The Cree: Mysterious Winter Months

Woodland Indians inhabited the large geographical area in eastern North America. The varying climates and four seasons affected how each individual group of Indians lived and ate. The Appalachian mountains and Great Lakes prohibited movement of people to some extent. Some people were able to harness the shoreline water as a means of transportation. Gardening and harvesting of crops became a way of life for these people but was sometimes complicated by the harsh winter conditions in northern Wisconsin. Utilization of natural resources controlled the economy. These Indians were very knowledgeable about the trees and plant life in their area. They used the abundant wildlife as part of their

Spring: The Dakotas tribe were returning to their camps when Spring had arrived. They got straight to tapping the maple trees.They would use the syrup for sugar and hard candies. They would also use the syrup for geese and duck bills.They would trade the syrup for other goodies .They would hunt muskrats,otters, beavers,minks, and martens. The muskrats were used to feed hunters.

How Forgiveness and Strength Can Overcome Pain and Struggle: An Essay on “7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga” by David A. Robertson. Through the graphic novel “7 Generations: A Plains Cree Saga”, author David A. Robertson demonstrates the themes of forgiveness and healing through a paternal relationship developed between Edwin and his father. Robertson highlights the elements of forgiveness through a back and forth depiction of modern day First Nations and their journey through hardship brought upon by residential schools. Robertson showcases the impact of previous trauma on the lives of generations that followed and how they battled to overcome the tragedies of their past. The novel revolves around a theme of healing that is shown in various

They grew corn, sunflowers, for their seeds, pumpkin, squash, potatoes, spinach prairie turnips, berries, and fruits. Vegetables and fruits was a food that they usually ate with each meal. While the men, hunted was buffalo, deer, elk and wild turkey (Alchin). Twice a year the tribe went on buffalo hunts. The tribe at times ran low on food, and when that happened the tribe at pemmican, dried buffalo (The Pawnee Indian Tribe).

The North American Native American tribe of the Crees is divided into two main groups, called the Woodland Crees and the Muskegon, Swampy or West Main Crees. There are two main differences between the two groups and the differences are in locations and beliefs. Along with being situated in the western side of the territory, the Woodland Crees believed in the higher presence of Manitou. In 1700, the Crees lived from south of James Bay into Eastern Alberta, North to around Fort Churchill and Lake Athabaska, and south to a line running roughly from just north of Lake of the Woods to the Lesser Slave Lake. The Crees also inhabited a section of the Great Plains. In the early sixteenth century

A beavers dam and crack the ice in 40-50 different places. The beavers would then have to come out of the broken holes in the ice. Moose were the Mi’kmaq’s most productive food and were hunted from February to mid March. Meat and fish would then be dried and smoked to preserve them. Berries, roots and edible plants were also a source of food for the Mi’kmaq, (Nova Scotia 3; Davis 27).

How did the Canadian Inuit Traditional Way of Hunting and Gathering Recourses Provide Food and Eating Practises in the 19th Century, and How did this Culturally Effect the Community?

The article “the inuit paradox” starts off with an Inupiat woman describing the most common foods that she consumed growing up in an Inuit community in which foraging is necessary for survival. She describes that the traditional Inuit diet focused primarily on meat that was foraged from the environment.

The Iroquois also used their surroundings to make to make and to provide food. In Document #2 it says that the Iroquois used bark from the local elm trees to make a bark tray. The bark

The Plains Cree Tribe lived in Canada, north and west of Lake Superior in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories. Women wore dresses made out of deerskins, Men wore animal skin leggings,a loincloth which is a small piece of cloth or skin worn between the legs and a belt to hold the loin cloth. They did not speak english, their language is called Montagnais. They lived in teepees.

The economic and cultural influences of the 19th century Hudson Bay Company had a significant impact on the diet and food practices of the Northern First Nations Peoples, which impact created a dependency on the government. From this dependency Northern Canada emerged as a welfare state. Prior to European contact, the First Nations exercised regular hunting and gathering practices, relying on game animals as a key meat source. These Peoples, such as the Barren Ground caribou hunters and the Ojibwa fishing villagers, were considered affluent as they had stable food resources which supplied a surplus to their needs (Coates 1989). Resource management strategies, such as hunting multiple species, had been established and were practiced by the hunters to avoid food shortages or scarcities (Coates 1989). Most tribes which based their food supply on a primary large animal – such as the barren ground caribou – would also hunt secondary prey sources, like the beaver (Coates 1989). However, modifications were made to these management strategies as the First Nations responded to the demands created by the open market of the 19th century Hudson Bay Company. The Peoples developed as commercial

The wada plant, a “seed that was tiny but available in great quantity”; allowed for the mass congregation of the Wada-eaters, as they collected the seed “as well as the seeds of goosefoot, Indian Ricegrass, Great Basin Wild Rye, mule-ear, and other desert plants” (Aikens 17). October-November permitted “the time for deer hunts, antelope drives, and rabbit drives” (Aikens 17); while signaling the time for winter preparation. December-April gave away to the winter, where tribes spent time in their respective encampments enjoying the fruits of they labor achieved during the preceding months, with the occasional escapade “out for fishing, waterfowling, and hunting” (Aikens 17). Through these seasonal influences, we can see that the Northern Paiutes social behavior and migration patterns were greatly affected by the environment. Spring, summer, and fall months were spent hunting and gathering in anticipation of the winter to come. The environmental factors that provided for bountiful harvests of seeds, berries, and meat also provided for gathering places “where people could also come together and celebrate, exchange, trade, provide courtship rituals, marry, form alliances, and other important social

When the Native Americans were forced onto reservations they stopped hunting and preparing their own food. Instead the United States government gave them food that their bodies were not used to digesting. Indians were not used to eating flour, lard, canned meats and poultry that are swimming in fat, and canned fruits and vegetables packed in sugary syrup.

The Inuit are very spiritual people and they do not believe in a lot of the same things we do. They believe in something called Animism, all living and nonliving things have a spirit. When someone or something dies they believe that things spirit goes to the spiritual world. They only people powerful enough to talk or communicate with these spirits are religious leaders, Shamans or “Angakoks”. The way these religious leader speak with them is through dances or charms. They wear masks and clothes of an animal because they believe it helps them to communicate with them better. Not all spirits are good ones, when the weather was bad or there was an illness going around they believed it to be a displeased spirit, but the Inuit used guidelines to try to make the spirit happy. There was five rules that need to be followed in order to please the spirits, 1) women are not allowed to sew caribou skins on the inside of there igloo on sea ice in the winter. 2) Inuit can not eat sea mammal and land mammal at the same meal. 3) A knife used to kill whales had to wrapped in sealskin, not caribou skin. 4) After killing a seal melted snow had to dripped into its mouth to quench the spirit's thirst. 5) The Inuit saved the bladder of the hunted because they believed that’s where the spirit was found inside. One of the most important spirits was Sedna, The Goddess of the Sea. She provided them with food from the sea, which made the Inuit most happy.

The Sioux ate what they found in the homelands. Buffalo was an important food, it was mostly hunted in the fall. None of the buffalo was wasted. It was eaten and made into clothing, tipi coverings, shields, and weapons. The Sioux also made pemmican from dried meats, dried berries, dried fruits, nuts, and melted buffalo fat. The meat, berries, fruits, and nuts were crushed. Then they poured melted buffalo fat over the mixture. The pemmican was stored in animal intestines and bladders. The containers were lightweight, watertight, and safe from insects.