Existing comment:
Earliest Travelers: Trade Routes Through The Gap:
When European explorers and traders arrived on North American shores, sources of trade expanded greatly. American Indians were accustomed to exchanging natural items such as pelts, feathers, plants, and minerals such as chert and salt among themselves. That changed when the newcomers arrived. They desired pelts for the lucrative fur trade in Europe and started trading goods for furs. American Indians received items they had never seen or used before, such as copper kettles, guns, knives, scissors, thimbles, mirrors, bolts of woven cloth, and liquor. |