Subarctic Indians

An introduction to the history, dwellings, artwork, religious beliefs, clothing, and food of the various Native American tribes of the Subarctic, the large area of land south of the Arctic.

A guide to reliable sources and studies.

Come along with us as we meet some America's first peoples. Turn the pages of Subarctic Indians to discover what the windigo was and why it turned into a people eating monster, how some Indians used animal bones to heal sick people and give advice, how Subarctic Indians turned their clothing into art. Each book in the Native Americans series explores a different area of our book in the Native Americans series explores a different area of our country and the people who first lived there. Find out how these people lived long ago, what happened when Europeans arrived, and how Native Americans today are keeping their cultures alive. Each book includes: colorful maps, photos, and illustrations, a section on famous Native Americans, a list of books to show you where you can learn more.

Using the accounts of fur traders, explorers, officials, and missionaries, Colin Yerbury documents the profound changes that swept over the Athapaskan-speaking people of the Canadian subarctic following European contact. He challenges, with a rich variety of historical documents, the frequently articulated view that there is a general cultural continuity from the pre-contact period to the twentieth century. Leaving to the domain of the archaeologists the pre-historic period when all the people of the vast area from approximately 52N to the edge of the tundra and from Hudson Bay to Alaska were hunters, fishers, and gatherers subsisting entirely on native resources, Yerbury focuses on the Protohistoric and Historic Periods. The ecological and sociocultural adaptations of the Athapaskans are explored through the two centuries when they moved from indirect contact to dependency on the Hudson Bay trading posts. For nearly one hundred years prior to 1769 when North West Company traders began to establish trading relationships in the heart of Athapaskan territory, contacts with Europeans were almost entirely indirect, conducted through Chipewyan middlement who jealously guarded their privileged access to the posts. The boundaries of the indirect trade areas fluctuated owing to intertribal rivalries, but generally, the hardships of travel over great distances prevented the Athapaskans from establishing direct contact with the posts. The pattern was only broken by the gradual expansion of the traders themselves into new regions. But, as Yerbury shows, it is a mistake to believe significant sociocultural change only began when posts were established. In fact, technological changes and economic adjustments to facilitate trade had already transformed Athapaskan groups and integrated them into the European commercial system by the opening of the Historic Era. The Early Fur Trade Period (1770-1800) was characterized by local trade centered on a few posts where Indians were simultaneously post hunters, trappers, and traders as well as middlemen. But the following Competitive Trade Period before the amalgamation of the fur companies in 1821 saw ruinous and violent feuding which had devastating effects on traders and natives alike. During these years there were great qualitative changes in the native way of life and the debt system was introduced. Finally, in the Trading Post Dependency Period, monopoly control brought peace and stability to the native population through the formation of trading post bands and trapping parties in the Athapaskan and Mackenzie Districts. This regularization of the trade and proliferation of new commodities represented a further basic transformation in native productive relations, making trade a necessity rather than a supplement to furnishing native livelihoods. By detailing this series of changes, The Subarctic Indians and the Fur Trade, 1680-1860 furthers understanding of how the Hudson's Bay Company and then government officials came to play an increasing role that the Dene themselves now wish to modify drastically.

The indigenous peoples of North America and Greenland have long inhabited and thrived in a variety of terrains and climates. The three different culture areas of the Arctic, American Subarctic, and American Northwest perhaps best exemplify this—from the sometimes stark environment of the tundra to the moderate conditions of the coastal regions in northern California, the indigenous communities in each found ways to subsist on the resources available to them even when facing social, political, or geographic adversity. This compelling volume examines the histories, lifestyles, and the spiritual and cultural traditions of the diverse groups that make up these culture areas.

Encyclopedic summary of prehistory, history, cultures and political and social aspects of native peoples.

An analysis of health care among Indians in the central subarctic of Canada, principally Ontario and Manitoba. Based on an analysis of the interrelationships between health status, medical care, and social change, proposes a broad strategy for improving the health of native peoples in Canada.

A comprehensive, illustrated encyclopedia which provides information on over 150 native tribes of North America, including prehistoric peoples.