First Voices: Aboriginal Peoples of Canada, 1000 BCE–1600 CE · world at large.2 In this unit you...

Aboriginal people have lived in Canada twenty times longerthan people of any other nationality. But, little is knownabout that long period before the seventeenth century.Aboriginal people have been treated, at various times, ascolonized people. Many were forced to live on reserves andall have experienced systematic attacks on their culture andidentity by the colonizers: French, British, and Canadian.

Many Canadians have outdated notions of Aboriginalpeople based on the writings of such prominent anthropolo-gists as Diamond Jenness. He concluded that Aboriginalpeople were doomed to extinction, either by dying out or bybeing absorbed into Euro-Canadian culture.1

Today, Aboriginal Peoples have the fastest growing popu-lation in Canada. They are highly organized, they have artic-ulate leadership, they demand recognition, and they aremaking progress with both land claims and self-government.

As the Honourable Jim Bourque, privy councillor, elder,and former president of the Métis Association of theNorthwest Territories and Yukon, stated to the RoyalCommission on Aboriginal Peoples,

The geese migrate because they have responsibilities to fulfill atdifferent times and in different places. Before they fly theygather together and store up energy. I believe strongly that ourpeople are gathering together now, just like the geese gettingready to fly. I am tremendously optimistic that we will soontake on the responsibilities we were meant to carry in theworld at large.2

In this unit you will:

• describe the main features of life in selected Aboriginalsocieties in Canada prior to contact with Europeansand how they have changedover time

U N I T 1

First Voices: Aboriginal Peoplesof Canada, 1000 BCE–1600 CE

M H R 3

Iceland

Greenland(Denmark)

SwampyCree

PlainsCree

Chipewyan

Innu(Naskapi)

Beothuk

Innu(Montagnais)

Abenaki

LabradorInuit

BaffinLandInuit

IgloolikInuit

Polar Inuit

GreenlandInuit

CaribouInuit

NetsilikInuit

CopperInuit

Beaver

Sarsi

Gwich’inInvialuit

Han

TutchoneTagish

Tlingit

Tsimshian

TahltanTsetsaut

Nisga’aGitksan

SekaniWet’suwet’enChilcotin

Kwagiulth

ChinookSongish

CowichanComox

Nuu’Chah’NulthBella Coola

Bella BellaHaislaHaida

Nitinat

Teslin

Kaska

Dene

Dene Dháa

WoodCree

OjibwaAlgonquin

JamesBayCree

Odawa

Erie Cayuga

Mahican Mohawk Massachuset OneidaOnondaga

Mi’kmaqWuastukwiukPassamaquoddyPenobscot

Miami

Potawatomi

Tobacco

Neutral

Huron

IllinoisWinnebago

Sauk FoxMenomini

SiouxSaulteaux

Crow

Assiniboine

CheyenneShoshoniNez Perce

Lake Okanagan

ThompsonLillooet

SquamishSalish

FlatheadGros Ventre

BlackfootBloodKutenaiPeigan

Seneca

C h a p t e r 1First Arrivals

C h a p t e r 2Aboriginal Peoples of Canada:Early Times to First Contact

C h a p t e r 3First Contact

4 MHR UNIT 1: First Voices: Aboriginal Peoples of Canada, 1000 BCE–1600 CE

Indeed, it is impossible to make sense of the issues that trouble the relationshiptoday without a clear understanding of the past. This is true whether we speak ofthe nature of Aboriginal self-government in the Canadian Federation, the renewal oftreaty relationships, the challenge of revitalizing Aboriginal cultural identities, or thesharing of lands and resources. We simply cannot understand the depth of theseissues or make sense of the current debate without a solid grasp of the shared his-tory of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people on this continent.

– R E P O R T O F T H E R O YA L C O M M I S S I O N O N A B O R I G I N A L P E O P L E S

A bout 8250 years ago, a Paleolithic hunter was buried by a mudslide near the pres-ent day city of Kamloops, British Columbia. His skeleton is the earliest clearly datedhuman remains found in Canada. Analysis of his bones and the surrounding area

by anthropologists and archaeologists indicates that this man lived primarily on land ani-mals rather than on the salmon of the Thompson River. Between eight thousand and threethousand years ago, the area appears to have been occupied by various groups who mademicroblades—distinctive, small, thin, parallel-sided flakes like miniature razor blades, sim-ilar to those used by the people of the Yukon interior. Other microblade sites along the inte-rior rivers indicate that these people were developing and adapting hunting skills and toolsbased on the salmon resources, but little else is known about them or their way of life.

The First Peoples lived in Canada from about 23 000 BCE to about 1000 CE. Ofcourse, there is much more to this story than presented here. Archaeology providesmuch of the support, which is why this era is called prehistoric or prehistory.Archaeology, however, is a destructive science; once each site is dug, it is foreverdestroyed, despite the best efforts to preserve it by photographing, carefully revealingand collecting artifacts, and recording every detail. Aboriginal oral history too has suf-fered the ravages of time, much of it having been lost over the generations.

From both these sources, this chapter will attempt to narrate the story of the orig-inal people of Canada. Because of the scant respurces, this chapter should raise asmany questions as it answers.

C H A P T E R 1

First Arrivals

1By the end of this chapter,you will be able to

• describe various aspects of Aboriginal life (e.g.,economic life, spirituality,relationship with the environment, politicalorganization) before contact with Europeans

• describe the contributionsof Aboriginal Peoples tothe development ofCanadian identity and culture

80 000 to 20 000 BCEMost recent great ice age

Migration of Paleolithic35 000 to 8000 BCE

hunting peoplesacross Beringia 13 000 BCE

Glaciers begin to melt and retreatBluefish Caves archaeological site reveals evidence of earliest human habitation

Glaciers retreat rapidly10 000 BCE

and corridors open tosouthern regions of

the Americas 6250 BCEDate of earliest human remains,found in Canada near Kamloops, B.C.

At L’Anse-Amour, Labrador,5500 BCE

one of the earliest moundedburial sites in the world

is created 3000 BCEThe end of the Paleolithic Era and beginning of Archaic period, according to archaeo-logical time measurement

Paleo-Eskimo people arrive2000 BCE

in Arctic, bringing with themthe bow and arrow

The Serpent Mounds burialsites near Peterborough

are created Clay pottery is in use by

the Aboriginal Peoples ofEastern Canada

Old Woman Buffalo Jumpused for hunting in

western Canada 800 BCEThe Dorset people become the second group of Arctic immigrants

CHAPTER 1: First Arrivals MHR 5

Origins and Arrival of the First PeoplesThey looked over the dry grasslands to the risingsun in the east. The small extended family ofPaleolithic hunters3 had met with another family,and they realized, after sharing stories, that theywere related. They agreed they would hunttogether for the rest of the season. The relativestold of animal droppings and tracks further to theeast. The lure of game drew them to new land inthe northeast.

The furs that covered their temporary shelterswere bundled together by the women as the menprepared their spears and talked about their strat-egy for the hunt. Young boys fed the dogs—bothwere excited about the anticipated hunt. The noiseproduced by the boys and dogs would help todrive the startled animals into a bog or ravine,where the men would be able to get close enoughto launch their spears. The animals, unaccustomedto humans, were slow to react to their presence. Itwas, however, dangerous. A frightened animalcould charge in any direction, and an injury couldcost a life. Everyone was on the alert, especially

the dogs, for carnivores such as theferocious Scimitar cat (related to thesabre-toothed cat) and the huge Short-Faced Bear. The bears and cats notonly hunted mammoths, but theywere also ready to drive off thehunters to scavenge if necessary.

During the time of the last ice age,from about 80 000 years ago to 12 000years ago, almost all of Canada wascovered by a kilometre of glacial ice.With so much water locked in this con-tinental ice mass, the sea levels droppedby 125 metres, creating a plain onethousand kilometres wide in what isnow the Bering Sea. It is through thiscorridor, called Beringia, thatPaleolithic hunters pursued large herbi-vores, such as camels, bison, prehistorichorses, huge ground sloth, and giantbeavers to become the first humanimmigrants to reach North America.

