Unit 1- Origins of the first people

There are a number of these theories as to the arrival of Canadas first people. 1) Scientific Research 2) Mythology Beringia Land Bridge Theory During the last ice age the sea and water levels dropped so much that a plain was exposed linking Siberia (Asia) with North America thus making it possible for the natives to travel and disperse all across North America. 35000 BCE to 8000 BCE is the period when the Palaeolithic peoples crossed over the land bridge. Definitions: -Palaeolithic: People of the Stone Age (natives), they were hunters, and gathered people and traveled for their food. -BCE: Before Current Era.

Major Aboriginal Groups 1) 2) 3) 4) 5) 6)

Arctic People: Paloe-Inuit, Dorset Sub-Arctic: Dene (N. Manitoba, NWT), James Bay cree, Beothuk (Extinct, Newfoundland) Northwest Coast: Haida, Cowichan, Bella Bella, Bella Cula, Singlet Plateau: Kutenai, Squamish (S. Alberta) Plains: Blackfoot, Plains Cree (Saskatchewan, S. E. Alberta) Eastern Woodlands: Ojibwa, Algonquin, Odawa, Huron.

2000 years ago the first people spoke 50 different languages. They lived in all corners of present Canada. The first nation for the: First Nations Assembly, a political party formed to give their people a voice. Northwest Coast The population was 60000 to 200000 before European contact. Their natural habitat would provide them with the materials they needed to build homes and the plethora of animals provided for good hunting all year round. The ocean was near so an abundance of fish was an easy commodity, all of these positive factors allowed for their tribes to flourish unlike the Intuits. It was one of the richest natural habitats in North America. There was an abundance of cedar which is rot and water proof. Their homes were made of cedar, they were called long homes. Out of the cedar they would also carve totem poles which were used to make a statement as well as a landmark to other tribes who returned wandered their way. Red Cedar dominated their culture. It was strong, light weight and a rot resistant building material. It was used as a building material for baskets, totem poles, homes... In front of family long

houses would be totem poles or house poles and on them they would carve designs to symbolises the different family or social status within the community, so on lookers or villagers would know who the home belonged too and their social rank in that community. Like many other aboriginal tribes those on west coast did partake in slavery, they would enslave their warfare hostages or individuals captured from another tribe. Natives were very much into rich designs, their clothing and homes were very representative of their artistic ways and surroundings. Definitions: -Potlatch: A celebration or feasting, which involved storey telling and dancing this type of ceremony was held to recognize a death, a birth or a marriage. During this type of festivity gifts were given to guests, a form of redistribution of wealth. The bigger the gift the higher that stature of the receiver in the village. And at times daughters would be given to the chiefs as a gift to be used for pleasurable reasons or as a slave. The gifts given would publically confirm status, social order and rank. Arctic people Inuits were the last to arrive in Canada. They developed kayaks, harpoons and igloo buildings. They lived long dark winter months. Their main source of food came from seals. They were nomadic and followed their food. For the most part of the year they lived in igloos and for the occasional summer depending on how far north they are they would live in tipis or wigwams. Kayaks were made with seal skins, and their harpoons (spears) had a string attached so when they threw them they could retrieve them. They would survive on fish whale and seal and when food ran out they would have to rely on their dogs or abandon the elderly who were about to die or young female children and eat them later. Life was tough; few of the natural riches were afforded for the West Coast communities. Igloos were there to provide shelter. The death of an animal signified new food, new clothes and new materials used for tools and what not; every part of the animal was used. People of the plains The tribes included the Blackfoot, the Pawnee, Plans, Cree and Crowe. Their life centered on the buffalo, and out of the buffalo their bones would provide tools, and the skins would provide fur for clothing and the rest would be used for other useful purposes. Pemmican was dried buffalo meat pounded into powder and added fat and bone marrow, and it would be turned into a substance almost like beef jerky. This allows for the long time preservation of meet, the buffalo was not readily available, and hunters may go months without seeing anything. The tepee or wigwam was ideal for nomadic people and were typically made of ten poles and animals skins binned together. One of the traditions of the plains was the Sun Dance a celebrations to bring various communities together to gain spiritual aid. The purpose of a gathering of the sort was to renew kinship arrange marriages and exchange property. The Sun Dance lasted approximately eight days, and throughout that week they would feast and celebrate.

