CANADA

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CANADAS FIRST NATIONS

• Some examples of their lives in the pre-European
  era

Subarctic
Atlantic Coast
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Traits

• Cedar homes and boats
• Totem poles and very characteristic art
• Reverence for the salmon and killer whale/orca
• Sedentary fishermen/fishers, hunters, gatherers.
• Potlatch-large festival/party where hosts gave
  guests gifts to show prestige

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The Plains People

• Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta
• Example nations Cree, Blackfoot, Blood, Dene
  (Canada)
• Sioux, Navajo, Cheyenne, Crow, , Lakota Sioux,
  Cherokee,Apache (U.S.A.)

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The People Hollywood made famous!

• They were a nomadic people, following the buffalo
  herds.
• The Plains people hunted small and large
  animals.  The main food they ate was the buffalo
  (bison).  They dried the buffalo meat to make
  jerky.  They also ate the liver, heart, kidneys
  and tongue.  They did the same with the elk,
  deer, antelope and pronghorn.  The other large
  animals they ate were wolf, bear and beaver.  The
  small animals that they ate were rabbits,
  gophers, prairie chickens, ducks, fish, geese and
  grouse. They used the Buffalo for tipis and
  travois carts. They were known for their horses
  (which the Spanish introduced to Americas).
• The tradition of the Sundance was a test of
  bravery and marked a passage into adulthood.
• The Medicine Bundle was a tradition that was
  sacred.
• After the 1600s, French explorers and the plains
  people intermarried and led to the Metis of today
  (mixed blood people).

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The SundanceThis sacred ceremony was and is the
spiritual core of Plains life.  The participants,
who endure three days of total fasting (without
both food and water), pray and dance for the
Creator to bestow blessings and health for their
families and communities. Under the chest skin,
pegs were inserted and tied to a central pole by
a rope. The dancer would work themselves into a
frenzy and pull violently away from the pole. The
scars left when the dancer pulled away from the
pole were signs of honour! OUCH!
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Woodlands People Ontario and QuebecNorthern
Cree, Huron, Montagnais, Algonguin, The Five
Nations of the Iroquois Confederacy(Mohawk,
Seneca, Oneida, Onondoga, Cayuga), Ojibway
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• Some semi-nomadic, some permanent farming
  settlements (Mohawk longhouses in Palisades
  villages-tall walls for protection)
• Big and small game hunters and gatherers
• Birch bark used in canoes and wigwams(homes)
• Many wars Huron vs. Iroquois
• Fur trade
• Dead elevated on platforms

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WIGWAM
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BIRCHBARK CANOE
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LONGHOUSES
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Mohawk is an Algonquin term that means "eaters of
men". In ancient times, the Mohawk sometimes
practiced cannibalism in order to obtain the
strength of their conquered enemies. Amongst
themselves, the Mohawk considered themselves the
"People of the Place of the Flint". Within the
Iroquois League, they were the "Keepers of the
Eastern Door" because they were the easternmost
member of the League.
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IM NOT A MOHAWK, fool!
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LACROSSE!
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Atlantic Coast

• N.S., N.B., PEI AND NFLD.
• Similar to the woodlands.
• Semi-nomadic. Summers by the ocean. Winters in
  the forest.
• Hunters and gatherers.
• Birch bark canoes and wigwams.
• Dream catchers, sweatlodges, SWEET GRASS
  CEREMONIES, Glooscap and basket weaving.
• Include Mikmaq, Malecite/Maliseet, Abenaki and
  the now extinct Beothuk of Newfoundland.

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Mikmaqi

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Mikmaq Creator Gloosecap
Truro at Millbrook
Parrsboro
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Inside a Malecite wood cabin
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ShanawdithitThe Last Beothuk
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A drawing by Shanawdithit of a Beothuk dancing
woman
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Sketch of a Beothuk village
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The Arctic and Subarctic

• The Central Inuit, Labrador Inuit, Northern Cree
  near Hudson Bay, Dene near Yellowknife, Ojibwa,
  Chipewyan, Naskapi, the Innu of Labrador-Quebec
• The region of the Arctic is the coldest and
  harshest region in Canada.  The temperatures
  average between minus twenty-nine and minus
  thirty-four degrees Celsius.  Due to the
  coldness, very little vegetation grows in the
  Arctic.

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Thus, the people had to adapt in very creative
waysBone sunglasses, whale and sealskin
clothing (ugh boots, parkas), whale oil lamps,
igloos, dog sleds, skin boats (kayaks and
umiaks), soap stone carvings, snow shoes
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Inukshuk Silent Messengers of the Arctic
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SOAPSTONE CARVING
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Sealskin boots
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UMIAK

• The "umiak" is a large open skin boat once widely
  used throughout the Arctic for whale hunting, or
  moving materials and groups of people.
• It is sometimes called the "women's boat". When
  people or possessions were moved, women did the
  rowing or paddling - the man sat aft and steered.
  Otherwise, men usually used kayaks.
• Capable of carrying large loads, these boats
  allowed whole families to change their dwelling
  places. Umiaks could carry so many people that
  when the Russians dominated the Aleutian sealskin
  trade, they forbade the use of them for fear that
  armed boarding parties might storm their ships.
• Animal skins (usually walrus) were stretched over
  a wooden (driftwood) frame that had to be
  skillfully constructed to provide the strength
  needed for such a large boat.
• At between 22-33 feet / 7-10 meters long and
  about 5 feet / 1.5 meters wide, umiaks could
  carry 10 to 15 people, and yet they were still
  light enough to be carried over ice or land by
  about six people.

