When I think of indigenous people, I never really think about Canada, but more like New Mexico and the areas around there. It was very interesting to see a documentary about the indigenous people living much farther north. It was cool to see the island of Haida Gwaii represented on the Physical Geography map in the textbook so that I could really picture where it is located.
Maritime Polar winds reach the island of Haida Gwaii, which makes it cold and dry in the wintertime. They get a lot more moisture because of this, and that could be why a lot of herbs and trees can grow there that provide them with a lot of medicine and food.
European diseases such as smallpox devastated the Haida people. Before they came in the 1700s, there were over 8000 Haida people living in the area; now there are just over 500 left. The European settlers deliberately brought blankets with the smallpox virus on them since they believed the indigenous people to be less than human.
Because of migration into Canada from other nations, the indigenous people were relocated or moved to make way for the new settlers. They treated the indigenous people terribly, even though some of them had lived there for hundreds of years before them. NAFTA helped facilitate the great migration pattern that brought many new people to Canada.
The Haida people who are left are trying hard to keep some of their culture alive by teaching their language to the locals. They have an oral culture, and so many of the things like medicine and their history are only told from generation to generation and not written down. The Haida people teach the younger generation to keep their traditions alive.
Because of new technologies and energy production, the lands that the Haida people live on are in danger. They need to protect their land so that it can continue to grow medicine for them and future generations. The culture of the indigenous population teaches them to respect everything around them, including the land they live on. They thank the trees before they harvest a branch, and they do everything they can to protect their forests and lands from being taken advantage of. Since they rely directly on the Earth, that is one of their main priorities.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VeQSrU--pNw
[Written for GEOG 130G class UVU Spring 2022]
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