The Buffalo Hunt (Head-Smashed-In Buffalo). They would dress up as wolves, and hide and when the buffalo would come near they would jump out scaring them and if the hunters were lucky they would get the buffalo to fall off cliffs making their kills easier. The First Contact with the Europeans Timeline -908 CE: Norse came from northern Europe (Denmark, Norway, and Sweden) and they settled in Iceland and Greenland. -1008 CE: The Norseman went for a boat ride and found Newfoundland, and decided to explore their new acquisition for quite some time. -1497: Giovanni Caboto claims Newfoundland. -1534-1542: Jacques Cartier makes three trips to Canada in his lifetime. -1604: Samuel Champlain explores the St.Lawrence River and begins a permanent settlement in Canada, a small settlement in Nova Scotia. In 1008 the Norseman settled on the Northern tip of Newfoundland, they were led by Leif Erickson. Exploring the coast they established a community name LAnse aux Meadows. They were the first non-natives to make contact with North America. During their stay they bumped into the aboriginals in that region name the Beothuk. This tribe was exposed to the elements thus making them look withered in appearance and they were shorted than them so they Vikings would call them Skraelings. A screaling was a Scandinavian troll derived from their cultural myths. In the end the Norse settlement only last for a couple of years before disappearing for good. Giovanni Caboto 1497 Giovanni Caboto was of Italian descent, but sailed for the British, as they sponsored his ship, hence the name they derived for him John Cabot. He established the first continuous contact in between the Aboriginals and the Europeans in 1497 off the coast of Newfoundland One resource available at the time in abundance was cod, so much so that they would take it back to England. But to do so involved drying the fish and preserving it with salt and packing it in ice. Out of this a conflict arose, they were using the beaches which belonged to the Beothuk. This would cause a major conflict and in the end the Beothuk lost, only because they were not immune to the European diseases that they brought with them and when they contracted it no matter how far away they got from them the diseases it would still accidentally kill them, thus the extinction of the Beothuk. These New Found Isles spawned a steady stream of fisherman from Spain, Portugal and England. Giovanni Cabots ship was named Mathew. Giovanni Caboto & the Beothuk For Newfoundlands aboriginal community the Beothuk Cabotos arrival marked the beginning of the end for them. The Beothuk painted their faces red; hence the term red Indian was coined and was used erroneously in reference to the North American Aboriginal people. The trouble between the

Beothuk and the European fisherman began over the use of the shoreline space that was required by both sides. The Europeans guns and rifles were no match against the Beothuks spears and arrows. Eventually the Beothuk retreated to the interior parts of the province moving away from their homes and the Europeans and eventually due to the circumstances the Beothuk were wiped out due to tuberculoses. They were always a small tribe, in 1700 there were approximately 1000 of them and that number dropped quickly right after, the last beothuk know was Shawanadithit who died June 6 1928 at the age of 29. Jacques Cartier Jacques is from France, a port city named St.Malo. Jacques Cartier made three trips across the Atlantic Ocean. At forty three years of age, Cartier was a stocky man with a sharply etched profile. His calm, steady, thoughtful eyes under a high, wide brow held a hint of power. His face, slightly hawk-billed with a beard that bristled defiantly, was normally calm in contemplation of the sea, but easily roused to rage and violent action. On April 20, 1534 two little sailing vessels hardly more than yachts departed from the town of St.Malo. The old harbour steeped in sea faring tradition. Even in the summer anything could happen in the north Atlantic, westerly gales hurled crested seas again the little barks bouncing. Despite seafaring competence and caution countless ships dropped to the depth in these northern waters, their crews lost forever in the cold deep of the dark sea. The First Voyage 1534 Jacques Cartier sails across the Atlantic and ends up in Gaspe where 300 aboriginals lives from Stadacona (Quebec City today). The aboriginals traded fur and in exchange they would get pots, pans, guns. By partaking in this trade he builds a relationship with them. Two sons of chief Donnacona joined Jacques Cartier for the remainder of his explorations; they were from the Iroquois tribes. In Cartiers diary he writes: We likewise made signs to them that we wished them no harm... they bartered all they had... and made sign to us that they would return on the morrow with more skins. The Second Voyage 1535 During his second trip he goes farther than before, Cartier travels up the St.Lawrence River to the village of Stadacona, known as Quebec City today. He continued further up the river to the village of Hochelaga known as Montreal today. After some trading in Hochelaga, which eventually upsets Donnacona however he returns to Stadacona to spend the winter. In the spring he returns to France, and on this voyage he forcibly grabs the chief, Donnacona, with him back to France as a display to the King. The Third Voyage Cartier returned to establish a permanent settlement. He brought with him on this voyage five ships, with settlers and cattle. When they got back to Statacona they were not welcome, so they decided to go further up the river about ten miles and create a settlement. After a dismal winter with poor weather and a lack of trade with Donnaconas people and deadly attacks, Cartier decided to abandon the

