nativity scenes
furs and frontiers in the far north the contest among native and foreign nations for the bering strait fur trade
p this comprehensive history of the native and maritime fur trade in alaska during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries is without precedent . the bering strait formed the nexus of the circumpolar fur trade in which russians british americans and members of fifty native nations competed and cooperated . the desire to dominate the fur trade fed the european expansion into the most remote regions of asia and america and was an agent of massive change in these regions . p award winning author john r. bockstoce fills a major gap in the historiography of the area in covering the scientific commercial and foreign relations implications of the northern fur trade . in addition the book provides rare insight into the relationship between the western powers and the native americans who provided them with fur ivory and whalebone in exchange for manufactured goods tobacco tea alcohol and hundreds of other things . but this is also the story of the enterprising individuals who energized the alaskan fur trade and in doing so forever altered the regions history .