Aboriginal Peoples Of Canada

Aboriginal People  Lived in groups called tribes, with many different ways of life and traditions.  A tribe was usually subdivided into bands or villages of a few families.  Tribes developed national identities, with distinct languages, territories, cultures, and political organizations, like any other nation.

 Some were nomadic, which means they moved from place to place while hunting and gathering food.  Others were farmers who settled down in a particular area.  The weather and the type of land where each tribe lived helped to shape their traditions and culture. Aboriginal People

 There are 52 aboriginal languages spoken in Canada!  There are many different aboriginal languages in Canada, but some of them are related to each other by a common ancestral language.  In fact, different tribes across Canada can be grouped together into 11 “language families” based on how their languages are related.  Some examples of language families include Athapaskan, Algonquian and Iroquoian.  Video = re=related re=related

Eastern Woodlands

Two main First Nations groups lived in the eastern woodlands; the Iroquois, who were farmers, and the Algonquians, who were hunters.

The Algonquian  The woodlands were home to deer, bear, moose, caribou, fish and even seals and whales on the coast. The Algonquian tribes had developed great skills and tools to hunt them.  They also gathered food that grew wild, like wild rice and berries. You can imagine why they needed to move around a lot more than the Iroquois! They usually built smaller homes that could be taken down easily, like tipis and wigwams.

The Iroquois  The Iroquois used the rich soil where they lived to grow corn, tobacco, squash and beans.  Corn, beans and squash were called the Three Sisters, as they were grown together  They lived in towns of up to 2500 people and shared large “longhouses” made from elm or cedar trees.

Longhouses

Plains Tribes

 The Blackfoot, the Plains Cree and the Sioux were among the largest groups  At one time, 60 million bison roamed the plains region! They thrived in the extreme weather of the Canadian prairies and were the single most important animal to the tribes living there  The culture of these peoples had everything to do with the bison. They were used for food, tipis, clothing, containers and tools. Their traditions were also closely tied to these animals and to their natural surroundings.  Later on, horses became very important to their culture when Europeans brought them to North America. Before horses, they walked on foot or used dogs to pull their packs.

Shelter Most tribes moved around a lot to hunt buffalo and gather plants for food. The most common home was a tipi, built with long poles that were tied together at the top and covered by buffalo hides. Often they had to travel great distances to find tall straight trees that would make good tipi poles, so they brought them along whenever they moved camp.

Plateau Tribes

 The Interior Salish, Kootenay, and Athapaskan  Depended on two very important rivers, the Fraser and the Thomson. These rivers were full of salmon which they ate and traded  Deer, caribou, elk, and mountain sheep living nearby were important for food too. The tribes also used the rivers for traveling by canoe and for transporting goods to trade with other groups.  Since there were many trees on the land around the rivers, many tribes made log huts covered with bark for shelter..

Shelter  Many of the Plateau tribes lived in log huts covered with bark or grass. In the winter, some lived in “pit houses.  These houses were holes dug into the ground, with a cone- shaped roof held up by wooden poles, and covered with branches and dirt. They used a ladder to enter and leave through an opening at the top.

Northwest Coast

 The Haida, Tlingit and the other groups from that area.  There was plenty of food everywhere, from deer and bear to ducks, seals and fish, not to mention all kinds of fruits and edible plants.  Their way of life revolved around their natural surroundings; the towering cedar trees were used to make boats, totem poles, houses, fish nets, baskets and clothing, which meant that most tribes were skilled at carpentry, spinning and weaving.  And since different foods were found in specific areas during certain times of the year, tribes would often move from their winter villages to other sites throughout the seasons, then back again to their home base.

Northwest Coast  The community was divided into two groups – nobles and commoners.  A person was born into one group or the other.  The nobles had more rights; for example, they had the right to fish in the best locations.  Within each group, the members were ranked in order of importance.  The chief ranking nobleman was the chief

Subarctic

 The Gwich’in up in the Yukon, the Dene in the northwest, The Cree and Ojibwa in the East  Even though there were a wide variety of tribes in this region, there weren’t that many people altogether living there.  That’s partly because the weather is extreme and harsh and partly because many of the larger animals for hunting would migrate south during the winter.

Subarctic  Many bands would live by following the herds wherever they went, so they were always moving from place to place.  Since life was harder in this part of Canada, different bands worked together a lot to help each other survive. People would form groups to do certain tasks, like trapping, gathering berries and fishing. They would also trade food and medicine.

Arctic

The Arctic Inuit  It’s not surprising that the Inuit culture is quite different from other groups, when you consider the cold, harsh environment of the Arctic.  There are no trees, lots of deep snow and thick ice, and unique animals, such as seals, walrus, whales and caribou  To get around on the snow and ice, hunt and stay warm, the Inuit people developed a very unique way of life. They created different kinds of hunting gear, like harpoons; they had dog sleds and kayaks to get around; and built temporary igloos for shelter when on hunting expeditions.

Property Ownership  Aboriginal people did not belief that they owned the land, but rather were entrusted to preserve the land for future generations.  When the Europeans arrived, they considered North America as new lands and claimed them as their own territories and the resources located on them.  As Europeans expanded, the Aboriginal nations began to claim title (a legitimate claim to land)to the lands they traditionally occupied.  Violence and wars often broke out between Aboriginals and Europeans, which led to treaties.

Self-Government  The Indian Act of 1876 stated that decisions affecting Aboriginal peoples in Canada were made by the federal government.  In the 1980s, a major goal of Aboriginal communities was the right for them to be able to govern matters affecting their culture, languages, traditions, and institutions.