The boreal forest is vast. It stretches westward from the Labrador coast over three thousand miles to the lower Mackenzie River and the Yukon. Within this northern forest, people spoke different dialects of two major languages: Athapaskan (north-west of the Churchill River) and Algonquian (to the south and east of the Churchill). Despite their inability to understand one another, Athapaskan - and Algonquian-speakers faced similar environmental challenges and found similar solutions, and so shared many aspects of everyday life. These forest people adapted well to their environment. Tools, weapons, clothing, and ceremonial objects were fashioned from locally available materials rather than secured by long-distance trade. Life was organized around commonly learned skills and highly portable tools and equipment. Weapons for taking large and small game consisted of bows and stone-tipped arrows, stone-tipped lances, deadfall traps, and snares.
Snares were particularly effective. In the late eighteenth century, on his epic overland trip from the Churchill River to the Coppermine River, the explorer and fur trader Samuel Hearne described their use by the Chipewyan for hunting barren-ground caribou:
When the Indians design to impound deer, they look out for one of the paths in which a
Number of them have trod and which is observed to be still frequented by them____The
Pound is built by making a strong fence with brushy trees... the inside is so crowded with small counter-hedges as very much to resemble a maze; in every small opening of which they set a snare, made with thongs of parchment deer-skins... amazingly strong____
Lured or driven into the pound and caught in the snares, the caribou were then speared or shot with arrows. Hearne added that this was such a successful hunting method that Chipewyan bands could often spend most of the winter at just one or two locations. In a similar fashion, the Cree took caribou by building “deer hedges” across pathways, and placing snares in openings left in these barriers. Smaller game, hare and rabbit, were taken by the same means, while fish were caught with hook and line, dip nets, and weirs, or fences stretched across the rivers.
Men fashioned most of the weapons, although women made the snares and traps for small animals. Women also made most of the household equipment, including stone knives, bone or wooden scrapers for processing hides and pelts, stone burns to etch bone and wood, bone needles, wood and bark containers, and, among the Algonquians, pottery. Vessels generally were of poor quality so it was not possible to cook in them over an open fire. Most food was therefore either boiled by placing hot stones in water or roasted on sticks or spits. With obvious relish Samuel Hearne described Chipewyan cooking methods as consisting
... chiefly in boiling, broiling, and roasting: but of all the dishes... a beeatee, as it is called in their language, is certainly the most delicious, at least for a change, that can be prepared from a deer only, without any other ingredient. It is a kind of haggis, made with the blood, a good quantity of fat shred small, some of the tenderest of the flesh, together with the heart and lungs cut, or more commonly torn into small shivers; all which is put into the stomach, and roasted, by being suspended before the fire by a string. Care must be taken that it does not get too much heat at first, as the bag would thereby be liable to be burnt, and the contents be let out____
The women also fashioned the clothing, from hides and pelts, and decorated it with porcupine quills, moose hair, and perhaps painting. Tailoring involved a minimal amount of cutting, relying instead on the natural shape of the hides; “Chipewyan” in fact means “pointed skins,” referring to the animal tails left on the clothing. For most of the year, outerwear consisted of a long shirt or tunic worn by men and women alike, along with leggings and moccasins. Underneath, men wore breech-cloths and women culottes. Winter wear included a warm, durable beaver coat worn with the fur side inward and used for two or three years before it wore out. Towards the Mackenzie valley, women commonly made coats from strips of rabbit skin. For bedding, these Native people used deer and moose hides, hare blankets, and bear skins. Women usually made lodge coverings from moose or deer hides, bark, or brush, arranged over a conical framework of poles. Up to fifteen people could be accommodated in one of these dwellings.
Probably the best-known article of Native culture is the bark canoe—light in weight, of shallow draft, and easy to repair. It was these craft that made it possible for Europeans to explore the northern half of the continent so swiftly, because they were easy to portage over difficult terrain and to navigate over unexpected rapids and along the rivers. Although there were some minor variations in design between tribal groups, traditional northern Indian canoes were able to carry only two adults, one or two children, and a cargo of 115 to 135 kilograms (250 to 300 pounds).
In winter, snowshoes, dogsleds, and toboggans were all essential for moving over deep snow. Wherever possible, people travelled over river ice on leeward shorelines to avoid rough terrain and wind. Dogsleds were usually pulled by only one or two dogs, because hunters were rarely able to feed more. As a result, the northern Aboriginal people, particularly the women, carried many of their possessions on their backs when moving from one hunting ground to another. Such dependence on Human and dog power meant it was impossible to accumulate possessions, given the mobile lives of these northern hunters. It also discouraged acquisitive behaviour and wanton exploitation of the environment.
Northern Native groups had what anthropologists call “small-scale” societies, in which daily contacts are ordinarily limited to close kin. The smallest group was the winter band, which usually consisted of a few closely related families. Its size was controlled by two factors, safety and efficiency. Moose and caribou, the primary winter game, were not herd animals and so were most effectively taken by hunters working in pairs or in small parties. Hunting and living in kinship groups also increased the chances of survival. If the male head of a family sickened or died, starvation could still be avoided, because the family would be supported by the band.
Marriages took place with little fanfare and, when necessary, were easily dissolved. Of this aspect of Cree life, the explorer David Thompson observed:
Nothing is requisite but the consent of the parties, and Parents: the riches of a man consists solely in his ability as a Hunter, and the portion of the woman is good health, and a
This 1880 oil painting by Thomas Mower Martin, Encampment of Woodland Indians, shows the blending of European and Indian cultures. The women are wearing European dresses and are using a trade kettle, but the lodges and canoes are still made of birchbark.
