Canada A People's History: Episode 1 - When the World Began 15000 BC to 1800 AD

[Music] Canada up people's history proudly presented with the corporate partnership support of Sun Life Financial and by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation tonight the English and French networks of the CBC launched the first history of Canada for the television age [Music] this series of documentaries will be broadcast on CBC television and radio Canada over the next two years covering our history from the first peoples to the end of the 20th century all the events portrayed in this history actually happened [Music] all the people you see actually lived all the words they speak were spoken or written by them I was chosen to join a number of others to take a perilous voyage to a new world I resigned myself to silence far from my own country this is the story of thousands like her who found much more than exiled a land of mystery and adventure a story of madmen and visionaries Saints and pirates in a landscape of terrifying beauty it is a story of the clash of Empires our battles to possess a continent [Music] the gunfire and bombardment terrorized the whole town the women and children in great numbers near the Citadel we're continually in tears wailing and praying it is a land swept by great political movements would you live and die but slow [Music] forged in the heat of rebellion [Music] the story of ordinary people caught up in the great currents of history but the battlefields of empire become the shores of hope hope for the adventurous for the dispossessed driven by dreams or carried on fever ships [Music] the InterVarsity mean my father dug a cave in a riverbank cover it with turf and there was our apartment all have fortunately left we would not have traded that root cellar for a royal palace and it's the story of millions who followed the family's fleeing persecution the landless seeking land the abandoned seeking anything [Music] this is the story of how they built a nation that came of age and grew into the world it is the testament of our fathers and our mothers the story that shaped who we are a dramatic and extraordinary story our own [Music] [Music] she was a scullery maid in the newfoundland out port of exploits bay but she held the key to a great mystery [Music] she had been found lost and starving in the winter woods her family was dead the white people gave her shelter and nursed her back to health the settlers named her Nancy but she called herself Shona divot they knew she was a be avec Indian but nothing more where were the rest of her people [Music] the Bo Thicke had always been mysterious the early European fishermen called them the Red Indians because they painted masks of ochre on their faces but when the first white settlers came to Newfoundland the biotic moved to deep into the interior away from the newcomers for decades that was hardly any contact then Shana divet was found [Music] she came into the care of a st. John's merchant named William Cormac Cormac was fascinated by the be author he wanted to learn all he could about their history their legends and their fate [Music] Seana divot became a woman to be studied Shona desert is now becoming very interesting as she improves in the English language and gains confidence in people at end I keep her very busily employed in drawing historical representations of everything that suggests itself relating to her tribe which I find is the best and radiused way of gathering information from her Seana divot described her people to Cormac her home had been on the shores of a lake defended by brambles bogs and twisted forests [Music] if Cormac wanted answers about the biotic he would have to trek inland to read Indian Lake [Music] we approach the lake with hope and caution but found to our mortification that the Red Indians had deserted it for some years past [Music] my party had been excited so sanguine so determined to obtain an interview of some kind with these people that on discovering from appearances everywhere around that the Red Indians no longer existed the spirits of one and all of us were deeply affected It was as if Shana divet had stumbled out of a land of ghosts unraveling the mystery of her people had become Cormac's obsession how did they come to be here the answers could only be found in unimaginably far-off places [Music] across an immense continent for this was a story that began when the world was young [Music] [Music] this is a story of ancient migrations and fields of ice a testament written on the mountainsides how the creator made this world the animals and man [Music] the memory is held by the stones the drums and the keepers of the stories I have lived here since the world began the creator made the world and then he went to rest and their underground the stone image it looked like a man he breathes into the image he blows his breath into the images mouth and a stone man comes alive [Music] [Applause] [Music] thousands of years before there was Rome before Greece before Egypt and Babylon people were taking root in the Americas dr. dolma it lumière me upon me eventually as many as 15 million people lived here in the northern reaches the part that would one day be called Canada more than 50 languages were spoken [Music] they were villagers and nomads farmers and hunters peacemakers and warriors [Music] they were the first people and around fires at night they shared stories of how their world came to be [Music] there is an iroquois belief that the first people fell through a hole in the sky onto the back of a giant turtle the hyda of the west coast tell of a raven that released them from the class with a giant clam the black foot of the plains say their creator molded them from mud in the middle of a world of water but others believe they came from somewhere else the Salish of the West Coast have passed down stories of a long trek across a great body of water a long time ago the people were living in another country near a large lake where they were attacked by their enemies since they could not cross the water they were in great danger of being destroyed that night one chief caused a cold wind to blow ice covered the lake and at daybreak the people crossed over the ice to the other side [Music] then the chief whose guardian spirit was he called the hot wind down and ice melted and disappeared behind them so that their enemies could not follow a hundred thousand years ago most of this continent was locked in the grip of an Ice Age as the ice spread the ocean levels sank and whole new masses of land emerged one of them was hundreds of miles wide a great land bridge between Asia and America the Gateway to a new world on one side of the bridge tribes of people who had already migrated east across Asia on the other side an unknown continent between 15 and 20,000 years ago the climate warmed and the glaciers started to melt through the barrier of ice a crack opened up a passage from the cold northern lands to open country farther so across the land bridge came grazing animals like the caribou in search of better pastures and the hunters followed [Applause] [Music] no one knows who arrived in North America first no one is certain if the lands rich was the only way to get here but people came and they were followed by others they didn't know it was a different continent they simply follow the food along the way they peopled a new world [Music] the sea levels rose with the runoff from the glaciers and the land bridge was submerged for the next 10,000 years the new continent would continue to grow [Music] the flow of people spread out to reach every corner they first went south founding great empires the Inca the Aztec the Anasazi then to the east as far as the Atlantic Ocean as the generations past of the earth warmed their descendants set out on a final migration north [Music] [Applause] [Music] the hunters became people of the caribou and the deer people of the seal and the walrus in a land scraped clean by the ice these were the first people [Music] [Applause] [Music] by seven thousand years ago bands of hunters had reached the shores of the eastern ocean completing the vast migration across the continent their identities have been lost in the mists of time but here on the windswept coast of Labrador they left evidence of who they were [Music] this is a place of wonder one of the oldest ceremonial grave sites in the world more than 2,000 years before the Egyptians built their pyramids long before the invention of the wheel in Mesopotamia the mourners marched in a grim processional to mark the passing of a twelve-year-old child [Music] little is known about who they were only that they killed walrus up and down the coast and that they chose this simple ocean overlook to be a landmark made sacred by death [Music] [Music] red ochre adorned the body's deerskin shroud and spear points were arranged on the grave floor and the body was left face down with a boulder on its back as if to keep it there [Music] on the lonely coast of Labrador they left a sign that speaks to the ages in the face of death the walrus hunters had affirmed that this was their place and that they would live on [Music] the northern landscape shaped its people this was a land where people had to rely on each other to survive [Music] on the plains the Blackfoot were guided by their God nappy the old man old man made the world and everything on it he had done everything well except that he put men in one place than women in another quite a distance away so they lived separately for a while one day old man said I have done everything well except I made one bad mistake putting men in one place and women and another there's no joy or pleasure in that I must make men mate with women I will put some pleasure some good feeling in it otherwise men won't be came to do what is necessary I myself was set an example the men lived in squalor wearing only rotting skins but they were skilled hunters and old men hoped that if the women could see the men they would want to be with them the women looked at the men their matted hair they smelled the strong smell coming from their unwashed bodies they looked at their dirty skin and they said to each other these beings called men don't know how to live they're dirty and they smell we don't want people like these then all the women threw rocks and shouted go away and hole man said it was not a mistake to have these creatures far away from us women are dangerous I shouldn't have created them but in time the legend says the men and women were drawn to each other finding ways to live together the roles differed from place to place in some bands lineage was determined by a mother's bloodline