First Nations and Inuit

After

The special cultures and histories of the First Nations and Inuit have had a big effect on the shaping of the country we now call Canada. Without them, the exploration and mapping of Canada would have been more difficult and taken longer. Their knowledge also saved the lives of many explorers.

A Cure Made from Trees!

The virtue of cedar tea (Iroquois showing Jacques Cartier the cedar cure for scurvy) Copyright/Source

It was the winter of 1535-36. Jacques Cartier and his men were holed up in a fort at Stadacona (now Québec). By February, 100 of the 110 men had fallen ill. If left unchecked, the disease would cause rotting gums, loose teeth, swollen legs and arms, diarrhea, among other things just as horrible. Death awaited them.

Meanwhile, afraid to let the Native people outside the fort know they were ill, Cartier ordered the few healthy men to make as much noise as possible, to trick the Native people into thinking all was well inside. He was afraid they might attack if they knew the truth.

One morning 25 of the men had died. Cartier met Donnacona, the chief, outside the fort and told him about the terrible sickness. The chief immediately had a large pot of tea made with the bark and leaves of the cedar tree. A few days later everyone was cured.

The illness was scurvy, and the cedar contained Vitamin C, the cure.

	Pemmican, a food made by the Native women, contained dried powdered meat, animal fat and sometimes cranberries or saskatoon berries, stuffed into animals' intestines or leather bags. It was nutritious, easy to carry and kept for a very long time.

	Pemmican was to become the main food of the fur trade and polar expeditions. William Laird McKinlay had this to say about it: "…but now the tea-break was a blessed relief. Tea was the only part of our meals that I enjoyed. I had taken an early dislike to our staple diet -- pemmican; the Hudson's Bay variety was too fatty; the Underwood was too sweet. I depended on tea to wash it down." McKinlay, William Laird. Karluk: The Great Untold Story of Arctic Exploration and Survival. London: Granada Pub., 1978, ©1976, p. 111.