Canada’s First People

• Inuit• First Nations• Métis

• It is believed that the first people of Canada crossed a land bridge from Eastern Siberia into Alaska and eventually into Canada.

Inuit

• The Inuit have lived in Arctic regions for thousands of years

• In Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, and Labrador (The Northern part of Canada).

Inuit

• Extremely successful hunters and very resourceful

• Storytelling and legends• Iglus (snow dwellings) and tents.

Inuit life changes with Arrival of Europeans

• 1700s- Whalers from Scotland and England arrive and trade tools and food supplies with the Inuit in exchange for guidance. Inuit begin to rely on this. When the whale population began to decrease, Europeans lost interest in the Arctic and Inuit were left without a source of income and a main source of supplies- whales (meat, oil, etc.).

• After whaling, the fur trade became important for the Inuit who hunted, trapped and traded fur with Europeans.

Inuit life changes with Arrival of Europeans

• Missionaries and Government changed how the Inuit lived as well.

Inuit Today

• The Inuit today try to maintain their traditional way of life while including modern conveniences.

• Unemployment, housing, and roads are in high demand but short in supply.

• The Inuit Tapirisat of Canada plays a major role in giving rights to the Inuit. It also recognized land claims for the four Inuit regions- Nunavik , Inuvialuit (North Yukon and NW Territories), Nunavut and Labrador.

First Nations

• Native Canadians: Cree, Déné, Mohawk, Ojibwa, Oneida, and Kwakiutl are some tribes.

• Settled in Canada between 500 BC and 1000 AD• Each tribe has its own culture, customs, legends, and character• Hunting, fishing, migration, oral tradition, spiritual• First prolonged European contact was in the 1700s: trade,

disease, loss of bison, European government• http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/

Métis

• Descendants of First Nations and Europeans (primarily the French).

• Unique culture which includes the ways of Natives and Europeans.

Totem Poles

• Specific to First Nations tribes of the Northwest. Why might this be (think about natural resources)?

• Used for many reasons/varied by tribe: stories, myths, legends, different meanings, family histories, preserving history, etc.

• Potlaches