The+Haida+Tribe

**The Haida Tribe**

 * By Austin, Dinah, Gurleen, Karanveer, Kristin and Nathan**

**Contents:**

 * **Introduction:** || **Kristin** ||
 * **European Settlers:** || **Gurleen** ||
 * **Environment:** || **Kristin** ||
 * **Food:** || **Dinah** ||
 * **Shelter** || **Karanveer** ||
 * **Clothing:** || **Gurleen** ||
 * **Arts:** || **Dinah** ||
 * **Tools and Weapons:** || **Nathan** ||
 * **Religous Beliefs:** || **Austin** ||
 * **Ceremonies:** || **Karanveer** ||
 * **Family and Roles:** || **Kristin** ||
 * **Language:** || **Kristin and Karanveer** ||
 * **Transportation:** || **Austin** ||
 * **Games:** || **Nathan** ||
 * **Legends:** || **Karanveer** ||
 * **Conclusion:** || **Kristin** ||
 * **Refrencese:** || **Everyone** ||

**Inroduction:**
The Haida (“HIGH-da”) Tribe has been an important part of life in Canada for a very long time. They have an extremely unique way of living many of us never experienced before. This tribe lived in the Pacific Northwest Coast (most of British Columbia) and maybe still even today. They definitely gone through many obstacles and challenges we never thought about. Even though their way of life may be different than our modern day lives, they’re still a group of amazing and important people we should recognize!

**European Settlers:[[image:http://www.pc.gc.ca/apprendre-learn/prof/itm2-crp-trc/images/nhmcshaida01.jpg width="238" height="159" align="right"]]**
The Haida tribe settled in the Canadian Queen Charlotte Islands. There were over 124 villages but when the European settlers arrived in 1604, there was only 589 Haidas left. Now there is only 2 villages left. Throughout 1780 to 1830 the Haidas attacked the Europeans and Americans. During the war with the Europeans the Haidas stole about half a dozen ships. One of them were named Eleanor and another was named Susan Sturgis.

**Environment:**
You might live in the North Pole, I might live in the desert, but where did the Haida people live? They lived in the Pacific Northwest coast, a great place because of the good temperature. It wasn’t too cold or too hot. The particular places the Haida people lived in were the southern Alaska. They lived in the islands near the coast. Another place was the northwest of British Columbia, like Prince of Wales Island. Altogether these places were called the Haida Gwaii archipelago or the Queen Charolette Islands.

They usually lived around bodies of water, mainly the ocean. It was a good place since fishing was they’re main source of food. Since the temperatures were mild and calm, they could fish all year! Plus, they also lived near deep and dense forests. Most forests were made up of cedar trees and spruce, which they used to build and make things. They probably had a lot of time since shelter and food was easy to get. Since they had a lot of materials, they probably used it wisely. There were many rocky and rugged coast lines and mountains near villages. They also had wide and narrow beaches with lots of islands, too. The west coast had lots of fjords (water surronded by cliffs). As for the climate, they had cool winters and warm summers. Currently, most of the Pacific coast is made up of B.C. (British Columbia) See? The Haida people are truly interesting and important.

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The Haida tribe had many different types of food to choose from. To get food we would go to the grocery store and we would buy the food but the Haida tribe has to go get their own food so they had many resources that helped them to get food. The Haida tribe fished, hunted and gathered the food they needed. The Haida tribe never wasted any of the food, they either ate it all or used it as unique items. They used tools and equipment to help catch the food. When fishing they would use big nets and snare traps made out of cedar and spruce tree wood and bark they also would take a basket to put the fish in. When hunting they made bows and arrows to catch food from a distance. The Haida women would gather plants that they could eat in the summer. The men always did the fishing and the hunting and the rest of the tribe would stay back at the village. Sometimes the women would go and gather the food in the forests. When the men were gone off hunting they would have been away for a while but the tribe back at the village don't need to worry about the men being gone for a while because they would have the food in the storage house. Some people might ask " how do they store the meat for so long"? Well, the Haida tribe would dry and then ground the meat so that it lasts longer.======



The Haida tribe would fish for many fish and other sea mammals like crab, oysters, pacific smelt, humpback whales, sea otters, seals, turtles, euchalon fish and the most common fish they ate were pacific salmon. The pacific salmon were mostly caught by the Haida tribe. In the fall they would go up the river to find the pacific salmon in huge bundles. When they went hunting they caught elk, mountain goats, bears and black-tailed deer. When the women went to gather things from the forest they got berries, herbs and roots of plants.