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Sub Arctic Tattooed women
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Kayak
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A SAD NORTHERN TALE

• In the 1950s, the Canadian government became
  increasingly concerned about its sovereignty in
  the east Arctic archipelago. The United States
  and Canada jointly ran a weather station on
  Ellesmere Island, but Canadian officials wanted
  permanent residents there. The remedy to both the
  geopolitical and welfare problems was simple
  uproot the Ungava Inuit and plant them 1,200
  miles north, on Ellesmere. In The Long Exile,
  Melanie McGrath tells the story of this forced
  relocation a tale of almost unrelenting horror
  with so much moral vigor and descriptive verve
  that one quits reading only long enough to shake
  ones head in disbelief. And then, with a shiver,
  reads on.
• To succeed on Hudson Bay, the Inuit needed to
  know everything about their immediate
  surroundings the landmarks, the animals travel
  and migration routes, the location of fresh-water
  springs, berries, bird eggs and willow-worm
  cocoons to dip into seal fat for dinner.
  Describing the lands natural features with
  lyrical precision, McGrath emphasizes that the
  harsh physical realities of this place shaped not
  only how the Inuit lived but also their
  personalities, making a strong case that
  psychology is destiny. At one time, expressing
  rage, lust or ambition were considered so
  threatening to Inuit group survival that
  persistent offenders were banished. But while
  serenity and self-restraint were adaptive in the
  Inuits ancestral environment, their
  unwillingness to speak out, on Ellesmere, would
  almost kill them.

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• It was the late summer of 1953 when the Canadian
  government deposited three reluctant Inuit
  families, including a master carver named Paddy
  Aqiatusuk, on a narrow Ellesmere beach. They had
  been promised abundant game and a return ticket
  in one years time if they were unhappy. They
  were, in fact, instantly miserable.
• At 81 degrees north latitude, Ellesmere is,
  McGrath notes, the harshest terrain that humans
  have ever continuously inhabited. A high arctic
  desert, its interior is an impenetrable mass of
  frozen crags and deep fjords. The Inuit soon
  learned that marine mammals were scarce, as were
  caribou, fox and fresh water. Their clothing
  wasnt warm enough, and their sleds and harnesses
  were all wrong for the rocky terrain. The rough
  waters made hunting by kayak impossible, and the
  dry wind made their dogs lungs bleed. Sufficient
  snow for snow houses arrived late, leaving the
  settlers in flimsy canvas tents until late
  winter. There wasnt enough fuel for fires. The
  air was almost 30 degrees colder than back home,
  and the near constant wind made it feel more than
  50 degrees worse. Four months of darkness made
  hunting an almost daily terror, McGrath writes.
  Ellesmere supported a small musk ox population,
  but the police detachment, 40 miles from the
  Inuit encampment, forbade killing them. The
  starving Inuit ate bird feathers, made broth from
  boot liners. The children leaked diarrhea then
  vomit which the women in the camp fed to the dogs
  rather than have it go to waste.
• Too reticent to complain, even when to save her
  family from starvation, Aqiatusuks 6-year-old
  granddaughter was forced onto the ice to hunt in
  total darkness, the Inuit persevered. When they
  finally screwed up their courage and asked to go
  home, the police refused. It was logistically
  complicated the Inuit must cope. Government
  careers were on the line the colony had to
  succeed. Its inhabitants were the equivalent of
  national flags fluttering in the wind.

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• As the years wore on, the Inuit gradually learned
  how to survive on Ellesmere. They constructed
  huts from scrap wood, revamped their sleds and
  dog harnesses.They learned the belugas migration
  route and would eventually hunt over a range of
  6,864 square miles each year. In 1962, the
  government sent a teacher to the island, but only
  two school books one on how to run a bank, the
  other called The Roads of Texas.
• Forty years after the first families left Ungava
  for Ellesmere, the Canadian government held
  hearings to investigate the relocation program.
  At its conclusion, the Royal Commission on
  Aboriginal Peoples called the relocation one of
  the worst human rights violations in the history
  of Canada. The country was shocked by the abuse
  and arrogance of its leaders, who eventually made
  financial reparations of 10 million Canadian
  dollars to the survivors and their families. But
  the government has yet to apologize.

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CHILL OUT in your COOL bone sunglasses!
Guaranteed to stop snowblindness!
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1725
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WOODLANDS
Atlantic Coast
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• Canada's First Nations Native Civilisations