Native American Virtual Museum the Subarctic Tribe

Native American Virtual Museum The Subarctic Tribe

These are maps of the Subarctic Tribes. It is in northern Canada, from Yukon to Newfoundland, and west of Greenland. There were many different nations of Native Americans in the Subarctic area, and they spoke two languages: Algonquian (east) and Athapascan (west).

This is called a Naskapi coat. It is worn by one of the Subarctic tribes, and they used to decorate the coats as a form of artwork.

This is another type of clothing worn by Subarctic tribes, in the Yukon areas of Canada. People in the Subarctic liked to wear lighter clothes and keep warm by building fires instead of wearing heavy clothes. In the summer they wore soft tanned hide moccasins, leggings, shirts, and coats. Some wore tunics made of caribou skin. In winter people would wear robes made of rabbit skins.

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Example of a Lean-To

Double Lean-To

The Subarctic tribes lived in many different types of houses. Some lived in lean-to’s or double lean-to’s (like the pictures above), which were beams of wood or bone layered together against a rock or tree with a slanted roof. The people used animal hides on top of the houses to keep them warm.

Some tribes lived in pit houses, which were built from bone and driftwood and layered in sod. Other groups lived in wigwams, smokehouse log cabins, or tipis.

This is a caribou, which was a very important animal to the Subarctic tribes for food and clothing. It was their main food source.

These are animal snares, which they used to catch smaller animals, like rabbits. The bottom picture is a drawing of a Subarctic woman stretching a caribou hide to make clothing.

Here are two other important tools to the Subarctic tribes. The top one is called a Tumpline, and it is a piece of fabric worn on the forehead to help them carry heavy things. The bottom picture is a belt loom, which they used when they were weaving.

RELIGION

The Subarctic people believed in spirits, which were in animals, plants, and the land. Some spirits were good and some were bad. All of the tribes had shamans, who were the spiritual leaders and put spells on people to protect good people or kill evil ones. One of the important animal spirits to many tribes was the raven. The picture above is a Tahltan- Tingit sculpture which tells a story about a raven spirit.

Bibliography

Cabrillo College, "An Introduction to North America's Native People: Subarctic Culture." Last modified March 9, 2000. Accessed November 30, 2011. http://www.cabrillo.edu/~crsmith/noamer_subarctic.html.

Canada's First Peoples, "Subarctic People." Last modified 2007. Accessed November 30, 2011. http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_groups/fp_subarctic1.html.

Johnson County Community College Anthropology Department, "Native Peoples of the Subarctic." Last modified 2011. Accessed November 30, 2011. http://staff.jccc.net/scorbett01/main.html.