**Shelter:**
The Haida tribe had many big homes. The Haida tribe had permanent homes that were called longhouses. Several families, lived in one longhouse. The longhouses were mostly constructed out of cedar planks and had totempoles in corners for support. One longhouse was 50-150ft long and 20-60ft wide. To build a longhouse, the Haida tribe did the following things: 1. They had to gather huge cedar logs and planks 2. The frame would then be built out of cedar logs 3. Cedar planks were attached to logs and wooden pegs to hold the wood together 4. They made huge rectangle homes with many posts to hold up the roof and covered them with cedar planks 5. No windows were made in their homes only one smokehole and one front door built in the totempole, and was built with low roofs to keep the heat in

The Haida tribe constructed their home near water and forest for natural resources. Each home contained 50 people. The Haida tribe was divided into different clans and each house had one clan. Each clan was named after something important to them (raven/eagle/bear/wolf). They're quite interesting people. This is about the Haida homes

**Clothing:**
__What the Haida Clothes were made out of__ The Haida tribes clothes were made out of things they could commonly find. They usually use woven cedar bark, split spruce ends, wool, animal leather and elk skin. The Haida men also painted their clothes with forms of animals. The paint was usually black and red with little spots of green or blue. If the Haidas didn’t use the materials that they couldn’t find commonly, it would be really hard to make clothing.

. The Haidas wore different clothes for the different weathers. In the hot weathers the Haidas wore barely anything. The men would usually go naked and the woman would only wear bark skirts. In the cold weather the Haida men wore long capes and the woman would wear skirts and capes. Since it rained a lot where the Haidas lived, they needed clothes that would protect them from the water. So they would wear bark capes and spruce hats.

__How do the Haidas make their clothes__ The Haida woman made the clothing. First they either soaked the animal skins and cedar bark in hot water. Then they would weave it into dresses, robes and leggings. They also wove roots or reeds into pieces of fabric that they would later on make more of. Then they would sew the different pieces of fabric to make capes.

**Arts:**
The Haida tribe used art for many things. They would use art in ceremonies, clothing, and sometimes even to decorate themselves. In front of the Haida tribes houses they had large wooden carvings of animals and humans, these are called totem poles.

The picture to your left is a painted longhouse and totem poles. A totem pole helps describe the families that live inside the longhouse. The women of the Haida tribe would have made hats that are made out of cedar bark. Then the hats were given to the men and they would paint different animals on them. The women would also make baskets for collecting clams and oysters in them and they were also made of cedar bark and was painted sometimes. The Haida tribe members would also make masks of the animals for ceremonies. The tribe made bentwood boxes for food to be stored and it was painted.

**Tools & Weapons:**
Haida fishermen used harpoons. A harpoon is almost like a spear used to fish to catch fish or large marine animals like whales. They also used bone fishooks and wooden fishtraps. Hunters used bow and arrows,and trappers used snares. If they were in war Haida men fired their bows or fought with spears and war clubs. Some Haida men wore bulky armor made of wooden rods lashed together to protect themselves from enemy archers.

**R****eligious Beilefs:**
The Haida thought animals were special types of people and that animals can transform into human form. They also believed in spirits and supernatural beings. In the after life the Haida believed that their soul turns into a ghost. If a member of the tribe was ill they thought that half of their soul disappeared. The Haida believed in reincarnation. The Haida say at death the soul goes to the land of the souls by canoe. The Haida sometimes didn't bury people because the spirits were with them. The Haida hang dead people on a tree high status would get a totem pole and places them at the top of the totem pole.

**Ceremonies:**
The people of the Haida tribe were very spiritual. They prayed many times in one day. When the peope of the Haida tribe prayed, they gave offerings to the master of the game animals. A “potlatch” was what they called most ceremonies. Potlatches are big celebrations that take over a year to plan. The ceremony happens because of change in social status. Some examples are weddings, birth, death, and the coming of age. A potlatch has feasts, singing, and many dancers. Some of the potlatches the Haida had lasted from 2-3 weeks. The person that the potlatch was for received a certain gift depending on their social status. That is about the Haida tribe’s ceremonies.

