Chapter 7 – The Native Peoples of Canada
Table of Contents
p.187 Introduction
p.188 The Inuit of the Arctic
Looking for Food
Social Organization
p. 193 The Iroquois of the Eastern Woodlands
Society and Government
The Agriculture of the Iroquois
p. 198 The People of the Plains
The Hunt
Plains Spirituality: The Sun Dance
p. 202 The Peoples of the Plateau
Home on the Plateau
The Importance of Salmon
Cultures in Contact
p. 205 The Peoples of the Northwest Coast
Social Organization
Art and Dance
Homes and Canoes
The Potlatch
Food By the Season
Introduction to Native Peoples of Canada Chapter
Mythology
 Myths are traditional stories that typically explain something
about the universe - some sort of natural or social
phenomenon.
 Myths usually involve supernatural beings or events
Purpose of Native American Myths:
 To explain the workings of the natural World and their
connection to it
 To support Native traditions and social customs
 To enlighten and guide people through life
 Natives created these myths to make sense of the world
 To attempt to explain the mystery of the Universe
**Read Myth about the Squamish people and the Salmon
What are some interesting themes of Native American
Storytelling/Spirituality that you notice when reading this story?
 Involves supernatural beings and events
 The supernatural brothers – who turn themselves into a fish
and a whale
 the Snookum (the sun that turns into an eagle)
 The Chief who “sends the salmon” every year
* Myths are a large part of Native American Culture and Spirituality
– we will learn more about this on Monday
**Read the Introduction on pg. 186
 Long before any Viking or Europeans came to Canada, North
America was home to millions of Native peoples
 These Native Peoples represented many different culture
groups and spoke hundreds of languages
In this chapter we will learn about different Native groups from
different Regions and how they thrived in those Regions given the
resources and the conditions, which we studied in the last chapter.
Anthropology definition:
* The study of humankind and the interactions of human beings, as
well as, their society and culture. This includes:
* How they structure their lives
* How they interact with one another
* How they interact and deal with the World
around them
The 13 paragraph headings on pg. 186-187 are the categories that
Anthropologists use to describe Societies/Cultures. This organized
way of describing a society/culture is known as ethnography.
Ethnography Definition:
An organized way of describing a society/culture
Complete the Vocabulary Words:
1. Subsistence
2. Hunting & Gathering
3. Domestication
4. Shamanism
5. Kinship
6. Matrilocal
7. Patrilocal
8. Patriarchal
9. Patrilinial
10. Bilateral