van Sickle research, write and edit the book. But early on she had some questions.

“I said, ‘Do you think it’ll take 10 years?” Rodewald remembered. “And he said, ‘Oh no, I’m 83!’ Well no one expected it to take that long.”

Van Sickle and Rodewald traveled the continent stopping at universities and libraries trying to find as much information as they could about the trade and how the Europeans came to rely on Native Americans to survive. Starting in the 16th century, institutions like the Hudson Bay Company and the Northwest Company of Montreal began sending people west to trade. One of the most popular items was beaver fur, which was used for hats in Europe until the early 1800s.

“As we studied we discovered new things that we never even dreamed up and that made the fabric of the book,” Van Sickle said. “We’d always start going in one direction and, before you knew it, you were going in another direction.”

But after 17 years, the biggest surprise for the two authors may be that they finished the book. But Van Sickle said even if the ink has dried, the work isn’t done and he is even thinking of writing another book in a couple of years. But Rodewald said, for now, they can enjoy the fruits of their labor.

“It was great to see it in a published form,” she said. “I’m particularly happy for Neil who put a lot of his time and energy into it.”

“The Indian Way: Indians and the North American Fur Trade” is now available for $19.95 at Amazon.com.