Before the Arrival of Europeans Native People of Canada

The Arctic Region: The Inuit

Location 24 hours darkness in winter, 24 hours sunlight in summer Long, cold winters, short brief summers Treeless, permafrost, little vegetation; food is seasonal and must move to get it

Food Inuit are hunters; they catch and eat seal, fish, whale, walrus, caribou This environment can not support many animals; Inuit must follow the animals (be nomadic) in order to get enough food to survive

Shelter In winter, the igloo was used as shelter; in summer, whale bone and skin tents The Inuit used the most commonly found substances in their environment; snow in winter and bone and skin in summer- no trees were available

Transportation In winter, dog sleds and qamituqs were used; in summer, kayaks and umiaqs were used on water; on land they walked with dogs carrying their burdens Arctic waters are frozen over in winter so dog teams can be used; in winter a sled moves easily over the snow covered land and water

The Subarctic Region: The Cree, Dene, Ojibwa, and Chipewa

Location Boreal forest, muskeg Cold, long winters, hot, buggy summers Food is seasonal, must move to get it

Food Hunter-gatherers eating fish, moose, geese (migratory birds), berries and other plants Food is not plentiful because of the harsh climate which doesn’t allow for lush vegetation; this means people must move to get enough to eat and spread themselves thinly on the land

Shelter Wigwams made of sapling poles and bark; moveable to suit nomadic lifestyle Makes use of available resources

Transportation Snowshoes in winter with dogs to carry burdens; in summer canoes Waterways were the easiest way to move through this forest and snowshoes and canoes made use of them

The West Coast Region: The Haida, Nootka, Tlingit, Kwakiutl, and Coast Salish

Location High precipitation and mild temperatures allows the growth of dense vegetation including the largest tree in Canada, the cedar Resources are plentiful in this rich environment which allowed the native people to become sedentary (stay in one place) without agriculture

Food Food is plentiful in this environment and includes plants and animals from the forest and the ocean Shellfish, salmon, seal, whales, kelp, berries and other plants The mild climate and location beside the ocean created an environment rich in food resources

Shelter Lived in communal long houses built of cedar; long house were grouped to make villages Totem poles were carved with visual stories of family histories Cedar trees are plentiful in this mild climate and grow to huge heights in this environment; the native people made extensive use of them

Transportation These native people moved along the coast using large dugout canoes; to move into the interior they used fjords and major rivers in the same canoe These canoes were dug out of the giant cedars that this climate allows to grow

The Plateau Region: The Carrier, Shushwap, Sarsi and Chilcotin

Location Mountaineous region where vegetation changes as one goes up Hot, dry summers; cold winters Valleys often have a river from snow melt in the mountains

Food Fish, elk, moose, grouse, gathered plants These people were nomadic and moved seasonally to take advantage of food sources The rich river valleys were sources of most of the food used by these people

Shelter Underground homes were used in winter; but in summer the homes were often just a roof of bark Underground homes were warmer for the cold winter of this region while the simple roofs of summer fitted the hot summer

Transportation Waterways were used in summer to move from place to place with a plateau style canoe In winter, people walked and used their dogs for burdens It is difficult to move in mountaineous terrain so it made sense to use the rivers

The Plains Region: The Blackfoot, Assiniboine and Plains Cree

Location Flat, treeless grassland with cold winters and hot, dry summers Trees found only along waterways which are not plentiful

Food Buffalo was the major source of food for these nomadic hunting people; some gathering of wild plants was done too These lush grasslands are the perfect habitat for the buffalo, a large herbivore that gathered in enormous herds

Shelter Shelter in both winter and summer was the teepee which was made of sapling poles and buffalo hides Teepee hides often had the history and stories of these people drawn on them B uffalo was by far the most common animal in these grasslands and so the native people made everything from them

Transportation Before the Spanish arrived, they walked and used the dog travois Once horses were arrived, the plains people’s culture became one based on the horse The horse is a perfect mode of transportation on the wide open plain and were very effective in the buffalo hunt; before that walking only choice

The Eastern Woodlands Region : The Huron and Iroquois Confederacies, The Ottawa, Abenaki, Beothuk, Algonquian and Migmag

Location Relatively cool winters with lots of snow, hot summers with lots of rain Forests ranging from the Boreal Forest to mixed woodlands with many rivers and lakes Good soil that can support agriculture

Food Some peoples in the region were sedentary farmers who grew the Three Sisters; beans, squash and corn; they also hunted Others were hunter-gatherers who ate deer, moose, fish, birds, berries and other plants The good soils of this region, the flatness and the relatively mild climate allowed farming

Shelter The farmers of this region lived in villages made up of longhouses in which families would live The hunter-gatherers lived in wigwams or sometimes longhouses Both groups made their homes of poles and bark It makes sense to use the most common resource in this region trees for housing material

Transportation These people used birch bark canoes in summer and tobogans, snowshoes and dogs in winter Waterways were the easiest way to move through this forested region; they were open in summer and frozen over in winter making it possible to travel on them