settlement and returned to France. He returned to his hometown of St.Malo where he died peacefully at 65, he does not know the impact his voyages would make on the rest of the world. No permanent settlements would take hold for another 60 years until the arrival of Champlain. Cartier used the Iroquois word Kanata or village to describe the communities along the St.Lawrence shoreline the name later became Canada.

Unit 2: New France 1604-1763

Two major events take place during the French period: -Arrival of Champlain and French Settlement in 1604. -The fall of New France to the English in 1763. Port Royal In 1604 Champlain arrives and forms a settlement in present day New Brunswick on the Bay of Fundy. After a terrible inter they relocate across the bay at Port Royal in present day Nova Scotia due to the fact that it is better protected from the elements of the weather. French Motivation -Trade route to the Orient -Resources: fish, timber, furs -Colonization -Spread Catholicism Stadacona Champlain establishes a permanent trading post at Stadacona, now known as Quebec City. He goes to Stadacona for the reason that Donaconas tribe has moved on, and the building opportunities we amazing due to the fact that it was on high ground to be able to see where trespassers would be coming up and down the St.Lawrence River which in the end was easy to defend. Once they got settlement Champlain instructed his men to go live with the natives to pick up their language and customs, they would be called truchements. They in turn became translators for the French as well as give them directions on routes at sea and on land to the other tribes.(Forerunners of the Coureurs de Bois) Ville Marie While in Ville Marie a catholic missionary establishes the beginnings of this town later to be known as Montreal. His purpose was to convert the Aboriginal population to Catholicism. Among the Group was a woman named Jeanne Mance and she worked to open a small one room hospital with eight beds. She

cared for the French and the Aboriginal alike, she did not discriminate. It became known as the Hotel Dieu Hospital. Missionaries The French sent two groups to save the souls of the Aboriginal people. The reason why was due to a fight in Europe over the spread of religious control. Protestantism VS. Catholicism. The King of France wanted to secure the Aboriginals souls as his own. They would send Jesuit priests and the Ursuline nuns and the black robes were males. Life in New France Timeline: -1663: The royal French government is established in New France. -1670: The Hudson Bay Company was established by Britain. -1681: The population of New France hits 10000. -Over 200 Seigneries were given land along the St. Lawrence river. George Washington tough that the British were terrorists and the British that returned were loyalists and traders by Americans. Royal Government The commencement of a government brought reassurance to the settlers of New France; they had a growing fear directed towards the Iroquois. King Louis XIV wanted to build his empire and protect it from the English and the Dutch who were commencing to populate New England. France established a Hierarchical system of ruling, ruled by Jean Talon who would be the highest ranking civil administrator. A governor and council of leaders known as a sovereign council, which formed the government. The people of New France accepted these leaders and the RC church as the rulers of the land. Human rights however did not exist back then as they do today. At first only Catholics could claim land, there was no free press and most citizens were loyal subjects known as second class citizens. The traditional institutions in France were simply transplanted in New France. Ancien Regime. The ruling class which consisted of the RC church administration and the military too a paternalistic approach the people. The Seignerial System They brought the system over from France, a system of land distribution based on the Federal system. Large rectangular strips of land along the St. Lawrence Rivers were given to the privileged class. The Seigneur was responsible for clearing and setting the land. The habitants were lower class workers, given a portion of land and paid the Seigneur an annual fee for having use of the Seigneurs grist mill. The habitants also had to work the land of the Seigneur for a certain numbers of days each year and pay titles to support the ideal priest and church. The title amounted to almost one third of the habitants annual crop. As a result of this payement to the church in return you would get health services, acceptance and a spot in heaven.

