When Samuel
de Champlain first travelled along the Ottawa River in
1613, he met people along its shores who came to be known as the Algonquin.
They call themselves Anishnabe and they still live throughout the area
and in particular in the communities of Golden Lake and Kitigan Zibi.
Archaeologists quite often use pottery, manufactured from local clays as
a way of identifying the ethnicity of the makers. However, in the Ottawa
Valley, this is not as easy as we would like it to be. This is in part
due to the fact that the Algonquin or Anishnabe were quite good friends
with their neighbours to the west, the Huron or Wendat. The lifestyles
of these two peoples were quite different. The Huron tended to be agriculturalists
who lived in large villages while the Algonquin relocated seasonally to
take advantage of a wide variety of fish, bird and mammal species, as well
as various wild plants and fruits. The pottery dating to the last few centuries
before contact that has been found in the Ottawa area, such as the specimens
to the left, is invariably quite similar if not identical to Huron or other
Iroquoian pot types. In fact, it appears that the Anishnabe did not manufacture
ceramics themselves, but rather acquired pots from their neighbours.
The
smoking of tobacco and other dried plant substances is quite ancient in
Ontario. Tobacco seeds have been preserved on Iroquoian (this term relates
to a number of groups which spoke any one of several related languages
of the Iroquoian language family; it is not the name of any one group in
particular) sites that are several centuries old in southern Ontario. Tobacco
smoking could have everyday uses, as well as ceremonial functions. These
ceramic pipes, also dating to the late precontact period, are of Iroquoian
styles. Were they simply copies of Iroquoian styles? Could they have been
traded from the neighbours of the Anishnabe or were they left by Iroquoian
people travelling through the area? These questions can only be answered
through the controlled excavation of sites containing such artifacts.