From ironmtn@bigfoot.com Mon Dec 7 12:27:25 1998 Path: brain!torn!newsfeed.direct.ca!newsfeed.berkeley.edu!news2.best.com!newshub1.home.com!news.home.com!news.rdc1.bc.wave.home.com.POSTED!not-for-mail From: ironmtn@bigfoot.com (Mike Cleven) Newsgroups: soc.culture.canada Subject: Re: Timeline of Canadian history, Part 1 of 5 Organization: Iron Mountain Creative Systems Reply-To: ironmtn@bigfoot.com Message-ID: <366d025a.221857720@news.nvcr1.bc.wave.home.com> References: <749rb5$lcq$2@brain.npiec.on.ca> X-Newsreader: Forte Agent 1.5/32.452 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Lines: 422 Date: Sun, 06 Dec 1998 23:02:34 GMT NNTP-Posting-Host: 24.112.120.143 X-Complaints-To: news@home.net X-Trace: news.rdc1.bc.wave.home.com 912985354 24.112.120.143 (Sun, 06 Dec 1998 15:02:34 PDT) NNTP-Posting-Date: Sun, 06 Dec 1998 15:02:34 PDT Xref: brain soc.culture.canada:223427 On 4 Dec 1998 23:30:45 GMT, Foxtaur wrote: Is this "timeline" some kind of school project? Or are you preparing a quick-and-dirty marketing item? History-in-point-form is always a selective process, and does not give a realistic view of "what was going on", especially across such a wide and disparate land as Canada. Your choice of "what were significant events" and "what were significant places/people(s)" seem highly subjective and, well, simplistic..... As you can tell, I'm about to nitpick........ >c. 40,000-30,000 BC: Prehistoric hunters migrate from Asia across the >Bering strait land bridge to settle North America. > There are seven distinct Native cultures in Alaska, and dozens of >sub-cultures. The primary Native cultures are the Inupiat and Yupik >Eskimos of the Far North, the Aleuts of the Southwest, the Athabascan >Indians of the Interior, and the Haida, Tlingit, and Tsimshian Indians of >the Inside Passage. The Inside Passage in 40K-30K BC? Um. Gripped in ice, to say the least - until about 10K BC. Also, during the time in question, the water levels were considerably lower, such that Hecate Strait and the Queen Charlotte Strait formed a wide plain, at least where they weren't covered by ice. No one knows the ethnic identity of the people who apparently lived and migrated through this region/route at the time, but the consensus in these parts is that the Salishan-speaking groups have been around the longest, and the Athapaskans as well (who may have been coastal at one time). Although tradition-conscious members of the Nations in question might dispute it, some anthropologists think that the Haida and Tlingit are relatively "recent" arrivals in North America; maybe not as recent as the Inuit; one account I read commented that it appeared that the Tlingit Wolf and Eagle clans were still in the process of arriving from Asia around the same time that Vitus Bering was stumbling his way from Siberia to Alaska, although I'm sure that's now refuted by native cultural leaders. Still, there's no way that the peoples you list would have been defined as such at this time, and it is _quite_ probable that the people(s) in the area at the time were as much ancestors of more southerly people(s) as they may be of today's Tsimshian or (more likely than Tlingit or Haida) Wakashan or Athapaskan or Salishan people(s). And for the benefit of your terminology, the Haida live nowhere near the Inside Passage, which by definition is "inside" the coast of the Mainland; Haida Gwaii, in case you haven't noticed, is quite separate from the Mainland some rather nasty open sea...... > >c. 9,000 BC: Native peoples are living along the Eramosa River near what >is now Guelph, Ontario. > >8,000 BC: Ice Age ending. Rising waters cover Bering land bridge. And the offshore plain where the BC coast is now..... > >5200 BC: The Sto:lo people are living alongside the Fraser River near >what is now Mission, B.C. (Some say they may have been as early as 9000 >B.C.) I'm quite familiar with Xa:ytem Rock; I think you mean "as early as 7000 BC", as the oldest dating on the site is 9000 BP. Also, the legends associated with the place make clear reference to communities of other people(s) throughout the region, including the whole length of Vancouver Island; similarly the site contains evidence of extensive regional trade, including the Great Basin and the northern plateaux. Xa:ytem must be taken to be representative of a flowering of human culture and settlement in the immediate post-glacial epoch in the Northwestern part of the continent, and not viewed in isolation as if it were unique from that period. > >5000 BC: Native peoples have spread into what is now Northern Ontario and >Southeastern Quebec. > >c. 3500 BC: In Canada's southwest Yukon, the beaver tooth gouge comes >into use. It becomes an important tool for woodworking in the subarctic >area. Why you isolate this one tool as being more important than other technologies (such as those used by the aforementioned people of the Xa:ytem Rock culture) > >c. 2700 BC: Copper implements and ornaments are fashioned by the "Old >Copper" culture of Wisconsin from ore found in the area around Lake >Superior. > >2000 BC: Inuit peoples begin to move into what is now the Northwest >Territories. > >c. 1900 BC: The Red Paint peoples, who live on the banks of Maine's >Penobscot River, spread red ochre over their dead and their grave >offerings. Ochre was also found at Xa:ytem, some thousands of years previously.... > >c. 1600 BC: In Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, and >Ontario, the glacial Kame peoples use the gravel ridges formed by >melting glaciers for burial sites. > >c. 1400 BC: At a cemetary near Port Aux Choix in Newfoundland, treasured >and useful articles, as well as carved images of animals and birds, are >buried with the dead. > >c. 1100 BC: Woodland hunters in eastern North American depend on the >canoe in their search for game. River travel gives them access to new >forest areas. > >c. 1000 BC: The Woodland tradition of eastern North America begins. This >tradition is characterized by burial mounds and elaborate earthworks. > >c. 700 BC: The civilization at Poverty Point, Louisiana, is at its peak, >importing materials from as far away as the Great Lakes and Appalachian >Mountains areas. > >500 BC: Northwest Coast native peoples begin to flourish. > >c. 300 BC: The Marpole peoples of the Fraser Delta area in British >Columbia are engaged in heavy wood working, building plank houses and >dugout canoes. > >c. 175 AD: Funeral offerings in graves at the Norton Mounds in Michigan >are elaborate. Materials imported from great distances indicate vigorous >trade. > >c. 550 AD: In the Upper Mississippi and Great Lakes areas, Woodland >peoples construct their burial mounds in the shape of birds or animals. > >c. 985-1014 AD: Norsemen, including Eric the Red and Leif Ericson, set >up outposts in North America and encounter Eskimos, Beothuks, and >Micmacs. Nope. They encountered "Skraelings" (screamers), the description of whom does not match any of the known ethnology in the region. Fierce, gigantic, with flaming red eyes and the power to throw gigantic rocks.....doesn't sound very much like any Beothuk I've ever heard of..... The Micmac also have a strong oral tradition that makes NO mention of anyone resembling Norsemen......despite the popularity of the American dogma that the Norse made it to Long Island Sound and Martha's Vineyard. > >c. 1000 AD: Leif (the Lucky) Ericson reaches Vinland, aka Labrador and >L'Anse aux Meadows (northern tip of Newfoundland). Nordic people later >establish short-lived settlements in Labrador and Newfoundland. "Seasonal camps" might be a better term...... > >c. 1014 AD: The first white colony in North America is established in >Newfoundland. The first _known_ white colony might be a bit more accurate....... > >1367 AD: The Norse colony in Newfoundland is less closely tied to Europe >after this year, when the last royal ship makes the voyage to North >America. Finally we're getting somewhere; the survival of the Bishopric of Vinland in Vatican records might also be worth mentioning. You make no mention of Prince Henry Sinclair (1398)....... > >1492 AD: Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), backed by Spain, reaches San >Salvador (Guanahani to the natives), "discovering the New World" and >encountering Arawak and Taino people. Thinking he is in India, he calls >them Indians. And promptly starts killing them off...... > >1494: Treaty of Tordesillas divides the colonial world between Spain and >Portugal. in their dreams...... > >1497-98: John and Sebastion Cabot explore east coast of North America >for England. They kidnap three Micmac men. There's been an interesting discussion about this in another NG lately (I think it was sci.archaeology but it might have been sci.lang). Sounds as if quite a few more had been picked up by the Basque prior to this - and sold as slaves in Spain..... > >1497: Giovanni Caboto (John Cabot, 1450-98), a Venetian in English >service, during a voyage underwritten by Briston merchants, claims Cape >Breton Island (or Newfoundland, or Labrador) for England on June 24, >laying the basis for English claims to Canada and inspiring a series of >further explorations. > >1498: English explorer John Cabot, making a second voyage to North >America (looking for Northwest Passage to India), travels the coast of >Labrador, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, discovering Newfoundland Island, >trades furs with Mik'maqs. The same discussion in the other NG makes it pretty clear that there is very little substantiation of Cabot's voyages......... > >c. 1500: European diseases begin killing native North Americans, who have >no immunity to them. > >1523-24: Giovanni da Verrazano, sailing for France, explores the Atlantic >coast, encountering Wampanoag, Narragansett, and Delaware Indians. > >c. 1530-50: The French explorer Jacques Cartier sails up the St. Lawrence >River, claiming the land for France. His failure to find a northwest >passage - or gold, as the Spanish had in Peru - discourages further >exploration. France was also too preoccupied with domestic religious wars >to make any substantial commitment. The discovery of Canada was >important, however, to English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese fishing >fleets, all of which regularly fish the Grand Banks off the coast of >Newfoundland. which _had_been_ regularly fishing the Grand Banks for many decades prior to this....... > >1534-41: Jacques Cartier of France explores the St. Lawrence River area >in three voyages, making contact with Algonquian and Iroquoian speaking >tribes. On one trip he reaches the Huron towns of Stadaconna and >Hochelaga (now Quebec City and Montreal). It is not known that these were Huron towns as opposed to Iroquoian or even possibly Montagnais; the language recorded was the Basque-Algonkian creole. Hochelaga in particular had disappeared by the time Champlain made it back here, and was later occupied by the Huron (and today by the Mohawk). > >1534: French explorer Jacques Cartier visits the Strait of Belle Isle >(Newfoundlang), enters and charts Gulf of St. Lawrence River, landing in >Gaspe, July 14. His ship becomes icebound, men suffering from scurvy >aided by Haudenosee, who feed them vitamin C in boiled spruce. He takes >two native Indians with him back to France. > >1535: Cartier sails up the St. Lawrence River to Stadacona (Quebec) and >Hochelaga (Montreal). > >1541: Jacques Cartier and Sieur de Roberval attempt to colonize Quebec, >founding the first French settlement in America, Charlesbourg-Royal, at >the mouth of the Cap Rouge River. > >1542: Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo and Bartolome Ferrelo explore the >California and Oregon coasts. The _Oregon_ coast? Hadn't heard of that one before; the Spanish barely knew San Francisco Bay existed, much less anything further north. You make no mention in this century of Juan de Fuca, a Greek captain under the Portuguese flag whose uncharted discovery of a broad strait leading inland between mountains through the Kingdom of Anian fuels interest in the concept of a Northwest Passage....... >1542: Charlesbourg-Royal is abandoned. Cartier meets the sieur de >Roberval, who was officially part of the same expedition, in >Newfoundland. > >1564-65: Rene de Laudonniere heads French colony on St. Johns River in >Florida until expelled by Spanish. French artist Jacques le Moyne paints >first known European depiction of Indians. > >1576: Martin Frobisher of England makes the first of three attempts to >find a Northwest Passage, sailing as far as Hudson Strait. What he >thought was gold discovered on his journey was later proven worthless. > >1579: British Navigator Sir Francis Drake (c.1540-96) on a voyage around >the world in the /Golden Hind/, claims California for Queen Elizabeth I. Tradition in British Columbia (and Oregon and Alaska) maintains that his posting of a bronze/copper plaque on an "oake tree" claiming "Nova Albion" for "Gloriana" was not limited to California. Such plaques are credited with having been discovered at several locations between Humboldt County, California and Prince of Wales Island, Alaska (SW panhandle), including on South Moresby Island (Gwaii Haanas) in Haida Gwaii and near Sooke, Vancouver Island.........supposedly there's some recent research in the UK which indicates that Drake's extensive journals and maps of the region were suppressed and British claims to the region were not pursued for political reasons after the death of Elizabeth, and that there is substantive support for the idea of _several_ landings by Drake......... > >1700: Population of Acadia is 1,400. Could you be careful to qualify such statements with the term "non-native population of Acadia"? What happened to your point-form summary of native history? Is there no native history happening in other parts of Canada at this time? I hardly think so.....for one thing, native legends in the Northwest allude to contact with Asia and Polynesia at this time......another source