Long before the advent of the white trader, inter-tribal commercial
intercourse existed. Mr. Charles Rau[8] and Sir Daniel Wilson[9] have
shown that inter-tribal trade and division of labor were common among
the mound-builders and in the stone age generally. In historic times
there is ample evidence of inter-tribal trade. Were positive evidence
lacking, Indian institutions would disclose the fact. Differences in
language were obviated by the sign language,[10] a fixed system of
communication, intelligible to all the western tribes at least. The
peace pipe,[11] or calumet, was used for settling disputes,
strengthening alliances, and speaking to strangers--a sanctity attached
to it. Wampum belts served in New England and the middle region as money
and as symbols in the ratification of treaties.[12] The Chippeways had
an institution called by a term signifying "to enter one another's
lodges,"[13] whereby a truce was made between them and the Sioux at the
winter hunting season. During these seasons of peace it was not uncommon
for a member of one tribe to adopt a member of another as his brother, a
tie which was respected even after the expiration of the truce. The
analogy of this custom to the classical "guest-friendship" needs no
comment; and the economic cause of the institution is worth remark, as
one of the means by which the rigor of primitive inter-tribal hostility
was mitigated.
But it is not necessary to depend upon indirect evidence. The earliest
travellers testify to the existence of a wide inter-tribal commerce. The
historians of De Soto's expedition mention Indian merchants who sold
salt to the inland tribes. "In 1565 and for some years previous bison
skins were brought by the Indians down the Potomac, and thence carried
along-shore in canoes to the French about the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
During two years six thousand skins were thus obtained."[14] An
Algonquin brought to Champlain at Quebec a piece of copper a foot long,
which he said came from a tributary of the Great Lakes.[15] Champlain
also reports that among the Canadian Indians village councils were held
to determine what number of men might go to trade with other tribes in
the summer.[16] Morton in 1632 describes similar inter-tribal trade in
New England, and adds that certain utensils are "but in certain parts of
the country made, where the severall trades are appropriated to the
inhabitants of those parts onely."[17] Marquette relates that the
Illinois bought firearms of the Indians who traded directly with the
French, and that they went to the south and west to carry off slaves,
which they sold at a high price to other nations.[18] It was on the
foundation, therefore, of an extensive inter-tribal trade that the white
man built up the forest commerce.[19]