In many cases, the first Europeans that Indians encountered were 
fur trappers. From the sixteenth century onward, the fur trade had 
made for mutually advantageous relationships. Indians would get 
tools, and guns in exchange for pelts, and often information about 
farming and hunting. After  the Lewis and Clark Expedition, which 
was organized in large part to explore trading possibilities,  the 
trapping industry expanded rapidly in the western territories as 
well. In 1808, John Jacob Astor founded the American Fur Company, 
which opened up trade from the Great Lakes to the Rocky Mountains, 
and subsequently to the Pacific Northwest. Pictured in this Currier 
and Ives print are trappers and Indians around a campfire.