Slavery In the 1680s most slaves in New France were aboriginals although there were a few cases where Africans were imported as slaves. New France established its Code Noir, which set the policies and guidelines for policing slaves. All slaves were forced to follow Catholicism contrary to being Protestants. During the French regime the majority of enslaved people were Aboriginals. However when New France came into the control of Britain in 1760 the culminating and overwhelming number of slaves were of African American descent. The life expectancy of a slave was 17.7 years for slaves of aboriginal descent and about 25.2 for slaves of African descent. Filles de Roi In 1663 most of the population in New France was male, to assist in population the country the King of France decided to send over 6000 young woman over. These lower class women were known as Les Filles Du Roi. Upon their arrival in New France they would be in the care of Marie de LIncarnation at the Ursuline until they found a hunsband. Engages They arrived as indentured servants, they were typically young men who signed a three year contract to work on a seigneury and in exchange they were free for a passage to New France with boarding. Habitants About 80% of the population was habitants which were peasant farmers who lived within the seigneurial system. The habitants grew crops all summer long and cut wood in the winter and left them on the ice over the water until it melted and then it would flow down rivers towards the mill on the St.Lawrence River. The Catholic Church would look down on some of the social customs of the habitants such as the relaxed way the habitants relaxed the approach of raising their children. They thought that not being firm and rigid with the children would end up spoiling them. The church made a statement: People in this country love their children madly, imitating the savages and this prevents them from disciplining them and forming their characters. Acadia The area around the Bay of Fundy, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia is where the Acadians established their settlements. This area changed hands between the British and the French fourteen times until about 1713 when the British finally seized permanent control. Timeline: -1713: Britain granted control to Acadia (Nova Scotia), the British demands French speaking Acadians to take a loyal oath to England. -1749: Mikmaq declares war on the British intruders.

-1755: The British then expel all the Acadians by burning down their homes and robbing them of anything they can find, afterwards they sell the objects and with their earnings they use the money to pay the ships captains to return these Acadians back to British dominated land. 1759: Britain takes on the French in Quebec City and win. Louisburg French Fortress In the decades leading up to the expulsion, the Acadians had formed close ties with the Catholic Church and their Mikmaq neighbours. The British demand for all to accept the oath to the King og England, falling onto their ears. The aboriginals however and the Acadians were not interested. Mikmaq and French Missionaries attacked the British for in Halifax. This was the Mikmaq declaration of war, and they start fighting with the French and declared a war against the British. An aboriginal quote: The place where you stand, where you build houses... belongs to me. I have grown up on it. Despite promises to be neutral, the Acadians were not trusted by the British. In 1755 the Acadians refused once again to take the oath to the British King. Colonel Charles Lawrence ordered the mass ethnic cleasing of the Acadians without the authority from London. Colonel Charles Lawrence said: ...the French Acadians shall be removed out of the country as soon as possible... orders are given for a sufficient number of transports to be sent up... for taking them.... Evangeline This poem abouyt the deportation was written by an American named Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. The poem is ficticious but it is based on the Acadian deportation, very famour in the United States. All Acadian propert was forfeited to the British crown. The British argued that this propert would help cover the costs of the expulsion. In the very first summer in 1755 ther deported over 7000 acadians. Over the next eight years this figure rose to 10000, only about 900 were left behind. The Acadians were deported to: 1. The American Colonies 2. England 3. The Caribbean islands Not all survived many of them died at sea either by drowning or caught a diseas such as typoid and the smallpox and others suffered in refugee camps. Two thousand escaped the south and eventually to Canada. A couple hundred of them eventually trekked inland from the Carolinas and settled in Louisiana. The Fall of New France In 1758 the British seize the French Fortress at Louisbourg, and in 1759 Britain defeats France in Quebec. In 1763 New France is handed over to the British, at the end of the seven year war and the declaration that stated the such was The Treaty of Paris. The Seven Years War Britan vs. France New France was only one of many colonial possessions at stake. With France preoccupied the European War and Britain decided to take its fight to New France. In 1758 Britain would send 39 ships

