What are the 6 regions of Canada?
- Atlantic Gulf Coast
- St. Lawrence Lowlands
- Canadian Shield
- Interior Plains
- Western Cordillera
- The North
What are the Characteristics of the Atlantic Gulf Coast?
- Extension of the Appalachian Mountains
- Appalachia: Ancient mountain range, eroded over time, was as big as the Rockies
- Continental Shelf: a huge and unlimited supply of fish
What were the people like in the Atlantic Gulf Coast?
- People were migratory and prosperous
- The Spring: Camps would be set up near bays to fish
- The Summers: Seals and Whales were hunted
- The Fall: Migrating birds are hunted, along with eels being caught
- Egalitarian, which prized individual freedom
- A system based on consent, not coercion
What are the Characteristics of the St. Lawrence Lowlands?
- Rolling hills, Fertile fields
- Great for growing corn, squash, and beans - “The 3 Sisters”
- Canada’s tobacco epicentre
What are the Characteristics of The Canadian Shield
- A gigantic-massive rock
- About 45% of Canada’s geological mass
- Boreal forests
What are the Characteristics of The Interior Plains
- Rolling hills, not a lot of trees
- The Prairies
- Deposits left over from the glacial melt, leaving a large area of bedrock
- A lot of coal and potash
- Known for farming
- Not as fertile as the St. Lawrence Lowlands
What are the Characteristics of The Western Cordillera
- Made up of 6 young mountain ranges, not just the Rockies
What are the Characteristics of The North
- Region North of 60॰ latitude
Very short growing season
Trees get shorter further North
Perma-frost - causes very limited agriculture
What were the people like in the St. Lawrence Lowlands
- Farming under way for thousands of years before European settlers
- High levels of farming of the “3 Sisters”
- Hunting occurred, but relied way less on it than other regions
- Allowed for a more sedentary people
- People would live in long houses (30 metres/ 100 feet long)
- Had walls around the village with maze-like passage ways
- About 50 long houses in each village (40 people per house), 1000 people in a village
- Agricultural surpluses were traded for fur/meat
- Formal government systems between nations before Europeans
- Matriarchal structures where women would elect male leaders for government and war
What were the people like in the Canadian Shield
- Relied heavily on hunting
- Would live in bands of people (Only 30-40)
- Seasonal migration
What were the people like in The Interior Plains
- Bison were the heart of the culture
- Everything came from the bison - clothing, weaponry, food
- The Blackfoot people had less gender equality than most of the region
- Chiefs had multiple wives, early wives had more rights, later wives had less, needing to do more daily work (chores)
- Men would outnumber the women
What were the people like in The Western Cordillera
- Lived in large communities
- Hunting large whales, seals, salmon
- Slate-crafted harpoons for whale hunting
- Dug-out canoes
- Would store food
- Enormous warehouse style homes, housing 100 people
- Social hierarchies were rigid
- Chiefs were held by hereditary decent
- Distribution of resources were not equal
Cheifs → Wealthy → Freemen → Slaves - Potlach
- Men and women help in economy (Material Culture) - women: baskets, textiles - men: totem poles, masks
What is a Potlach?
- A ceremony to help reduce poverty in the community, redistributing resources
- Would receive gifts, by also acknowledging the giftees as higher powers
What did 1500 A.D. look like?
- The population was much less than in Mexico
- ½ million - million population, most living on the West Coast
- About 50 different indigenous groups
- The West Coast was home to the most language groups
What are the 2 “F’s”?
Fish and Fur
What were the 2 Fish preservation methods?
“Dry Fisheries”
- On Land
- Required several months, stayed for processing
- Occurred on Newfoundland shores
- More common with English
“Green Cure”
- Done aboard ships
- Required more salt than dry fisheries
- More common with the French
