Establishment of Hudson House on the North Saskatchewan River

During the 1770s the Assiniboine increasingly focused on the bison trade, abandoning their journeys to the coast in order to stake a monopoly on the bison trade along both branches of the Saskatchewan River. The establishment of Hudson's House and the demand for bison provided the Assiniboine with a renewed influence over their European counter-parts who had previously usurped the position of middleman in the Plains fur trade.