MrDonn.org - First People of the Far North in Olden Times (Alaskan Tribes, Inuit, Algonquian, Cree, Athapascan, Kutchin, Canada's First People)

Daily Life in Olden Times

The Far North
For Kids & Teachers K-12

What trick did the Kutchin people use to catch their enemies? How did these early people stop ghosts from entering their homes? Why was the shaman so powerful? What is a finger mask? Read and hear ancient myths. Use the Short Cut Menu to find just what you need. Welcome to Alaskan Natives and First Nations in olden times.

The Far North in Olden Times

Algonquian/Cree The Shaman

Athapascan/Kutchin Lesson Plans

Kwakiutl Links for Kids

Inuit Resources

Central Canada Native Index

The Northern Algonquians
The Woodland Cree in Olden Times

Hunters and Gatherers: The Algonquians were hunters and gatherers. The Cree were the largest and most typical of the northern Algonquian. The Cree lived in the area south of Hudson Bay to almost to the Great Lakes. Most were Woodland Indians. They used bark canoes. Homes were tepees covered with hide and bark.
Clothing: They wore leather leggings and leather boots. Women wore leather dresses belted at the waist. They made detachable sleeves that could be removed for summer wear, and attached for winter wear. In the winter they added coats, gloves, and hats as needed.
Tattoos: In olden days, they tattooed their bodies. The women only tattooed a couple of simple lines on either side of their face. But the men nearly covered their body with tattoos.
Tools: They made axes and arrowheads from stone. They made knives and fish hooks from bone. Containers were made from birch bark and stone.
Trade: The Cree also traded for goods. They were pretty easy to get along with. They were honest in everything except trade. But everyone knew that part of trading to the Cree was to be cunning.
Religion: They believed in many magical beings. The person who talked to the magical beings for them was the shaman - the medicine man.

Athapascans
The Kutchin Nomads in Olden Times

Hunters and Gatherers: The Athapascan were hunters and gatherers. The Kutchin were probably the most warlike of the Athapascans, but their daily life was pretty typical.
Clothing: They wore clothes similar to the Eskimos. The men's clothes had a pointed tail in the front and back so they could sit on the ice comfortably. Women's clothes were decorated with painted quills. The Ojibwa probably learned their quill making technique from the Athapascan. The men tattooed their bodies. They added a stripe for each person they killed in battle.
Homes: In winter, the Kutchin lived in pole houses. Some were covered inside with hides for additional warmth. The rest of the year, they traveled in search of food. They dragged portable homes with them, which were poles covered with hides.
Women: A woman's life was very hard. The Kutchin women pulled the sleds. When a new camp was set up, the men arrived first as they could move more rapidly. Once the women arrived, the women set up the tents and cooked food, dragged goods around. The men did nothing. During a hunt, the women had to follow the men, so they could pick up the kill and drag it back to camp. They cleaned the hide, dried the food, and made the clothing. A woman's life was so hard that women sometimes killed their infant daughters to spare them a woman's life.

Government: Chiefs had little authority. Any young man could get up in a council meeting and speak out without fear. The power was held by the shaman - the medicine man.

War Tricks: The Kutchin had a technique that worked very well for them. Before a war party set out, they danced a jig and wore masks. As they were traveling, they killed everything they saw, every animal, any person. When they arrived at a neighboring tribe's home, they pretended to be friendly. The minute the tribe was off guard, they killed everyone - men, women, and children.
Games: Life was not all war and revenge and hunting for food. These early people also loved singing, dancing, and story telling. They played many games. One was tug-of-war, women against men. Another was a trampoline jumping game. They stretched a very small fur between four trees and used it as a springboard to jump higher and higher until finally someone fell, much to the hearty amusement of all the onlookers.
Wrestling: Wrestling was their favorite sport. The tribal wrestling was a big deal. It was a contest. Young boys were paired off, two by two. The winner of each of those matches went on to wrestle another winner; and so it continued until one winner was found.

Central Canada First Nations
in Olden Times

The early people who lived in central Canada in olden times were very inventive. They created a weapon to kill birds called a bola. A bola was a collection of ivory balls on a string. A hunter hurled it at birds. If any of the ivory balls hit a bird, the rest of the ball would quickly wrap around the bird and bring it down.
Other early people learned how to wait patiently by a seal air hole in the ice. Sooner or later, a seal would surface to breathe. They made nets. They dropped part of the nets into air holes made by seals in the ice. They anchored the rest of net on the surface with weights. They checked the nets. When the caught a seal, they killed it quickly with harpoons. They used seals for everything, for skins, food, and oil for the lamps they made.

