Grade 5- Interactions between first nations and Europeans prior to 1713

Grade 6- Contributions and Assessments to Canadian Idenitity

http://portageandmainpress.com/lesson_plans/plan_509_1.pdf

http://www.gov.pe.ca/photos/original/eecd_socstud5.pdf

Canada's First People

Canada's First Nations have been in the country we now call Canada for at least 12,000 years, and perhaps much longer. For almost all that time, they survived very well in a harsh environment, making everything they needed without polluting the water, or air, and without destroying the land or over-hunting and decimating the animal populations.

Each First Nation had self-government and recognized the independence of other First Nations. They all developed unique systems of government, and their own unique way of life (tools, clothing, shelter, transportation, etc.) Most First Nations of Canada lived mainly from hunting and fishing. They migrated seasonally to get food. They moved their camps from season to season to specific places and areas where they knew there would be food. In one season, they would hunt large animals; in another they would fish; in the fall they would gather berries, and so on.

The only farming people were the Iroquois and Hurons, and related tribes, in what is now southern Ontario.

Inquiry Question: What were some short- and long-term effects of the relationship between First Nations and European explorers and settlers in New France? (Before the year 1713)

Throughout history different groups in Canadian communities have come together to help one another. These groups knew they would accomplish more if they worked together.

When European explorers began arriving, they depended on the first nations to survive. First nations people taught the Europeans how to make tea to prevent scurvy and how to make food. They also helped the Europeans navigate the country.

http://www.slideshare.net/esample458/history-of-canada-colonization-and?next_slideshow=1

Treaties

Additional Info on Treaties

• Treaty-Making in Canada
• Treaties with Aboriginal people in Canada
• Maps of Treaty-Making in Canada
• Map Room

What are treaties?

In Canadian history, treaties are agreements made between the Crown and Aboriginal peoples. (The Crown is the legal name for the British and later Canadian governments.) Treaties have been a very important part of the relationship between Canadians and First Nations people for more than 300 years. These agreements are solemn promises and set out rights and benefits for each group.

What did the Crown and First Nations get from treaties?

The Crown and First Nations signed many treaties between 1701 and 1923. These treaties were signed for different reasons. Some were signed to create military alliances or maintain peaceful relationships. Others were signed to set aside farmland for European settlers new to Canada.

In many treaties, First Nations provided land to the Crown in exchange for specific rights and benefits. These rights and benefits often, but not always, included land to be set aside for First Nation use only (known as reserves), money to be paid to a First Nation every year (known as annuities), access to hunting and fishing grounds, and schools and teachers on reserves that would be paid for by the government.

Beginning in the 1880s, Aboriginal children across Canada were removed, often forcibly, from their homes and placed in Indian Residential Schools. At the schools, students were forbidden to speak Native languages and practice their culture. Testimony from surviving former students presents overwhelming evidence of widespread neglect, starvation, extensive physical and sexual abuse, and many student deaths related to these crimes

Fur Traders

Shortly after Europeans began sailing to Canada to explore and to fish, they found out that Canada was a land with many fur-bearing animals. When explorers and fishers began trading with Aboriginal Peoples for fresh food, they learned that the Aboriginal Peoples had furs from the animals they hunted. The fur trade in Canada began because many Europeans wanted these furs. Both the French and the English used furs, especially beaver fur, to make hats and to trim other clothing. They became partners in the fur trade with the Aboriginal Peoples.

The fur trade was a booming business in North America from the 1500s through the 1800s. When Europeans first settled in North America, they traded with Native Americans. The Native Americans often gave the settlers animal furs in exchange for weapons, metal goods, and other supplies. The settlers then sold many of the furs back to Europe. There, wealthy people had a high demand…