The very gradual migration ofthese Paleolithic hunters acrossBeringia to North America is thoughtto have taken place over thousandsand thousands of years, with the oldestarchaeological evidence dated about24 000 thousand years ago. The BlueFish Caves in the Old Crow Region of


N0 1000 km500

Beringia Glacial Ice Caps, 15 000 Years Ago

N0 1000 km500

Beringia at Height of Last Glaciation 20 000 Years Ago

Beringia, 15 000 years ago. Fortunately for the first arrivals, their migration

through Beringia acted as a kind of disease filter, letting in humans and animals

but keeping out almost all the parasitic diseases that normally preyed on them.4

northern Yukon, three small caves that overlooka wide river basin, contain what is believed to bethe earliest evidence of human occupation: a fewchipped stone artifacts dated at 12 000 yearsold. The artifacts are of a type similar to those ofthe late Paleolithic era of northeast Asia. Theywere found in layers of sediment containing thebones of extinct animals, further confirmingtheir age. Although this archaeological site is incaves, which protected the artifacts from theweather, caves were not the favourite dwellingplace for early people. Often, caves were consid-ered mysterious, frightening, and, as the home ofthe bear and Scimitar cat, extremely dangerous.Evidence does show, however, that the Blue FishCaves were visited repeatedly for short periodsby small hunting parties for thousands of years.Paleolithic hunters had developed more comfort-able and convenient homes using the furs of theanimals they killed. These homes were, for themost part, portable and much easier to heat.Caves, however, could provide temporary shelterfor semi-nomadic people.

Exactly when and how the Paleolithic peoplesreached North America is still highly speculative.Some archaeologists reject the assumption thathumans could have crossed Beringia only when itwas fully frozen. The Bering Strait is only ninetykilometres wide today and islands break its width.On a clear day, land is always in sight. Crossingthe Strait, either on the winter ice or using an earlytype of boat, was relatively simple, as the ancestorsof the present-day Inuit proved more than onethousand years ago.

Archaeologists also disagree about howPaleolithic hunters migrated further south oncethey had made the crossing. The traditional view isthat there was an ice-free corridor along the east-ern slope of the Rocky Mountains, between theCordilleran glacier over the Rockies and the hugeLaurentide glacier covering much of northeasternNorth America. Although no archaeological dis-coveries support this theory, most archaeologists

concede that a corridor existed. Critics argue thatthe corridor was extremely inhospitable to humansurvival: it had a very cold climate, harsh winds,and a landscape of rubble, large lakes, and turbu-lent melt water rivers.

The Coastal Route Theory

An alternative hypothesis is that a coastal routeexisted. Moving along the western coast in someform of water craft, fishing, collecting shellfish,and possibly hunting sea mammals, Paleolithicpeople gradually moved south below the ice fields,where they were able to move inland. Their move-ment then was east, south, and eventually north asthey followed herds of animals and the retreatingice fields. Since the coastal plains were left exposedby the lower sea levels, the travellers had muchneeded landing areas during their long migration.Unfortunately, this coastline is now submerged,leaving no archaeological evidence to support thecoastal route theory.5

The two theories, Beringia and coastal, are notnecessarily incompatible. It is possible that therewere different movements into North America atdifferent times by different people. The arrival ofseparate populations with different cultures wouldhelp to explain the diversity of prehistoric and his-toric Aboriginal nations. This is especially true ofthe west coast of Canada, where seventeen lan-guages from five different linguistic stocks wereonce spoken by Aboriginal Peoples.

A few other highly speculative theories haveless support. One suggests a North Atlanticcrossing. Most experts, however, agree thatcrossing three thousand kilometres of ice-chokedocean in some sort of skin-and-wood boat is preposterous. Another theory speculates that acrossing of the North Pacific was possible. Evenwith the prevailing westerly winds and the NorthPacific current, the distance is more than sixthousand kilometres, and no evidence exists,anywhere in the world, of a boat capable of


making that journey 10 000 to 15 000 years ago.This same argument is used to refute the idea ofa South Pacific voyage of more than three thou-sand kilometres from the Eastern Islands toSouth America.

DNA and the Migration Theories

The only curious pieces of research that chal-lenge the theory that the Beringia corridor wasthe only access to the Americas for Aboriginalpeople are recent DNA studies. Of the fiveAboriginal DNA lineages, only one, most com-monly detected in Ojibwa (Anishinabe) people,has no known Asian affiliation. It does appear,however, in Europeans. Asian origins are foundin the other four lineages that characterize morethan 95 percent of Indigenous North Americans.Although this does not prove that Ojibwa have aEuropean ancestry, it does cast doubt on the oneorigin theory—that all Paleolithic people enteredthrough Beringia—and leaves open the possibil-ity that additional migrations of peoples tookplace. Clearly, the Beringia crossing theory doeshave the most supporting evidence, and it is theprevailing view on the origins of AboriginalPeoples in the Americas.6

Paleolithic hunters could not have survived thecrossing of the land bridge without: ● control of fire● tailored clothing ● social organization and cooperation● a good understanding of the environment, including

both animals and plant life● knowledge of hunting techniques called surrounds

and drives, which forced large, heavy animals intobogs, deep snow, or water where they could beapproached and killed

● knowledge and skills to process, preserve, and store food

● technology to produce chipped stone spear points forhunting and sharp cutting tools for butchering game.

As winter approached, it was important thatthe hunters succeed. They needed all the meat andfurs they could get to survive. By sharing their hunt,they could pass the winter recounting their successesand telling stories of generations long ago. Winterwas also the time for making clothing and prepar-ing tools and weapons. Everyone had their ownjobs, including the young people, who would bringthe firewood that fuelled the fire for warmth and tokeep them safe from the Scimitar cats.

Migration Within the Americas

By 10 000 BCE massive environmental changeshad occurred. Changes to the climate affected veg-etation, hydrology, erosion and depositionalcycles, animal extinctions, and population densi-ties.7 It was during this time of dramatic changesthat descendants of the original Paleolithic huntersworked their way down the Mackenzie Valley and,quite remarkably, within a few thousand yearsspread to the east coast of Canada and throughoutthe Americas. Their course was probably south,then gradually east and north, following theretreating ice fields and the game they hunted.Much of what we know about the Paleolithic peo-ples is based on such famous archaeological sitesas the one near Clovis, New Mexico, where large,beautiful, fluted stone tools dated at 9 500 BCEwere found.

It was also at Clovis that an interesting techno-logical advance, a weighted throwing device calledan atlatl, was unearthed. This type of spear throwerappeared for the first time in Canada in southwest-ern Ontario and later in many archaeological sitesacross the country. The atlatl part of a spear throwerfunctioned much like a lacrosse stick. The extensionand weighting allowed the spear to be thrown withgreater force, a greater distance, and, in the righthands, with more accuracy.8 These Paleolithic peoplewere very successful hunters of big game. Theirsuccess and the changing weather and environmental


conditions led to extinction for 103 mammal speciesbetween 12 000 and 10 000 BCE and another 22species between 10 000 and 8000 BCE.9

Aside from what archaeologists and anthropolo-gists can infer from the campsites and the brokenstone tools, little is known about the Paleolithic peo-ples or their descendents, the Archaic people.“Archaic” is a general archaeological term used todescribe the hunting and gathering cultures that fol-lowed the Paleolithic culture and lasted until theappearance of pottery, which introduced theWoodland period.10 The Archaic people were the firstoccupants of Canada. In their search for game, theymigrated from the south to the western plains and

east as far as the Atlantic coast. These big gamehunters and their families adapted to local condi-tions and developed their own way of life. By today’sstandards, their lives were extremely hard. Theylived in an unpredictable world where familiar ani-mals disappeared and reappeared for no apparentreason, and an immense lake could slowly disappearas a retreating glacier or the tilting land opened anew outlet to the sea. These Paleolithic people sur-vived, and to some degree prospered, by adapting tothe changing climate, landscape, and flora and faunafor more than six thousand years. From these earlyinhabitants would emerge the distinctive nations oftoday’s First Peoples.

We Were Always HereThere is another interpretation of the origins ofthe Aboriginal Peoples and that is that they havealways been here. Every Canadian Aboriginalnation and people has a creation story that tells ofits origins in the land. For Aboriginal people, theoral history or traditional stories told by the eld-ers have more credibility than the theories ofarchaeologists.

