Before the coming of Europeans, trading networks among the original inhabitants of the continent led to exchanges of material goods, cultures and languages. The evidence pointing to these trading networks is considerable. Flint from a few quarries is found throughout the continent. Copper from the Coppermine River and Lake Superior regions

is found throughout the Arctic and Hudson's Bay region; shell beads or wampum from the East Coast have been found as far west as the prairies, along with Abalone shells that have been traded inland from the West Coast. At the Heron Bay site on the North Shore of Lake Superior, goods of diverse origin indicate widespread trade. Obsidian from Wyoming, shells from Manitoba and pottery from the southeastern Great Lakes region have all been found at this site. Even after contact between Europeans and Natives on the East Coast led to trade, the Native trading networks remained intact with interior tribes purchasing European goods from coastal tribes. For example, the Cree of the Hudson's Bay region were able to trade profitably with tribes in the interior of North America by using European goods to purchase furs which they would then trade with the Hudson's Bay company for more goods.

Despite persistent speculation that the Irish priest St. Brendan might have reached North America before any other European, the earliest European/Native contact supported by written, oral and archaeological evidence occurred in about 1,000 A.D. between the Norse, or Vikings, and the Beothuks of Newfoundland. The Viking Sagas, an epic poem detailing the voyages of the Norsemen, and archeological evidence tell of a short-lived settlement on "Vinland" as the Vikings called it. This first contact was anything but friendly and the persistent and bloody fighting led the Norsemen to abandon their settlement.

The abundant fishery of Newfoundland's Grand Banks led to the initial trading contact between Natives and Europeans. During the sixteenth century, fishermen from Portugal, Spain, England and France would spend summers harvesting cod off the coast of North America during. Sometimes small, seasonal villages would be established in order to dry and salt the catch for shipment back to Europe. From these villages, small-scale trade was conducted, with the European men purchasing furs from the Natives in exchange for iron goods, beads, mirrors and other European goods desired by the Natives.

The quality and abundance of furs obtained in North America did not escape notice in Europe. The felt top hat made from beaver fur was very popular in Europe and the resultant trapping pressure had greatly reduced the numbers of European beaver. This led to interest in a large-scale North American fur trade. Both parties in the early fur trade approached the exchange as independents who were amused with the other's craving of the goods they had to offer. A Montagnais man found the English desire for beaver pelts perplexing and amusing:

The Beaver does everything perfectly well, it makes kettles, hatchets, swords, knives, bread; and in short, it makes everything...The English have no sense; they give us twenty knives like this for one Beaver skin.

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