Native Americans: Initial contacts with Europeans

Northeast and Great Lakes
The Indians of the north-east coast were the first to have been in contact with the Europeans. The first meetings took place during the Middle Ages and were very punctual. Vikings from Iceland crossed the Atlantic from the north and established camps at various points along the coast. This would be the Vinland described in their sagas. A reconstruction of one of these bases can be found at L'Anse aux Meadows on the Canadian island of Newfoundland.

Ignoring this first "discovery", other adventurers then touch the American soil. Unlike the Vikings, Christopher Columbus and his successors settled there. In the islands they own, peoples are present. Their history and ways of life remain unknown. Arawaks, Tainos or the Caribbean have disappeared or have melted into populations of European and African origin.

After a century of exploring the coasts and land along the course of the rivers, the Europeans began to settle on the east coast of the continent towards the end of the sixteenth century. The French in the north, the English in the center (with Dutch and Swedish settlements) and the Spaniards in Florida create small counters. Few, they usually content themselves with trade with the Indians. Beaver furs are widely sought on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean.

The arrival of families in the early seventeenth century in New England - located above the present-day New York - is changing the situation. Often they are members of Protestant sects whose attitude towards the Indians is variable. If the Quakers regard them with respect, the Puritans judge them as savages - the best known are the "pilgrim fathers" of the Mayflower. Rather well received by the natives, these settlers are in a situation of weakness. They do not know the specificities of the earth and the climate, which is rough in winter. Ties are being formed, but distrust and, above all, the desire to acquire land will, in half a century, cause the destruction of local peoples.

There are several reasons for this: wars of conquest of land by settlers, conflicts between French and English who make alliance with disunited Amerindian peoples, enslavement ... Epidemics wreak havoc, sometimes causing the disappearance of entire groups. Having no immune defense against diseases such as smallpox, pertussis, measles, influenza or chicken pox.

In the present Canada and the United States then lived several confederations.

To the north were the Algonquian peoples: Mohican, Pequot, Narragansett, Wampanoag, Massachusetts, Penacock, Abenaki, Maliseet, Micmacs, Betsiamites, Atikamekw, Algonquins, Montagnais, Beothuk ... By advancing inland, Lakes, live Chippewa, Cree, Miami, Delaware, Mohegan, Powhatan, Pamlico, Nanticoke, Montauk, Menominee, Shawnee, Fox, Potawatomi, Sauk, Ottawa, Kickapoo, Arapaho, Blackfoot, Cheyennes ...

The Iroquois confederation stretched in the same geographical area. Six nations constituted it: Cayugas, Mohawks, Onneiouts, Onondagas, Tsonnontouans (Senecas) and Tuscarora. The Iroquois sought to take advantage of their alliance with the English to eliminate their Algonquian neighbors and the Hurons who had joined the French camp. But they ended by knowing the same fate as their enemies.

Characters like Massasoit and Pocahontas have remained in the legend. One for saving the Mayflower settlers from famine and participating in the first Thanksgiving. The other had married a settler and had gone to live in England.

Along the "frontier"
After a first phase of conquest of the entire East Coast and the Great Lakes region, Europeans moved westward in the first decades of the nineteenth century, beyond the Mississippi frontier. Trappers and runners have long been in direct contact with Indians on the other side. Villages are made up of half-breeds, often of French origin. They will try to organize themselves into nations but will fail. One of the most famous attempts will be in 1885 in Saskatchewan (western central Canada) and will end tragically.

At the end of the eighteenth century, the French lost their wars in Canada. They have abandoned their claim to land between the Great Lakes and the Gulf of Mexico. The Emperor Napoleon I even sold Louisiana, the last French possession on the continent, to the young United States who, for their part, defeated the English during the War of Independence. Little by little, the United States decreed the annexation of the Indian territories whose permanence was nevertheless guaranteed by treaties. This nibbling provokes guerrillas and entails deportations as well as massacres. The arable land and the richness of the subsoil, in particular gold, give rise to this desire for expansion.
This policy is formalized at the highest level. In 1830, President Andrew Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act, which legalizes the deportation of the Amerindians from the east to the west of the Mississippi. The Cherokee Nation, which played the game of integration - it is part of the "Five Civilized Tribes" with the Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks and Seminoles - some of whose representatives have been educated in Anglo-Saxon, Which is declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

The president disregarded, resulting in armed conflict and expulsion of the Cherokee families during the winter of 1838-1839. This event has remained in history as the "Trail of Tears": at least 4,000 people died of cold, disease and exhaustion during the transfer of their lands from the southeastern United States to Oklahoma where they are now settled - their descendants strongly support the memory of this tragedy. The Seminoles, Creeks, Choctaws, Chickasaws are also displaced at the same time.

