CONTENTS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 SURVIVAL THROUGH THE SEASONS 5 10 CHAPTER 2 FAMILY SPIRITS AND LEGENDS 16 CHAPTER 3 ART SONG AND DANCE CHAPTER 4 THE EUROPEAN AND AMERICAN ERAS CHAPTER 5 MODERN TIMES 22 28 32 NOTABLE SUBARCTIC NATIVE PEOPLE 42 43 TIMELINE GLOSSARY 44 45 SOURCE NOTES 45 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY FURTHER INFORMATION 46 47 INDEX
N O R T H W E S T P ARCTI C S U B A R C T I C C O A S T C A L I F O R N I A L A T E A U G R E A T B A SIN ST E W H T U O S P L A I N S T S A E T H S NORT A E H SOUT SUBARCTIC REGION OF NORTH AMERICA CULTURAL REGIONS OF THE UNITED STATES AND CANADA Plateau Northwest Coast California Plains Southeast Southwest Great Basin Northeast Subarctic Arctic Other Cultural area border International border State province border
INTRODUCTION L ong before humans walked the earth there were only giant animals One day the creator god Great Raven or Dotson Sa told his son Raven to make a huge boat Raven worked hard to make the boat When the boat was finished rain began to fall All the animals came onto the boat in pairs Soon the whole world flooded Only the animals on the boat survived When the flood began to die down a giant muskrat jumped off Raven’s boat He swam down to the ocean floor Muskrat used his tail to stir up mud He piled the dirt until land appeared Then Dotson Sa made rivers lakes trees plants and berries He decided to make creatures too He made a man and a woman from clay The couple married and had children who filled the land This is the story that Athabascan a-thuh-BAS-ken peoples tell about how the world came to be The Athabascan are native peoples who live in a region of North America called the Subarctic The Subarctic covers much of Canada and Alaska It begins 1,600 miles 2,575 kilometers below the North Pole at the Arctic Circle The region stretches about 1,400 miles 2,253 km to the south Average winter temperatures in the subarctic can range from 30 F to 65 F 1 C to 53 C There can be 5