**Family and Roles:**
The roles of the Haida tribe were quite different yet simliar to today's roles. The women was always a housewife, staying close to the house. Womens gathered berries, plants and herbs from nearby forests. They also wove baskets and made clothes. Sometimes they would dig for clams and shellfishes too. Womens would take care of children, cooked and cleaned. Nothing really different from a housewife. However, men did more outside work. They fished, carved, build and hunted rather than doing housewife work like womens. They also went to war to protect their families. Men were always cheif, but womens were clan leaders so it makes it a bit fair. However, there are things both men and women can do. For example, storytelling, music and artwork. Even today some families are a bit like that!

The Haida did marriage and it's still a traditon today! However, there are many rules to the Haida marriage. First, marriage must be from different clans. So if the women was in clan 1, she must marry a man from another clan. Second, the man must pay the women's father a reasonable amount of things. For example, 10 fishes or a canoe. Then the marriage starts! When the women gives birth to a child, she has to pay the guy equal to how much he paid. After the payment, the women can choose whether to stay with her husband or leave him. It bit like divorcing. Marriage can be one complicated thing.

**Languages:**
Today, most speak English but some speak the original Haida language. Hundreds of years ago all haida's was fluent but now only 3-4 dozen speak the haida language, especially the elders who are over 70 years old. It is a very complicated language, there are sounds that you won't hear in english, but it's possible to learn!

"háw'aa" means thank you “ts'áak means eagle for more you can see: [] or []

**Transportation:**
The Haida Tribe were quite skilled at navigating waterways, their canoes were built strong. The Haidas canoes were carved from cedar trees. Canoes were built 80 feet tall, 50 feet long and 8 feet wide. One of the Haidas canoes can hold 2-50 people also 10.000 pounds of cargo. Smaller boats were for single families. Canoes were used to travel and used for fishing, trading and warfare. Every canoe had different canoes for each waterway. 1 war canoe holds 50-60 warriors. No animals were killed to make canoes.

Steps to make a canoe 1:cut down cedar tree 2:split log in half without cracking it 3:burn and scrape out middle 4:fill the hole with water 5:put hot rocks in water made water boil soften wood for carving 6:dump water to let wood cool 7:grease canoe with whale oil to preserve wood

Cedar timbers were tied with sinew.Paddles made of cedar trees some made with notch some were made long and pointed at end to paddle quietly when fishing.

**Games/Recreation:[[image:http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/treasure/images/238_1b.gif width="246" height="195" align="right"]]**
They do they same thing as children do now, go to school and help around the house. Many Haida children like to go hunting and fishing with their fathers. In the past Indian kids had more chores and less time to play just like early colonial children. But they did have dolls, toys and games to play. They also liked gambling. Like many Native Americans Haida mothers usally carried their babies in cradleboards on their backs, a custom which many Americans have take up now.

**Legends:**
How Bald Eagle got its name How the Black Bear turned Black How Cougar stayed his colour The Colorful Eagle How Raven got its Colour How the Deer learned to Swim How the Fox taught the Haida how to Hunt

For more legends, visit: []

**Conclusion:**
There are alot of things still not known yet about the hadia tribe and all the other tribes too. However, on this wiki we've covered alot of stuff known so far. For example, environment, food, clothing, shelter, games, transportation and many others too. The Haida tribe were truly unquie and amazing people that we should learn and remember about. Even today the Haida's traditon is being passed from generation to generation. Though their way of life is different from our modern day style, the Haida tribe are important people that can tell the history of hundreds to thousands of years ago.

**Refrences:**
[|en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haida_people] [|www.essortment.com] [|www.firstpeopleofcanada.com] [|www.everyculture.com] [|www.Paleoplanet69529.yuku.com]l [|www.firstpeople.us] [|www.wisdomoftheelders.com] [|www.pc.gc.ca] [|www.highseastrieod.com] [|www.angelfire.com] [|www.civilization.ca] [|www.ancientworlds.net] [|www.hgpeace.ca] [|www.bigorrin.org/haida_kids.htm] [|www.native-languages.org/haida_animals.htm] [|www.haidadesigns.com/culture.htm] [|www.yesnet.yk.ca/schools/projects/haida_legends/] [|www.collectioncanada.gc.ca] [|www.flickr.com] [|www.slideshare.net] [|www.icollecter.com] [|www.bgc.bard.edu]