The First Nations Peoples Chapter 7- The Native Peoples of Canada Social Studies 9- Class Notes

1. The First Nations PeoplesChapter 7- The Native Peoples of CanadaSocial Studies 9- Class Notes

2. Table of Contents • The First Nations Peoples • What is A Nation • Cultural Regions • Map of Cultural Regions • Activity Pages • I. Northwest Coast • Haida • Northwest Coast Internet Sites • II. Arctic • Inuit • Inuit Internet Sites • III. Plateau • Shuswap • Plateau Internet Sites • IV. Great Plains • Cree • Great Plains Web Sites • V. Eastern Woodlands • Iroquois • Eastern Woodland Internet Sites • Terms

3. The First Nations Peoples • A long time ago, North America was very different from the way it is today- there were no highways, cars, or cities; there were no schools, malls, or restaurants. • But even long, long ago, there were still communities. • A community is where a group of people live and have fun together. • People made their own homes, food, and clothing from the plants and animals they found around them, or natural resources. • These First Peoples descended, or came from cave men of Asia. • These were the first people to live in North America & South America. • That is why we call them First Nations Peoples. • These people have lived in North America for thousands of years, and there are still Indian communities today.

4. What is a Nation? A Nation is….. • People living in a specific geographic region- ie. The Plains • With a specific language-ie. Cree • With a specific way of life- ie. Hunting the Buffalo • With a specific religion-ie. Shamanism • With a specific kinship-ie. Patrilineal • With a specific government- ie. Tribal Councils

5. Cultural Regions • Often people living in the same area share some ways of life. • Such an area is called a cultural region. • People living in a place with cold weather, for example, wear heavy clothing. • Many people living in a place with rich soil farm the land. • Yet in North America, there were great differences even among the people of the same cultural region. • Think about these differences as you read about each cultural region. Cultural Regions

6. Tribes We Will Study: Northwest Coast: Haida Plateau: Shuswap Arctic: Inuit Great Plains: Cree Eastern Woodland: Iroquois Cultural Regions of North America Cultural Regions

7. Northwest Coast • The Northwest Coast Indian Culture was in what is today the British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and northern California. • Many small tribes such as the Haida and the Salish lived in this cultural area. • The tribes in this culture were much smaller than the other cultures. Northwest Coast

8. Northwest Coast:Environment, Food, and Shelter • Indians of the Northwest Coast lived between the ocean and rugged mountain ranges. • The growing season was short, and the climate was too wet for much agriculture. • There were plenty of fish, especially salmon. There were also deer and bears. • There was wood to build houses and to make tools. • If tribes could not get something by themselves, they could trade. • People traveled by water. • Northwest Coast Indians traveled in dugouts, or boats made from large, hollowed out logs. • Outside each house stood a wooden pole called a totem pole. Each totem pole was beautifully carved with shapes of people and animals. The carvings showed each family’s history and importance. Northwest Coast

9. Tribes of the Northwest Coast:Haida • Haida • Best known traders • Lived near the coast • Haida villages made of rows of long, wooded houses. • Houses were built of boards and had no windows. • The Haida built each house partly over a hole dug in the earth so that some of the rooms were underground. Such a house is called a pit house. • Several families belonging to the same clanlived in each house. A clan is a group of families related to one another. • The Haida developed a language for trading. This trading language made it easier for different peoples to talk to each other and to barter, or exchange goods. • To show off the the things they owned, the Haida and other tribes who lived along the coast held potlatches. These were special gatherings with feasting, and dancing. During a potlatch, the hosts gave away valuable gifts as a sign of their wealth. Northwest Coast

10. Tribes of the Northwest Coast: Haida • Haida • Whales were plentiful along the Northwest Coast. • The Haida built canoes to hunt the whales at sea. • Haida made wooden harpoons-long spears with sharp shell points-for whale hunting. • The Haida hunted whales in a canoe. This was very dangerous because the whale might turn and cause the canoe to tip over or break the canoe in half. • The harpooner stood in the front of the canoe. He always talked to the whale. He promised the whale that if it let itself be killed, it would be rewarded in the village with singing and dancing. After the harpooner had promised the whale these things, he raised his harpoon and threw it into the side of the whale. There was a rope tied to the end of the harpoon. All the men held on tightly. Eventually the whale would tire and stop fighting. Then it was harpooned until it died. • Every part of the whale was used. The skin and meat were eaten, the blubber , or fat, was used for oil, and the tendons were used to make rope. • The Haida kept their promise. When the whale was brought to the village there was much celebrating! Northwest Coast

11. Website of Interest:Northwest Coast • Glossary of Terms • Profiles of Northwest Coast Indians • Totem Poles of the Northwest • Totem Pole Legend • How to make a totem pole using KidPix. • Potlatches Northwest Coast

12. The Arctic • Inuit living in the arctic region are the direct descendants of a prehistoric hunting society that spread across Canada from Alaska and centered on capturing massive bowhead whales. • This culture, called Thule by archaeologists, quickly adapted to the harsh conditions found in the arctic. Not only were whales, seals, fish and caribou abundant, but also large forests were found in coastal areas. • Wood was a rare resource in remote arctic areas and needed for making tools, boat frames and numerous other articles, as well as used as fuel for cooking.