bearing 12000 troops to seize the French fortress. Following the surrender in July all of the inhabitants were deported to France. Quebec City In 1759 General James Wolfre sets out from Britain with 51 waships, 80 transports, and 55 smaller ships in a flotilla thats stretched 150 km long and all those ships were carrying 15000 soldiers. The bombardment of Quebec City lasted nine weeks and finally on September 12th 1759 the British troops scaled a 50 meter cliff and gathered in an abandoned cornfield known as the Plains of Abraham. On the Plaines of Abraham the British waited to engage the French General Montcalm. Montcalm vs. Wolfe The French Defenders were the french and the British Invader were the British troops. The Loss of New France It was a great misfortune for us that France could not send, in the spring, some vessels with provisions and munitions... she has lost a vast country and a faithful people, sincerely attached to their sovereign... -Sister Marie de la Visitation Six days after the fall of Quebec City to the British, the city of Montreal also surrendered to the British without a fight. The appeased the French by letting them keep their language and religion so that they could keep farming and also the British were afraid that they were going to loose the United States to George Washington and his rebels but at least they would keep Canada. Within the articles of Capitulation was an item which would have long term significance for the French Canadians. While in the hands of the French, Quebec was named New France and in the power of the British Quebec was called British North America. ArticleXXVII: The free exercise of the Catholic religion... without being molested on any pre-tense, either directly or inderectly. Under British rule life for the most part continued as it had before thir capitulation to the British. There was no rush on the part of the British to change things in their newly acquired colony renamed British North America. Sensing discontent in her thirteen colonies to the south, the British decided, quite wisely, to do whatever was required so as to gain the support of the people they had just conquered. Thus the British tolerated the ways and institutions that defined life French life in British North America. The First two Governors of BNA Murray and Carleton, realized that their small British army was surrounded by 70000 French Canadians and an increasingly hostile thirteen colonies. The British seized the opportunity to maintain the Catholic church because it provided means for maintaining the people. Quebecs church and seigneuries represented a hierarchail ideal that was quickly fading in the thirteen colonies south of the boarder. Governor Carleton reminded the British Government that all would be lost in North America without support from the French Canadians.

He argues that the French Canadians need to be indulged with a few privileges which the laws of England deny to the Roman Catholics at home... they would soon become the most faithful and most useful set of men in this American Empire. The Aboriginal Population Following the British victory the biggest losers were the Aboriginal people. With the French gone they lost their strategic position between the two European powers. This upset the Aboriginals, so the chief Pontiac of the Odawa tribe toughens his nails so he gathers his people together and says they must declare a war against the British. Pontiac said: Although you have conquered the French, you have not conquered us. We are not your slaves. Chief Pontiac an Ottawa (Odawa) chief led a war against the British Conquerors. Chief Pontiac warned his people to rid themselves of their dependency upon the white man. Why do you suffer the white men to dwell among you?... you have bought guns, knives, kettles from the white men until you can no longer do without them; and what is worse, you have drunk firewater, which turns you into fools Pontiacs war against the British lasted in between 1763-65. British forces used germ warfare to eliminate the Aboriginal enemy. Blankets used by those who were contaminated with TB were cut into small pieces as medicine to Pontiacs people. In 1765 a peace treaty was signed and four years later Pontiac was murdered by another tribesman hired by the British. The Royal Proclamation- 1763 The Royal Proclamation set out the rules by which the British would govern Quebec. It also included something that they hoped would appease the Aboriginal population. The British established an Indian Territory just west of the Appalachian Mountains and the Thirteen Colonies. Unfortunately this land grant for the Aboriginals angered the Thirteen Colonies- as it prevented them from settling the West:. This land issue becomes one of the major reasons that convinced the 13 colonies to revolt against their British masters.

Unit 3: