Midterm

Question 1

What is oral tradition?

Answer 1

• Passing down of information of themselves to the future generation
• Often embellished/modified over time

Question 2

What are the 5 characteristics of oral tradition?

Answer 2

1) Reflect the culture & the area from where they are from
2) Contribute answers towards meaning and order of the world that N.P. live in
3) Details places each culture deems as sacred/spiritual/significant (ex: Manitoulin=Turtle Island)
4) Living and real spirits
5) Season in which is is told (ex: impact crops & harvest if told at wrong time)

Question 3

Name the theories on the origin of Native People

Answer 3

Beringia theory (Migration by Bering Sea)
Theory of American Genesis
Theory of External Migration (Europeans, ancestors of 12 lost tribes of Israel)

Question 4

Explain the Medicine Wheel

Answer 4

• shows the significance of land to Native People
• about bettering self
• divided into 4 segments of teachings that show interconnectedness/interdependency of everyone
• number 4 very significant to the N.P.: 4 seasons, 4 elements, 4 medicines, 4 colours of humans, 4 directions, 4 aspects of the individual, 4 stages of life

Question 5

What is the meaning of interdependence?

Answer 5

• egalitarian society with a collective perspective

- some gender roles

Question 6

What are the Native culture time periods?

Answer 6

70000- Wisconsin Glaciation
12000- Paleo-Indian
7000- Archaic
3000- Initial Woodland
1000- Terminal Woodland (=today's cultures)

Question 7

Describe Native Connection to the land and spirituality

Answer 7

• Importance places on the number 4
• Interdependedness-interconnectedness with land (holism)
• Respect of land and its offerings
• Emphasis on dreams and visions (vision quests)
• Had their own code of ethics

Question 8

Name the 6 Native cultural Groups

Answer 8

1) Woodlands (Cree, Ojibwe, Mohawk)
2) Plains
3) Plateau
4) Mackenzie Yukon River Basin
5) West Pacific Coast
6) Arctic

Question 9

Name the 11 Native linguistic groups in Canada

Answer 9

1) Tlingit (isolate)
2) Tsimshian (complex, 3 languages)
3) Haida (isolate, 200 speakers)
4) Wakashan (6 languages, 5 in CAN)
5) Salishan (few languages)
6) Kutenai (isolate)
7) Siouan (linked to Iroquian)
8) Algonquian (common, 20 languages incl. Ojibwe, Cree, Black Foot)
9) Eskimo-Aleut (several speakers, distinct, unaffected by colonisation)
10) Iroquian (12 languages, 6 Nations Confederacy, maternal, similar to French)
11) Athapaskan ( 20 languages, 15 in CAN)

Question 10

What is acculturation?

Answer 10

• Sharing of cultural views, beliefs, ways of living due to prolonged exposure and contact
• Relationship that occurs voluntarily
• Exchange of cultures
• Coureurs du bois: Some of the first Europeans to be acculturated; lived off land in a different way

Question 11

What is assimilation?

Answer 11

• Forcing one’s culture, ways of living on another culture (coercive, involuntary)
• Europeans did this because they thought they were superior
• Doctrine of TERRA NULLIUS & Manifest Destiny
• French & English had the biggest impact

Question 12

Describe the history of the fur trade

Answer 12

• ‘Most influential reason for Europeans to come to settle in Canada; furs represented high class, distinguishing, highly prized
• Movement of the fur trade north for 3 reasons: Crown was focused on Nation-building and expanding country north, depletion of furs beginning in south, better quality furs in north

Question 13

Describe the impact of fur trade and trading posts

Answer 13

• introduced N.P. to the Notion of Wealth
• Notion of Wealth: Native Philosophy didn’t view furs this way and believed in sharing as a community; people now keeping animals and resources to themselves to trade and earn wealth; notion of giveaways also present, gain of goods and wealth meant societal gain
• Major impact on the clan system and led to its destruction

Question 14

What is the Royal Proclamation?

Answer 14

Referred to as the “Double Edged Sword”. Agreement between N.P. and the Crown made because of increased resentment towards European settlers on Native lands. Goal was to protect N.P. from encroachment on their lands BUT the Crown/Govm’t had the final say on who they sold land to (paternalistic)

Question 15

What are the 3 categories of treaties?

Answer 15

1) Pre-Confederation (pre-1867) (ex: Robinson-Huron, Robinson-Superior)
2) Numbered Treaties (1871-1921) 31 treaties
3) Modern Land Claim (Nisga’a Settlement)