This concept of an Aboriginal origin is expressedin this Mi’kmaq legend: “They came to a wigwam.It was a long wigwam with a door at each end. Theman inside the wigwam said, ‘I have lived here sincethe world began. I have my grandmother, she washere when the world was made.’”11

Another Mi’kmaq story, recounted by WilliamAsikinack of the Department of Indian Studies atSaskatchewan Indian Federated College, tells ofgreat ice fields, human migrations, and changingseasons. Asikinack believes Aboriginal peoplewere here long before the date that modern sciencesuggests and that they may not have crossed fromthe Asia through Beringia. It is clear to him that hisancestors lived on the shores of the Atlantic Oceanbefore the beginning of the last ice age, 80 000years ago.


Atlatl weight (enlarged, top) and how the atlatl throwingdevice was used

Long ago and long ago and long ago and longago, the People, as a single nation (nin-wa-windwidji-da-ki-wema, we are of the sameland), lived along the eastern shores of thegreat salt water. At that time the People had aprotector called Glooscapi. Glooscapi didmany things, and brought many things to thePeople. Glooscapi brought the plant-beings,the various animal-beings, and the swimmerswho were placed on the land to help thePeople survive and live a good life. The peoplehad lived for many generations in this land.Then a strange thing started to happen. ThePeople thought that Glooscapi was the onewho had caused this strange thing to happen.Of course the People were right—Glooscapiand Ki-weyd-de-nonk Mmnid-doo (spirit ofthe North) had got into an argument aboutwho was the stronger spirit. Spirit of theNorth to show his strength began to make itcold in the land of the People. The thing wecall sook-po (snow) began to come to the land.The snow came and did not stop. As the snowgot deeper and deeper and ice began to walkon the land, the plant-beings stopped returningfor each cycle and the animal-beings left thecountry. The people finally had to leave too.The People went southward along the edge ofthe saltwater with Glooscapi following behindto protect them from the Spirit of the North.The People went far to the South and livedthere for many generations. Glooscapi, theirfriend and spiritual protector, made friendswith Je-weyd-nonk Mmnid-doo (Spirit of theSouth). After a time he convinced the Spirit ofthe South to aid him in an attempt to over-power the Spirit of the North. The three spiritsdid battle for several generations until finallyGlooscapi and the Spirit of the South began topush the Spirit of the North from the originalland to the People and back into the northlands.As the battle continued, the spirits found thatthey could only carry on for a certain amountof time because even spirits become tired. Sosometimes the Spirit of the South was the win-ner and would rein in the land of the Peopleand for almost an equal amount of time theSpirit of the North would reign over the land ofthe People. When each of these spirits was com-ing into their time to reign, there were certain

signs that the people learned to understand.When it was the turn of the Spirit of the Southto reign, the south wind would bring warmthand the return of the plant-beings. When theSpirit of the North had its turn to rule then thenorth wind would come and all the plant-beingswould go to sleep. Thus it was that the fourseasons, spring, summer, fall, and winter,arrived in the original land of the people.12

What is fascinating about this story is that theoldest human remains east of the CanadianRockies were found not on the plains of the westor the Great Lakes–St. Lawrence corridor, but onthe coast of Labrador. This story also echoes thegeological description of the beginning and end ofan ice age. It begins with longer and colder win-ters, and the slow growth of glaciers, which grad-ually radiate out from their centres. The swingsbetween warming and extreme cold are dramatic.This seesawing continues for thousands of years,just as this Aboriginal traditional story suggests.

Pointing out the merits of one form of evi-dence (Aboriginal traditional stories and archaeo-logical evidence) over the other is not the intent inthis chapter. Both are recognized and presentedhere as part of the challenge of knowing the ances-tral roots of all Canadians better.

The People of Atlantic Canada:Archaic Period, 6000–1000 BCEBetween 10 000 and 8000 years ago, the world ofthe Paleolithic people changed dramatically. Themassive herds of horses, camels, giant bison, mam-moths, and other animals that roamed the tundraand steppes of North America disappeared becauseof catastrophic changes in the climate and environ-ment. The Paleolithic hunters and their familieswere forced to change to meet the challenges oftheir new environment. In pursuit of caribou, theyreached the eastern coast of present-day Canada.Along the shores of the Strait of Belle Isle ofLabrador, these adventurous peoples encountered


the herds of harp seal that whelp on the spring seaice. Easily hunted with clubs and spears, this abun-dant resource led to a relatively stable way of lifethat lasted for at least six thousand years.13

Archaeologists call this new era, with its changedenvironment, the Archaic period of prehistory.(Prehistory is the period in a culture’s developmentbefore written historical records.) During this period,from about 6000 to 1000 BCE, the landscapechanged from tundra to boreal forests of spruceand pine and later to mixed hardwoods. From

Newfoundland and Labrador toPrince Edward Island and NovaScotia, the Archaic Peoples devel-oped cultural differences as theyadjusted to regional variations intheir environment. What they hadin common, however, was areliance on the sea’s resources.Their diets included a wide varietyof fish, such as the large sword-fish, whose bill was an importantraw material for tools; sea mam-mals, including walrus and severalspecies of seals; and an array ofsea birds. But the Archaic Peoplesdid not depend only on the sea fortheir food; they moved inlandduring the winter to interceptmigrating caribou herds andreturned to the seacoast to huntand fish the rest of the year.

What emerges from the evi-dence of archaeological sites,however, is a very interesting peo-ple with a more complex way oflife than the Paleolithic people.Although what these sitesrevealed can be described, whatthese people thought and believedcan only be hypothesized.

L’Anse-Amour

In 1973, archaeologists James Turk and RobertMcGhee began work on a site that included amysterious pile of rocks, near the village ofL’Anse-Amour on the south coast of Labrador.Under a layer of three hundred boulders, in a pitmeasuring 7 m2 and 1.5 m below the surface, theydiscovered the remains of a young person betweeneleven and thirteen years of age. McGheedescribes their find:


N

0 1000 km500

MississippianCahokia

Adena-Hopewell

DebertKosterNorth

America

SouthAmerica

North Pole

Chaco

Cluny Earth Lodge

Charlie Lake Caverns

Bluefish CavesAsia

Vermilion Lakes

Teotihuacán Olmec

Bahia, Ecuador

ValdiviaPedra Furada

Chan ChanOstra

MonteVerde

Teohuacan Valley

Calico HillsGulf ofMexico Atlantic Ocean

Pacific Ocean

Arctic Ocean

BeringSea

Caribbean Sea

Ice Cap

Migration into the Americas, and Archaeological Sites.

There were several surprises that day. For astart, we suspected from the small size of theskeleton that it had belonged to an adolescent,and not a great tribal chief or priest that wemight have expected to be buried with suchceremony. Next there was the unusual positionof the body. When people are buried in anextended posture, they are nearly alwaysplaced on their backs; this child had beenburied in a prone position, face down but withhead turned to one side, and a large slab ofrock had been placed on the back. In front ofthe face, a walrus tusk and other grave offer-ings were scattered around the body. Severalspear points chipped from stone or carvedfrom caribou bone were placed above thehead, and there were two stone spear points atthe left shoulder. Beneath the chest were a dec-orated bone pendant, an antler harpoon head,and a bird-bone whistle that, when blown, stillproduces a sound that makes dogs howl. Atthe left hip were two nodules of graphite cov-ered with red ochre, and a small decoratedantler pestle; these objects, probably originallyenclosed in a small pouch, may have been a kitfor making metallic red paint. Beneath theother hip was a carved, crescent shaped ivoryobject with a hole drilled into the center, per-haps a toggle for holding the end of a harpoonline. On either side of the body were patchesof ash and charcoal, the remains of fires builtat the time of burial and covered as the pitwas filled with sand.14

This amazing discovery, which has beenradiocarbon dated at 5500 BCE, is one of the old-est mounded burial sites in the world and allowsfor a great range of speculation. (Radiocarbondating is a scientific dating method based on theprinciple that all living organisms take in theradioactive carbon 14 isotope, which decays at ameasurable rate after the organism dies, whetheranimal or plant. This rate can be measured, andthus it provides a statistical estimate of how longago the organism died.) Why would a small com-munity of hunters and fishers go to such troubleto excavate a large pit, with only caribou antlersand birchbark baskets as tools, to bury a child

with such elaborate ceremony? Even better estab-lished, larger farming communities elsewhere inthe world had not yet developed this idea.McGhee speculates:

Perhaps the elaborate burial related not to thelife of the individual but to the manner ofdeath. Could this have been a young hunterwho had been killed by a walrus or bear, anevent considered so unlucky that it meritedunusual ceremony? Or could this have been asacrificial victim, who was deeply buried, facedown, with a rock on the back and coveredwith tonnes of sand and boulders, in order tolay a ghost to rest? We can never know.Archaeology tells us only that the ancientIndian inhabitants of Labrador, for whateverreason, once went to much effort to providean unusual burial for a child. It is, in fact, theoldest burial of this scale and complexityknown anywhere on earth.15

The L’Anse-Amour site is also unusual becauseit has survived. Rising sea levels destroyed or sub-merged most archaeological sites along the Atlanticcoast. Any bones not lost to the sea were destroyedby the high acidity of the soil in this region.