in farming cultures the women grew the crops that fed more mouths than the hunters could feed with meat still the work of butchering animals tanning skins and raising the children fell to the woman's warfare and hunting went to the men [Music] and when they work together they prospered and gave thanks for all they had received [Music] old man exclaimed why these women beings are beautiful they delight my eyes their bodies are sweet-smelling and alluring they make our hearts sleep [Music] the old man nappy was pleased there would be families here for a long time to come now these families would become a people [Music] nappy the old man made many images of clay in the form of the Buffalo then he said to the people those are your food [Music] the legends say that nappy told the people how to kill the Buffalo that they should heard them over clips and butcher the carcasses at the bottom [Music] Nabby said I have given you many gifts and I showed you how to use them all sorts of plants for food and medicine weapons and knives so that you can kill the Buffalo and use the whole carcass but you still have to do your job don't get lazy [Music] in the world of the Buffalo every person had a role hunters and Shaymin mothers and warriors the Blackfoot believed you found your role out there in the great silence of the wilderness [Music] to get some of the power from nature and to find a spirit who would be as protector through life a boy would go out alone on his Vision Quest he would first bathe until he was very clean and he would live alone for three or four or five days without food [Music] [Music] [Music] only a strong person can stay until the vision comes for it often comes first in the form of a dangerous animal the animal tests of the person's courage if he does not run away from it something talks to him something he cannot see the voice tells him to stay a certain number of nights at the end of that time the spirit gives the person power and tells him what his protector will be [Music] in the Vision Quest he went out as a boy to return as a warrior [Music] Nappi said here I'll mark you off a piece of ground and he did so then he said there is your land and it is full of all kinds of animals and many things grow in this land that no other people come into it when people come to cross the line take your bows and arrows and give them battle and keep them out if they gain a footing trouble will come to you [Music] and many holy and I love the connected that come in all of the northern continent there were those who were so different that they truly stood apart the Inuit there's a giant that lives in the North when he blows his breath violent snowstorms occur other spirits live to the east and west the Thunder is the noise of them running across the sky they did not trace their origins back to the great migration after the last ice age they came thousands of years later by sea from the West long after the land bridge had disappeared and they settled in a place where the struggle to survive was posed in its starkest form dr. dobby I don't remember the Inuit lived with no room for mistakes it was essential that they use everything they could to survive from a single caribou came clothes for the winter sinews were woven into thread marrow was cracked from its bones and its fat was rendered into fuel one story shows what the Inuit valued most a stubborn will to survive and the ingenuity that went with it an old man was left in an igloo with two dogs and little else as his family moved on but he wasn't ready to die just yet he fashioned a knife from his frozen feces he killed one dog to feed the other dog and himself from the skin he made a coat from the bones and guts a sled then he hitched up the remaining dog and rode off to rejoin his family even the creation legends speak of survival and death a woman went to live among strangers she became a burden so they put all their belongings into a sealskin boat they seized the woman and cast her overboard she struggled to regain the side of the boat so they cut off her fingers she screamed her determination to have revenge thrashing in the frigid water the woman was transformed she became Sedna goddess of the sea and the mother of all beasts her thumb became the walrus her first finger a seal and her middle finger the white bear when the first two animals see a human they tried to escape when the white bear sees a man filled with revenge he tries to kill the person who he believes mutilated the woman from whose finger he spray why did they come here across trackless miles and through the generations the inuit followed the whales and the seals the caribou and the musk ox [Music] they had learned the secret of this land of Midnight Sun behind the harshness there was an abundance of life they lived in small clusters scattered across the top of the world islands of subsistence in a universe of ice a people always balanced between life and death [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] down through the generations storytellers taught the importance of tradition and passed on songs and dances as unique as the people themselves dancing for us is not only a right or privilege it is an obligation it is a strict law that bids us dance it is one of the ways we carry on our responsibilities the cannibal bird dance of the Kwakiutl the Sun Dance of the