History First Nations

Question 1

North West Coast People tribes

Answer 1

Haida, Nootka, Tlingit, Bella Bella, Bella Coola, Makan, Kwakiuti, Tsimshian

Question 2

North West Coast People geography

Answer 2

• Narrow strip of land 1000miles long from southern Alaska to Puget Sound.
• West is the Pacific Ocean
• East is Coast Mountains
  Cascade range extends to south
• 2 Rivers: Fraser and Columbia
• Moderate climate: summers cool, winters wet

Question 3

North West Coast People Money & Trade

Answer 3

• Wealth was important, buy and trade
• Things used as money:
  Dentalium (shiny white shells)
  Blankets woven from wool of mountain goats
  Coppers (shields, 3 ft high with top half that were engraved)
  Canoes, masks, sea otter & ermine skins, slaves also signs of wealth
• Items bought in trade: seal skins, mountain goat horns, whale bones, oil, raw copper, canoes, Chilkat blankets
• Other signs of wealth: things you inherited from 1 generation to next, special fishing or berry picking areas, right to certain songs or dances, use of a crest, right to certain titles

Question 4

Plains people tribes

Answer 4

Assiniboine, Blackfoot, Blood, The Plains Cree, Dogrib

Question 5

Plains people location

Answer 5

Lived in prairies of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba

Question 6

Plains people facts

Answer 6

• lived in prairies & followed buffalo
• lived in Teepees
• famous for headdresses, beadwork, pow wows

Question 7

Iroquois tribes

Answer 7

Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Seneca, Cayuga

Question 8

Iroquois location

Answer 8

Eastern woodlands in Ontario, Quebec and Maritimes

Question 9

Iroquois facts

Answer 9

• lived in longhouses and farmed
• had elaborate government later used as model for USA

Question 10

Algonquin tribes

Answer 10

Algonquin, Anishnabe, Ottawa, Mik’Maq, Mississauga

Question 11

Algonquin location

Answer 11

Eastern woodlands in Ontario, Quebec, Maritimes

Question 12

Algonquin facts

Answer 12

• hunters or fishers
• lived in wigwams
• famous for made canoes, art forms and legends

Question 13

Inuit location

Answer 13

Arctic

Question 14

North West Coast People Social Structure

Answer 14

• Did not practice democracy
• Person’s worth was based on wealth, property and titles
• Noble class: Highest rank was the chiefs or house owners & their family members
• Middle class: Skilled craftsman (canoe makers, totem pole carvers) & warriors
• Lower class: fisherman or weavers
• Slaves: traded for or captured during raids. Worked for the wealthy families. Had no rights, could be bought, sold or killed.

Question 15

Inuit facts

Answer 15

• Known for igloos, sleds, hunting polar bear & caribou, inukshuks, throat singing
• language Inuktitut
• First to achieve self government with creation of Nunavut

Question 16

North West Coast homes

Answer 16

• Early on: pit-house-style homes
• Later once tools were developed, cedar trees were split into planks to build houses that fit large families.
• Houses built in rows, along a beach, log posts covered with cedar or spruce boards
• Roof shingles could be moved to let out smoke
• No windows
• Dirt or cedar plank for floors
• Fire pit in center of house: used for heat & cooking
• Place of honour located directly across outside doorway reserved for house chief
• Servant/slaves stayed in back of house

Question 17

North West Coast art

Answer 17

• Haida, Tlingit and Kwakiutl drew birds, animals and peoples around them
• Exaggerating features was common
• Egg shape & U symbol seen commonly in painting & weaving
• Eyes were thought to have magical qualities

Question 18

North West Coast Totem poles

Answer 18

• Status symbols: only very wealthy could afford
• Not religious symbols: whites thought they were and chopped them down
• Natives told stories by carving totems on poles. Used knives, adzes & metal tools
• Totems were animals that native families believed were their ancestors
• Many kinds of poles: house posts supporting roof, often honouring a deceased chief, memorialized dead person or held their remains, or used to ridicule someone (carved upside down)

Question 19

North West Coast Potlatch

Answer 19

• Potlach: Nootka word for party
• Way for chief to show off wealth
• Held for births, marriages, raising totem poles, passing an inheritance
• Months spent to prepare: invitations, food/gifts ready, dances/songs practice, costume/masks prepared, speeches/ceremonies perfected, seating order assigned
• Guest wore best clothes, arrived in war canoes
• Welcomed on beach with singing/speeches, then to chief’s lodge
• Days of feasting followed
• Singers/dancers performed
• Gifts given to highest ranking guests (coppers, canoes, blankets, boxes, furs, dentalium, slaves)
• Chiefs would give away much of their wealth at potlachs

Question 20

North West Coast people

Answer 20

• Fished, hunted, had good food supply - Known for totem poles, chilkat blankets & art
• Chilkat blankets: made from goat hair and cedar bark, worn by chiefs or those of high rank, design represented parts of fish, birds or animals, could take 1 year to design pattern
• Tillikum means friends and is a game played by children of NW coast, probably came from Asia. Hand symbols for earth, water, fire.

Question 21

North West Coast mythology - Raven

Answer 21

• Raven is credited for forming lakes, rivers, stream, sun, moon and stars
• Ocean levels were high and people could not get to the food in the ocean.
• The raven tricked old lady who held tide line in her hands by telling her about clams he ate, she went to her doorway, he blinded her by throwing sand in her eyes and as she fell she let go of tide line.
• The tide went out, people now had food and raven agreed to give her sight back if she let go of tide line twice a day.
• From then on, people were not hungry and tide comes in and out twice a day.

Question 22

Who are the First Nations?

Answer 22

• first people to live in North America
• Incorrectly called “Indians” by Christopher Columbus
• Now called First Nations, First Peoples, Aboriginal People, Indigenous, Native Americans
• Wendat instead of Huron
• After Europeans arrived, many died from exposure to diseases (small pox)
• Now live on and off reservations. Some reservations are places of poverty
• Currently fighting to maintain their culture and more self government

Question 23

What is Truth & Reconciliation?

Answer 23

• In response to poor treatment of First Nations children who were in residential schools from 1831-1996
• TRC (Truth & Reconciliation Commission) was formed in 2008 and released their report 2015
• 94 calls to action for governments, courts, businesses, schools, and people living in Canada can do to help fix the mistakes of the past and present so that all children – including First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children – can grow up happy, healthy, safe, and proud of who they are
• Topics in call to action: education, culture, child welfare, health, justice, fair laws, religious groups apologizing, museums, missing children/burials, business, changing the Canadian oath

Question 24

Residential schools

Answer 24

• Religious government run schools in Canada 1831 to 1996
• Purpose was to train and educate indigenous children to European culture
• Children were not allowed to speak indigenous language, their culture was seen as barbaric and not respected
• Children were neglected, abused, and not cared for properly

Question 25

Orange Shirt Day

Answer 25

• National Day for Truth & Reconciliation Sept 30
• Phyllis Webstad attended residential school at age 6 and her grandmother gave her an orange shirt that was taken away from her & never returned
• Color orange reminds her that no one cared and she felt worthless
• Day remember & honours the victims of residential schools
• Raise awareness of the inter-generational impacts of residential schools
• Promote the concept of “Every Child Matters”