[Up to 1500] Aboriginal Cultures
November 21, 2001
How to make the notes? I will try a point-form approach and see how it goes.
...
- It is generally believed that the first people arrived in North America
from Siberia about 15 - 20 thousand years ago. At that time the two continents
were joined because sea levels were lower than today. This land area is now
called Berengia (there is a museum on this topic at Whitehorse in the Yukon
Territory). Originally there was a solid ice mass to the south, but this began
to melt about 10,000 years ago and soon there was an ice-free corridor along
the east slope of the Rocky Mountains. It is thought that people moved through
this corrider, then into the area now know as the United States and eventually
further south into Central and South America. Another movement of people travelled
east and then north as the ice receded. By about 5,000 years ago the ice had
pretty well retreated to its present position, and the entire continent was
peopled.
- How should one describe these native cultures? One approach is by language,
but this has led to a system that where groups that share the same language,
but are widely disparate in terms of location and even culture are grouped
together. Another approach is to rely on basic geographic areas, even though
there were often differences among the people within an area. This latter
approach yields 6 basic areas:
- arctic
- sub-arctic
- north-east woodland
- plains
- plateau
- north-west coast.
These are not firm boundaries or groupings. Ferguson provides a map showing
11 distinct native groups, based - I think - on linguistic criteria, each
with a number of well-defined sub-cultures (eg. Cree, Blackfoot, Huron).
Now to make a few notes about each of these 6 groups.
- North-west Coast
- There are 19 distinct language groups in this area, suggesting that
this is an "old" area, perhaps eventually leading to the emigration
to other parts of the continent. However there is little factual evidence
to support (or refute) this idea. Perhaps isolation (much like the outports
of Newfoundland) give rise to different language characteristics in a
relatively short period of time.
- Depended on abundant fish and sea mammals for their food. It was the
most densely populated area of Canada before 1500. Almost half
of the native population of Canada lived in BC in 1500! [Ferguson, p.
25]
- Built houses and sea canoes, using large cedar trees.
- Developed a strong social structure
- Possessed a sense of property and ownership, almost unknown in other
Native groups
- Totem poles: family heraldic symbol
- Potlatch: gift-giving ceremony that indicated how much one could afford
to give away
I hope to complete my notes on this topic tomorrow. Today was a promising beginning.
I realize that I have only a brief snapshot of each group, but it is a start.
I think the appropriate approach is to continue with the history, and return
to this later for a second look.
November 22, 2001 8:20 am
I have copied the notes from yesterday onto this page, and now have a structure
for my notes. This page is for information related to the cultures of the First
Nations peoples in Canada up to 1500. I still need a way of distinguishing my
comments from the "content". Let's try the idea of colored backgrounds.
Green for content, yellow for comments. A box is a table with 1 row and 1 column.
Good. Now to copy my notes from above into this structure.
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November 22, 2001 8:20 am
I have copied the notes from yesterday onto this page, and now have a
structure for my notes. This page is for information related to the cultures
of the First Nations peoples in Canada up to 1500. I still need a way
of distinguishing my comments from the "content". Let's try
the idea of colored backgrounds. Green for content, yellow for comments.
A box is a table with 1 row and 1 column.
|
- It is generally believed that the first people arrived in North America
from Siberia about 15 - 20 thousand years ago. At that time the two
continents were joined because sea levels were lower than today. This
land area is now called Berengia (there is a museum on this topic at
Whitehorse in the Yukon Territory). Originally there was a solid ice
mass to the south, but this began to melt about 10,000 years ago and
soon there was an ice-free corridor along the east slope of the Rocky
Mountains. It is thought that people moved through this corrider, then
into the area now know as the United States and eventually further south
into Central and South America. Another movement of people travelled
east and then north as the ice receded. By about 5,000 years ago the
ice had pretty well retreated to its present position, and the entire
continent was peopled.
- How should one describe these native cultures? One approach is by
language, but this has led to a system that where groups that share
the same language, but are widely disparate in terms of location and
even culture are grouped together. Another approach is to rely on basic
geographic areas, even though there were often differences among the
people within an area. This latter approach yields 6 basic areas:
- arctic
- sub-arctic
- north-east woodland
- plains
- plateau
- north-west coast.
These are not firm boundaries or groupings. Ferguson provides a
map showing 11 distinct native groups, based - I think - on linguistic
criteria, each with a number of well-defined sub-cultures (eg. Cree,
Blackfoot, Huron).
Now to make a few notes about each of these 6 groups.
- North-west Coast
- There are 19 distinct language groups in this area, suggesting
that this is an "old" area, perhaps eventually leading
to the emigration to other parts of the continent. However there
is little factual evidence to support (or refute) this idea. Perhaps
isolation (much like the outports of Newfoundland) give rise to
different language characteristics in a relatively short period
of time.
- Depended on abundant fish and sea mammals for their food. It was
the most densely populated area of Canada before 1500. Almost half
of the native population of Canada lived in BC in 1500! [Ferguson,
p. 25]
- Built houses and sea canoes, using large cedar trees.
