As traditional economies began to fade, more and more Aboriginal individuals and communities began to become more involved in economies focused predominantly around wage-based labor. This turned towards a wage centred living would eventually lead some groups turning away from their previous migratory lives and becoming permanently settled in both rural and in urban areas. The types of wage labor that Aboriginal people engaged in depended on the geographical region that they were located in and what natural resources were prevalent in those regions. On the northern plains of what is now Alberta and Saskatchewan, following the near extinction of the bison in 1879 and the evaporation of its associated economy, the First Nations and Métis people on the Plains, found themselves without a primary source of income in a rapidly changing landscape. Plains Métis women have always played a significant role in ensuring their family's financial well-being. During the early bi-annual hunts at a Red River settlement, women prepared the pemmican that fuelled the fur trade. When the fashion tastes and industrial demands of North America caused a rise in the demand for bison robes, it was women who prepared them for transport and market. Facing a new reality that fundamentally altered their way of life, Plains Métis women adapted old practices and adopted new ones, to ensure the financial stability of their families in the post-bison period. Many women took advantage of the various government policies to make ends meet. Métis scrip in Canada, homesteading in the United States and entering treaties in both Canada and the United States. Those that could afford to do so bought land and either farmed or ranched, while others continued to run trading posts that adapted to serve the growing immigrant population. Several women joined their husbands in the 1880s and 1890s, collecting the millions of bison bones that littered the Plains while others helped cut and haul firewood that was sold to the area's new inhabitants. Those same settlers began to build small prairie towns that came to dominate the landscape of the Southern Plains. These communities provided new opportunities for Métis women who took odd jobs at local hotels and restaurants, while other women offered various laundry and tailoring services. This wage labour often remains secondary to the traditional practices of hunting and trapping that not only serve to put food on the table, but also continue to involve women's labor. Reminiscent of the bison era, many women also maintained their seasonal movements when roots and berries were harvested and either preserved for family use or traded at one of the many local farmyards. Often overlooked, but a vital part of Plains Métis women's work, were the many objects that women made and sold to the growing settler population. Long known in the fur trade for their vibrant artwork and designs, Métis women adapted these skills and their associated networks in the post-bison economy to meet demands of a new market. These items included elaborately beaded moccasins, vests and gauntlets. They were sold at town fairs and train stations as souvenirs. Others crafted more practical everyday objects, like woven laundry baskets that filled a specific local demand. These objects were as varied as the women who crafted them: quillwork place mats and silk embroidered book covers throughout southern Manitoba and northern North Dakota and moosehide wall pockets and calendars in Saskatchewan and Montana. The women who lived along the Qu'Appelle Valley, were known for their hooked rugs and certain families along the northern Missouri River were renowned for their beautiful hide coats. These women adapted longstanding practices and adopted new ones in response to the changing economic reality on the Plains. Drawing on the artistic skills and networks developed during the fur trade era, Plains Métis women were able to adapt their unique skills in response to a blossoming souvenir niche and to fill the growing demand for wage labour. This, when combined with other traditional activities, was crucial in maintaining family financial stability in the post-bison period. New forms of subsistence, like farming, were also used as tools to assimilate those living on reserves into becoming involved in western economies, lessening and in some cases even abandoning traditional hunting and gathering practices. At the time, Native leaders knew that practicing farming and animal husbandry was one of the only possibilities to live a sustainable lifestyle. Soon after farms were established on reserves however, troubles began to mount. In 1876, Indian agents were given the task for providing farming instructions to reserves. Because agents were in charge of large swaths of geographical territory, their instructions were often inadequate, as were the tools Indigenous farmers were provided with to undertake farming practices. These issues, along with periodical droughts, meant that Aboriginal attempts at farming often did not provide sufficient yields of produce despite their early successes. When farmers did produce promising yields, settler farmers voiced their complaints to government officials. After this, restrictions were placed on Aboriginal farmers dictating the price they can sell their