maintains an African slave-ship that mutinied and made it around the Horn finally crashed on Haida Gwaii, accounting for the presence of the gene for sickle-cell anemia among Haida and for the presence of iron-working knowledge in the region prior to colonization by Europeans..... Spanish overland explorations in search of Cibola ("El Dorado") make it as far as Osoyoos in British Columbia. I don't have the dates on hand for the establishment of Okanagan Mission (near Kelowna), but this Spanish settlement survived for nearly a generation before being driven out by the Okanagan people in a disastrous rout of a withdrawal that ended in tragedy near Keremeos BC..... > >1724 > >1725-1729 - First Arctic expedition of Vitas Bering. >1725 - Peter the Great sends Vitus Bering to explore the >North Pacific. > >1726 > >1727 > >1728 - Vitus Bering sails through the Bering Strait. > >1729: Natchez fight French -- at Fort Rosalie, when French >governor Sieur Chepart tells them they must abandon the Temple >Mound Great Village and move (as laborers) to his plantation. >After the initial Indian successes, French lead two >counter-invasions out of New Orleans, capturing and selling into >plantation slavery most of the tribe and its smaller allies. A few >bands live in hiding along the Mississippi River and continue >their resistance. >1729 - French governor of Louisiana, wanting the site for a plantation, >orders the Natchez to vacate their capital. The furious Natchez kill 200 >Frenchmen at Fort Rosalie in response; the French answer by annihilating >the Natchez. > >1730s: The Mississauga drive the Seneca Iroquois south of Lake >Erie. > >1730 - Mirror sextant invented - Seven Cherokee chiefs visit London and >form an alliance, The Articles of Agreement, with King George II. > >1731 > >1731-43: The La Verendrye family organize expeditions beyond Lake >Winnipeg and direct fur trade toward the east. > >1732 > >1733 - Bering's second expedition, with George Wilhelm >Steller aboard, the first naturalist to visit Alaska. > >1734: Jemeraye establishes Fort Maurepas on Lake Winnipeg, third of the >Verendry posts (St. Pierre on Rainy reactivated, St. Charles on Lake of >the Woods.) >1734 - A Montreal slave named Marie-Joseph Angelique learns that she is >to be sold to someone else. In an attempt to escape, she sets a fire in >her mistress's house. The fire can not be contained, causing damage to >half of Montreal. She is caught, tortured and hanged, bringing attention >to the conditions of the slaves. > >1735 > >1736 > >1737 > >1738 - Smallpox strikes the Cherokee in the Southeast, killing almost >half the population. Smallpox also reaches tribes in western Canada. The first smallpox and other plagues of European disease are thought to have arrived in the Northwestern quadrant of the continent in the last decade of the 1690s, having travelled overland from Mexico......... > >1739 > >1740s: The Mandan Indians west of the Great Lakes begin to trade in >horses descended from those brought to Texas by the Spanish. Itinerant >Assiniboine Indians bring them from Mandan settlements to their own >territories southwest of Lake Winnipeg. > >1740-1748: The War of the Austrian Succession, with the American >counterpart King George's War. > >1741 - Vitus Bering, in service of Russia, reaches Alaska; Russians soon >trade with natives for sea otter pelts. >1741 - Russians Vitus Bering and Aleksi Cherikov 'discover' Alaska and >bring back fur skins (Bering shipwrecked on return and died); the Fur >Rush is on. > The lives of early Alaskans remained basically unchanged for thousands >of years, until Russian sailors, led by Danish explorer Vitus Bering, >sighted Alaska's mainland in 1741. > The Russians were soon followed by British, Spanish, and American >adventurers. But it was the Russians who stayed to trade for the pelts of >sea otters and other fur-bearing animals, interjecting their own culture >and staking a strong claim on Alaska. Once the fur trade declined, >however, the Russians lost interest in this beautiful though largely >unexplored land. >1741 - Alexei Chirikof, with Bering expedition, sights land >on July 15; the Europeans had found Alaska. > >1742 - First scientific report on the North Pacific fur seal. > >1743 - Concentrated hunting of sea otter by Russia begins. > I guess I have to go to Part II to see if you've gotten Spanish intrigues against the Russians in your timeline..........(Spanish ambassador and spies at St. Petersburg find out about Russian encroachments into territories claimed by Spain......i.e. California and "Nootka".......) Mike Cleven http://members.home.net/ironmtn/ The thunderbolt steers all things. - Herakleitos