These settlers of L’Anse-Amour, who obviouslyhad spiritual beliefs, probably enjoyed music (hencethe whistle or flute), had domesticated the dog, andhad developed a unique technology in the togglehead spear. Archaeologist James Wright describesthe significance of this piece of technology:

[T]o the best of my knowledge the togglingharpoon represents the earliest example of itskind in the world. Unlike harpoons that arefixed into a spear shaft, the toggling harpoonhead upon impact detaches from the tip of thespear shaft but remains attached to a hand heldline. After penetrating the hide of the sea mam-mal the line comes under tension and the togglehead “toggles” into a horizontal position underthe hide of the seal making it almost impossibleto be dislodged from the wound. The togglehandle would be held by the hunter to controlthe line until the prey weakened and could bedrawn into spear or club range.16


The Archaic Peoples of the Atlantic later devel-oped local variations of their cultures and distinctregional identities. They became the Innu, Beothuk,Mi’kmaq, Wuastukwiuk, Passamaquoddy, Penobscot,and Abenaki.

First Peoples of the Arctic: 2000 – 0 BCETraditional stories of the Inuit tell of a strong butgentle people who once occupied the lands of theArctic. They were called the Tunit or Dorset:

According to the Iglulik Inuit, the Tunit oncehad many villages in their area: They werestrong folk, skillful in sea hunting. Theyhunted the walrus with a long harpoon lineand a short one. Their strength was such thatwhen they had harpooned a walrus with theshort line, they gave it a jerk that broke thecreature’s neck.

So strong were these men that a walrushauled up on the ice was dragged home justlike an ordinary seal, by thongs fastened to itsbody. Their hunting grounds were far awayfrom their houses, and it might happen that

they were tired when at last they approachedhome with a walrus in tow. But when thewomen came out of their houses, these Tunitwere so happy to see them that they forgottheir weariness in a moment and with renewedstrength dragged the walrus up to the village.Although the Tunit were a strong people, theywere driven from their villages by others whowere more numerous and by many people ofgreat ancestors. But they loved their country somuch that when they were leaving, one man,out of desperate love for his village, harpoonedthe rocks and made the stones fly about likebits of ice.17

Archaeologists have identified two groups ofpeople who probably migrated across the BeringSea from Asia to settle in the Canadian Arcticbefore the present day Inuit arrived, between onethousand to five hundred years ago.

The Paleo-Eskimos

The first Arctic people, the Paleo-Eskimo, arrivedabout 2000 BCE. They spread very rapidly fromAlaska throughout the Arctic, even to northern

Ellesmere Island and thenorth coast of Greenland.These highly mobile peoplewere surprising both for whatthey had and for what theylacked. Expert producers ofsmall chipped stone projectilepoints, they introduced thebow and arrow to theAmericas. Evidence furthersuggests that the Paleo-Eskimo brought Asiaticarchery with them, andthrough their contact withAtlantic Archaic people, thebow and arrow spread bothsouth and west to all cornersof the new world.


A view of the L’Anse Amour Burial Mound on the south shore of Labrador

What Is a Frame of Reference?

Imagine two glasses that have equal amounts of waterin them. Some observers would call them half full, whileothers would say they are half empty. The difference isin the observer. Everyone brings different perspectives tothe same fact and therefore interprets that fact differ-ently. This is called our frame of reference. Our frame of reference depends on many factors: • upbringing • age • gender • religion • nationality • culture • education • socio-economic status • prior knowledge • time period in which we live

In other words, when people observe or read infor-mation they do this through the lens of their own expe-rience. Understanding and interpretation are informedor influenced by what people have come to know andvalue from living in a particular time and place.

Historians select, reject, organize, prioritize,emphasize, and draw conclusions about informationbased on their frame of reference. Even historians writ-ing in the same time period about the same event havedifferent interpretations based on their knowledge andvalues, which stem from their upbringing, religion, age,gender, nationality, and socioeconomic status. How doyou think cultural background could affect a historian’sframe of reference? Think of the Aboriginal versuswestern understanding of how and when Aboriginalpeople came to North America.

What Is a Fact?

A fact is an event or occurrence that actually happened.It is a fact that Aboriginal Peoples were in Canadabefore European discovery and settlement. It is a factthat skeletal remains have been uncovered and analyzedby archaeologists. How and when the Aboriginal peoplegot here and how they lived is based on interpretationsof those facts.

Distinguishing Facts from Interpretations

People can be confident that an event or occurrence is afact when there is general agreement that it actuallyhappened. For example, it is a fact that you are readingthis textbook—it is actually happening. When histori-ans agree that an event or situation actually happened,it is a fact. For example, all historians agree that stonetools were used in the Paleolithic Era.

Can Facts Speak for Themselves?

Two people or ten historians can look at an identicalevent or fact and make radically different interpretationsbased on their frame of reference. Therefore, facts cannever speak for themselves. The same fact can be used tosupport a variety of interpretations, much like our twoglasses of water. Historians interpret facts and eventsvery differently based on their frames of reference. It isimportant to examine a variety of sources to distinguishwhat is fact and how different historians interpret eventsand evidence. Then people can develop their own under-standing and interpretation of past events.


METHODS OF HISTORICAL INQUIRY

Frame of Reference

Questions to Ask to Detect the Author’sFrame of Reference

1. Who wrote the piece? What are his or her credentials? 2. What is the author’s gender, religion, cultural back-

ground, and nationality? 3. When did the author write the piece? Did the author

experience the event first-hand? 4. Who is the intended audience? What is the author’s

purpose for writing the piece?

5. What are the important arguments or interpretations?6. What evidence or facts does the author use to support

the arguments?7. What sources does the author use for evidence? What

are the frames of references of the sources?8. Does the information and interpretation agree or cor-

respond with other sources?


Practice

For each of the following statements justify why it is a fact or an interpretation. Where it isan interpretation indicate the frame of reference that may have led to that understanding.

Statement

Palaeolithic people crossed the Bering Straitafter the glacial ice receded.

Palaeolithic hunters developed comfortableand convenient homes using the furs of theanimals they slaughtered.

Fossils, bones, stone, and clay artefacts can tellus what Palaeolithic peoples hunted, and ate.

Skeletal remains were uncovered in a L’AnseAmour mounded burial site by archaeologistsin 1973.

The abundance of harp seals gave theArchaic people along the shores of the Straitof Belle Isle a relatively stable way of life forat least 6000 years.

The most dramatic technological innovationfor the Archaic people was the introductionof clay pottery.

It is quite likely, based on the richness of thearchaeological finds, that the Aboriginalhunter-gatherers of the Pacific Coast trans-formed themselves from small-unspecializedgroups into larger, more complex societiesbetween 5500 to 1500 years ago.

Justification of factor interpretation

– an interpretation based ongeological and man madeartefacts.

