Canada's Natives Changes

Throughout history, mankind attempted to explore and discover everything in this world. The Europeans, for example, attempted to discover further than Europe. From Western Europe, the French reached Canada, and since then, many changes were occurred to Canada’s natives. Since the first encounter between the French settlers and Indigenous people, numerous drastic and irreversible changes to the land and society occurred. These changes include the creation of a complex and interdependent relationship between both groups. For example, the French were introduced to a completely different environment, where the natives had to face and adjust to an entirely different race in their land. The aboriginals were fascinated by the French’s unique merchandize
and firearms, they welcomed the French and allowed settlement. In order to help, the Aboriginal people provided survival training against the wilderness and shelter to the French. However, the French were not very civilized, they destroyed the aboriginals’ society by reducing the land to a state of poverty. The French brought many negative attributes to the natives’ lands, which eventually resulted in the collapse of the natives’ economy and the reliance on the New France economy. These changes led the aboriginals to depend on the French and adapt to the French’s ways and society, resulting in the loss of the natives’ rituals, traditions and heritage.
Initially, the French’s journey to Canada was motivated by the thought of conquering land, the French were looking for a new territory to extract natural resources and mine gold. However, there was no gold found on the Aboriginals’ land, though the land was found to be rich in wildlife. The discovery of wildlife provided more opportunities for the French, for example, the extraction of fur from buffalos and beavers helped build the French’s new economy, which resulted in the creation of new businesses and brought upon more settlers and changes to the land. Due to the lack of experience of the Canadian environment, however, the French relied on the native people to hunt animals and navigate through the forests. Although the French destroyed many aspects of Aboriginal culture and tradition, they needed the Aboriginals to survive. For example, the aboriginals had the knowledge in curing illnesses like scurvy, and the skills and experience in surviving the cold winter conditions. The knowledge of the natives resulted in the French’s survival and large expansion of settlements. The French’s expansion resulting the creation of large cities like Montreal and Quebec.
In the process building their new economy and expanding their settlements, the French made allies with many native tribes, resulting in direct fur sources and delivery routes.
The alliance between the natives and foreigners resulted in tense rivalries among many Aboriginals’ tribes. For example, “the Algonquins and the Iroquois competed for control of the St. Lawrence gateway for the French fur traders”. At the end, the Iroquois had disappeared during the sixteenth century. Also, many native tribes were reduced in numbers, and were merged together. At one point, the Micmacs and the Abenakis battled over the control of trading between tribes from other regions. These revelries were a result of a proxy war between France and Britain or more specifically, between the French and the Dutch. These regions provided the aboriginal people with firearms and encouraged opposition between them. The trade venture had kept the aboriginal people busy in collecting and storing food. The Aboriginals had to purchase dried peas, biscuits, and other natural products from Europeans, also, they traded their European goods, like fur, for cornmeal with the Indians of southern New England. As the trading continued, however, the Aboriginals’ nutrition system began to worsen. As a result, the consumption of alcohol by the Aboriginals became a norm. The negative effects of fur trading were made present as the excessive hunting activity decimated the wildlife population, especially that of beavers.
In the long run, the Aboriginals did not gain any new skills out of fur trading, and following the decline of wildlife population, there was nothing to be traded. As a result, the aboriginal communities had no economy of their own and were now fully dependent on the French. For example, the Aboriginals that resided in New France towns worked as servants for the settlers. The French had not only exhausted the natural resources and wildlife population, but also the physical strength of the natives and their businesses. The magnificent impact the French had aboriginal society is evident. The Aboriginals were forced to change their lifestyle due to drastic economic fluctuations and the newly introduced laws and religions.
