Food
The Iroquois’s diet came mostly from farming. The “three sister” diet included beans, squash and corn. They strategically planted the corn so the beanstalk would grow up the cornstalk and the squash grew underneath preventing weeds and keeping the soil moist. Because of the combination the soil was fertile for years. With these ingredients they made a dish called succotash. They didn’t live off just the “three sister” diet they also ate beaver, deer, raccoon, possum, bear, turkey, muskrat, migratory birds and because they lived near the St. Lawrence River they ate salmon, trout, bass, perch and whitefish. In June, July and August they would hunt buffalo, which was a great source of meat and in winter they used fishing holes. Most food will be stored through winter and last two to three years. Women and children had the job of growing, drying, gathering, storing food, grinding corn into flower, cooking corn, bean and pumpkin soups and also making maple syrup.
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They had several different methods of hunting and they included several tools: Bow and Arrow: They made bows and arrows out of bone, stone, saplings and feathers and they had leather made from animal skins. Deadfalls: They used the deadfall to trap large animals. When an animal smelt the food inside the deadfall and went to get it the support log fell and a heavy tree trunk or stone would fall and trap or kill the animal. Fishing Nets: They used nets to catch fish from the river. |
Shelter
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From 500-1300ce the villages included only eight long houses and two hundred fifty people. Longhouses were ten meters wide, ten meters high, and twenty five meters long. On each side of the hallways, fastened to the walls, were rows of beds covered with soft animals skins and furs. In the middle of the hallway was a fire that the several family's would share to cook and for heat. Other iroquois people lived in tipis since they are always migrating. Tipis were usually made of long and narrow pine trees covered by twelve buffalo hides stitched together. The interior salish would dig pits two meters deep and six to twelve meters wide in well drained soil usually close to a river. This meant clean water, fish and accessible transportation.
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Clothing
Clothing was another job the women were in charge of. The men would get the animal skins and the women would use bone needles to sew the clothing together. The women and men wore leggings, shirts and moccasins. The women wore a skirt that covered most of there leggings and in the winter men and women added robes of fur for extra warmth. The moccasins were made from dyed buckskin and most clothing was embroidered with colourful porcupine quills. The women wore their hair long and in a braid. The men wore their hair in many different ways long, short, pulled to one side, but the most common was the mohawk.
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Transportation
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First Nations travelled mostly by land because they are amazing runners and they could cover long distances in a very short time. They couldn't always travel on land so the made birch bark canoes which were light, durable, and streamlined for navigating rivers and lakes. Canoe builders stitched bark sheets together then fastened them to a wooden frame using white spruce root that had been split, peeled and soaked. Seams were waterproofed with a coating of heated spruce gum and grease. When horses were introduced they quickly became skilled riders and within one hundred years it was an essential part of culture and was used for hunting and transporting goods. Before horses there was the dog and travois. Two long poles were hitched to the dogs sides where a webbed frame was added to hold baggage. During winter they traveled by a form of snowshoe.
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Why?
FoodFood is obviously connected to their geography because they got all of their food from whatever was available around them. Also since they were so great with managing to get an amazing surplus of food they could switch there focus onto more important things like inventing new things to make their life easier. The Iroquois's made some of the things we still use today like lacrosse, kayaks and birch bark canoes. Without a large surplus of food they would have never had the time to create these things.
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ShelterShelter is connected to their geography because when building their longhouses they used the materials around them to make a shelter that would help them in their environment and also make living easier. For the Iroquois's that spent most of their time on the move they had tipis that made traveling easier because they were light weight but still a great home to be living in. For the Iroquois's living in longhouses they had a large home that fit the needs of several family's. Also when they were choosing a place to live they would choose somewhere about one hundred meters away from the water so they always had a form of food, water and transportation.
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ClothingClothing is connected to geography because when the men would go out hunting and come back with a large moose ect. the women found a way to use just about every part of the animal. The fur was used as the material, bones were used to make needles to sew the fur together and they would eat the rest of the meat. With berries, flowers, and roots they made colourful embroider designs using porcupine quills.
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TransportationTransportation is connected to their geography because since they were always migrating they became used to there environment and could create and modify there ways of transportation so they could function smoothly. They created several things that made migrating easier like birch bark canoes, travoises and snowshoes.
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Bibliogrophy:
- Iroquoians of the Eastern Woodlands by Palmer Paterson
- Wikipedia (Iroquois)
- First Nations in Canada (Canada.gc.ca)
- Youtube
- canada-natives.blogspot.com
- journalofantiques.com
- kaufmann-mercantile.com
- oocities.org
- 1tshirtsworld.com
- firstpeopleofcanada.com
- www.wwu.edu
- huntingfishing.wikispaces.com
- 1718neworleans.2018.wordpress.com
- oneidindiannation.com
- sanders-studios.com
- dragonflydezignz.somegs.com
- indianspictures.blogspot.com
- iroquoisbeadwork.blogspot.com
- Wikipedia (Iroquois)
- First Nations in Canada (Canada.gc.ca)
- Youtube
- canada-natives.blogspot.com
- journalofantiques.com
- kaufmann-mercantile.com
- oocities.org
- 1tshirtsworld.com
- firstpeopleofcanada.com
- www.wwu.edu
- huntingfishing.wikispaces.com
- 1718neworleans.2018.wordpress.com
- oneidindiannation.com
- sanders-studios.com
- dragonflydezignz.somegs.com
- indianspictures.blogspot.com
- iroquoisbeadwork.blogspot.com