13. The Arctic • People hunted game in all seasons of the year for food and material to craft articles needed for everyday life. • They travelled in one person kayaks and larger umiaksframed with wood and covered by seal skins • Wore clothing made from the pelts of seals in summer and caribou in winter. • Lived in skin tents during mild seasons • Settled during winter either in earthen huts banked by sods with a roof supported by whale ribs and shoulder blades, or in snow houses called igloos, ingeniously shaped from blocks of hard snow.

14. The Inuit are the aboriginal inhabitants of the North American Arctic, from Bering Strait to East Greenland, a distance of over 6000 kilometers • As well as Arctic Canada, Inuit also live in northern Alaska and Greenland, and have close relatives in Russia • They are united by a common cultural heritage and a common language. Until recently, outsiders called the Inuit "Eskimo • " Now they prefer their own term, "Inuit," meaning simply "people." There are about 40,000 Inuit in Canada. The Inuit People

15. Historical Background • According to archaeological research, the origins of the Inuit lie in northwestern Alaska. These first Alaskan Inuit lived on the seacoast and tundra, where they hunted seals, walrus, whales, and caribou. They and their ancestors were the first Arctic people to become expert at hunting the larger sea mammals, such as the bowhead whale.

16. Culture • The Inuit were a nomadic culture that circulated almost exclusively north of the timberline, the de facto southern border of Inuit society • Traditional Inuit games were individual tests of strength, skill or agility. Most were designed to be used in small spaces , such as an igloo or tent, and required little or no equipment • Originally, Inuit throat singing was a form of entertainment among Inuit women while the men were away on hunting trips

17. Religious Practices • Christianity, Shamanism • The Inuit religion was very complex nature worship. Everything had a soul and was spiritually connected. The universe was at harmony with its elements and the powers of nature possessed a neutral position towards man • The Inuit didn’t have sacred buildings. The nature was sacred, and the Inuit was a child of nature; but life was not a paradise; man’s capability of doing evil represented a constant threat to harmony Shaman's Coat

18. Clothing • Warm clothing was important to the Inuit tribes. Sealskin was usually wore in the summer. In the winter caribou skin was worn. Caribou skin was light weight yet very warm • Clothing consisted of coat, trousers, stockings, shoes or boots.  In very cold weather two of each garment were worn.  The inner one had the fur against the skin, the outer one had the fur outside  • Boots are called kamiks.  They are made from sealskin because it lasts long, is warm,  and isn't hurt when it gets wet • One Inuit garment, the hooded coat called the parka, has been adopted by skiers and others who spend time in the cold. An atiqik is a Inuit parka made with goose down

19. Housing and Travel • They lived in houses made of driftwood and sod, and almost certainly spoke an early version of the Inuit language, Inuktitut • That picture shows how they moved. They could move with their house on sled • An igloo translated sometimes as snow house, is a shelter constructed from blocks of snow, generally in the form of a dome • Other Inuit people tended to use snow to insulate their houses which consisted of whalebone and hides

20. Family Life • Family ties have always been of great importance to the Inuit. Having a large family was always considered desirable. • Traditionally, women have often assumed a secondary role in Inuit society. At mealtime, an Inuit woman was required to serve her husband and any visitors before she herself was permitted to eat.

21. Language • Inuktittut, the language used by the Inuit in the eastern Arctic, had no written form until one was developed by a missionary in the 1800's • The language is written in syllabic symbols corresponding to groups of sounds

22. Map of geographic area

23. How they adapted the land in which they lived • The Inuit are the descendants of what anthropologists call the Thule culture, a nomadic people who emerged from western Alaska around 1000 and spread eastwards across the Arctic, displacing the related Dorset culture (in Inuktitut, the Tuniit). Inuit legends speak of the Tuniit as "giants", people who were taller and stronger than the Inuit, but who were easily scared off and retreated from the advancing Inuit

24. 3 images An Inuit man works on a traditional house

25. 3sources in Bibliography • http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inuit • www.mce.k12tn.net/indians/reports3/inuit.htm • www.inuit.org/ • http://www.mindfully.org/Air/US-Threatens-Inuit.jpg • http://images.google.com/images?q=inuit&ndsp=18&svnum=10&hl=ko&lr=&start=90&sa=N • upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/fr/thumb/9/9d • www.iti.gov.nt.ca

