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Articles

Vol. 33 (2021)

The Trade Beads of Fort Rivière Tremblante, a North West Company Post on the Upper Assiniboine, Saskatchewan

Submitted
January 16, 2025
Published
2021-01-01

Abstract

The archaeological investigation of Fort Rivière Tremblante, a North West Company post that operated from 1791 to 1798 in what is now southeastern Saskatchewan, Canada, yielded 20,119 glass beads representing 63 varieties, as well as seven wampum. While the bulk of the collection is composed of drawn seed beads, it also contains an exceptional variety of fancy wound beads. A comparison with bead assemblages recovered from other contemporary fur trade sites in western Canada reveals that both the North West Company and the Hudson’s Bay Company carried much the same bead inventory in the region around the turn of the 19th century, with slight variations to accommodate local tastes