goods for, who they could sell their goods to and perhaps more importantly, when they could sell their goods. These regulations were to eliminate any direct competition between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal farmers. Later, those who were not involved in harvesting their own fields, would be employed as hired hands, helping non-Indigenous farmers cultivate their fields. Hired hands not only gained wages but experience from working the fields. Areas in which farming was not viable experienced distinctly different change in their economies. As we have learned in previous lessons, Canada's declining fur trade left many Aboriginal trappers without sustainable economies. Between the mid-1890s and the First World War however, Aboriginal trappers began to see an increase in the demand for furs. This was due in part of the new technology that allowed for furs to be dyed at a low cost, as well as a changing global market. With the revival of the fur trade in the 20th century, the prospect of easy profits brought a large number of new traders to the north in search of customers. This was made possible by new major improvements in northern communities, such as new transportation systems and telegraph and telephone services. Telegraph services proved to be extremely important, as the Hudson's Bay Company could no longer monopolize up-to-date market news. Between 1920 and 1930, the northern regions opened further to the expansion of the fur industry as the railway began to move northward. Steamboat services began to expand in the Mackenzie and Athabasca districts and bush pilots began offering service in the north. Innovations in new technology now meant that furs could reach the market faster than ever before. With the new technology, came the opportunity for other companies to expand their business, as was the case for the Revillon Fréres and Lamson & Hubbard. This led to new competition with the Hudson's Bay Company. Aboriginal communities and trappers welcomed the return of the fur trade and took advantage of the opportunity to buy and sell furs for cash. Aboriginal people now attained high prices for their furs and were free to buy merchandise from the merchant whose products were at the lowest cost. Competition for Native customers allowed for new items and merchandise to be introduced to the north. As the modern fur trade moved into the 1930s, the government of Canada began focusing on fur conservation policies, limiting the number of animals that could be harvested. Policies were made which would distinguish the difference between hunting for subsistence and hunting for commercial means. Later, this would become an issue in hunting rights legal cases for Aboriginal people. These regulations would have an effect on the livelihood of trappers as they impacted their means to produce an income. Some regions of Canada saw Aboriginal resource harvesters at the hands of Indian agents or Royal Canadian Mounted Police, who took the responsibility of deciding when and what Aboriginal people could hunt. Department of Indian Affairs records show that from 1920 to 1930, Native hunting and trapping incomes did not keep pace with the rising value of furs. This was due to the fact that non-Native trappers had begun to increase their share of the total harvest and by Second World War, fur ranching was one of the cheapest and most preferred method for obtaining fur. Aboriginal caught pelts were now considered to be low valued pelts. Due to the new transportation technology, the HBC no longer needed Native peoples to haul furs and goods. Once again, the fur trade declined, leaving Aboriginal peoples in a vulnerable state looking for other work opportunities. On the West Coast, bountiful and diverse marine resources provided a secure livelihood for the large population inhabiting the rivers and coastlines. Several different species of salmon were an abundant supply of nutritious food. The people of this region produced fish and shellfish for ceremony, food and trade purposes. It is not generally recognized, but following the demise of the fur trade in approximately 1870, Aboriginal people played a vital role in the wage economies of many of the new natural resource industries. Native women worked in fish plants and were a vital labour component of the British Columbia fish canning industry. Many Native men fished for commercial companies. Thus, Native people played a central role in the forming of industry in modern British Columbia's economic history. However, in the late 19th century, various fisheries regulations began to restrict Aboriginal access to marine resources by placing limits on what types of gear they could use and when harvesting could occur. Licenses were another means to block access to resources and the Division of Fisheries into food and commercial purposes, changed the way that marine resources could be produced and consumed by Native people. Decades of struggle and opposition to regulations eventually paid off when the Supreme Court of Canada provided judicial recognition for some constitutional protection for some fishing Aboriginal practices. On the West Coast, participation in wage labour, involvement with unions and resistance to excesses of capitalism were relevant experience for modern political organizing.
