Hudson's Bay Company's role in colonization leaves some Indigenous people conflicted about its troubles

With the Hudson's Bay Company filing for creditor protection, some Indigenous people are reflecting on their relationship with the company whose history is tied to colonization in Canada. 

Fashion designer Stephanie Eagletail, from Tsuut'ina First Nation in southern Alberta, said she disliked the Hudson's Bay Company because of that.

But after finding her grandfather's collection of capotes — jackets made with wool blankets — she started to incorporate the company's iconic point blankets into her designs. 

"I always asked him, "why do you wear a Hudson's Bay coat, after everything they've put our people through?" said Eagletail.

"He said, 'to show them that we're still here, that we survived … a genocide.'" 

Point blankets were an important trade item in the early years of the company. They were seen as a form of currency, and were often used to construct jackets, also known as capotes. 

Stories exist within Indigenous communities that smallpox was spread by blankets from the company, but that has never been proven by historians. 

Amelia Fay, curator of the HBC Museum Collection at the Manitoba Museum in Winnipeg, says the mere fact the company's trading posts brought European fur traders in contact with Indigenous communities was enough to spread smallpox. 

"Encounters with Europeans did spread smallpox, so it wasn't necessarily through the blankets," said Fay. 

Eagletail said when she makes her clothing using material from the wool blankets, she gets a kick out of cutting up the blanket and using them to make something that speaks to her culture and her family history. 

"For me, it's a form of decolonization and reclaiming my identity, like my late grandfather had mentioned, showing that we're still here today." 

In 2022, the Bay and the Chanie Wenjack Foundation launched the Blanket Fund, through which proceeds from the sale of the point blankets went to fund Indigenous cultural, artistic, and educational activities.

Going forward, Eagletail hopes that the Blanket Fund can continue. 

The Hudson Bay company formed in 1670 — the oldest corporation in Canada — and played an important role in some of the major expansion events in Western Canada, including the Red River Resistance, and the selling of Rupert's Land, Fay said.

Over its 355-year history, Fay said, the company has "weathered many storms," including recessions and pandemics but this storm feels different to her. 

"As a Canadian consumer… I've gone into the store, I've seen the decline," she said. 

Money owned to Indigenous office supplier 

With the company owing nearly $1-billion, one Indigenous supplier is worried it won't see money owed. 

Jason Thompson, owner and CEO of Superior Supplies Inc. in Thunder Bay, Ont., said he had an $80,000 contract for printer paper with HBC in September 2023. Superior Supplies was supposed to receive payment in 90 days. 

"As we were approaching the 90 day mark … that's when the ghosting and the lack of communication really started," said Thompson, who is from the Red River Indian Band. 

He said he was told that he'd receive payment by April 2024, but nearly a year later, his company has not received it. 

"My ultimate worry [is] we're never going to see a dime of this money," said Thompson.  

An Ontario judge gave HBC an extension of a week to undergo a full liquidation, or to be able to keep some stores afloat while it restructures the company.