Frame of referenceand why it could leadto the interpretation

– Belief that man could nothave survived the ice age

– therefore came later– cultural belief that carbon

dating and geological timeframes are reasonablyaccurate

What is equally surprising is how theseancient people survived without some of the basictechnology now associated with Arctic Peoples.They do not seem to have used any form of boat,and they did not have a float for their harpoonsfor hunting sea mammals. Although they did pos-sess the toggle head spear previously described,there is no evidence that they had dogs for pullingsleds or hunting. They did not have oil lamps forheating or lighting their tent houses and probablydid not build snow houses (igloos), since an openfire could not be used in snow houses. The picturethat emerges of the Paleo-Eskimo is of a peoplewho lived in small mobile groups, constantly insearch of sufficient food to get them through thenext winter.18

The Dorset People

The second group to migrate was the Dorset(Tunit) people. These people emerged out ofSiberia and Alaska between 800 and 500 BCE andmoved eastward, either absorbing or driving awaythe Paleo-Eskimo. Evidence from the Dorset cul-

ture indicates that they lived in larger groups,with much greater numbers and varieties of toolsand artifacts. The chipped stone burins of thePaleo-Eskimo were replaced by tools ground to adesired shape. (A burin is a cutting, slotting, andengraving implement of stone used to fashionstone and ivory objects; its most distinctive char-acteristic is its resharpening procedure, whichinvolves striking off a small flake to create a sharpedge or corner.) Large bone knives were probablyused to cut snow blocks for constructing igloos.Rectangular soapstone lamps, used to burn oilfrom sea mammals, heated and lit their homes.The Dorsets invented ivory sled shoes used to pro-tect the sleds’ runners on rough ice or gravel and“ice creepers” made of ivory and tied underneaththeir boots to prevent slipping on ice. They useddogs for hunting and sledding, and they haddeveloped the kayak. They did not use the bowand arrow.

Their art demonstrates that the Dorsets had acomplex worldview, including belief in the supernat-ural and shamanistic ceremonies. A shaman is a per-son who acts as a go-between for the physical and

spiritual realms and who is said tohave special powers. The shamancould use his or her powers forgood purposes, such as healingand prophecy, or for evil, such ascasting a spell. “Shamanistic”describes the ceremonies involvinga shaman calling on the powers ofthe spirit world. Full-sized maskswere carved from driftwood andpainted with ochre. Shaman prob-ably wore these in rituals for cur-ing illness, controlling theweather, and ensuring successfulhunting. Sets of ivory animalteeth, designed to be held in themouth, were likely used to trans-form a shaman into a bear. Wandsmade of ivory with as many as


An Inuit antler carving

sixty carved faces, human and semi-human, wereused perhaps to preserve memories of importantevents or for religious ceremonies.

The Fate of the Dorsets

What happened to the Dorset people is again a mat-ter of speculation. They were killed, displaced, orabsorbed by the Thule People, who are believed tobe the forerunners of the modern Inuit. Perhaps theprevious story of the Tunit told by the Iglulik or thislegend of the Netsilik Inuit is as valid as any theory:

The Netsilik Inuit tells of their ancestors meet-ing with the Tunit long ago: The Tunit werestrong but easily frightened. We hear nothingof their fighting ability. They used to live bythe sea and at the caribou crossing places.They loved to hunt seal and often caught muskoxen and bears as well. It is said they once hadland at a caribou crossing around NetsilikLake (near the modern settlement of SpenceBay). After one of them killed a dog by kickinga harpoon at it, the land was taken away fromthem. The Tunit fled from their village, cryingout to the Inuit: “we hunted the caribou here;now it is your turn.”19

Review...Reflect...Respond1. How do the two theories of how Aboriginal

Canadians arrived on the continent help toexplain the diversity of prehistoric and historicAboriginal nations?

2. Why do you think that until recently, historianshave largely ignored Aboriginal oral traditions,such as the creation myths, in the study of pre-historic Aboriginal history?

3. Are Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal historicalmethods exclusive of each other? How can a stu-dent of Aboriginal history use both types ofsources to further their understanding of prehis-toric Aboriginal history?

First Peoples of the Great Lakesand St. Lawrence Valley: 8000 BCE–1000 CEArmed with their spears and spear throwers, thePaleolithic hunters prepared to leave their familiesin semi-permanent camps on the riverbank ofwhat is present day southwestern Ontario. Athree- or four-day walk north along the river ledthem to the shores of a great lake. (This was LakeAlgonquin, the predecessor of most of the GreatLakes, about 10 000 years ago.) In the distance,they saw massive ice fields. Here, the caribou gath-ered, attracted to the shores of the glacial lake,where cold winds alleviated the annoying mosqui-toes and black flies. The hunters built rock cairns(inukshuk) to help them channel the caribou towhere they could be more easily killed by spearspropelled from their spear throwers. During theirforaging, they no doubt encountered the stark,


Glacier

LakeAlgonquin

NiagaraEscarpment

LakeErie

Lake Ontario

Thames River

GrandRiver

N

Southern Ontario, 11 000 years ago

0 120 km60

How did these bodies of water change over geological time?

jagged line of limestone cliffs now called theNiagara Escarpment. As they took in this incredi-ble view, they saw a lush green plain where muskoxen and maybe even deer or caribou, which werereplacing larger game, grazed. Further south wasanother immense blue lake. (This was probablyLake Iroquois, the predecessor of Lake Ontario. Inthis rich land, hunters and their families felt lesspressure to move to follow the herds of migratinganimals. Now they would stay closer to one areaand live off the land that provided them with adiversity of foods and the necessities of life.

The Laurentian Peoples

Archaeologists believe that Paleolithic peopleinhabited southern Ontario and southwesternQuebec 10 000 years ago, even as sheets of glacialice were still retreating. Over time, these peopledeveloped a wide variety of hunting, fishing, andcollecting activities based on the availability andabundance of local resources. By 3000 BCE, thebeginning of the Archaic period (3000 BCE to1000 CE), the people of the Great Lakes and St.Lawrence, often called the Laurentian people, hadadapted to environments resembling those oftoday. They hunted primarily deer, elk, bear, andbeaver. Fishing also provided a large part of theirdiet. Little archaeological evidence remains of wildplant foods such as berries and nuts, although theylikely were important seasonal food sources.Laurentian sites, although lacking in the wood,bark, and leather objects that compose the largestpart of their cultural artifacts, do contain a varietyof chipped and ground stone tools, and imple-ments made of natural or native copper, includingprojectile points, knives, fishhooks, awls, pen-dants, and beads. The presence of native copperfrom northwest of lake Superior and exotic goodssuch as shell beads from the Atlantic Coast andconch shell pendants from the Gulf of Mexicosuggests extensive trade networks and possiblytravel. Skull fractures, decapitation, and projectile

points found lodged in bones or in the chest cavi-ties of skeletons also tell of violent deaths.20

The Shield Archaic Peoples

The more northerly people, called the ShieldArchaic people (3000 BCE to 1000 CE) by archae-ologists, often had smaller village sites located atnarrows of lakes and rivers, where caribou easilymade their way across. Fish and caribou, supple-mented by bear, beaver, hare, and waterfowl, pro-vided the essentials of life. Settlement sites onislands strongly suggest that the birchbark canoewas already an important, if not essential, part oftheir way of life. It is logical to assume that theyused snowshoes for winter travel.

The most dramatic technological innovationfor the Archaic people of this area was the intro-duction of clay pottery. Archaeological sites insouthwestern Ontario reveal an abundance of pot-tery shards two thousand years ago. It is difficult tosay how ceramic vessels changed the lives of theseAboriginal people, but what they do for archaeol-ogy is dramatic. Because pottery shards are abun-dant and virtually indestructible, archaeologists areable to study variations in styles and decoration toisolate cultural groups and periods. Archaeologistsalso use the introduction of pottery to mark thebeginning of the general period that follows theArchaic period, the Woodland period.21

The Woodland Peoples

One of the most interesting and importantWoodland sites is found near Peterborough,Ontario, on the north shore of Rice Lake. Here, onone of the many drumlin hills left behind by theretreating glaciers, lies a group of nine human-made earth mounds. Eight of the structures areoval, about fifteen metres across and a metre high.The ninth structure resembles a twisting serpent. Itis sixty metres long, eight metres wide, andbetween one metre and two metres high.