Blackfoot the spirit dances of the Anishinaabe traditions to mark every aspect of life from harvesting corn to the puberty of a girl to the preparation for war [Music] war nothing was more important than defending ancestral land and there would always be aggressors in ancient times feuding and warfare were endemic the Warriors roamed the countryside killing and scalping the inhabitants of the settlements that lay scattered across the forest the Cree crossed the treeline to raid Inuit camps [Music] on the west coast Nations sent war parties to sea in cedar canoes [Music] the Blackfoot believed their creator gave them the ferocity to fend for what was theirs in the land of the Great Lakes the people were farmers they surrounded their palisaded villages with fields spreading wider with each new crop the Huron been known as the when dot lived near the most warlike of all the eastern people the Iroquois for generations these people have been enemies locked in a cycle of deadly raids and fierce retaliation the warrior struck quickly then silently escaped finding a way back to safety through dangerous unfamiliar territory [Music] Victor that's it the worst fate of all was to be captured alive [Music] this was the day his long and painful death began it was a ritual both victim and captor had their parts to play both understood what was to come they shared a code of honor retribution and suffering both knew that if the fortunes of war were different their positions might easily have been reversed brother you have come to die in the land of the when dot when docking the warrior had spent a lifetime preparing for this day praying that his courage would not fail that his passage to the next world would not be tainted by dishonor instead of crying out he sang a mournful death song lifting his spirit above the pain a true warrior could endure for days got that gun shop hideous at back brother you were cruel to yeah this was a public ceremony an affirmation of a people's solidarity in the face of their enemies they would be protected their warriors would strike fear into their enemy's hearts any invader would be destroyed the torturer had a responsibility to to carry out his gruesome Duty calmly even with a kind of compassion he too was being judged by his people and by the spirits oh ma jothika enough brother finally the warrior was released from suffering taken out to die a hero's death [Music] but now there would be more raids more retaliation more victims the cycle of warfare and death seemed endless [Music] in these times the Iroquois people themselves were fractured into five warring camps via NIDA Cayuga Onondaga Seneca and Mohawk they tell of a mystical being a Huron named de gana WIDA who arrived on a mission to bring the Iroquois back together into a peaceful Confederation they're gonna wither comes to the Mohawk settlement he spends the night on the shore of the river near the settlement when next morning the inhabitants of the settlements he spoke from his fire their chief sends a scout to go and fetch began away the [Music] before accepting the message of peace they got away tha must be tested in order to see if he possesses supernatural power Logano either climbs a tree and as he sits perched at the very top the Warriors cut down the tree so that it falls over a precipice into the gorge Logano either disappears into the river of the turbulent waters next morning a young man walks and sees smoke rising from near a cornfield he comes closer and recognizing the Galilee the runs to tell his chief with each chief de gana we de had to pass a test until he succeeded in convincing all five Iroquois nations to form a union to govern a crowded landscape and each nation shall contribute one ERA to form a single strong bundle bound the senior pedir so joined these arrows represent the Confederacy solidarity he warns them that if any arrows are withdrawn from the bundle that represents the power of their solidarity the bundle of arrows will weaken [Music] the Iroquois alliance made them the strongest political and military force in eastern North America but within a few decades they would face an unimaginable challenge from the other side of the world the native people of North America didn't venture out to explore any other continent but from across the ocean others would come to them [Music] sometime during the first millennium in Europe a radical new idea emerged there was something out there some new land beyond the Atlantic horizon one of the earliest mentions is a far-fetched story of an Irish monk named Brendan the story says that in the Year 565 Brendon and 17 disciples went searching for a land of solitude [Music] they sailed for seven years a journey fraught with danger through undiscovered waters monsters rose off their bow mermaids swam in their wake [Music] Brenden even claimed to have held mass on the back of a whale [Music] and then the monks came to land their small boat bobbed perilously close to the forbidding rocks of the coastline soldiers of Christ be strong in faith unfeigned and in the armor of the Spirit for we are now in the confines of our watch therefore and act manfully a few centuries past in Europe before the next stories emerged of a new world this time told by the Vikings the Vikings were Marauders feared and loathed that in Europe before they sailed west first to