Chapter 1: The Land & it’s People- The First Occupants

1. Chapter 1: The Land & it’s People- The First Occupants

2. The First Occupants: Where did they come from? • Experts say that Amerindians arrived in North America 30,000 years ago • Evidence suggests that the first occupants crossed a ‘land bridge’ that was located where the Bering Straight is now.

3. Amerindians in what is now Quebec and Ontario • Is it believed that people settled what is now Quebec and Ontario 6,000 years ago. • For the most part, there were two groups in what is now Quebec and Ontario: • Iroquoians • Algonkians

5. THIS AREA MELTED LAST

6. Iroquoians • Iroquoians consisted of 7 main groups: • Huron • Neutral • Mohawk • Oneida • Onondaga • Cayuga • Seneca

7. Algonkians • Algonkians consisted of 7 main groups: • Algonquin • Montagnais • Cree • Ojibwa • Ottawa • Micmac • Naskapi tribes

8. Did they live in the same places? NO! • Iroquoian tribes  St-Lawrence Lowlands • Algonkian tribes  covering areas of the ‘Canadian Shield’ and the Appalachian mountains. • Living in different places  main groups had to adapt to different things.

9. Iroquoians: their way of life • Living close to the South end of the St-Lawrence & Lake Ontario  living on FERTILE ground • Fertile ground = Agriculture = SEDINTARY • Farming vegetables like corn, beans, squash • Men hunted from time to time, but not a if they didn’t catch anything, they still had agriculture

10. Iroquoians Con’t • How did they farm, hunt and store food? • Simple tools like stone axes, bows/arrows and baskets allowed them to live and maintain a sedentary life • Animal skins/furs comprised most of their clothing  trade with Algonkian tribes

11. Iroquoians Con’t • How did they travel? • Travel by foot (snowshoes in winter) or by canoe (on waterways) • What did their housing look like? • They built semi-permanent structures called ‘longhouses’ • Each longhouse housed several families

12. Longhouses

13. Iroquoians Con’t • Longhouses were 50-65 meters long • There were several Longhouses in one village • The village was surrounded by a tall wooden fence for protection

14. Iroquoians Con’t • Why were longhouses semi-permanent? • Every 8-10 years, the soil the Iroquoian tribes farmed became infertile…so they had to change where they lived • A new Group of longhouses was built elsewhere

15. Iroquoians Con’t • Iroquoian social structure was known as MATRIARCHAL • What did this mean for them? • Women made important decisions, were the leaders of permanent settlements and decided who would be the chief of the tribe/village (a man)

16. Algonquians: their way of life • Algonquian groups lived in the ‘Canadian Shield’ and Appalachian Mountain Regions  NOT FERTILE • NON FERTILE= hunting and gathering= NOMADIC

17. Algonquians Con’t • They did not farm like the Iroquoian tribes, so they relied on hunting animals and gathering wild vegetation like berries • Summertime=fishing grounds • What was their housing like? • Small/portable dwellings called wigwams • 2-4 families per wigwam

18. Algonquians Con’t • How did Algonquians travel? • Foot, canoe, snowshoes, toboggans • Tools? • Bows/arrows, stone axes, fishing implements like nets

19. Algonquians Con’t • The social structure= PATRIARCHY • What does that mean? • The opposite of MATRIARCHAL • Men made important decisions and were placed in leadership roles