2. There are 3 separate federally-recognized indigenous groups:
1. First Nations (Native American/Amerindian – US term
“Indian”
considered pejorative with use reserved for historic reference.
• Most heterogeneous
• South of tree line
• Inuit
• Most homogeneous
• Arctic
• Métis
• Most recent
• Union of Euro fur traders and Natives
* This group does not receive attention here because they were not a
recognized group before European contact.
3. • First Nations Arrived in Canada approximately 15,000 years
ago
• Beringia—Bering Strait Theory
• Other theories abound
• Hopewell Culture
• Knew ecosystems well and exploited them
• Hunters and Gatherers
• Sparsely populated—500,000 to 2 million
• Most dense on Northwest Coast and in Iroquois Nation
• Sparest in Arctic
• Diversity of culture
• Diversity of language
• Egalitarian societies with consensus the rule
9. • Similar geography
• Similar resources
• Similar economy
• Similar language
• Similar culture
• Similar religious concepts
• Similar lifestyles
• Most diverse in Pacific Northwest—first settlements
10.
11. • Majority of First Nations: nomadic hunters-
gatherers/fishermen
• Evolved over thousands of years
• Knew resources
• Exploited resources
• Technology was knowledge of land not tools
12.
13. • Original “Redskins” due to use of red ochre
• Coastal lifestyles but isolated
• Fished [sturgeon, lobster], hunted, gathered eggs
• Moved inland in winter—caribou, moose
• Summers along coast
• Birch bark canoes, snowshoes, sleds
• Homes: birch banked with dirt, central fire
• Concept of personal property problematic
• FINAL BEOTHUK—Shanawdithit in 1829
http://www.novaweather.net/main.html
18. • People of the Rising Sun
• Coastal—fish, sea mammals, seal, birds, walrus—90% of
food
• Hook, line, weirs, harpoons, traps, spearing with torch light
• Canoes, snowshoes, sleds, toboggans
• Homes like wigwams—portable on backs
• Lacrosse likely began here
• Mi’kmaq of Gaspé and Atlantic regions
• Abenaki of Québec south of St. Lawrence River [blonde]
22. • Eastern Canada, Great Lakes and North of St. Lawrence
• Most widespread linguistic group
• Nomadic seasonally
• Large band in summer with smaller groups in winter
• Trade and farm by 800 A.D.
• Slash and burn—moved every 10-50 years
• Three sisters, rice
• Land of the white pine
• Male dominance in tribe
• Wigwams—mobility
• Ojibwa, Potawatomi, Ottawa, Menominee, Sauk, Fox,
Naskapi
23. • 30,000 likely by 1600 (in 25 villages)
• 4 to 5 nations at southern end of Georgian Bay/Lake
Simcoe
• Fishing
• Furthest north for farming [135-142 frost free days]
• 7000 acres under cultivation
• Corn, beans, squash, tobacco, hemp twine
• Feast of the Dead
• Dead put in ossuary periodically
• Trade Crossroads
• Assumed the French were poor when they came to Huronia
• Huron, Tobacco, Erie and Neutral tribes
24. Denise Boiteau, et. al. Origins: A History of Canada. Markham: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, Ltd., 1989. p. 37.
28. • South of St. Lawrence—Perhaps best known First
Nations group
• Less nomadic hunters and agricultural base—3 sisters
• Corn, beans, squash
• Slash and burn
• Long houses up to 25’x200’—apartments on both sides—
communal with palisades around village
• Matriarchal society—moved with female, took mom’s
name
• Trade with Algonquin—corn and tobacco
• Limited warfare—retaliation, ritualistic
• Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca
35. • Nomadic--sparse population—1 per 10 square miles
• Basis of all life—BUFFALO [drives and jumps] supermarket on
hooves
• Food
• Shelter
• Clothing
• Fuel
• Tools
• Teepees
• Horses after mid-1500s
• Warfare—counting coup
• Sun dance—sun origin of all life
• Plains Ojibway, Crow, Plains Cree, Blackfoot, Crow, Sioux,
Blood
36. Source: Painting by Alfred Jacob Miller http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_jump
39. • Mountains, plateaus, valleys
• Desert to heavy forest
• Most diverse
• Stable, sedentary life with mobility and trade in summer
• Pit homes—circular—or teepees made of hemp at times
• Bison then later elk, deer
• Fishing and gathering
• Tattoos on face
• Crazy Dog Society—vowed never to retreat
• Salish, Kutenai, Athapaskans
Crazy Dog Society Source: http://www.nativi.altervista.org/page_15.htm
Pit House Source: http://wgssplateau.weebly.com
41. • Highest population density
• Maritime dependent—salmon, halibut, seals, clams, cod, seaweed,
kelp, urchins, whales especially on Vancouver Island
• Rainforest [cedar]—dugout canoes, plank homes, totem poles
• Gatherers—berries, plants, nuts
• Hunting—bear, deer, elk
