Even Sir John Franklin, an Englishman, could not buy food of them.

The policy of the company is to side with the Indians, to keep out traders and trappers.

Why?
So they can keep on cheating the poor savages out of clothing and food by trading a few trinkets and blankets, a little tobacco and rum for millions of dollars worth of furs.

Have I failed to hire man after man, Indian after Indian, not to know why I cannot get a helper?
Have I, a plainsman, come a thousand miles alone to be scared by you, or a lot of craven Indians?
Have I been dreaming of musk-oxen for forty years, to slink south now, when I begin to feel the north?
Not I." Deliberately every chief, with the sound of a hissing snake, spat in the hunter's face.

He stood immovable while they perpetrated the outrage, then calmly wiped his cheeks, and in his strange, cool voice, addressed the interpreter.
"Tell them thus they show their true qualities, to insult in council.
Tell them they are not chiefs, but dogs.