Traders

Next to the Bent brothers and St. Vrain, the most important individuals within Bent, St. Vrain & Co. were the traders, for it was they who negotiated for the majority of the buffalo robes brought to the fort. A good trader was endowed with linguistic skills, shrewdness, and a sense of diplomacy, for the traders were also representatives and intermediaries between Bent, St. Vrain & Co. and the various Indian tribes. And as traders, having at their disposal a truly spectacular assortment of manufactured goods for the time and place – as well as the universally coveted ardent spirits – they often developed a great deal of influence with a particular tribe or band. To retain that deference or “respect,” Lewis Garrard tells us, the trader “acts with as much dignity as the circumstances permit.” Many traders in fact had Indian wives, which fostered an even stronger alliance between trader and tribe. One historian has posited that these inter-marriages linking the firm’s principals and employees to various Indian groups was a calculated policy on the part of Bent, St. Vrain & Co. that was key to their rapid rise to trade dominance in the region.

Thomas J. Farnham observed firsthand the traits of Bent, St. Vrain & Co. Indian traders in 1839, writing that they

are generally selected from among those daring individuals who have traversed the Prairie and Mountain Wilderness with goods or traps, and understand the best mode of dealing with the Indians. Their duty is to weigh sugar, coffee, powder, &c., in a Connecticut pint-cup; and measure red baize, beads, &c., and speak the several Indian languages that have a name for beaver skins, buffalo robes, and money. They are fine fellows as can any where be found.

Among the known Indian traders employed by the Bents and St. Vrain were John Smith, John Hatcher, Thomas Boggs, Tim Goodale, John Hawkins, Robert Fisher, Samuel Greenwood, Seth E. Ward, Robert Newell, William T. New, George S. Simpson, and Joseph Doyle.