Jose:
        Nicely stated.  Except for one problem! Give me an example in the
historiography of the fur trade of Western Canada where that type of
analysis of rum, or alcohol for that matter, is handled in like manner.
        Here we have a literature which treats alcohol as a necessary
ingredient of the trade, offered to Indians in accordance with Indian
trading customs, with many apologies for its introduction into the trade.
That approach leaves us hanging in an uncomfortable situation of blaming
"Europeans" for having made "Indians" dependent on alcohol.  In the 1960s
and 70s, a considerable Canadian literature, in the scientific fields,
expanded on this theme of dependence. Many theories on the nature of
Indian dependence on alcohol were advanced but none of them approached the
subject from the perspective of historians doing research in Africa.  In
the case of Africa, many of those historians, perhaps the majority, were
Americans.  In the 1980s and 90s, they began to apply many of their
findings to an understanding of the Amerindian situation in their country.
        But do we have similar work going on in Western Canada or, for
that matter, in the rest of Canada? Apart from the considerable literature
on temperance which explores alcohol's contribution to shaping the larger
Canadian society, I don't think so.  As a result, I maintain that the time
has come for us to look into the contours of our own backyard to see how
alcohol, which contributed so much to shaping the hierarchical social
structures of Africa, the West Indies, and Colonial America, may have
contributed to shaping the place of Native peoples in our Canadian social
structure.
        I repeat! In dealing with this subject, I recognize the importance
of Africa and its historiography but, in dealing with Western Canada, the
furthest and last-conquered area of the North American frontier, the West
Indies must assume greater prominence than Africa; the rum connection
to Western Canada was the West Indies and not Africa.  That connection
is an historical fact which cannot be ignored or altered.  It must remain
the focus of my attention.