DCHP-2

chief Fur Trade, Hist. DCHP-1 (pre-1967)

• n.

  an industrious leader of a band of Indian hunters, rewarded with coat, tall hat, trousers, and flag, as symbols of headship.

  See also: captain (def. 2)  trading chief  

  • 1795  (1929)  And before night/I/clothed the following Chiefs. . . .
  • 1801  (1933)  I clothed [the corpse] with a chief's cloathing, viz^t coat, shirt, Hatt & Trowsers.
  • 1908  Her father . . . was a fur company's Chief, and, in his youth, a noted hunter. . . .