“Indians” of the Pacific Coast of Canada/ PART 1

Hey :) I’m really fascinated by the indigenous people of West Canada. So I’m going to tell you a bit more about their language in this post. The Pacific Coast “Indians” are some of the most important tribes in Canada. They were and still are located in the west of Canada on the Pacific Coast.  There are a number of different tribal nations, e.g. the Haida, The Nootka, the Tsimshian, the Coast Salish, the Kwakiutl and the Bella Coola, to name a few. 

·         Way up north at the Queen Charlotte Islands is the Haida nation.

·         The Nootka occupy the west part of the Vancouver Islands in the South of Canada.

·         The Tsimshian reside on the mainland, opposite the Queen Charlotte Islands.

·         The Coast Salish dwell on the mainland in and around Vancouver and at the eastern seaside of Vancouver Island.

·         The Bella Coola Nation lives alongside the Bella Coola Rivers and the Dean and the fjord, where these rivers enter the Pacific.

·         The Kwakiutl are found in the North of Vancouver Island and on the mainland located next to it.

 

(cf. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada 1990, pp.33,34)

   

As there were so many tribes, there were also many different language families. Often some nearby located tribes were part of the same language group and their common language was important for trade. Being of the same language family did not mean that they had the same culture, whereas same culture did not mean they had to have same language. However, very often the use of culture and language were very closed related. In former times there were no classifications for the different languages. Anthropologists have ranged them with regard to the sound and the meaning of words.  There is a total of eleven language groups within Canada, but only four on the Pacific Coast:
 

·         Haida
·         Tsimshian
·         Wakashan: spoken by the Nootka and the Kwakiutl
·         Salishan: spoken by the Coast Salish and the Bella Coola  

(cf. Indian and Northern Affairs Canada 1990, pp.33,34)

 

If you would like to know more about the Natives, come back later! 

Belated Thanksgiving!

Hey guys! Last week was the American holiday Thanksgiving which is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November each year. So first of all, belated Thanksgiving! I don’t want to tell you about the history of this special day, which we all learned in school, but about facts you may not know yet. First Thanksgiving ever was celebrated in 1621, when the pilgrims invited Natives to have a meal with them in honour to their first successful harvest.  It was kind of a festival which lasted 3 days. They didn’t just eat, they also hunted and did other entertaining things. What you probably didn’t know is that there were no turkey, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie or potatoes. The Natives brought five deers, so they ate venison for sure. One thing many people don’t know is that Thanksgiving was not celebrated each year from 1621 on. In 1789 president George Washington announced the first ever national thanksgiving holiday which took place on Thursday November 26. However, it did not become an annual national holiday until the 19^th century.  Sara Josepha Hale, an American writer, was inspired by a diary of pilgrim life and wanted to recreate that first Thanksgiving.  So she started a campaign to make thanksgiving a national holiday and published recipes for pumpkin pie, Turkey and stuffing. In 1863 during the civil war Abraham Lincoln announced that from now on Thanksgiving would be celebrated on the last Thursday of November each year.  In 1939, however, President Franklin D. Roosevelt moved the holiday up a week in order to give the retailers more time to make money through the free Christmas shopping season. This was criticised by the public, so in 1941 Roosevelt signed a bill fixing Thanksgiving on the fourth Thursday in November. From then on it has been celebrated each year.

Source:
http://www.history.com/topics/thanksgiving/history-of-thanksgiving/videos/bet-you-didnt-know-thanksgiving

 

The girl with a good sense of humour

You always wanted to know more about this girl, called Mirjam Urach, who made a bag with her grandmother? I tell you what I found out about her. It clearly seems that she loves Italy because she travels to Jesolo every year. On one adventurous day in Italy her aunt married on a romantic, little island. The wedding guests went there by little boats but then it suddenly started raining and everybody got wet. Even so, they took it with humour. Well, if you want to make friends with a girl who is fun to be around, talk to Mirjam!