The Canoe

 Here are some of the tools of the Algonquian tribes of the Eastern Woodlands.

Given pride of place in this area is a contemporary version of a birchbark canoe. This was made by traditional methods by Todd Labrador, a Mi'kmaw elder from Nova Scotia. It is covered with symbols and animals that speak to his cultural background.

On the West Coast, life for thousands of years was lived in plank houses, and fisheries were essential to that way of life.

Tools for fishing include weights and hooks.

Other tools of life in that region would include mortars.

One of the fascinating aspects of this area is a collaboration of archaeologists and the village of sishalh, concerning the discovery of remains buried four thousand years ago. We'll take a look at that tomorrow.

The Cache

 A panel here explains that the Museum does not display artifacts excavated from First Nations burials anymore, but instead relies on reproductions in such cases.

First Nations peoples occupied the vast stretches of the Boreal Forest and made their lives hunting in the thousands of kilometres of woodland for thousands of years.

Some of the tools they would have used for hunting can be seen in examples like this.

7000 years ago, people began working with copper in the north. The McCollum Cache was uncovered by Lake Nipigon in Ontario's north- a cache of copper artifacts buried 4000 years ago indicating great wealth. Part of the cache is on display.

In the Far North, before Inuit peoples moved into the region, there were others who lived in the Canadian Arctic that existed for thousands of years before disappearing into the mists of time.

This is one of the oldest representations of a face in North America, an ivory carving found on Devon Island in the Arctic. 

Dorset peoples of the region left behind effigies and carvings of animals, including polar bears, hinting at their spirituality.

In the woodlands of Eastern North America, the Algonquian tribes took hold and developed their own lives. We'll pick up here tomorrow.

The Jump

It was on this date in 2013 that Ottawa Daily Photo had its first post, and aside from a brief break during the early days of Covid, I've been able to keep up with it on a daily basis. 

Picking up where I left off yesterday, this model is of a buffalo jump. The site Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump is in Alberta, and today a World Heritage Site. An indigenous elder explains in the video display above how things went. Tribes would corral a herd of bison into a stampede, and to a spot of their choosing- a cliff where they would fall. The model is vivid.

Nothing was wasted when these were done.

Life on the East Coast was heavily tied to the sea and to fishing. 

Tools of that way of life are seen here.

First Nations fishermen felt a connection to animals like killer whales and sharks, which were both competition and potential threat to them.

Timeless

 The Canadian History Hall is divided up into three galleries. The first goes from time immemorial to the end of the French and Indian War. It begins with the Anishinaabe creation story, told audibly in that language with English and French subtitles on the bottom of the screen.

What we know of the ancient past in Canada comes from indigenous oral tales and archaeological work.

Spear points and tools are signs of early human presence in the Americas.

There remains debate as to how long we've been here, or the routes we took.

In what became known as the Great Plains, the bison was everything to First Nations peoples.

This bison skull is displayed with spear points.