Iceland then Greenland they were expert seamen and they continued west until land loomed on their horizon they found a small sheltered Bay at the end of a great Peninsula they built a wayfaring station and a repair depot for their ships and settled in for the winter but the Vikings discovered there were people here people they called scray Ling's after trolls in Scandinavian myth the Vikings encountered a small group of these people and killed them from that day the settlement became a target they were ill-favored men with ugly hair on their heads they had big eyes and were brought in the cheeks they hissed like geese though the quality of the land was admirably that would always be fear and strife docking them on account of those who already inhabited it so they made ready to leave at the time no one took the Viking stories seriously and for 400 years the great expeditions were heading somewhere else to the east [Music] vast caravans to fabled cafe and India bringing back gold silk cinnamon pearls and pepper this was Europe 50 million people with it's great capitals in the city states Paris London Venice Genoa much of Europe's wealth came from its trade with Asia and Constantinople was the gateway that connected them then in 1453 a disaster for Europe Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks now Europe needed a new trade route to Asia and looked west across the Atlantic no one suspected there might be an entire continent in the way [Music] there was not only an entire continent across the Atlantic there was a different universe full of its own peoples and societies over 500 generations North America had become a continent of Nations unlike anything the world had ever seen the northern part was occupied and claimed by hundreds of tribes dozens of distinct people's each with its own way of life its own gods its own kind of wealth its own name and lands [Music] the Northwest was the land of the den a the Athabascan the slavey in the dog rip the two Choni the clean get and agree Chen in the Arctic the distant isolated world of the Inuit along the Pacific coast the Haida the Salish the Kwakiutl and the yuquot the Nishka and the guitar [Music] the people of the plains the Blackfoot the blood thus our scene and the pagan in the northern Woodlands the cream and the chip why on near the Great Lakes Deana snobby the Algonquin the farmers and warriors of the Iroquois in the window in the east the nations of the biotic the Maliseet the in you the obnoxio [Music] they knew the land as their own corners of the country they called de noonday Nunavut Kanata [Music] Canada [Music] [Music] the biotic woman Shauna divet had drawn some maps for her guardian William Cormac to help him find the lost nation of the be author he followed the maps deep into the interior but found no one [Music] then he realized the answers were in the maps themselves Shauna divot had drawn stick figures one group moving away from the other she drew her own people in red food had been scarce inland and they hadn't moved far enough to avoid European disease with no immunity the B of--this started to die [Music] then she drew some figures in black to represent gangs of white men some settlers considered the be ought to be thieves there were stories that they hunted the beyond for bounty killing everyone they could find Shawna desert received two gunshot wounds at two different times from shots fired that the Banshee was with by the English people one wound was that of a slug or a buckshot that went through the palm of her hand the other was a shot through her leg disease starvation massacres Shauna divot had always known the truth now William Cormac did too [Music] the Britons have trespassed here to be a blight and a scourge to a portion of the human race a defenseless and once independent proud tribe of men have nearly been extirpated from the face of the earth scarcely causing an inquiry how or why they have been dislodged and disappeared from the earth there were white settlers in other parts of Canada by now some living alongside native people some pushing them aside by 1829 in Newfoundland there was just one biopic left and Seana divot had tuberculosis [Music] died at st. John's Newfoundland on the 6th of June last in the 29th year of her age Shona death--it supposed to be the last of the Red Indians for Bo thix in Newfoundland that has been a primitive nation once claiming rank is a portion of the human race that has lived flourished and now become extinct in their own orbit [Music] Seana divots skull was packed in a metal box and sent to England to be studied in a laboratory [Music] attached to the shipment was a note the skull and scalp of Nancy biotic red Indian female she was tall and majestic mild and tractable but characteristically proud and cautious not all the native peoples of North America would share Shona divots tragic fate but none could avoid contact with outsiders and when that happened the whole course of human history changed new ties would be forged and old gods challenged neither side was sure the other was even human it is a drama that would shape the destiny of this land first contact [Music] the European discovery of America launched one of the greatest adventures in world history in Europe it would dictate the fate of Empires here it would lead through dark forests and across deserts of ice in a quest for riches land and human souls a story written on a landscape as vast as the ocean [Music] these people have come from across the great world in wonderfully large canoes with great white wings like those of a huge burden the men have long sharp knives and black cubes which they pointed birds and animals smoke from the black cubes rise in the air like smoke from our pipe these men are strange and offense their skin is white like snow the landmass before them was so immense that it took almost 300 years before European sailors touched its three shores the Atlantic Arctic and Pacific [Music] and on each of these Shores there are stories of those first defining encounters in the east french explorer Jacques Cartier would encounter a powerful chief along the river of Canada [Music] in the north an Englishman named Henry Hudson would risk mutiny and death while trying to find the Northwest Passage on the Pacific shores a young sailor would be plunged into a world beyond his wildest imagination but at first this was a world that no one expected or wanted to find an obstacle in the way of the real European dream a passage to China [Music] Christopher Columbus got it wrong he sailed west from Spain in 1492 to cross the Atlantic then mistakenly declared that the Caribbean islands he found were the shores of Asia [Music] Senor Christopher Columbus of Genoa have discovered the coast of India and it was spoken of grandly it was more divine than human to have found that way never before known to get to the Orient from where the spices originated the English were convinced they had to send their own expedition West to get at these spices [Music] five years after Columbus Henry the seventh gaze toward the western horizon and decided there was not an English sailor capable of making such a trip he had a talented Mediterranean navigator in mind well beloved John Cabot citizen of Venice has granted full and free authority to seek out discover and find whatsoever Isles countries regions or provinces of the heathen and infidels in what part of the world so ever they be which before this time have been unknown to all Christians [Music] he was born giovanni kobato but under the banners of the King of England he sailed his John Cabot he left Bristol on may 2nd 1497 on a ship christened the Matthew Cabot set a northerly course [Music] a month later he sighted land new the events were recorded by a Bristol merchant John Day cabott Landis has only one spot on the mainland there another place where they first sighted they disembarked there with a crucifix raised banners with the arms of the Holy Father and those of the King of England they found tall trees of the kinds masts are made they found a trail that led inland they saw a sight what a fire had been made they saw a manure of animals and they saw a stick a half yard lon pierced at both ends carved and painted and by such science they believe the land be inhabited and thus following the shore they saw two forms running on land one after the other but they couldn't tell if they were human beings or animals since as he was with just a few people he did not dare advance inland they are my shooting distance of a crossbow and after that taking fresh water he returned to his ship Jon Kabat spent only a few hours on the shores of the new world back in Bristol he was received as a hero he had claimed new land for England and he said there were so many fish in the waters off this Newfoundland that they could be caught with a basket lowered over the side of a boat that was all the fishermen of Bristol needed to hear it wasn't long before other fishermen joined in from the Basque Country and Spain Portugal and France they found enough Cod to feed all the stomach's of Europe [Music] the next year Cabot went back on a new expedition but this time it ended in disaster he is believed to have found the Newlands nowhere but on the very bottom of the ocean to which he is believed to have descended together with his ship himself the victim of the self-same ocean since after that voyage he was never seen again [Music] [Applause] by the year 1500 only three years after Cabot the island of Newfoundland had become a beacon for European fishermen but rarely had sailors explored on shore to see what other wealth might be found though then a Portuguese merchants came back with news he had found people he kidnapped 50 of them and shipped them back to Lisbon merchants waited at the docks among them an Italian diplomat I have seen touched and examined these people and beginning with their stature declare that they are somewhat taller than our average they appear to me to be in all else at the same forum and image as ourselves they may appear to be savages yet they are gentle and have a strong sense of shame and are better made in the legs arms and shoulders than it is possible to describe admirably fitted to endure labor and will probably turn out to be the best slaves that have been discovered up to this time the Newfoundland Indians could not endure their exposure to the Europeans all of them died and the merchants turned their attention back to the fish [Music] in the summer of 1534 French explorer Jacques Cartier was frustrated [Music] he had been sent to North America not for fish nor for people he was charged by his King Francois the first to find a trade passage through