Hudson’s Bay Company employee George Simpson McTavish Jr., the son of a Scottish fur trader, brought back a pair of moccasins from Fort Churchill around 1887. The moccasins were of northern Cree or Cree-Métis production and had been adopted by European fur traders as an essential form of footwear.
Indigenous women were well-known for producing sturdy, practical, and beautifully decorated moccasins that they would trade for European goods.