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Aboriginal
Peoples: Teachers and
Friends
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Aboriginal
peoples made many contributions to European exploration, settlement
and the development of the fur trade. They taught Europeans
how to build canoes for transportation and they showed the fur traders
the best trails and canoe routes.
Many Europeans
would not have survived without the help of friendly Aboriginal
peoples. Many people died of hunger and sickness. The Huron
and Algonquin helped them by providing food, and they showed them
how to boil spruce bark to cure scurvy.
The winters
were long and cold. The First Nations and Inuit people showed
the settlers how to live in the freezing climate. First Nations
and Inuit women sewed mittens and leggings for the fur traders.
The settlers were also taught how to snowshoe and toboggan, which
was the only way to travel in the winter.
The First
Nations and Inuit also did a variety of jobs that the settlers were
not able to do - or did not want to do. For example, the Homeguard
Cree
were in charge of mail delivery between the trading posts on Hudson
Bay. Much of the territory had not yet been mapped. The Homeguard
Cree knew the area and were good at finding their way.
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