the continent to the Pacific and on to the Orient Cartier left the French seaport of saml oh and set a course for Newfoundland then through the Strait of Belle Isle and then nothing cartier found just confusing shoreline fog and dead ends I am rather inclined to believe that this is the land God gave to cane Cartier marked each new Bay and promontory on his charts bed a chateau ile de la Sam's young babies seller on and then Cartier came upon men there are people on this coast whose bodies are fairly well formed but they are wild and savage folk cartier sent some of his men ashore loaded with trade goods as soon as they saw as they began making signs that they had come to barter with us and held up some skins of small value with which they clothed themselves [Music] we offered them some knives and other iron goods to give to their chief they parted all they had to such an extent that they went back naked without anything on then and they made signs to us that they would return on the morrow with mores Kings with winter approaching Cartier would soon have to leave other than some new maps and encounters with natives his expedition had revealed nothing he was determined to come back in the spring to pick up where he left off so Cartier planted a cross to claim this land for friends [Music] the chief was dressed in an old black bearskin pointing to the cross he made us along Harang making a sign of the Cross with his two fingers and then he pointed to the land all around it out as if he wished to say that the region belonged to him and we ought not to set up the cross without his permission Donna kana chief of the static onna people Cartier recognized an adversary when he saw one we held up an axe to him pretending we would barter it for his skins of this he nodded asset and little by little come near the side of our vessel thinking he would have the axe but one of our men who was in our dingey caught hold of his canoe and at once two or three more stepped down into it and made them come onboard our vessel at which they were greatly astonished Cartier had not only seized on Akana but his two sons as well dhamma gaya untag narodny we explained to them by signs that the cross had been set up to serve as a landmark and guideposts on coming into the harbor and that we would soon come back and would bring them iron wares and other goods we told them that we wish to take two of his sons away with us and afterwards would bring them back again to that Harbor Cartier dressed the sons in European clothes and told Don Akana that they would meet the King of France then come back the following spring to act as his guides then Cartier could sail directly into the river and beyond to the Orient [Music] Paris in the winter of 1534 dama gaya and tag no Agni had found themselves at the height of the Renaissance amidst Dukes and duchesses artists and scholars among them a prominent clergyman Andre Ave he was the Kings cosmography a man of reason who explained the mysteries of the universe and the complexities of the new world the king was hoping that even though this country did not bring him much revenue it would at least bring him in mata Lama and the grace of God to have rescued his barbarous people from ignorance and to render it to the Christian Church tavae conjured a myth of a native North America it was a godless yet surprisingly peaceful place he imagined a simple nobility of people who lived in admirable existence yet could be easily conquered they have mirror cities nor castles Norma Shearer of war like us [Music] Cartier managed to convince King Francois that it was worth sending him back on another expedition back to Canada [Music] Canada it was what tag no Agni and dama Gaea called their father's village at Statik ona jacques-cartier added the name to his map [Music] before long dhamma gaya and type narodny were back at their father's fire telling him of the things they had seen on the other side of the ocean Donna Khanna didn't trust the French and now refused to help them Laura Cartier and his crew would have to continue upriver alone no other European had ever made this journey into the interior after sailing for a hundred and fifty miles they landed at a large island on October the second 1535 [Music] we marched on and about half a league fans found the land began to be cultivated it was fine land with large fields covered with a corner of the country and in the middle of these fields is situated and stands the village of of Shailaja near and adjacent to a mountain the slopes of which are fertile and cultivated and from the top of which one can see for a long distance we named this mountain more wine [Music] through the gates of Hochelaga cartier crossed into another civilization [Music] they have a plant of which a large supply is collected in summer for the winters consumption [Music] after drying it in the Sun they crumble this plant into powder which they plays in one of the openings of a hollow instrument and laying a live coal on top suck at the other end to such an extent that they fill their bodies so full of smoke that it's dreams out of their mouths and nostrils has from a chimney kart air was like an apparition to them so strange he seemed divine at once many sick persons some blind others with but one eye others lame or impotent and others again so extremely old that their