Like Europe, Native Canada was a complex cultural mosaic. The Native people spoke twelve major languages and many more dialects. Probably numbering some three hundred thousand individuals, they inhabited all areas of present-day Canada but they were very unevenly scattered across the land. The majority lived in semipermanent villages along the rivers and bays of coastal British Columbia, in southern Ontario, and in the St. Lawrence valley. Otherwise the country was thinly peopled by small groups who led highly mobile lives.
Native societies ranged in character from the highly stratified ones of the west coast to the bands of the northern forest and tundra regions where people lived Together in small kinship groups. The village-dwellers of the Pacific coast were primarily fishermen; those of southern Ontario and the St. Lawrence valley depended heavily on the produce of their gardens for food, supplemented by fish and venison from the hunt, while the remaining groups relied on the chase. Generally speaking, for all Native people religion stressed their close relationship with a natural world infused with supernatural power. Most people believed in a great spirit, who had given the land to them, and a host of lesser spirits from whom they sought assistance, guidance, and protection, although the ways in which these beliefs were expressed and the ceremonies practised varied a great deal.
It is not easy to obtain a clear picture of aboriginal Canada on the eve of colonial expansion. Native societies were non-literate, and so have not left us the kinds of written records historians ordinarily rely on. We must turn to archaeology. Native oral traditions, and the documents of the early European intruders—all sources that have their limitations—to form a coherent picture of life.
Archaeology gives us a very incomplete image of this time. Potsherds, stone implements, and most of the other materials archaeologists have unearthed say nothing directly about the ways people organized their lives or what they thought about their world. From these we can only draw inferences, based on similar features of our own contemporary cultural traditions.
Kutchin Warrior and his Wife. The traditional dress is similar to that found among other Athapaskan-speaking people such as the Chipewyan. The tunics are pointed in the back, following the shape of the skins. The only article of European manufacture here is the kettle. This 1851 lithograph is after a drawing by A. H. Murray.
And many elements are missing in archaeological excavations, because organic remains do not survive for very long periods, except in waterlogged bog soils, in permafrost, and in the semi-arid regions of the prairies. Often we have little to draw on for information about the lives of the early Native peoples, other than a small sample of stone implements or a few ceramic remains in places where pottery was made.
Most groups had well-developed oral histories, traditions, and legends, and they provide revealing glimpses of life before the European intrusion. Unfortunately, however, many of these accounts were not recorded until long after the first contact with the newcomers, and, as a result, they are fragmented and sometimes blend experiences from both before and after contact. In spite of these difficulties many of the histories, traditions, and legends offer us crucial images of belief systems, world views, and the experiences of a few individuals and groups.
Given that so little is available to us, we must, wherever possible, draw on the accounts of the first explorers, traders, and missionaries. But here, too, we face difficulties because virtually all records of initial encounters were kept by men, most of whom were isolated from their families and from European women for long periods. The kind of information they recorded and the ways they interpreted what they saw were strongly coloured by their own immediate social situation, their cultural background, and the purpose of their visit. The duration of the visit was also critical. It was necessary, in order to truly understand a community, to live with it for a lengthy period of time. But most of the early explorers had only brief encounters as they pushed on in search of mineral riches, new sources of fiirs, and the elusive western sea. Even those who spent long periods with the Native people found there were barriers that prevented them from completely understanding many aspects of their life, particularly religion. “I must remark,” David Thompson wrote, “that whatever other people may write as the creed of these natives, I have always found it very difficult to learn their real opinion on what may be termed religious subjects. Asking them questions on this head, is to no purpose, they will give the answer best adapted to avoid other questions, and please the enquirer.”
The season of the year and the place where Europeans first met Native groups similarly had an important bearing on the idea they formed of the Native world. Most of their overland exploration was by river between late spring and early autumn. Generally they were looking for a water passage to Asia, or they were seeking new trading partners. For these reasons our first pictures of the interior of the country are essentially riverine views and our first maps are route maps. Given that many Native groups moved up to several hundred miles on their
Keskarrah a Copper Indian Guide and his Daughter Green Stockings; both appear to be wearing caribou-hide robes. Note their “Europeanized” faces. An 1823 coloured lithograph after a drawing by Lieutenant Robert Hood.
Annual rounds and often depended upon very different resources as the seasons changed, a summer glimpse alone, or a winter one for that matter, provided an unbalanced picture. Today, this has sometimes led to conflicting conclusions about where many Native groups lived and on what resources they depended. No longer are debates on these points merely of academic interest; Aboriginal and treaty rights claims often hinge on interpretations of these early records.
Even more confusing is the fact that away from the coastal regions, the European presence in North America began to affect Native life long before Europeans and Natives actually met, primarily as a consequence of different tribes trading European goods among themselves, and the spread of European diseases. The fact that changes were taking place long before any actual contact with the intruders means that many of the earliest first-hand accounts do not give us an accurate idea of Aboriginal Canada in its undisturbed state, because the Native societies were already in transition. When Alexander Mackenzie made the first European trek across British Columbia in 1793, he met Indians in the upper Fraser River area who had European goods, even though Mackenzie was the first white man they had ever seen.
European drawings, paintings, and, later, photographs often provide important depictions of life in early times. But many are impressions made by artists who drew their own interpretations from the accounts of others. Even when artists actually visited the Native peoples, their drawings and paintings were strongly influenced by their own attitudes towards their subjects, their artistic training, and current fashion. Photographs too can be very misleading. A good example is the work of Edward
Kutchin Winter Lodges; these semi-subterranean, wood-framed, earth-covered dwellings provided warmth under the most extreme conditions. They were similar in many respects to the winter houses of the Inuit of the Mackenzie Delta and Labrador. An 1851 lithograph after a drawing by A. H. Murray.
Curtis, the famous photographer of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century who set out to record Native culture before it disappeared. To accomplish this, Curtis took with him into the field a collection of Native artefacts and clothing that he used to stage many of his poses. He also “doctored” some of his negatives so that the resulting prints would not feature articles of European origin in any prominent way. Although Curtis’s photographs are recognized works of art, they are not a reliable record of Native life.
Clearly, capturing a reasonably accurate image of Native Canada is no easy task; we must consider many types of evidence drawn from many sources, from the later precontact era through the first century after contact.
World History