• Complex hierarchy—chief, nobility, commoners, slaves [33%]
• Potlatch—give away feasts, social status—reciprocity of tangible
and immaterial goods, i.e. songs, dances, rituals
• 16 languages within 5 families
• Lip plugs, ear spools
• Female descent—exogamous marriage in North not in South
• Haida, Tlingit, Salish, Chinook, Nootka, Tsimshian
48. • Taiga and tundra
• Nomadic hunters (caribou, moose, bear used like buffalo)
• Some slash and burn
• Least known—few traces of small nomadic bands
• Barren land—few trees but lots of bugs
• Teepees with banked snow in winter
• Pierced nose, tattoos
• Fur trade
• Tagish, Carrier, Slave, Beaver, Dogrib, Chipewyan,
Swampy Cree, Montagnais
Photo source: www.wikipedia.com;
www.furtrapper.com
52. • Northernmost (Arctic) Indigenous Peoples —most recent
arrivals
• Strong, rugged to cope with harsh living conditions
• Main foods—meat, blubber—eaten raw
• Dog sleds—distance in sleeps not miles
• Kayaks and umiaks [larger for ocean travel]
• Snow goggles
• Igloo in winter, skin tent in summer
• No source of wood—seal oil
• Last to come in contact with Euro culture
• Impacted by World War II
54. Photo by R. Writer -– Taken atop Whistler Mountain after 2010 Winter Olympic Games
55. • All living things related—web of life
• Balance between nature and man
• Polytheistic—problematic with Europeans
• Harmony—peaceful cooperation
• Ceremonies, rituals, taboos
• All powerful spirit recognized by many tribes
• Shamans
• False Face Society--Healing powers
• Dream guessing
• Worship on personal level
• #4—directions, seasons, parts of plants, colors, etc.
56. Boiteau, Denise, et.al. Origins: A History of Canada. Markham, Ontario: Fitzhenry & Whiteside, 1989. pg 42
57. • Group as well as self
• Egalitarian division of labor
• Consensus ruled
• Communal property—problematic after European contact
• Role of humor
• Games and sports
• Hospitable
• Wars not as violent pre-contact—captives, hostages
adopted
• Marriage
• Children center of attention—not corrected
58. • Culture not possible without orderly trade alliances
• Good relationships
• Blood ties
• Value of goods and gifts but not accumulation of wealth
• Acquiring prestige more important than wealth
• Gift exchanges—social and diplomatic obligation
• Far ranging trade routes using rivers, lakes and
coastlines
• Obsidian from Pacific coast found way to eastern Canada
• Copper from Lake Superior mistaken by Cartier for copper on
Saguenay
• Chert, flint, shells, abalone, oolachon oil from Pacific
• Trade languages developed then incorporated Euro
59. • Disease—smallpox, measles, etc.
• Diet—altered dramatically
• Demoralized—alcohol
• Drawn into Euro conflicts—French v. English
• Guns—new type of weapon
• Type of genocide
60. • Assembly of First Nations
• Status v. Non status—based on status of husband
• Both Native and Canadian only in 1960s
• Treaty Rights—fishing, logging,
• Environment - resource use/management, XKL pipeline (Idle No
More)
• Land Claims back to Proclamation of 1763 - Oka in 1990/Few in BC
• Economic conditions—jobs, poverty, 33% no running water
• Urbanization—40% live off reserve
• Justice—incarceration rates high
• Health and Social Issues —TB, addiction, lack of hospitals
• Education—residential schools
• Self government—NUNAVUT in 1999
61. The Nystrom Atlas of Canada and the World. Chicago: Nystrom, 2006. pg 55
66. • The Nystrom Atlas of Canada and the World. Chicago: Nystrom, 2006.
• Boiteau, Denise, et.al. Origins: A History of Canada. Markham, ON: Fitzhenry &
Whiteside, 1989.
• Crompton, Samuel Willard, ed. Illustrated Atlas of Native American History. Edison, NJ:
Chartwell Books Inc., 1999.
• Dickason, Olive Patricia. Canada’s First Nations: A History of Founding Peoples from
Earliest Times. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1992.
• Liversey, Robert and Smith, A.G. Discovering Canada: Native Peoples. Toronto:
Stoddart, 1993.
• Marshall, Ingeborg. The Beothuk of Newfoundland: A Vanished People. St. John’s, NL:
Breakwater Books, 1989.
• Morrison, R. Bruce and Wilson, C. Roderick, ed. Native Peoples: The Canadian
Experience. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Inc., 1995.
• Morgan, Lewis Henry. League of the Iroquois. New York: Corinth Books Inc., 1962.
• Trigger, Bruce G. Natives and Newcomers: Canada’s Heroic Age Reconsidered. Montreal:
McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1985.
• http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/shawnadithit_6E.html
• http://drarchaeology.com/map/beringamigration.jpg
• http://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com/PlanYourTrip/Detail/210411