Following are some suggested questions to guide your study of the material on this website. The questions are organized according to the various sub-topics on the site. After these specific content questions there are two essay questions which require more critical thinking and distillation of material from the whole site.
After the "Questions" section there is an "Answers" section which offers responses to the questions given.
QUESTIONS
Introduction
1) How did the native peoples first come to North America?
2) Using the map, name the six cultural/geographic groupings of native peoples and give two tribal groups for each one.
Beothuk
1) What was the basis of the Beothuk economy? The European fishing activities interfered with this way of life; what were the consequences?
2) What were the Beothuk dwellings called? How did they insulate them for winter?
The Mi'kmaq
1) Using the map, describe what part of present-day Canada was home to the Mi'kmaq?
2) What was the main food source of the Mi'kmaq?
3) What English word derives from a Mi'kmaq form of transportation?
4) Which Mi'kmaq chief was the first to convert to Catholicism?
The Cree
1) The Cree were part of what language group?
2) How did the harsher environment of the Cree affect their food supply?
3) Describe the summer and winter dwellings of the Cree.
4) How did the Cree hunter feel about the animals he was hunting?
Six Nations Iroquois
1) What were the names of the different tribes that formed the six nations?
2) Why were the Iroquois less nomadic than some other native groups?
3) What were their dwellings called?
4) Which group of Europeans did the Iroquois ally themselves with?
The Huron
1) What crops did the Huron grow?
2) Describe a Huron longhouse, including its size, construction and interior.
3) How did the Huron trace their family line?
4) The Huron, like all native groups, had a strong spiritual life. What was the purpose and importance of the Feast of the Dead?
The Ojibwa, Ottawa and Algonquins
1) How did their food vary from winter to summer?
2) How would you build an Ojibwa dwelling?
3) What was the term for the symbol that identified each Ojibwa clan?
4) What was Windigo and why did the Ojibwa fear it?
The Plains Natives
1) Where did the Plains natives live and what was distinctive about this environment?
2) Why was the buffalo so important to the Plains native peoples?
3) What was a travois used for?
4) What was the most important religious event for Plains native peoples?
The Plateau Natives
1) What part of Canada did the Plateau natives occupy?
2) What was the most important food for these tribes? Explain the different roles of men and women in gathering and preparing it.
3) What kind of dwelling did the interior Salish live in during the winter?
4) How was a village chief chosen?
The Northwest Coast Native Peoples
1) How did the benevolent environment of the west coast affect the lives of the tribes who lived there?
2) Name some of the foods and oils which were harvested from the sea?
3) The west coast tribes are famous for the tall carved poles which decorated their villages. What are they called?
4) Two features of their social organization differed greatly from most native groups. What were they?
The Dene
1) What part of Canada did the Dene occupy? Describe some of its features.
2) What language did the Dene speak?
3) Why was the caribou the mainstay of the Dene economy?
4) Did the chiefs have absolute power in Dene tribes?
The Inuit
1) How did the environment of the Inuit differ from that of more southern native peoples?
2) Describe how the Inuit used the resources of the ocean?
3) How did the Inuit seal the inside of their snow block dwellings?
4) Why did women have a great deal of status in Inuit society?
ESSAY QUESTIONS
Compare two different native groups, such as the Haida and the Inuit, describing their environment, food and economy, dwellings, transportation, social organization and spiritual life.
What were the effects of European contact, particularly through the fur trade, on the native peoples of Canada?
ANSWERS
Introduction
1) Across a land bridge that existed where the Bering Strait is now (between Russia and Alaska).
2)Northwest Coast (eg: Haida, Kwakuitl, Nuu-chah-nulth, Coast Salish, Nisga’a, Gitksan); Plateau (Chilcoten, Interior Salish, Kutenai); Plains (Cree, Blackfoot, Assiniboine); Eastern Woodlands (Huron, Iroquois, Mi'kmaq); Subarctic (Dogrib, Slavey, Cree, Algonquin, Ojibwa, Montagnais); Arctic (Mackenzie Delta Inuit, Copper Inuit, Quebec Inuit).
Beothuk
1) Coastal resources, the sea: shellfish. seals, whales, cod, etc. Beothuk were forced inland where lack of food led to starvation.
2) Mamateeks. Put moss between extra layers of bark.
The Mi'kmaq
1) The Maritimes (primarily Nova Scotia and New Brunswick).
