Otter Skins, Boston Ships, and China Goods

Before contact with white people, the Northwest Coast natives had traded amongst themselves and with other indigenous people farther inland, but by the end of the 1780s, when Russian coasters had penetrated the Gulf of Alaska and British merchantmen were frequenting Nootka Sound, trade had become the dominant economic activity in the area. The Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Nootka, Salish, and Chinook...