In December 2020, the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada updated the justifications for the National Historic Site designation for Moose Factory as a fur trade post to include the third point outlined below. Similar changes were made for 42 other nationally designated fur-trade sites and events. This change reflects the revisions the MRHHA proposed for the plaque that was unveiled in 2017, which re-centred the history of the fur trade post within the larger Cree historical and cultural context. Here are the three reasons now listed for Moose Factory’s National Historic Site Designation:
1. it is the second Hudson’s Bay Company post in what is now Canada;
2. after 1821, Moose Factory became the supply point for posts inland as far as Lake Timiskaming on the Ottawa River watershed; and
3. Indigenous Peoples, their territories, and labour were foundational to the fur trade in North America. Posts were often built near existing Indigenous settlements, trading routes and/or meeting places and became important sites of economic, social and cultural exchange.