Lamps were made with pottery bowls. They filled the bowls with seal or whale oil. They used a bit of moss or a twist of fur as a wick. These lamps were used to cook food and to give light during the long winter nights.
They also made fire by striking two pieces of iron pyrite together. They made iron hooks for their harpoons. And they made cooking utensils.
Ice Houses: Their homes were wonderfully well constructed. These early people are credited with the invention of igloos. They fit blocks tightly together. Then, using lamps, they applied heat to the walls of their home, both inside and out. The ice melted a little, and quickly refroze. This sealed the blocks into one sheet of ice, and made their homes nearly air tight. One oil lamp could heat a home. Homes had windows made of clear sheets of ice. They had doors of ice that could be opened and closed.
During construction, they built in an ice shelf around the entire inside wall. They used the shelf to spread out bedding and for a place to sit. The ice shelves stayed frozen because one side of the shelf was part of the outside wall. The people stayed warm while sleeping on the shelves because they were tucked inside fur sleeping bags.
Clothing: Their clothing was neat. They made waterproof rain gear from the intestines of sea mammals. They made ice-free mittens from polar bear fur. They used soft caribou skin to make tailored pants and shirts and boots. They had hooded coats. They put polar bear fur around the hood, again to keep ice away from their face. Ice does not stick to polar bear fur.

Government: There was no central government. These first people did not have chiefs. Their central unit was the family. The most important person around was the shaman - the medicine man.
Ghosts: If someone died inside an igloo, a hole was cut in the side of the home. The body was removed though the hole. The hole was closed with blocks of ice, which were quickly subjected to heat to melt them tight. This was to block any chance that the ghost of the departed might return. They could not take a body out a doorway. There was no way to forever close a doorway to keep out ghosts. So, they used a hole in the wall instead.
Burial Practices: They could not bury their dead. There was no way to dig a hole in the ground in the frozen north. Instead, they covered the body with stones. Typically, they buried tools that person owned with the body, so they could hunt for food and clothing in the next life.
Games/Festivals: These early people were fun loving. They had comedians whose job was to make people laugh. The comedians invented a dance that mocked their fierce neighbors, the Kutchin. The comedians would dress up in masks and feathers and dance a jig. All the people knew they were mocking the Kutchin. Everyone laughed.

The Arctic Inuit in Olden Times

Hunters and Gatherers: There are almost no trees in the Arctic. There are few plants. It is cold most of the year. The Inuits could not become farmers. Like the other early people who lived in the Arctic, they were hunters and gatherers. In the short summer, they gathered berries, seaweed, and eggs. Their main food year around was meat.
Caribou: Because food was scarce, they could not live in the same place all the time. They had to keep moving, following the herds. Of all the animals, the caribou was the most important. It provided food and warm fur to make clothes. They made thick gloves to protect themselves from the sub-zero arctic weather. They rubbed noses to say hello instead of shaking hands.
Daily Life: The Inuits life was a hard one. During the day, they hunted for food. At night, the Inuit sheltered tent homes made of animals skins, or in ice igloos, a skill they learned from the Central Eskimos. They made spears, harpoons, and pipes. They carved animals from soft soapstone. They found time storytelling. Songs that told tales of hunting and hardship accompanied their stories.
Religion: The Inuits believed in magical beings. They believed that all living things had a spirit. Before a hunt, they offered gifts to the animal they hoped to catch. These gifts were offered through the shaman, the medicine man. They believed their shaman could talk to spirits. If the hunt was successful, the shaman got the credit. If it was not successful, that was the fault of the people - they had not been generous enough with their gifts.

Finger Masks: The Inuit women wore little masks on their fingers when dancing. This was to help attract the attention of the many spirits in which they believed.

The Shaman

The shaman was the medicine man. He was most important person in each tribe or group. Shamans were paid for their work in food, hides, and other items of value.
A shaman was credited with many magical powers. Through the power of chant and dance and magical signs and behavior, the people believed he could call up winds, interpret dreams, break up marriages, and foretell the weather.
The power to control magical beings: The early people of the far north believed in many magical beings. Some were good and some were evil. The shaman had the power to talk to these magical beings and to direct their behavior.
The power to predict the movement of the herds: Before hunters left to follow the herds, they consulted their shaman. The shaman used magical aids to find the best path. First, a shaman carved animal images on a piece of caribou bone. He heated the bone over a fire. When it cracked, hunters were told to follow the lines to find the animals. Since animals were plentiful in olden times, this method almost always worked. As in all far north tribes, the shaman was the most powerful person.
The power to kill: People believed shamans could kill someone, by sending an evil spirit into their bodies to make them sick, or to use an evil spirit to trick someone into dying. In the Kutchin world, people could hire a shaman to kill someone. The shaman was never guilty of anything. He was just doing the job for which he had been paid. Revenge was taken on the people who hired him.

The power to cure: The arctic people believed that their shamans had the power to rid a sick person of evil spirits. After that, it was up to the person to get well. Shamans were paid for their work whether the sick person lived or died.

Links for Kids

See and hear the Inuit Creation Myth - the Raven

Virtual Museum Canada - The Inuit

The Inuit

Polar Pairs - Java Game

Lesson Plans & Classroom Activities

Kwakiutl

Kwakiutl Indians (Northwest Coastal)

Kwakiutl Band (tribal site)

First People Lesson Plans

Traditional Education & Wholistic Education

The Inuit Family UNIT