European trade increased the people’s fortunes. Trade between Lakotas and the French began in the late seventeenth century when the people still inhabited lands in Minnesota. After the people migrated...

European trade increased the people’s fortunes. Trade between Lakotas and the French began in the late seventeenth century when the people still inhabited lands in Minnesota. After the people migrated into the plains, they obtained European goods through intermediary nations such as the Mandans, Hidatsas, and Arikaras living along the Missouri River. Then, in the early 1800s, Americans from St. Louis traded with Lakotas for animal hides and meat. Lakota soon became middlemen between American traders and other native peoples living in the plains, thereby asserting economic dominance in the region. As trade deepened, both men and women spent more time procuring and preparing animal products for market. Hunters killed many more animals than their subsistence required. Women spent more time processing buffalo meat into dried pemmican and tanning hides for trade (Klein 1980).