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

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.

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

THIS AREA MELTED LAST

Iroquoians

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

Algonkians

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

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.

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

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

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

Longhouses

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

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

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)

Algonquians: their way of life

• Algonquian groups lived in the ‘Canadian Shield’ and Appalachian Mountain Regions NOT FERTILE

• NON FERTILE= hunting and gathering= NOMADIC

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

Algonquians Con’t

• How did Algonquians travel?– Foot, canoe, snowshoes,

toboggans• Tools?– Bows/arrows, stone

axes, fishing implements like nets

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