Native Peoples of the Subarctic

Native Peoples of the Subarctic — page 1 — 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

Native Peoples of the Subarctic — page 2 — 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

Native Peoples of the Subarctic — page 3 — PEOPLES OF THE SUBARCTIC The Subarctic region is the traditional homeland of many American Indian nations This map shows the areas where some of them lived before Europeans arrived in the region Deg Hit’an Deg Hit’an Tanaina Central Central Tanaina Alaskan Alaskan Yupik Yupik Athabascan Athabascan Tahltan Tahltan Beaver Beaver Chipewyan Chipewyan Cree Cree CULTURAL AREAS Arctic Northwest Coast Plateau Plains Northeast Subarctic Cultural area border International border State province border Other Innu Innu Ojibwa Ojibwe Cree Cree Innu Innu Cree Cree snow on the ground two hundred days a year Thousands of native peoples call the Subarctic home Native peoples who live in Canada are called First Nations peoples Subarctic peoples in Alaska are known as Alaska Natives These native peoples speak several different languages that come from a few main language groups First Nations peoples who live east of the Churchill River in northern Manitoba Canada speak languages from the Algonquian al-GAHN-kwee-an language group These nations include the Ojibwe oh-JIB-way several groups of Cree KREE and the Innu IN-yoo Nations west of the Churchill 66

Native Peoples of the Subarctic — page 4 — speak Athabascan also spelled Athapaskan or Athabaskan languages These nations include the Chipewyan chip-uh-WY an Beaver Tahltan TAHL-ten Tanaina ta-nay-EYE-na and Deg Hit’an degg-HEET-an The Central Alaskan Yup’ik YOO puhk who live in the Subarctic regions of western central and southwestern Alaska speak a language from the Eskimo-Aleut ES-kih-moh-AH-lee-yoot language group The Yup’ik are culturally distinct from other Subarctic nations They are related to Inuit and are often considered to be an Arctic nation But many Yup’ik practices are also similar to those of other Subarctic peoples The Subarctic region covers much of Alaska and Canada below the Arctic Circle 7

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