Woodland people probably used this site as asummer camp for thousands of years.Archaeological digs have revealed extensive quan-tities of shells, suggesting that the residentsdepended heavily on freshwater mussels. This siteis unique for Ontario, and to these people. Its veryexistence challenges us to understand why thisparticular group of Woodland people, who buriedtheir dead with exotic grave goods and probablygreat ceremony, but in single interments for thou-sands of years, decided about two thousand yearsago to mound earth over their dead relatives. Thenative copper from Lake Superior and seashellsfrom the Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic found in themounds show that the Woodland people had con-tact with people from distant places. The closestsimilar structures are found in Ohio and were builtby the Hopewell people or culture. (Hopewell cul-ture is a term archaeologists apply to the people ofthe Mississippi and Ohio Rivers who developedelaborate burial rituals including the building ofmounds.) It is possible that the Woodland peopleof Rice Lake heard of the magnificent Hopewellburial mounds from traders and were entranced bytheir stories of powerful burial ceremonies. It isalso possible that a party of local men had trav-

elled to the Hopewell villages and, havingwitnessed both the mounds and the reli-gious customs of these wealthy and suc-cessful people, decided to emulate them.22

“Big Turtle:” The Iroquois Creation Legend

Knowledge of the earliest peoples of theGreat Lakes and St. Lawrence is shroudedin mystery, despite the best efforts and evi-dence produced by archaeologists. Anotherview of the beginning of the WoodlandPeoples is told in this Iroquois creationstory. It tells of the close relationshipbetween humans and their environment.True to Aboriginal oral tradition, this story

is timeless but full of meaning as it offers the pastto the present. When things are out of balance ornot right in the world, “Big Turtle” moves to warnus to change our ways.

Once long ago a Sky Woman fell through ahole in the sky into a wide waste of watersbelow. Two swans saw her falling and caughther on their backs.

“What shall we do with this Sky Woman?”asked one of the swans.

“We cannot hold her up forever.”“We must call a meeting,” said the other.The water animals came together to decide

what to do. Big Turtle said, “If someone willdive down and bring up some earth frombelow, I will hold the earth on my back. Then we shall have land for this Sky Womanto live on.”

So the water animals took turns in diving.First the muskrat tried. When he came up, BigTurtle looked into his mouth but could find noearth. Then the beaver made a dive and cameup. He too, had no earth in his mouth. Otherstried, but none brought up any earth.

Finally, Little Toad tried. He stayed underwater a long time. When at last he came up hismouth was full of earth. The animals spreadthe earth over Big Turtle’s back.


Archaeological excavation of the Serpent Mounds near

Peterborough, Ontario.

Then a strange thing happened. The amountof earth began to grow until Big Turtle washolding a whole island on his back. The SkyWoman stepped off the swans’ backs andstarted to make it her home.

The island continued to grow until it was aslarge as all of North America. Sometimes, theysay, Big Turtle grows weary and moves hisback to shift the island. Then the earth shakes.People cry: “Big Turtle is moving.”23

First Peoples of the WesternPlains: 8000 BCE–1000 CEAs the climate warmed and ice fields retreated fromthe western lands leaving an expanse of short grassplains, some animals, specifically the bison, rapidlyincreased in numbers as their competitors for food—the mammoth, horse, and camel—quickly declinedand eventually become extinct from this region. ThePaleolithic people who had followed and hunted thelarge migrating mammals onto the plains adaptedtheir technology and culture to a lifestyle centred onhunting the growing herds of bison.

A contributing factor to the Paleolithichunters’ success, and what identifies them as a dis-tinctive people or culture according to archaeolo-gists, was their development of a unique method ofchipping stone. This new technology enabled thePlano people to produce thinner and more care-fully manufactured spearheads. This change inprojectile points was accompanied by a significantchange in their weapon system, from a split shaftmethod of holding the point in place on the spearshaft to a socket hafting. Archaeologists note thischange of technology and culture from thePaleolithic era by referring to the new era as that

of the Plano culture or people. But the major shiftthat accompanied the development of new tech-nology was the change from being hunters of arange of big game animals to hunters of buffalo:

It is September and the buffalo have begun tocollect into larger herds. The small band, con-sisting of 46 mostly related men, women andchildren has followed a small herd of about200 buffalo for weeks. Often the herd disap-pears overnight and mysteriously they find itagain after a few anxious days. Last nightaround the fire the older men and women toldof the great animals of the past and how theirancestors many, many years ago huntedstrange incredible mammals that no longerexisted. Now they are dependent on the buf-falo and they must keep its spirit alive andknow everything about them if they are to sur-vive and prosper. For three days and nights thehunt leaders have not eaten. They fast, medi-tate, and sing to call the buffalo to them.Sweet grass burns like incense near the sacredbuffalo skull. Today they will travel towardsthe mountains along the paths they followedfor many years. They will wait near Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump until other peoplearrive and together they will drive the buffaloover the cliff. This will provide them with allthey will need to survive the winter.24


A skinning tool made from a caribou leg bone.

Web Connection

www.mcgrawhill.ca/links/definingcanadaGo to the Web site above to learn more about Iroquois

language and songs.

Buffalo Jumps

For more than six thousand years, the people ofthe western plains of Canada hunted buffalo bydriving them over cliffs called jumps. Two of thebest known are Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump,which was declared a World Heritage Site in 1981,and Old Woman Buffalo Jump, both within sightof the Rocky Mountains in present-day Alberta.Archaeological evidence from this latter site revealedmasses of buffalo bones extending more than thirtymetres along the base of the cliff and more than sixtymetres down slope from it. The bone beds are morethan four metres deep and include more than one-thousand chipped stone points of lances and arrows,a few heavy stone choppers for breaking bones, stoneknives for skinning animals and cutting up meat, andeven a single black bead carved from soapstone.25

Hunting the buffalo without the use of thejump was extremely dangerous and the results wereuncertain at best. Remember, the hunters of theplains began using the horse only in the seventeenthcentury. Traditional hunting practices required thehunters to use a lance or bow and arrows, to getclose enough so that their weapons were effectiveagainst these unpredictable beasts that weighed, onaverage, more than 550 kg and could run at morethan sixty kilometres an hour. The hunters, know-ing they could not outrun them, would disguise

themselves in wolves’ skins and slowly stalk the buf-falo until they were sufficiently close to throw theirspears or shoot their arrows. (It is believed that thebow and arrow was introduced only about twothousand years ago). They took advantage of theanimals’ poor eyesight, and by keeping downwind,they crawled through the tall dry summer grass toget within striking distance. Long hours of slowcreeping might yield one or two buffalo. Winterhunting was easier if a herd was driven into a valleyfilled with drifted snow. There, hunters on snow-shoes could slaughter the floundering animals.

By far the most efficient strategies were the driveand the jump. In early times, hunting groups cametogether for a buffalo drive along traditional migra-tion routes. They would build a V-shaped corral ofbrush, branches, and stones. The hunters funnelledthe animals into the corral where they were killedwith arrows and lances. How long drives were usedis not known, but it is known that jumps, such asHead-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, were used for morethan six thousand years. A successful hunt, wherehundreds of buffalo were slaughtered, provided largenumbers of families not only most of their meat forwinter, dried or as pemmican, but also skins forclothing, blankets, and house and floor coverings.Buffalo horns served as spoons, drinking cups, andscrapers. Sinew and hair were made into thread andrope; the large stomach became a water bucket,

cooking pot, or pemmican storage bag; anddried buffalo droppings were a good sourceof fuel, producing little smoke.

Hunting buffalo required a verymobile lifestyle for the Plano people. Alltheir possessions, including their distinc-tive readily assembled and disassembledtepee homes with their long straightpoles and buffalo hide coverings, had tobe portable for humans and dogs eitherto carry on their backs or to drag on atravois as they followed the herds.

Other animals were also hunted andsome plants gathered, but without the


Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, in southern Alberta.


An artist’s conception

of a Buffalo Run.

buffalo, life for the Plano people of the westernplains would have been almost impossible. Despitethe large number of buffalo and improved huntingtechniques, they were not always successful whenthe need was greatest. Cold, sickness, and starva-tion were real. An unlucky band could lose a thirdof its members over a hard winter.26

Oral Traditions of the Western Plains People

This account of the First Peoples of the westernplains, based on archaeological evidence, onlyreveals a small part about how these people lived.What about what they thought and their spirituallife? An example of their traditional oral historythat has been passed down through the genera-tions can give us some insight into these aspects.This story about the Origin of Death comes fromthe Siksika people of the Blackfoot Nation, wholive in present-day southern Alberta:

When the world was new, Old Man andOld Woman were walking around.

