Metal Scissor (FOUS 8664) - Public Domain image, National Parks Gallery

Metal scissors were a popular trade item at Fort Union. Just like today, tailors used them to cut fabric and thread. But it wasn’t only a tailor who used them at Fort Union. American Indian and Métis women would have acquired metal scissors because they increasingly relied on fur trade–imported fabrics to make their clothes. In fact, it is estimated that fabrics may have accounted for as much as 60 percent of goods traded for at Fort Union and other posts.