- Developed a strong social structure
- Possessed a sense of property and ownership, almost unknown in
other Native groups
- Totem poles: family heraldic symbol
- Potlatch: gift-giving ceremony that indicated how much one could
afford to give away.
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November 23, 2001 6:30 pm
I am making these notes on a full stomach (we tried a new recipe for
lima bean & rice soup, which was delicious), having completed reading
both introductory chapter on First Nations peoples just before dinner.
Here are a few notes from the Preface and first chapter of "A Short
Guide to Writing About History" by Richard Marius.
- "They did not imagine that they could think for themselves about
the facts." [p. ix]
- "History tells us how diverse human beings and their societies
can be." [p. x]
- "... our fast-food habit allows us little opportunity for the
social bonding that a leisurely, ritualistic meal helps seal."
[p. xi]
- "Historians are like most of the rest of us. They want to know
what events mean, why they were important to what came afterwards, why
we still talk about them." [p. 1]
- "We cannot know history well unless we write about it. Writing
allows us to arrange events and our thoughts." [p. 5]
- "Do we have any freedom of choice? Is history a series of important
decisions that could have gone either way?" [p. 6]
- "How we think, how we react to events in daily life, the vocabulary
we use in speaking of the past - all are legacies." [p. 7]
I am surprised how well I have anticipated many of these points.
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Now to make a few notes about each of these 6 groups.
1. North-west Coast
- There are 19 distinct language groups in this area, suggesting that
this is an "old" area, perhaps eventually leading to the emigration
to other parts of the continent. However there is little factual evidence
to support (or refute) this idea. Perhaps isolation (much like the outports
of Newfoundland) give rise to different language characteristics in
a relatively short period of time.
- Depended on abundant fish and sea mammals for their food. It was the
most densely populated area of Canada before 1500. Almost half
of the native population of Canada lived in BC in 1500! [Ferguson, p.
25]
- Built houses and sea canoes, using large cedar trees.
- Developed a strong social structure
- Possessed a sense of property and ownership, almost unknown in other
Native groups
- Totem poles: family heraldic symbol
- Potlatch: gift-giving ceremony that indicated how much one could afford
to give away.
2. The Plateau
- This is the interior of BC.
- The natives living there appear to have once been plains dwellers
who were forced further west.
- depended on salmon for much of their nutrition, thus tended to live
downstream
- semi-migratory, non-agricultural, and small in population
3. The Plains
- open grasslands: tall grass to the east, short grass to the west
- 3 linguistic families: Algonquian, Athapaskan & Siouan.
- communal buffalo hunt (50 - 100 people on foot)
- nomadic life style
- horse (early 1700's) dramatically changed their lifestyle, giving
them much more mobility
4. The Subarctic
- coniferous forest
- 2 linguistic families: Algonquian and Athapaskan
- Summer: communal encampments of several hunting bands (about 100 people)
at good fishing sites
- Winter: each band hunted for food on its own
- moose was the important food source
- very low human population density, due to the scarcity of food
5. The Arctic
- north of the tree line
- single ancestral tongue
- resemble eastern Siberians, but not Amerindians - suggesting a different
racial origin
- hunt seal, walrus, caribou (and polar bears)
6. The Northeast
- from the maritimes to the Great Lakes
- hunted deer and other game
- farmed corn, beans and squash
- 2 linquistic groups: Algonquian (migratory - hunting & fishing)
and the Iroquoian (semi-nomadic and agricultural)
- Iroquoian: 2 confederacies - the Huron and the Iroquois [5 Nations]
- Iroquoian: stockaded villages of up to 1500 inhabitants
- Iroquoian: longhouses - sometimes over 100 ft in length and holding
over 50 people
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The 6 groups are more a category based on geography, than on native culture.
However the climate and geography did have a substantial impact on the
way that people lived. Clearly life on the west coast is dramatically
different than life on the plains. It seems that we begin with the land
and then notice who lives there.
1. North-west Coast
- this is a very, very rich cultural milieu.
- the many different cultures and languages flies in the face of simple
generalizations for the people living here
- I might try composing a summary for each of the distinct cultures
(but not now!)
- I wonder what information I can find on the BC Ministry of Education
site.
2. The Plateau
- It would be interesting to find out more about the origins of this
group of people. How much is really known about where they came from?
And why?
- the relatively small population has made this group unimportant in
most Canadian histories. There are likely some interesting stories here!
- I must pay close attention to the information I have on Alexander
Mackenzie as well as David Thompson's journals. Instead of focusing
on their exploits, I shall make special note of their comments about
the natives that they meet.
3. The Plains
- why is there tall grass in the east and short grass in the west? And
how different are the two grasses?
- I haven't seen anything written on the impact of the horse on their
culture before the arrival of the Europeans. It must have caused tremendous
disruption to their culture and way of doing things, yet I am not aware
of this being mentioned.
4. The Subarctic
5. The Arctic
6. The Northeast
- the details of the Iroquoian confederacy sounds like it would be very
interesting
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| Next, I will spend a couple of hourse browsing the above web sites. |