Oregon Country Fur Trade and French Prairie, 1813–1848

After the Pacific Fur Company collapsed, the North West Company and later Hudson’s Bay Company dominated regional trade. Posts at Okanogan, Fort Vancouver and elsewhere connected Indigenous communities, mixed families and international commercial networks.

Retired French Canadian employees and their Indigenous wives established farms on French Prairie, where Catholic missions and emerging settler institutions helped form a permanent community.

Every Fixed Star and Hold Tight the Thread follow Marie Dorion through this transition from mobile trade to farming, family settlement and contested colonial government.