Marauding Middlemen: Western Expansion and Violent Conflict in the Subarctic

The impact of Western expansion on the Subarctic, with western Europeans advancing from the east and Russians and Americans from the West, changed the tempo and nature of indigenous warfare by creating new and intensified opportunities for young males to compete. The developing fur trade changed the demographics, trade networks, access to the sources of new goods, and the competitive structure among all subarctic societies. Western goods, as critical material resources, have been argued as being the objects over which warfare is instigated. We argue that these goods replaced indigenous goods as high-status items and that possession of them was another means to increase status and prestige among young males. This competition for access to goods considered to be high status, and sometimes just competition for status, formed the foundation for violent conflict in the western American Subarctic.