As an Indigenous artist from the Pacific Northwest Coast, the Hudson Bay Blanket has always had an impact on my understandings of history. Shrouded in controversy, this iconic object was a staple of early trade with the original peoples of the lands now known as “Canada” and “British Columbia.”

Pelts and parcels of land “purchased” using mere blankets of wool and an unknown language. 

Stitched along the bottom of the blankets were points of black wool and a logo of silk.

The original Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) logo was created in 1671, consisting of two elk and a fox supporting a shield. Upon the shield is the Cross of St. George with four beavers, one in each corner of the shield. The Latin words “Pro Pelle Cutem” make up the bottom of the logo; Pro Pelle Cutem- A Skin for a Skin. Though the logo has changed and transformed over the course of time the main elements remain the same. 

One of the biggest controversies surrounding the HBC, was the use of the point blankets in spreading disease such as smallpox to Indigenous peoples, as a form of chemical warfare. The smallpox epidemic, on the Pacific Northwest coast, had such a devastating impact on the Indigenous populations, some Nations facing 80% death rate, some even higher.  

This notion of early chemical warfare remains controversial to this day, as it is supposedly “unproven” in the history written by the colonizer, yet told as truth in the words spoken by oral account. 

“Pro Pelle Cutem- A Skin for a Skin” is one piece in a series of works (in progress) looking at trade, war, disease, and a nation built on blankets, and assimilation.