Trappers the Primary Cause of Indian Wars. It has been the trappers who largely have given to us our notions of the American Indians of the West. For they were the first men to come into conflict with them. They were the first to dispute with them about water-holes and springs, about "rights," about "property." Is it necessary to ask what kind of a report such men would bring of any who stood in their way? Is it necessary to know much of human nature to know how these men treated the Indians? The trappers not only began the lucrative fur trade of the West, that laid the foundation for several vast American fortunes, but they also laid the foundation for a series of Indian wars that have cost the United States more lives and treasure than all the furs ever gathered on earth were worth. And not only did they take the furs from the animals they trapped. The agents of the Fur Companies (whether British or American) took them from the Indians. Read Jim Beckwourth's accounts of how he traded with the Indians, and listen to his own comments upon his actions. As Dellenbaugh vividly says: "Roughshod the trapper broke the wilderness, fathomed its secret places, traversed its trails and passes, marking them with his own blood and more vividly with that of the natives."