1. Eastern Woodland Natives

3. Where do they live? All of North America view Just Ontario And some USA view The people of the Eastern Woodlands are classified into two main groups, the Iroquois (Eastern Woodlands farmers) and the Algonquians (Eastern Woodlands hunters). This division is based on their languages and their main source of food. Our study will focus mainly on the Eastern Woodland farmers since this is the region where we live today. There are many similarities between the two, yet many differences as well. Like the Plains Natives, a large percentage of this Native region is in the United States. Of course, hundreds of years ago, there was no Canada or USA so no barrier divided the region.

4. Who lives in the area? Tobacco plants Cured tobacco leaf Even among the farming Natives, there were many different groups all having great similarities but many differences as well. Huron - Even though they were called the Huron, The Huron actually had a different name for themselves. They called themselves the Wyandot or the Wendat. However, when the French arrived in Canada, they couldn’t distinguish the different sounds, so they named the nation the Huron, derived from French word Hure meaning ‘rough’ or ‘uncultured’. Neutrals - Samuel de Champlain called these Natives Neutrals because they were peaceful and didn’t fight other Natives. Today, we use their name for not being on one side or the other; you are in the middle…Neutral. Petun – Tobacco – This Native group called themselves Petun, yet they were called Tobacco by the French because they traded Tobacco with the French.

5. Iroquois Nation In 1450, a great Native leader named Hiawatha was born. Hiawatha was raised during a time when lots of smaller Native tribes in the Eastern Woodland Native area were constantly fighting for control of a fairly small area of land. Each tribe was so small that none of them could gain complete control. As Hiawatha became an adult, he became the leader of his tribe called the Mohawks. He became tired of the constant fighting. His dream was to stop all of the Native fighting and to unite the tribes into one peaceful nation. His dream became a reality as five Natives groups joined to form one united group. They would be called the Iroquois. The word Iroquois was a name for the union of five fairly small Native groups who banned together to form one group.

6. The five groups that joined together to form the Iroquois Nation were the Seneca, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga, and the Mohawk. Together, the Iroquois were about the same population as the Neutral Natives yet less than half the population of the Huron. They maintained some individuality, yet they were usually known as one group called the Iroquois. Iroquois was the common language that they all spoke, so that common point became their name.

7. The Environment Deciduous trees like maples, poplars, birches, elms, and oaks grew along side coniferous trees like pines, the spruces and the firs. Especially important to the Natives were the sugar maples, from which they got syrup; The early French settlers learned to tap the tree and make maple syrup from watching the Natives. Elm tree bark was used to cover their houses and canoes, or to make pails. In the meadows, berry bushes, like blueberries, strawberries and raspberries grew in abundance. There were squirrels, bears, rabbits, moose and deer. Fresh water was in abundance with lakes, rivers and streams. These waters were full of many varieties of fish that the Natives caught and ate. Because their environment was so productive, they decided to stay put and become farmers. In fact they were the only Canadian native people to live mostly by farming.

8. The Longhouse Longhouses were homes for extended families, grouped by matriarchal lines (relatives of the female, like the mother, grandmother, aunt etc.). After marriage, each female brought her husband to live with her in her family’s longhouse. As she had children, her daughters grew up knowing that they would always live in their parent’s longhouse with their husbands and families. Her sons would grow up knowing that they would get married and live in their wives’ longhouses. The eldest women in the longhouse were the masters of the longhouse. They made the rules and everyone followed them.

9. The Longhouse A longhouse is just what it sounds like, a long house built of thin bendable wood, with branches woven in and out of the support poles. On the outside, people used slabs of bark to make a waterproof covering. The Iroquois built their houses out of wood because the area where they lived was heavily forested, but it didn't have very good building stone or clay for bricks. So wood was the most appropriate choice for the Iroquois. Many families lived together in one longhouse. Each was assigned their own section. Fireplaces and fire pits ran down the middle of the longhouse for heat and for people to share as a place to cook food.

10. Making a longhouse You can imagine something that big took a lot of work to build. And it did. It took work and teamwork. First, they made a frame out of long poles of wood. Then, they tied young cut trees to the frame, trees young enough to bend and shape. Once they had the shape of the longhouse in place, they covered the house with bark. The bark allowed water to run off as well as adding insulation. They added a few smoke holes and two doors - one at each end. The top was round so water and snow would run off. The Natives rigged a flap on the smoke holes. When it snowed or rained, the holes could be opened and closed as needed. When finished, a longhouse looked a lot like an upside down basket!

11. Inside the longhouse Longhouses were not measured by distances, like feet or meters. Instead, they were measured by camp fires. A longhouse might be referred to as 10 fires long, or perhaps even 12 fires long. It doesn't sound like much when you count by fires. But longhouses were really long - they could be over 200 feet long, 25 feet wide, and 25 feet high. That's huge!