Sites and museums
Mashantucket Pequot Museum, Mashantucket, Connecticut
Nanticoke Indian Museum, Millsboro, Deleware
American Indian Cultural Center & Piscataway Indian Museum, Waldorf, Maryland
Parc Historique de Metepenagiag, Red Bank, Nouveau-Brunswick
SunWatch Indian Village, Dayton, Ohio
Huronia Museum & Huron-Ouendat Village, Midland, Ontario
Kay-Nah-Chi-Wah-Nung - Manitou Mounds, Stratton, Ontario
Manitoulin Island, Wikwemikong, Ontario
Museum Of Indian Culture, Allentown, Pennsylvania
French and Indian War Museum, Braddock, Pennsylvania
Senator John Heinz History Center, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Indian Caverns, Spruce Creek, Pennsylvania
Musée amérindien de Mashteuiatsh, Mashteuiatsh, Québec
Musée des Abénakis d'Odanak Odanak, Québec
Tomaquag Indian Memorial Museum, Exeter, Rhode Island
Bison Ranch, Muscoda, Wisconsin

Continue reading

History

Nunavut Arts and Culture

Nunavut

Nunavut was officially established on April 1, 1999. The territory covers the eastern and northern portions of what used to be the Northwest Territories, some two million square kilometers. More than 85% of the people living there are of Inuit origin.

The history of the Northwest Territories, and consequently of Nunavut, is rooted in the history of Canada. In 1869, two years after the advent of Confederation, the Hudson's Bay Company ceded its territories - referred to as Rupert's Land - to the new government for a few million dollars and 20% of the arable land. Larger parts emerged shortly thereafter to form Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Yukon, or to expand Quebec and Ontario. The year 1999 and the birth of Nunavut marked the culmination of the most important land claim process undertaken by Inuit in the Canadian Arctic.

The French language is present in the region. Already the crews of whalers or merchants consisted of a good proportion of Francophones coming from the European migratory waves towards the American states adjoining Quebec or Acadia. In addition, educational institutions were often run by religious communities with strong French components eager for proselytism. Oblate missionaries founded several parishes between 1910 and 1950. Captain Joseph-Elzéar Bernier and his crew criss-crossed the waters of the Arctic Ocean on behalf of the Canadian government between 1904 and 1920, Canadian sovereignty. In the 1970s, Frobisher Bay was increasingly becoming the capital city with the arrival of many regional offices of the federal government.

The vast majority of the population of Nunavut is neither Anglophone nor Francophone. Of the 31,152 persons residing in Nunavut as of December 31, 2008, some 85% have Inuktitut as their mother tongue and about 15,000 speak it at home. According to the 2006 Census, the first official language spoken by most residents of the territory is English (26,575); French, for its part, is the first official language of some 465 inhabitants of Nunavut.

The population of Nunavut is by far the youngest in the country, with a median age of 23 years. The Francophone community, however, is much older at 39 years. The Francophone population of Nunavut is largely adult. The under-20s account for 19% of the Francophone workforce. In fact, the majority of Francophones (58%) are between the ages of 20 and 49, a figure that reflects Nunavut's particular economy, largely dominated by resource development. In the francophone communities of the territories, families are few and young people are scarce. The consolidation of French-language institutions in the field of education could help the Francophone community in Nunavut to renew its base.

Eight out of ten Nunavut Francophones were born outside the territory. Almost all are from other Canadian provinces, with immigrants accounting for only 6.5% of the Francophone population. Francophone residents of Nunavut come mainly from Quebec, but also from other parts of the country. The Francophone community thus draws on a diversity that is predominantly native to Canada, which has an effect on belonging and identity.

Education is the key to the vitality of the Francophone community in Nunavut. In fact, there are significant proportions of Francophones with post-secondary education: 95 of them have a university education, to which are added more than 100 Francophones from Nunavut who have studied at college or other level. The level of education of Francophones is far above the territorial average, and the percentage of French-language college or university graduates significantly exceeds the national average for Francophones.

Cultural Dynamism in Nunavut

The Francophone Association of Nunavut is the spokesperson for the francophone community in Nunavut, the prime contractor for its development. In addition to the AFN, the components of a dynamic associative network include the Odyssée limited tourism cooperative (Odyssée Nunavut), the Nunavut Cooperation Council, Nunafranc Inc., and the Société immobilière Franco-Nunavut. The latter owns three buildings and is responsible for a major construction project in downtown Iqaluit, that of a Carrefour de la francophonie.

The Community Center is the gathering place for the francophone community of Nunavut. It is the place where people have access to the Resource Center (movies, newspapers, computers, the Internet) and where social and cultural activities take place. It is also at this location that the AFN and Nunafranc Inc. offices are located, as well as the community radio studio.

Francophones in Nunavut are sometimes represented at multicultural festivals and events in the territory, but they also benefit from cultural activities of their own, such as music and song shows, one-time or annual events (such as Saint-Jean- Baptiste) and cinema in French.

The Francophone Association of Nunavut (AFN) creates opportunities for expression and gathering of a cultural nature for Franco-Nunavoises and Franco-Nunavois with, for example, the Book and Music Fair. Usually held as part of the Toonik Tyme, which is a spring festival in Iqaluit, the Family Rally is an event bringing together francophone families who come to exercise their sense of direction and observation. The Oyster Party is a traditional activity over 18 years old for Francophones in Iqaluit and usually takes place in October. Finally, the research, documentation and dissemination of the history and culture of Nunavut and its people are quite active, particularly on the Web. The Nunavut Francophone Association portal is a resource to learn more about Nunavut's francophone culture.

Translated from:

• Profil de la communauté du Nunavut, FCFA du Canada

Continue reading

History