26. The People of the Plateau

27. Plateau • Peoples of the Plateau included Shuswap and the Okanagon • The climate of the Plateau or Intermountain are is very dry or arid in the summer and cold and wet or snowy in the winter. • Much of the land in the southern part is desert. • Rich fertile agricultural land surrounded rivers and lakes in the region. • Large trees lined the mountains on the windward side of the mountain ranges. • Various animals like deer, elk, salmon, and rattlesnakes lived in this region. Southwest

28. Habitat • Even though the plateau region of Canada was one of the smaller areas, it was still very diverse in terms of geography • The territory of the Plateau people also included expanses of forests, and many natural waterways (rivers and lakes). • Boreal forests, with mostly coniferous trees, dominated the landscape of the Plateau region. • Some of the largest and most important lakes in the region Okanagan Valleywere located in the.

29. Homes: • The people of the Plateau region were semi-nomadic, meaning they moved around in search of food. • They lived in one of three shelters, depending on the season: a pit house, a tipi, or a tule-mat lodge. Pit Houses • A pit house was an ideal structure for cold winter and a dry climate. • A hole was left on the roof so a notched log was placed at the top of the hole, which was a door. • Pit houses were between 6 & 8 metres across.

30. Subsistence: • Salmon were caught like spring, sockeye, humpback salmon • They hunted small animals for fur and food. They hunted coyote, fox, raccoon, porcupine, marten, weasel, beaver, marmot, hare • They gathered berries, roots and bulbs for medicine. To preserve them they dried them

31. Clothing: Men clothing: • leggings made from animal hide or grasses • shirts made from animal skins • breechcloths and moccasins Women clothing: • skirts or dresses • dresses were decorated with beadwork Winter clothing: • clothing that kept them warm • thicker animal skins and animal furs • thicker leather pants Head dresses: • represent a persons status within the community • used for ceremonies

32. Tools and Weapons • bows and arrows • root-digging stick • awl • nets • traps • weirs • spears • hooks and lines • Arrows head are made from bones • It took a women all winter to make a net • Later on, in a trade got guns from the European

33. Social Organization and Kinship • There were rankings and privileges, chiefs and nobles had the right to high ranking family names. • The chiefs and nobles also controlled access to resource sites like, the salmon chief was in charge of the fishing in the village. • Clans had people who shared a name of descent from a common ancestor, a clan had their own territory, ritual dances, and songs

34. Leadership and Responsibilities • Each village had 1 or several leaders/chiefs • Each leader had a different role like hunting, warfare, and fishing. • Men had most power in decision making • Some areas gave all the power to elders because they were consider wiser

35. Leadership and Responsibilities Men’s Responsibilities • decision making • hunting • trapping • fishing • making tools • Warfare Women’s Responsibilities • preparing food • harvesting plants (ex. berries) • caring for children and their home • make clothing

36. Religious: • The people thought that all things including living and non living things had spirits, some were bad, some where good. These spirits were everywhere. • Strong spiritual connection with nature and animals. •  Shamans were the religious leaders in the Plateau culture, they were the most important religious leaders. • They had special powers to heal sick people, control the hunting, and tell the future, they believed that shamans can do this by communicating with the spiritual world. • Myths and stories of the Plateau people: • the creator (coyote) was supposed to be responsible for bringing the salmon up the river every spring and autumn. • They were also supposed to transform people into their present form.

37. Cultural Artifacts • Rock paintings, or pictographs, were common in the southern part of British Columbia. • These paintings were usually of human or animal forms, or spiritual figures • The paint was made out of red ochre pigments mixed with animal oil or fish eggs. • Women in the Plateau region were skilled weavers. • They wove baskets, blankets, mats, and clothing using goat's wool and bark. •  Baskets were used for carrying goods, storage, and cooking. They were made out of birch bark, split roots

38. Bibliography: 1)http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_groups/fp_plateau2.html Copy right :Goldi Productions Ltd. 2007 2) Crossroads Author : Michael Cranny Copy right :1998 by Pearson Education Canada Inc., Toronto, Canada

39. Website of Interest:Plateau • Plateau Information • Plateau • Okanagon • Lillooet • Shuswap Southwest

40. Great Plains • Indians known as The Plains lived in the Great Plains. • Buffalo was the most important natural resource of the Plains Indians. • Indians of the Great Plains lived in tepees. • The Plains Indians were hunters. • Buffalo provided these Indians with their basic needs, food, clothing, and shelter. Great Plains