• There was increased conflict between the Algonquins and the Iroquois as they competed for control of the St. Lawrence, gateway for the French fur traders.
• The English system of trading posts (like York Factory and Moose Factory) required the native people to travel great distances to deliver the furs. This changed their normal nomadic movements.
• The French traded differently, going into native lands where they often took native wives and gradually evolved a Métis (mixed race) people.
• The native peoples became dependent on the trading posts for firearms and ammunition and for European food. Because they were devoting most of their time hunting for the fur trade, they didn't have time to hunt for their own food as they had in the past.
• Rather than having an economy based on "shared" food, they now had an economy based on individual profit from furs. Communal hunting grounds started to be divided and the concept of territorial ownership began to take hold in native communities.
• With the fur trade, conservation was abandoned. When hunting for food, native peoples would take only what they needed. Surpluses surplus: extra quantities leftover after basic needs are met. were not necessary. Now, the fur trade economy meant that the more furs hunted, the more money there was to be made. Eventually this decimated decimate: destroy much of; kill a large part of. the beaver population.
• The fur trade and European contact also brought the "black robes" - the Catholic missionaries, mostly Jesuits, who came to convert the "heathens." Previously, native religions had been animistic animistic: of or associated with animism - a belief that there are living souls in trees, stones, stars, etc. - attributing equal spirituality to all things. People did not have a higher spiritual standing than trees, rocks or deer. This suited the way native people lived with the land.
• The Europeans also introduced alcohol to the native population. This contributed to (and reflected) the demoralization of their culture which was taking place.
• European diseases, for which the native people had no immunity, took a serious toll on native populations.

The name Gallia Nova (New France) was first recorded in 1529 on a map prepared by the brother of Giovanni da Verrazano, who, in the service of France, had explored the coasts of North America in 1524 from what is now the Carolinas north to Nova Scotia. Then in 1534 the French navigator and explorer Jacques Cartier entered the Gulf of St. Lawrence and took possession of New France for King Francis I. In succeeding years Cartier ascended the St. Lawrence as far as the Lachine Rapids, to where Montreal now stands, and attempted, with Jean-François de La Rocque, sieur de (lord of) Roberval, to found a colony near what is now Quebec. The colony failed, but out of these explorations the French fur trade with the Native Americans (First Nations) of the gulf and the river regions began.

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Samuel de Champlain was employed in the interests of successive fur-trading monopolies and sailed into the St. Lawrence in 1603. In the next year he was on the Bay of Fundy and had a share in founding the first French colony in North America—that of Port-Royal, (now Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia). In 1608 he began the settlement that was named Quebec, selecting a commanding site that controlled the narrowing of the St. Lawrence River estuar

Acadia was an early French colony in North America. The French called it Acadie. It was part of what was known as New France. Acadia was located generally in the area that is now the provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in Canada

The seigneurial system was an institutional form of land distribution established in New France in 1627 and officially abolished in 1854. In New France, 80 per cent of the population lived in rural areas governed by this system of land distribution and occupation

King Louis XIV took control of the colony from the Compagnie des Cent-Associés in 1638. He wanted the colony to grow faster than it had under the company's care. The King appointed three men to help him. The governor would rule the colony and be in charge of the army. The bishop controlled the schools, hospitals, and the missions. The intendant ran the courts, the fur trade and the finances of the colony.

Settlers were badly needed in New France. Young men were encouraged to come from France. They were offered free passage on a ship, room and board, and a small wage. The promise of free land and plentiful fishing and hunting convinced many young farmers to try for a better life in New France. With only one woman for every six men, there weren't enough women in the colony. Young healthy French women were offered free transportation to New France as well as a dowry containing one ox, one cow, two pigs, two chickens and two barrels of salt pork. These women were called les "filles du roi" (the king's daughters). Between 1665 and 1672, more than 1 100 young women came to New France. They were looked after by the nuns and quickly married upon their arrival. To encourage large families, the government gave money each year to people with ten or more children.

By 1675, the population of New France had grown quickly to 8 000. Part of the population consisted of slaves. People in New France owned both African and Aboriginal slaves. By 1759 there were between 1 000 and 1 500 Black slaves in New France. Most of the slaves in New France lived in or near Montréal and worked as house servants. Some of the slaves worked as farm labourers. Others did heavier work at the French fur-trading posts, building and defending them. There were many different slave owners in New France. Some were merchants, traders, military men, governors, church bishops and parish priests. Even the nuns used slaves at their hospitals and schools.

The Catholic Church was an important part of life for daily settlers. They attended mass weekly. Gathering with neighbors allowed them time to socialize. The church was also the only form of education in New France.

Missionaries arrived in 1611. They looked after the spiritual welfare of settlers and helped establish hospitals and schools. They also taught first nations people about French culture. The missionaries thought they were helping first nations but over time, they lost their language and culture because of them.