“Let us decide how things will be,” OldMan said.

“That is good,” said Old Woman. “Howshall we do it?”

“Well,” Old Man said, “since it was myidea I think I should have the first say ineverything.”

“That is good,” said Old Woman, “just aslong as I have the last say.”

So they walked around and looked atthings. Then Old Man spoke. “I have been

thinking about hunting,” he said. “The menwill be the hunters. Anytime they want toshoot an animal they will call it and it willcome to them.”

“I agree men should be the hunters,” OldWoman said. “But if the animals come whenthey are called, life will be too easy for thepeople. The animals should runaway whenthey see the people. Then it will be hard forthe men to kill them. That way people will besmarter and stronger.”

“You have the last say,” Old Man agreed.Then they walked around some more.

After a while, Old Man spoke again. “I hadbeen thinking about what people will looklike,” he said. “They will have eyes on oneside of their face and their mouth on the other.Their mouths will go straight up and down.They will have ten fingers on each hand.”

With their dogs pulling travois, Aboriginal people followed

the buffalo herds.

“I agree that people should have their eyesand their mouth on their faces,” Old Womansaid. “But their eyes should be at the top oftheir face and mouth at the bottom and theywill be set across. I agree they should have fin-gers on their hands, but ten on each hand willmake them clumsy. They will have five fingerson each.”

“You have the last say,” Old Man agreed.Now they were walking by river. “Let us

decide about life and death,” Old Man said. “Iwill do it this way. I will throw this buffalochip into the river. If it floats, when people diethey will come back to life after four days andthen live forever.”

Old Man threw the buffalo chip into thewater. It bobbed up and floated.” I agree weshould decide it this way,” Old Woman said.“But I do not think it should be done with abuffalo chip. I will throw this stone into thewater instead. If it floats, the people die forfour days and then come back to life and liveforever. If it sinks, the people will not comeback to life after they die.”

Old Woman threw the stone into thewater. It sank immediately.

“That is the way should be,” Old Womansaid. “If people live forever, the Earth wouldbe too crowded. There would not be enoughfood. This way people will feel sorry for eachother. There will be sympathy in the world.”

Old Man said nothing.Some time passed. Old Woman had a child.

She and Old Man loved the child very muchand they were happy. One day, though, thechild became sick and died. Then Old Womanwent to Old Man.

“Let us have our say again about death,”she said.

But Old Man shook his head. “No,” hesaid, “you had the last say.”27

First Peoples of the PacificCoast: 8000 BCE–1000 CEThe first settlers of the Pacific coast probably arrivedduring the end of the last ice age, between 13 000and 10 000 years ago. These people were different

from the Paleolithic people, who, archaeologists the-orize, entered North America through a corridor inthe Rocky Mountains. One of the theories to explaintheir differences is that they migrated separatelyfrom other Paleolithic people from Asia and madetheir way along the exposed seabed created duringthe last ice age on the west coast. With great quanti-ties of water frozen as ice, the water levels of the seaswere much lower, creating a corridor west of themountains along the Pacific Coast.

One form of evidence of fluctuations in sealevels and an ice age is the oral history of theNorthwest Coast Peoples. According to Haida tra-dition, they have inhabited Haidi Gwaii since theend of the last ice age. This makes them one of theoldest traceable populations in the new world.

Many of the Haidi Gwaii stories of the ice agehave been recorded. This one was told to a Hudson’sBay Company trader in 1892. It is very specific aboutglacial events at Honna River on Haida Gwaii:

This is the story of long, long ago toldamongst our people, the Hidery, that at Quilh-ca, about three miles west of the village ofIllth-cah-geetla, or Skidegate’s town, lived aboy whose name was Scannah-gan-nuncus...

...One day, making a further venture thanusual, he sailed up the Hunnah, a mountainstream emptying its waters into Skidegatechannel, four or five miles west from the placewhere lived.

Tradition says that the river in those dayswas three times larger than it was nowadays.At present there is seldom water enough tofloat a canoe, unless at high water. It is alsosaid that the waters of the sea stood higher onthe land than is now the case. Of the rise ofthe land, evidence is everywhere to be seen;old landmarks show 30 feet.

After pulling upstream, he became tired; so, inorder to rest, he pulled ashore and lay down. Inthose days at the place where he went ashorewere large boulders in the bed of the stream,while on both sides of the river were many trees.While resting by the river, he heard a dreadfulnoise upstream, coming towards him. Looking tosee what it was, he was surprised to behold allthe stones in the river coming towards him. The


movement of the stones frightened him so muchthat he jumped to his feet and ran into the tim-ber. Here he found he had made a mistake,because all the trees were cracking and groaning,all seemed to say to him, “Go back, go back atonce to the river, and run as fast as you can.”This he lost no time doing. When again at theriver, lead by his curiosity, he went to see whatwas crushing the stones and breaking the trees.On reaching them, he found that a large body ofice was coming down, pushing everything beforeit. Seeing this, he got into his canoe and fledtoward home.28

The author of this story is unknown, as isexactly when it happened. It must have been veryearly in the settlement of the islands as the story hasbeen passed down through many, many generations.

In many other ways, these people of the Pacificcoast were different from other Aboriginal Peoplesof Canada. They were shorter, had broader faces,and flatter features. They were also linguistically themost diverse, with seventeen languages from five dif-ferent language groups. This linguistic diversity sug-gests the possibility that some early people madetheir way by boat along the coast from Asia as lateas four thousand or five thousand years ago.

Archaeology: Piecing Together the Story

Despite the destruction of many of the earliestarchaeological sites by the rising sea levels as thegreat ice fields melted, considerable evidence of stonetools dating back to almost 8000 BCE has beenfound. “Pebble tools,” smooth cobbles or pebblespicked up from the beach or riverbank and bashedto remove a few flakes and create a sharp edge, wererecovered in abundance at the lowest levels of thenine-thousand-year-old Milliken site in the lowerFrasier Canyon. Although no bones survive to tell uswhat these Paleolithic settlers ate, the riverside loca-tions of the settlements suggest that fish played amajor role. Charred pits of wild cherries, whichripen during the salmon runs of early fall, found at

the Milliken site suggest that even during this earlyperiod, Northwest Coast Peoples were timing theirseasonal movements to coincide with the appearanceof salmon.

Other archaeological sites of a slightly laterperiod have produced microblades. It is believedthat these were hafted (given handles) as the cuttingor piercing edges of composite tools, whosewooden, antler, or bow handles were not preserved.It is quite likely, based on the richness of the archae-ological finds, that the Aboriginal hunter-gatherersof the Pacific coast transformed themselves fromsmall, unspecialized groups into larger, more com-plex societies between 5500 and 1500 years ago.The abundance and reliability of salmon and shell-fish allowed their population to grow and their cul-tures to flourish for thousands of years. Most of theevidence of their prosperity and ingenuity has notsurvived, because items were fashioned from wood,bark, root, hide, and sinew. Fortunately, some pre-cious evidence of their skills as carvers and weaversof wood fibres did survive in waterlogged sites.Even three thousand or four thousand years ago,the people of the northwest coast were probablybeginning to build the solid wood houses, powerfulsea canoes, majestic totem poles, and beautifulcedar boxes that demonstrated their mastery ofwood construction and carving.


Kwakiutl Dugout Canoes.

Bill Reid was one of Canada’s most celebrated andaccomplished contemporary artists. Among his majorworks were the 4.5 tonne cedar sculpture “Raven andthe First Humans” in the University of British Columbia’sMuseum of Anthropology (1980); a bronze killerwhale sculpture, “The Chief of the Undersea World”for the Vancouver Aquarium (1984); a canoe com-missioned for Expo ’86; and “Spirit of Haida Gwaii,”which was commissioned for the Canadian Embassyin Washington, D.C., (1991). Reid is credited with therevival of northwest coast Aboriginal arts and partic-ularly Haida Gwaii in the contemporary world.

