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 By 1930, the Indians of the Mackenzie Valley had been exposed to the fur
trade for over 130 years. Trapping had become a traditional activity, along
with hunting and fishing, in the annual subsistence cycle. The trading posts
were becoming settlements, as more aboriginal people built permanent
houses that they began to occupy for greater parts of the year.
At the end of the 1930s, the Depression affected the Mackenzie Valley.
Fur prices crashed. In 1938, trapping licenses were restricted to
indigenous peoples living in the NWT and white residents already holding
a license. Many posts closed and trade was centralized at the major forts,
operated mainly by natives who also trapped. Independent traders left or
turned to mining, which was overtaking the fur trade as the region's chief
industry. Low fur prices and high equipment costs following World War II
signaled the end of the traditional fur trade era in the Mackenzie Valley.
Adapted from "A Way of Life", pp 8-18, by Marianne Bromley, Department
of Renewable Resources, (RWED) Government of the Northwest Territories,
Yellowknife, NT Copyright 1986 ISBN 0-7708-7146-1
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