Aboriginal Cultural Groups

Pre-Contact

Aboriginal Culture Groups

• There are six main cultural groups in Canada:1) Arctic

2) Sub Arctic 3) Northwest Coast

4) Plateau 5) Plains6) Eastern Woodlands

Arctic• Early inhabitation dating back

20,000 years, may have crossed on the Bering Land Bridge.

• Long daylight hours, moderate temperatures in summer. Long, cold winters often spent in near total darkness.

• Total absence of trees, some low stubby plants and berries, mostly dry, barren areas with rocky outcrops.

Picture: http://www.historyforkids.org/learn/northamerica/after1500/history/inuit.htm

Arctic

• Inhabited by Inuit peoples (descendants of Thule culture 1000CE).

• Eskimo Aleut (Inuktitut) language group.• Organized in regional bands consisting of 500-1,000.• Marriage was nearly universal and occurred in early adulthood.• Economy based on sea-mammal hunting – particular seal.• Technology includes bone, horn, antler, ivory, stone, animal

skins, baleen for basketry.• Inuit inventions considered “technological masterpieces” given

available materials.• Significant ceremonies beginning at birth (naming, betrothal,

marriage) as well as rights of passage (demonstrations of skill such as sewing or hunting) celebrated at summer gatherings.

Arctic

Picture: ewesfn.weebly.com

Picture: ageandanniesramblings.co.uk

Picture: northwestpassage2011.blogspot.com

Picture: firstpeoplesofcanada.com

Sub Arctic

• Area is 5 million km2, ¾ of which is on the Canadian Shield.

• Extremes of temperature: -40C in winter to +30C in summer.

• Dene, Carrier and Cree peoples as well as Inland Tlingit.

• Algonquin (East) and Athapaskan (West) language groups

Picture: canadiangeographic.ca

Sub Arctic

• Most sparsely populated region of Canada, estimates as low as 60,000 across the entire region

• No formal chief system prior to European contact

• Kinship ties differed over the region

• Few material possessions due to need to follow food supply

• Myths & legends centred on animals that could take human form

Sub Arctic

Picture: ecokids.ca

Picture: firstpeoplesofcanada.com Picture: firstpeoplesofcanada.com

Northwest Coast• Continuously inhabited for 10,000+

years.

• Narrow section of coastal land stretching from Northern Washington to Northern BC and into Alaska.

• Moderate temperatures allowed for fishing & hunting all year.

• Home to Haida, Tsimshian, Nuu-chahnulth, Tlingit, and Salishan peoples.

• As many at 70 distinct nations inhabit the region.

Picture: turtleisla.org

Northwest Coast• Food was varied and abundant allowing for large,

permanent settlements.• Towering red cedars yielded rot-resistant beams and

framing for their fine homes, logs for their 22-metre-long canoes, and rain-resistant bark for clothing and blankets.

• Renowned carvers of totems, masks, bowls, and helmets, they revered shamans for their links to the spirit world.

• The potlatch, a communal ritual of feasting, storytelling, dancing, and gift-giving, was all important.

Northwest Coast

Picture: firstpeoplesofcanada.com

Picture: news.pcc.edu Picture: firstpeoplesofcanada.com

Plateau

• Arrived in the plateau country from the south some 10,000 years ago, as the glaciers retreated northwards.

• Inhabit a very small region in the Southern Interior of BC and Alberta.

• They had great diversity of dress, religious beliefs, and language

• Three main language groups: Athapaskan, Salishian and Ktunaxa.

• Fishing and foraging were mainstays of bands living in this region.

Plateau

• Most wintered in semi-underground dwellings they entered through the roof; in summer they built bulrush-covered wooden lodges.

• The Columbia and Fraser rivers were their travel and trade routes and source of fish. Other foods were berries, wild vegetables and game.

• Fashioned canoes from the area’s pine and cottonwood, and traded copper, jadeite, and herbs to the coast Indians for otter pelts, oolichan oil and decorative baskets.

Picture: wellpinit.wednet.edu

Plateau All Pictures: firstpeoplesofcanada.com

Plains• Region stretches from the

Rocky Mountains to the woodlands of Southern Manitoba in Canada, but as far south as Mississippiin the US.

• Encompasses the nomadic Blackfoot, Saulteaux, Gros Ventre, Sioux and Plains Cree.

• Athapascan, Algonquin and Siouan speakers.

• Hollywood “Indians”

Picture: en.wikipedia.org

Plains• Buffalo culture: other than water and

poles for their tipis, the buffalo met all their needs.

• Its meat was eaten at every meal. • Hooves were boiled into glue; sinew

became thread; stomachs served as pots; horns and bones were fashioned into tools and utensils; ribs became sled runners; hides made tipi covers, clothing, moccasins, and sleeping robes; buffalo hair made comfy cradle boards.

• Buffalo were hunted by herding them into enclosures or over cliffs until arrival of horses in the early 1700s.

• The Plains women played important roles in religious rituals.

Picture: britannica.com

Plains

Pictures: firstpeoplesofcanada.com

Pictures: firstpeoplesofcanada.com

Eastern Woodlands• Part of a larger region

stretching from the Maritimes along the St. Lawrence basin and to Illinois and South Carolina in the South and East.

• Two unrelated language groups – Algonquin and Iroquoian.

• Algonquian occupied land from Lake Superior to the Atlantic.

• The lived in villages south of the Great Lakes and the St. Lawrence.

Picture: uppercanadahistory.ca

Eastern Woodlands• Iroquoian speakers:

• Warring tradition. • Men hunted and fished• Women cultivated beans, maize, squash,

and tobacco.• When the soil was depleted in one place,

they moved to new sites. • Algonquian speakers:

• Lives were governed by the seasons• Hunting in fall and winter; harvesting roots

and berries in summer.• Shamanistic societies in both.

Eastern Woodlands

Pictures: colonialwilliamsburg.photoshelter.com

Pictures: firstpeoplesofcanada.com