Reid was the son of a Haida Gwaii mother and aScottish-American father. His upbringing, however,had little connection to Aboriginal culture, and hespent much of his youth in Alaska and Victoria,British Columbia. For the first ten years of his work-ing life, Bill Reid was a radio announcer for the CBCin Vancouver and Toronto. It was not until he was ateenager and after he met his maternal grandfather,Charles Gladstone, who had trained with the greatHaida Gwaii artist Charles Edenshaw, that Reidlearned of the artistic traditions of his ancestors.

Awarded many honours for his accomplishments,honorary doctorates from the University of BritishColumbia, Trent University, the University ofToronto, York University, the University of Victoria,and the University of Western Ontario, the CanadaCouncil’s Molson Award in 1976, the Bronfman

Award for Excellence in Crafts (1986), the VancouverLifetime Achievement Award (1988), the Royal BankAward (1990) for outstanding Canadian achievement,the National Aboriginal Achievement Award forLifetime Achievement (1994), the Bill Mason Award(1998) from the Canadian River Heritage Society, theOrder of British Columbia, and the Order of Canada,Bill Reid was an eloquent and outspoken proponentof Aboriginal rights in Canada and was especiallyactive in the battle to preserve the national and cul-tural history of South Moresby in the QueenCharlotte Islands.

In his book The Road I Followed, Bill Reidwrote, “It is my hope that the people of today and oftomorrow become aware of the existence of theNorthwest Coast and feel enriched by the knowledgethey will acquire from this extraordinary testimony ofwhat man can do.”

Express ion of Ident i tyW I L L I A M R O N A L D “ B I L L ” R E I D


1. What does Bill Reid mean when he says, “Haida culture has been wrecked. Their language is gone. Theirmythology is gone. The genealogies of the big families are lost. If they’re going to find their way back to theworld of cultured men, then they have to begin at the beginning” (Bill Reid, quoted in Richard Wright, “TheSpirit of Haida Gwaii: La renaissance de l’art haïda,” Enroute, March 1991, p. 90).

Review...Reflect...Respond 1. In looking at the various Aboriginal groups dis-

cussed in this chapter, are there any similaritiesamong the different groups?

2. This chapter looked at Aboriginal groups withinregional areas in Canada. What area do youthink will have the most interaction withEuropeans when they begin to arrive?

3. What do you believe were the most importanttechnological innovations for each Aboriginalgroup during this time period. Why?

ConclusionMystery surrounds our knowledge of the people ofprehistoric Canada, but the fact that AboriginalPeoples have lived here for 10 000 years or more isa certainty. Although differences exist in the type ofevidence that Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal

people offer to recreate the past, both are important,and together they enable archaeologists to create astory or paint picture of life in Canada from 10 000to 2000 years ago. History is always an interpreta-tion of the reconstructed past based on the bestavailable and most reliable sources.

Archaeology provides hard evidence of thephysical presence of humans in Canada. Fossils,bones, stone, and clay artifacts reveal whatPaleolithic Peoples hunted and ate, the weapons theyhunted with, and the utensils they used to preparetheir food. Archaeological digs make known theirburial practices, and from these, hypotheses abouttheir spiritual beliefs, some aspects of their commu-nity life, and their social organization can be made.

Only the traditional stories or oral history, how-ever, can give life to ideas about what these early peo-ple thought and what they believed was important.This source reveals the earliest Aboriginal settlers’relationship with nature, their accepted behaviourswith one another, and their spiritual world.


Notes1. Diamond Jenness, The Indians of Canada (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1932). 2. Government of Canada, Report of The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, 1996. 3. Paleolithic refers to the period of human development when bone and chipped stone tools were used.4. J.V. Wright, A History of the Native People of Canada, Volume 1, 10 000–1000 BC (Ottawa: Canadian

Museum of Civilization, 1995), p. 27. 5. Alan D. McMillan, Native Peoples and Cultures of Canada, 2nd ed. (Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre, 1995), p. 171.6. Brian Bethune, “Mystery of the First North Americans,” Maclean’s, March 19, 2001, pp. 24–29. 7. Wright, A History of the Native People of Canada, p. 25. 8. Elaine Dewar, Bones: Discovering the First Americans (Toronto, Random House Canada, 2001), p. 20. 9. Dewar, p. 19.

10. Wright, A History of the Native People of Canada, p. 554 11. Arthur J. Ray, I Have Lived Here Since the World Began (Toronto: KeyPorter Books, 1996) p. vii. 12. Dewar, Bones, p. 210–212 13. Robert McGhee, Ancient Canada (Ottawa: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1989), p. 50. 14. Ibid., p. 51.15. Ibid., p. 5416. Wright, A History of the Native People of Canada, p. 84. 17. David Morrison, Arctic Hunters (Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1992), p. 62.18. McGhee, Ancient Canada, p. 62. 19. David Morrison, Arctic Hunters, p. 63 20. McMillan, Native Peoples and Cultures of Canada, p. 56. 21. Ibid., p. 56.22. McGhee, Ancient Canada, p. 83. 23. Told by Marius Barbeau and published in Connecting Canada. [full reference to come from author]24. Michael J. Caduto and Joseph Bruchac, The Native Stories From Keepers of the Earth (Saskatoon: Fifth

House Publishers, 1989). 25. McGhee, Ancient Canada, pp. 73–74. 26. D.F. Symington, Hunters of the Plains: Assiniboine Indians (Ginn and Co., 1972), p. 98. 27. Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation, Civilization.ca Web site, available online at www.civiliza-

tion.ca/aborig/haida.happole.html28. Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation, Civilization.ca Web site, available online at www.civiliza-

tion.ca/aborig/haida.happole.html

Chapter 1 Review

Knowledge & Understanding1. Identify these people, places, and events, and

explain their historical significance to Canada’sdeveloping culture and identity:

Beringia theoryL’Anse Amour migration theories Dorset peopleoral traditionBig Turtle

2. Explain the difference between the Beringia theory and the Coastal theory. What type of his-torical evidence is used to support each theory?

3. Five groups of Aboriginal Peoples are dis-cussed in this chapter: Atlantic, Arctic, GreatLakes and St. Lawrence Valley, WesternPlains, and the Pacific Coast. Create a graphicorganizer to differentiate and distinguishthese Aboriginal groups. Your organizer mayinclude such criteria as time period, lifestyle,spirituality, and political organization.

Thinking & Inquiry4. Understanding the history of Canada’s early

Aboriginal Peoples relies largely on the studyof archeology. Yet, this method involves theexploration of often sacred areas such as bur-ial sites. Is it reasonable to call archeology a“destructive science”? Why or why not?

5. Explain the significance of the followingarcheological sites: Kamloops (BritishColumbia), Blue Fish Caves (Yukon), Clovis(New Mexico), L’Anse Amour (Labrador),and Serpent Mounds (Ontario). What doeseach site tell us about early AboriginalPeoples in Canada and North America?

Application6. In the study of early Aboriginal Peoples in

Canada, two types of methodology areinvolved: Aboriginal (oral tradition), andnon-Aboriginal (archaeology, carbon dating,etc.). As a curator for a national museum,you have been asked to research and create adisplay on Aboriginal Peoples in Canadafrom 35 000 BCE–1000 CE. What type ofhistorical methodology will you rely on foryour research? In a well-written paragraph,give reasons for your choice.

7. If it were possible to interview one personfrom one of the Aborignal groups discussed,who would you choose? Why? Create tenquestions that you would ask this person.

Communication8. Compare the creation myths in this chapter.

What similarities and differences do theycontain? In a letter to the editor of theCanadian Historial Review, explain why cre-ation myths are essential to the study of earlyCanadian history.

9. Choose one creation myth from this chapter.Create a series of petroglyphs to help tell thestory. Think carefully about what images youwill choose to visually tell the story. Onceyou are finished, give your petroglyphs to aclassmate and have him or her interpret thestory through your drawings. How similar istheir interpretation to the actual creationmyth that you based them on?


First Voices: Aboriginal Peoples of Canada, 1000 BCE–1600 CE · world at large.2 In this unit you...

Documents

Transcript of First Voices: Aboriginal Peoples of Canada, 1000 BCE–1600 CE · world at large.2 In this unit you...