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Abstract. The Southwestern Ojibwa (Anishinaabeg) participated in the fur trade from the seventeenth century until recent times, trading animal skins and other items to obtain a variety of European goods that they valued. Many descriptions of the fur trade suggest that it consisted of fur-merchandise exchanges between European men and native men, with women playing a largely subsidiary role. In fact, trade among the Ojibwa was never exclusively a trade of furs for merchandise, nor was direct trade the only form of transaction between the Ojibwa and fur traders. Men were the major participants in trade ceremonies and were recipients of credit from traders-the means through which most furs were exchanged. Given the flexibility of Ojibwa gender roles, women sometimes participated in these trade transactions. However, the major role of women in the trade was as suppliers of food and supplies, commodities that were exchanged in barter transactions. These other commodities provided women with many opportunities to participate in the trade. Women also exerted control over the trade as marriage partners for traders. All these roles for women in the trade were reflective of Ojibwa belief that women's roles were ultimately shaped by spiritual power rather than any gender category based solely on a rigid division of labor.
In I904, Kagige Pinasi (John Pinesi), an Ojibwa (Anishinaabe)-French man living at Fort William on the north shore of Lake Superior, told the anthropologist William Jones a story about a young woman who married a beaver. With blackened face she went to fast for a long time during a vision quest. She saw a person in human form who spoke to her. He asked her to come live with him. She did and eventually agreed to marry him. She was well provided with food and clothing and soon gave birth to four children.l
She soon noticed something very odd that led her to realize for the first time that she had married a beaver. From time to time the woman's husband or children would leave with a human being who appeared outside their house. "And back home would they always return again. All sorts of things would they fetch-kettles and bowls, knives, tobacco, and all the things that are used when a beaver is eaten; such...