From source # 1:
The coureurs des bois (literally, “wood runners”) were the adventurers of New France. Their illicit trade with First Nations and English traders made them outlaws in the eyes of the colonial government.
Religious authorities condemned their traffic in alcohol, as well as their living like aboriginals. Colonial authorities used various methods to solve the problems created by the coureurs des bois. These included granting local trade monopolies to fort commanders, “congés” [trading and travelling licenses granted to merchants and voyageurs], and punishment ranging from heavy fines or confiscation of traded goods to jail.
Such measures limited the number of coureurs des bois, but did not cause their disappearance.
Eventually, the coureur des bois became a symbol of free and adventurous life. Descendants of coureurs des bois and First Nations women became a new nation, the Métis.
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From source #2:
A new and anomalous class of men gradually grew out of this trade. These were called coureurs des bois, rangers of the woods; originally men who had accompanied the Indians in their hunting expeditions, and made themselves acquainted with remote tracts and tribes; and who now became, as it were, peddlers of the wilderness. These men would set out from Montreal with canoes well stocked with goods, with arms and ammunition, and would make their way up the mazy and wandering rivers that interlace the vast forests of the Canadas, coasting the most remote lakes, and creating new wants and habitudes among the natives. Sometimes they sojourned for months among them, assimilating to their tastes and habits with the happy facility of Frenchmen, adopting in some degree the Indian dress, and not unfrequently taking to themselves Indian wives.
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You may also want to take a look at the Wikipedia article on this subject (source #3).
2006-11-09 20:53:41
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answer #1
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answered by MamaFrog 4
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Actually the work is coureurs de bois....(Not english for the yahoo q and police but only way to answer the question..... coureurs de bois translated means runners of the woods...These hearty people were made up of French Canadians and Natives or Indeginous people) They were mkixed bloods later known as Metisse or Metis...They hunted furs, canoed long distances and explored a lot of land...They were the competors of the British dominated fur trade business owned and operated by the Hudson Bay Comapny.. RThe King of England even signed a Charter ging the Hudson Bay Company exculusive rights over all rivers and lands draining into Hudson Bay on the Arctic...A lot of land and a Lot of fur...The Nor Westers therefore under Marquette and Joliette explored land for the French King Louis the 14th and had excluisive right over all the lands draining into the missippippi river system in a huge tract of land called Louisianna,,,,Now just a little state...Hence all the French Names along the Mississipppi and Interior such Pierre S.D......And all patrolled, hunted, trapped and run by the Coureurs de Bois...
2006-11-08 09:06:03
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answer #2
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answered by ray b 3
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The coureur de bois (runners of the woods) traveled far out into Ruperts land (Canada) searching for natives to commerce fursThey gave the natives steel, beads, blankets, and alcohol which makes each little thing extra suitable then the russians got here in and kicked butt >:P
2016-10-21 12:09:31
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answer #3
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answered by ? 4
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no, the term means runners of the woods. they were the fur traders and other people who traded with the natives for their fur pelts and other trade goods
2006-11-08 08:57:51
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answer #4
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answered by judy_r8 6
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