2) Hunting in winter (eg: deer, elk, seal, beaver...); fishing in summer (smelts, herring, sturgeon, salmon...)
3) “Toboggan” from “taba’gan”
4) Membertou (1610)
The Cree
1) Algonquian
2) Because of the climate (long cold winters), plant food was limited, so their diet relied on hunting large and small animals.
3) Summer - dome-shaped wigwams covered in animal skins; winter - sod houses.
4) The hunter respected his prey; it was a gift for which he must give thanks.
Six Nations Iroquois
1) Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Mohawk, and, later, the Tuscarora (joined the original Five Nations in the 18th century).
2)They were more agricultural; grew corn, beans, squash and pumpkins.
3) Longhouse
4) The British (vs. the French and the Americans during the War of Independence).
The Huron
1) Corn, beans, squash and pumpkin.
2) Arched poles covered with sheets of bark (cedar, elm or ash since the birch tree wasn’t prevalent in this area); sometimes 45-55 metres in length and 11 metres wide; fires down the centre corridor shared by the two families opposite it; along the sides, raised platforms for sleeping.
3) Through the mother (matrilineal).
4) To bury the dead at a central burial site used by several villages. Burial mound was called an ossuary. Important ceremony which united people of different villages and provided an opportunity for the elders to tell their stories and pass on the accumulated history of the tribe.
The Ojibwa, Ottawa and Algonquins
1) Winter - small groups hunted moose, deer, bear. Summer - larger camps gathered and fished, gathered rice and berries and tapped maple trees (spring).
2) Tie saplings at top and shape into dome; cover with sheets of bark or rushes; leave hole at the top to let out smoke from fire.
3) Totem
4) Windigo - a spirit who waited in the dark cold woods of winter for some human flesh. Fear of being caught by Windigo and also fear of turning into a Windigo (suggests winter starvation could lead to some cannibalism).
The Plains Natives
1) Southern prairie provinces from Manitoba to the Rocky Mountains. Flat, dry grasslands with cold winters and hot summers.
2) Buffalo provided main source of food and also materials for clothing, housing and implements. (See Further Reference - The Importance of the Buffalo).
3) To transport possessions using a dog or horse to pull it.
4) The Sun Dance
The Plateau Natives
1) Between the Rockies and the Coast Mountains (interior of British Columbia).
2) Salmon. Men caught them with nets, harpoons, spears or traps. Women filleted and dried the fish.
3) Pit houses dug into the ground.
4) By a council of elders.
The Northwest Coast Native Peoples
1) Their key resources for food and materials - salmon and cedar - were plentiful year round. Since they could spend less time on basic food gathering, they had time to produce works of art.
2) Salmon, seals, shellfish, crabs, lingcod, halibut and herring, and eulachon oil.
3) Totem poles.
4) The concept of territorial ownership and a class system.
The Dene
1) Western subarctic. Severe winters with limited forest areas and much tundra.
2) Athapaskan
3) Caribou provided not only food, but also materials for clothing, tools and housing.
4) No. Power was temporary.
The Inuit
1) Much longer and darker winters; rivers and lakes frozen for nine months a year; no resources like roots, berries and tree bark used by more southerly tribes for food and building materials.
2) Seals fed people and dogs, provided oil for cooking, and hides for clothing and tents. Whale blubber also important for fuel.
3) Seal oil lamp heated the air which melted the inside surface of the snow blocks. The melted snow quickly refroze creating a bond over the whole surface.
4) They made the clothing which was so important in this cold climate.
Essay answers
1) Answer should include: description of environment (harsh, mild, containing certain resources and not others); names of foods eaten and description of how tribes organized, co-operated to hunt, etc.; modes of transportation (by foot, by water); social organization (importance and function of chief, family groups traced through mother or father, change from winter to summer social organization); important spirits and festivals.
2) Answer should include: Disease (eg: smallpox); slaughter; increased fighting among different native groups competing for control of fur trade; necessity of going to English trading posts disrupted normal nomadic movements; intermarriage; native dependence on trading posts and introduction of firearms and European food; economic shift from “sharing” to “competing” and from “communal” lands to “territorial ownership;” higher demands for resources (no longer just minimal use for survival, but surpluses for trade) led to depletion of key resources (beaver, buffalo); destruction of native spiritual beliefs by European missionaries; introduction of alcohol demoralized native peoples.