Willingness to relieve her husband from all domestic duties____When contrariety of
Disposition prevails, so that they cannot live peaceably together, they separate with as little ceremony as they came together... without any stain on their characters____
Native people clearly did not have the same double standard about marital and premarital sexual relations as the European males who left us their accounts. Chastity was not considered an essential virtue, though Thompson reported that “sometimes it was found to a high degree.” Samuel Hearne, speaking of the Cree, said that “no accomplishment whatever in a man, is sufficient to conciliate the affections, or preserve the chastity of a southern Indian woman.” Hearne’s remark reveals his sexism: it says nothing about the traders who often encouraged debauchery. Indeed, by Hearne’s own account, traders were not averse to using force to win sexual favours. He noted that the Hudson’s Bay Company trader Moses Norton, himself the son of a mixed marriage, kept several wives and a box of poison. The latter was employed against Indian men who refused him their wives or daughters.
Another Aboriginal social custom which many newcomers saw as scandalous was that of spouse exchange. Here Hearne exhibited more understanding:
I should acknowledge that it is a very common custom among the men of this country to exchange a night’s lodging with each other’s wives. But this is so far from being considered as an act which is criminal, that it is esteemed by them as one of the strongest ties of friendship between two families; and in case of the death of either man, the other considers himself bound to support the children of the deceased. Those people are so far from viewing this engagement as a mere ceremony, like most of our Christian god-fathers and god-mothers, who, notwithstanding their vows... scarcely ever afterward remember what they have promised, that there is not an instance of a Northern Indian having once neglected the duty which he is supposed to have taken upon himself to perform.
Perhaps reflecting the male perspective of the time, Hearne does not tell us whether Indian men had to seek the consent of their wives for these arrangements. Similarly, he does not consider the possibility that sometimes women may have initiated these bonds. It is clear from the commentary of other European observers that Indian women were not deferential to men.
Political organization was very flexible. The people tended to follow natural leaders. Usually, the headman of a winter band was a superior hunter, married, and a
Here the Indian is presented as a menacing savage armed with a traditional war club, a trade axe, and a musket. More puzzling are the undersized snowshoes the traveller is wearing with his summer dress. Iroquois allant a la decouverte: etching by J. Laroque after a drawing by ]. Grasset de St. Sauveur (Paris: 1796).
Skilled orator. The headman of the summer band was generally the most respected individual from among the leaders of the smaller winter bands. In contrast to European political organizations, these men held no power simply by virtue of their offices, and major economic and political decisions were made collectively. Nothing was done until a consensus was reached. Headmen operated by persuasion, not coercion. When dealing with the outside world, they were expected to be good spokesmen on behalf of their followers, and they were chosen in part because of their abilities as traditional orators.
One of the basic problems for Native peoples living in the northern forest was the periodic scarcity of game after forest fires, or from diseases and the normal fluctuations of animal populations. Generally these shortages were localized and of short duration. To cope with them, the Native peoples developed a number of effective strategies. Within bands, close kin felt obliged to help each other in times of need, sharing surpluses with their relatives without receiving an immediate return. “Those acts that pass between man and man for generous charity and kind compassion in civilized society,” remarked David Thompson approvingly of the Cree, “are no more than what is every day practised by these Savages, as acts of common duty....” Because sharing was considered a duty, the hoarding of personal wealth was regarded as antisocial, and leaders were expected to exhibit great generosity. In direct contrast to the Europeans, a northern Native person gained status by giving rather than by accumulating. Sharing also took place between groups. If moose or caribou hunts failed in a band’s territory, permission was normally granted to hunt on the range of neighbouring bands. Sometimes food shortages could be alleviated through trade, particularly for northern bands who lived adjacent to the Iroquoian area of southern Ontario. Generally, however, northern-forest people did not engage in extensive inter-tribal trade, simply because the forests lacked sufficient resources to make it practicable.
Individually through vision quests, and collectively through special feasts and rituals such as drumming, the peoples of the horeal forest sought the good will and assistance of the spirit world. Thompson, who exhibited great sympathy with Aboriginal religious beliefs, described those of the Cree:
They believe in the self existence of the Keeche Keeche Manito (The Great, great Spirit)...
He is the master of life____He leaves the human race to their own conduct, but has placed
All other living things under the care of Manitos (or inferior Angels) all of whom are responsible to Him... each Manito has a separate command and care, as one has the Bison, another the Deer.... On this account the Indians, as much as possible, neither say, nor do anything to offend them, and the religious hunter, at the death of each animal, says, or does something, as thanks to the Manito of the species for being permitted to kill it.
Religion was a highly personal affair, but individuals who were thought to have special powers to commune with the spirit world became shamans. One important ceremonial rite that these visionaries performed among the Algonquian was that of the shaking-tent, in which the shaman conversed with the spirit world in a lodge specially constructed for the purpose. Among the Ojihwa, whom Thompson described as the “Great Religionists,” these Native spiritual leaders formed a fraternity, the midewiwin or Grand Medicine Society, which was the most important religious institution in their traditional culture. Sacred symbols of the society were preserved on birchbark scrolls as mnemonic aids for its members.
Native people living in the maritime region of eastern Canada developed similar ways of life. The principal difference was that the Beothuk, Mi’kmaq, and Malecite inhabited both the seashore and the inland forests. And it was because they lived along the coast in the summer that they were the first to come in contact with European explorers and fishermen. Eventually the latter took control of marine resources and marginalized aboriginal people in the emerging commercial fishery.
World History