However, the French laid claims to lands in Canada without the permission of Canada’s natives. For example, Jacques Cartier once offended the Iroquois tribe by not respecting their customs. This occurred when he did not attain permission to occupy land and establish new settlements on St. Lawrence. Jacques exploitive actions had humiliated and disrespected the aboriginal communities. In addition, the introduced fur trading engaged aboriginal people from different tribes, in doing so, loss of trust and problems among the tribes began. For example, the French did not want to trade with the Shaman people, for that, many aboriginals were forced to convert to Christianity in order to trade, however, not all natives accepted to leave their beliefs. The Jesuits had played an important role in changing the aboriginal communities, they noticed that aboriginal women enjoyed the same rights as men. They were involved in taking decisions for war because they were controlling the economy. The Jesuits worked on subordinating women under men. The aboriginal women were abused, punished, and humiliated for their rejection to compel under the church orders. Also, the Jesuits were spared execution or exile on charges of witchcraft. At the end, aboriginal women were subdued and were not given any rights. Similarly, children were forced to join schools to learn the Christian religion, where they were subject to punishment if certain rules weren’t followed. The aboriginals had previously enjoyed the freedom in everything, but after the Jesuits’ involvement, no freedom was found. After the economic destruction and the Jesuits’ engrossments, the native people were forced to move from their lands to reside in New France settlements. Through wars, migration, fusions and fissions, many aboriginal nations moved to settle in new places. Their backgrounds were mixed, they became servants and were treated with no rights. Due to these changes, many diseases like smallpox and several other respiratory illnesses attacked the native communities, resulting in the extermination of many lives. In Huron, the population was reduced by approximately fifty percent within six years, these same diseases infected all the tribes who had dealings with the French and penetrated along the trade routes into areas no European had yet visited. It has also been suggested though without evidence that epidemics played an important role in the dispersal of the St. Lawrence Iroquoians. The decline of aboriginal population had weakened them and made them inferior. Moreover, the French society needed slaves to serve them in their settlements:
“It is well known the advantage this colony would gain if its inhabitants could securely purchase and import the Indians called Panis, whose country is far distant from this one. . . . The people of the Panis nation are as necessary to the inhabitants of this country for farming and other tasks as are the Negroes to the Islands. And, as these kinds of engagements are very important to this colony, it is necessary to guarantee ownership to those who have bought or will buy them. Therefore, according to his Majesty's good pleasure, we order that all the Panis and Negroes who have been bought, and who shall be purchased here after, shall belong in full proprietorship to those who have purchased them as their slaves.” --Jacques Raudot, intendant of New France, 1709
In 1709, colonial officials issued the ordinance legalizing Indian slavery in order to stop the conflict between French families over slave trade and to protect French investments. In the eighteenth century, the aboriginal people became slaves to French settlers. Originally, native languages did not carry any degrading words like ‘slave’ or ‘captive’, however, by the seventeenth century, almost every Iroquoian and Algonquian language contained these words. New France had negative impact on the native societies by degrading native women, disrespecting native customs, introducing slavery and trade in slavery, and by adding derogatory words to native languages. Nevertheless, democracy was enjoyed by many aboriginal tribes.
Both men and women contributed to share their opinions about their community concerns, their affairs with other tribes, and war. These decisions were made by voting. The women had the power to decline war because they were controlling the economy. The chief of the tribe would apply his peoples’ recommendation. Everyone in the tribe had a representative on the council. The people were involved in their tribes matter. This system has changed when the French brought the “civilized laws” as they claimed. They imposed laws that were made by the king and the church. The tribal council is no longer effective. The women were subordinate under their men. The participation was abandoned. The aboriginal men had no right to vote or participate in his land matters. They were obliged to obey the rules. The French rule had disturbed the democracy in the aboriginal
tribes. The aboriginals in every life matter had contributed their manners in. The war captives were treated in a very civilized way by the aboriginals. The Many native societies had welcomed the captive by replacing them with their deceased beloved ones and treated them as one of their family. Or if they did not find anyone to replace them with, they gave the captives to other tribes as a gift. Employing the language of kinship, givers introduced captives by saying "Here is my son" or "I bring you my flesh" to represent the physical blending of familial interests between two previously disconnected groups. The French received many captives as a legitimate token of friendship. In return, the French had exploited this gift in making the captives slaves and asking the aboriginal people to capture more people. Also, after the fur trade decline, aboriginal people started to capture other people to exchange with French commodities. The morals of the aboriginal people declined after being exposed to the French society.
In conclusion, after the encounter with the French people, native societies witnessed a decline in the economy, a division in society, and an ignorance to the rituals. The French turned the aboriginal people from independent to a dependent society. They moved out of their lands and were obliged to follow the rules inside the settlements. Finally, most of their rituals were dissipated. The native society had enjoyed the freedom on their lands. Their laws were adopted from their own nature, and they shared many noble morals. Unfortunately, that these societies disappeared. But, thanks to ethno-history, anthropology, other sciences and oral history for reviving this history.