12. Inside the longhouse The inside of a longhouse was divided by 20-foot-compartments with two families living in one compartment. Each family lived on fur and mat- covered platforms, five to six feet wide, and 15 feet long. In the middle aisle of the longhouses were fires which families shared for heating, cooking and light. There could be 18 families in one longhouse up to 220 feet long. Dried food was hung from the rafters. Above a family’s compartment was a storage shelf where extra animal skin robes, blankets, reed mats, baskets, and clay pots were kept.

13. Moving the farm! New villages were moved and resettled every 10 to 20 years. Every ten or twenty years, the soil would become drained of nutrients from constant farming. Also, fish and animals became scarce from over hunting. When this happened, it was time to relocate the entire village. Everyone would work together to move their village to a new place where the soil was richer in nutrients and the fish and animals were plentiful. Men looked a few kilometers away for a new place for the village. It had to be near suitable water and on a hilltop or higher ground for better defense. The higher ground also meant good drainage during heavy rain. The new village location also had to be near a forest that could be partly cleared for planting crops.

14. More moving A couple years before the village moved, a field was cleared near the new village. A palisade (wooden protective wall) was built around the new village site and longhouses were built using wood from smaller trees and saplings, along with some materials from the old village. One village could have as few as 20 or as many as 200 longhouses. Each family or clan would construct their own longhouse. Among the Eastern Woodland farmers, 60 villages were identified that provided shelter for 60,000 people and 50,000 acres being used as farmland.

15. A palisade protected each village

16. Farming corn plant Bean plant squash plant Native agriculture (growing plants as a crop) originally came from the Natives, mostly the Mayans, who lived in areas in and around what is now Mexico. They planted corn, beans, squash, pumpkins and melons. About 1 000 years ago, farming moved north, and tribes in the Eastern Woodlands started farming in their area. Eastern Woodland Farmers grew three main crops to eat. The Natives called them ‘the three sisters’: Corn, Beans and Squash. How it worked – the three plants were all planted in the same hole in the soil at around the same time. As they grew, each plant helped the other plant grow better and stronger.

17. The Three Sisters The Natives realized that each plant had characteristics that helped the other plants. The tall and strong cornstalks provided a place for bean vines to wind around and grow. The beans helped the soil by adding nitrogen, so the other plants grew better. The wide leaves of the low growing squash plant shaded the ground. This kept moisture in the soil and prevented weeds from growing. To the Natives, The Three Sisters were more than just crops; each plant had a personality based on what they looked like and how they grew! According to Natives’ myth, the Corn, standing straight and tall, was righteous (really good character). The Bean, in contrast, clung to the Corn’s ‘legs’ and was shy. The Squash, which spread about the ground, was the wild troublemaker.

18. Native fields Native fields of corn, beans and squash did not look like the corn fields we have today. Today, our fields are completely cleared with only the crops growing in nice straight rows. The Natives were not able to clear away all of the trees that naturally grew almost everywhere that there was good soil. So instead, the Natives used a technique of clearing their fields called ‘slash and burn’. In this method, the trees were cut down and left on the ground to dry for awhile. Later, the cut down trees and plants growing on the ground were burned. The burning helped clear the ground of weeds and and also added nutrients to the soil which helped the three sisters grow. The three sisters were planted between the cut down and burned trees wherever there was open land. The trees would eventually rot, but they never disappeared completely. You wouldn’t find nice neat rows, just plants growing everywhere there was a space.

19. The real farmers The crops grew in fields as large as 12,000 acres in an area located about one hundred meters away from the village. Women were the workers in the fields. The Natives believed that women, who produced children, were best suited to work with the crops to produce food. Farming took up most of the day for the women. Their crops of corn and other vegetables attracted lots of birds and animals who were looking for a free meal. The women would have to do anything they could to protect their crops. They would even stand on platforms in the fields and act as live scare crows and beat pots to scare the crows and other birds away. Other animals had to be chased back into the woods!

20. The harvest corn husk rope corn meal The majority of the corn was harvested in Autumn when the corn was very dry. Up to 150,000 bushels were harvested every season. The corn husks were folded back and braided into rope. The corn was hung from longhouse rafters along with squash slices. Dug out pits located beside the longhouses stored and insulated the extra food. Burying it in the ground kept the corn and other food at a consistent temperature and stopped it from rotting. It also kept it safe from animals who may want some! Cornmeal is flour made from dried and crushed corn. The dried corn kernels were crushed using a mortar (bowl) and pestle (grinding stones).

21. Cornmeal Cornmeal is really just flour made from corn instead of wheat, which is what our flour and bread is made from. It can be used just like wheat, but it tastes different. Some people like it much better than wheat flour! It was the main food for the Natives who farmed in this region. Even though the Natives ate lots of corn, they didn’t eat it on the cob like we do today, or even kernels. It was always dried and made into flour. Their corn was also different from the varieties we eat today. We are use to seeing the golden yellow kernels that grow on the ears. ‘Indian corn’ was very different. It didn’t look the same or taste the same either. Each cob could be filled with different colours of kernels – yellow, gold, brown, red, white and even black.