41. The Cree • The Cree lived in forests along the Red River, Missouri River, Lake of the Woods areas of Southern Manitoba and Ontario, and North Dakota. • The Cree were hunters of the buffalo and farmers. • The Cree did not live in the Great Plains but visited the Great Plains to hunt the buffalo. • The Cree lived in circular houses called a lodge. • While hunting in the summer, they lived in tents made of buffalo hide called a teepee or tipi • Each lodge was built over a shallow pit and covered with sod. • Several families lived in one lodge. • Sometimes as many as 60 people with their dog lived in one lodge. • In the center of the lodge was a fireplace under a hole in the roof. • The hole let smoke out from the fire. • Twice a year, the Cree left their villages and took part in the buffalo hunt. • They had to walk several days to reach the Great Plains. • The Cree hunted in a group and wore animal skin disguises. • Built a carrier called a travois. A travois was made from two tepee poles that were fastened to a harness on a dog or horse. • The Cree dried most of the buffalo meat into jerky called pemmican. • The Cree used every part of the buffalo. • Clothing, blankets, and moccasins were made from the buffalo skin. • The buffalo hair was twisted into cord. • The bones were used to make arrowheads, tools, and needles. • Buffalo horns were used to make bows. Great Plains

42. Website of Interest:Great Plains • Tepees • More on Tepees • The Mandans • Pictures of Mandan Lodges • More Lodges • Plains Indians • More on Plains Indians • Travois Great Plains

43. Eastern Woodlands • The Eastern Woodlands region covered the east coast of what is today known as the United States, west to the Mississippi River. It also included parts of southern California. • The Indians in the Eastern Woodlands lived east of the Plains. • These Indians, like the others depended on the natural resources around them for all of their basic needs. • Because these Indians lived in the forests, they were called the Eastern Woodland Indians. Eastern Woodlands

44. The Iroquois • The Iroquois were not one tribe, but a group of five tribes that lived near each other and spoke similar languages. • The five Iroquois were the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk. • The Iroquois tribes fought with each other and their neighbors, the Algonquin. In the beginning they fought over land. Then later, the Iroquois fought for revenge. • Iroquois were a matrilineal people- lived with wife’s/mother’s family • Women farmed; men hunted, fished, and played games- Lacrosse • In 1570, the five tribes formed the Iroquois league or Iroquois Confederacy. This league was formed because the Indians were tired of fighting and wanted to work together. • Each tribe made their own laws, except for matters that were important to all the tribes, like trading. • The Iroquois lived in longhouses. Longhouses were wooden framed houses with many families living together. • The Iroquois often used legends, or stories handed down over time, to explain the past. Eastern Woodlands

45. The Iroquois • The Iroquois lived in the river valleys of the Southern Appalachian Mountains and around the Great Lakes. • Iroquois were farmers and hunters. • They grew corn, beans, squash, pumpkins, sunflowers, and tobacco. • They hunted squirrel, rabbit, turkey, bear, and deer. • Iroquois families had two houses covered with earth. • Their summer house was a larger, box shaped house covered with grass or clay walls, and bark roofs. • Several families of the same clans shared the same house. • The Iroquois built villages of 300 or 400 houses clustered together. • At the center of each village was an open square with a temple built on a flat topped mound. • Each Iroquois Village had its own Chief. But the villages belonged to larger Iroquois Confederation. Eastern Woodlands

46. Website of Interest:Eastern Woodlands • Eastern Woodland Indians • Longhouses and Wigwams • Cherokees • Legends Eastern Woodlands

47. Some Vocabulary • Travois – a simple vehicle used by Plains Indians consisting of two trailing poles serving as shafts and bearing a platform or net for the load • Potlatch – a ceremonial feast of the American Indians of the northwest coast marked by the host's lavish distribution of gifts • Kiva – a Pueblo Indian ceremonial structure that is usually round and partly underground • Culture area – a region where people share a similar way of life. • Kayak – an Eskimo canoe made of a frame covered with skins except for a small opening in the center and propelled by a double-bladed paddle • Hogan – a Navajo Indian dwelling usually made of logs and mud with a door traditionally facing east • 3 sisters - corn and beans and squash • Longhouse - a long communal dwelling of some No. American Indians (as the Iroquois) • Tepee - a conical tent usually consisting of skins and used especially by American Indians of the Plains

48. The End

49. Activity Page #1 • With provided Outline Map of Canada, label the major cultural regions of First Nations Peoples of Canada. • Include 2 examples of specific tribe for cultural region. • Due next class. Cultural Regions

50. Activity Page #2 • Define the Important Terms on Review Master R-16. • Define all 30 terms. • Define each term in your own words. • 2 sentences for each term. • Due next class. Cultural Regions