eyelids hung down to their cheeks were brought in and said down are laid out near me in order that I might lay my hands upon them so that one would have thought Christ had come down to earth to heal them but I'm more than ever of the opinion that these people would be easy to convert to our holy faith [Music] Cartier played the role of a healing man to find out how to continue on to the Orient but he was desperately short of time he had to leave soon or risk being frozen in until spring finally Cartier was forced to make a run back to the Atlantic [Music] but the ice caught his ships near Donna Connors stronghold at static onna he and his men were not prepared for this [Music] they began to succumb to scurvy the sickness broke out among us accompanied by the most extraordinary symptoms for some lost all their strength their legs became swollen and inflamed and all had their mouth so tainted that the gums rotted away down to the roots of the teeth which nearly fell out the disease spread along the three ships to such an extent and in the middle of February of the 110 men forming our company there were not ten in good health I gave orders for all to pray and to make horizons and have an image and figure of the Virgin Mary carried across the ice and snow and place against a tree and issued an order that on the following Sunday Mass should be said at that spot praying the Virgin to be good enough to ask her dear son to have pity upon us at that time so many was down with the disease but we had almost lost hope of ever returning to France when God His infinite goodness and mercy at pity upon us [Music] mercy did come from Donna Kona's sons they boiled some cedar bowels to make a cloudy black elixir then they instructed Cartier to have his men drink it at once I ordered a drink to be prepared for the sick man but none of them would taste it at length one or two thought they would risk a trial as soon as they had drunk it they felt better which must clearly be ascribed to miraculous causes for after drinking it to three times they recovered health and strength and were cured of all the diseases they had ever had [Music] twenty-five of Carters men were dead by the time the ice loosened its grip and Cartier still had nothing to show his king he would need something enticing to win another passage back to Canada something from Donna Connor [Music] jacques cartier had a plan he would invite the chief and his sons to join him on his ship lagron they're mean for the feast of the holy cross eventually cautiously Donna Cana accepted which pleased us as we were in hopes of being able to capture them they arrived about two o'clock in the afternoon and as soon as they came opposite to our ships I went and greeted Donna kkona who likewise was friendly enough but kept his eye constantly fixed on the wood and was wonderfully uneasy I begged him to come on board the ships to eat and to drink this I assured orders for the seizure of Donna Kona technology dama Gaea at nightfall a large number of Donna Connors people came opposite our ships the river between us howling and crying like wolves all night long calling out incessantly Donna Kona Donna Kona and the hope of being able to speak I gave orders for Donna Kona to address then and I told him to be of good cheer for that after he had an interview with the King of France his master he would be able within ten or twelve moons to come back [Music] but Donna Khanna would never come back he was taken to Europe and languished there he tried vainly to get home spinning tales of a land of riches called the Saginaw that lay beyond towering waterfalls and treacherous Rapids he told the cosmography Andre Ave that he would lead them to these riches if only he could return to Canada [Music] the king of the country called Dona Cunha died in France a good Christian in the time of King Francois spoke French very well having lived there for years I saw and spoke with him to be more certain of these singularities of his country and he told me that his elders had told him that when a man came to earth a new star was formed in the sky which appeared in the sky to be the guide of this man whereas on the contrary when a man woman son or daughter came to pass away and leave Canada a star was lost in the sky never to be seen again [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] Henry Hudson braved the forbidding Arctic in search of a route to China instead he would unlock one of the great secrets of the north and pay a terrible price in 1609 the English King James the first called on Hudson to sail to the Arctic [Music] Hudson was eminently qualified he had sailed through Russia's northern seas and he had been to Greenland and the edge of the polar ice [Music] by June 1610 Hudson was steering his ship the discovery along Baffin Island South Shore into a waterway he called the Hudson Strait as he pressed further into this frigid place he added other new names to his charts the island of good fortune God's mercies hold with hope desire provoked ahthe [Music] days turned into weeks the desolation of the Arctic descended around the crew tensions spread as the ice floes threatened to freeze them in until spring [Music] one of the only literate crew members kept a diary a man named abaca Prickett we had a storm and the wind brought the ice so fast upon us that in the end we were driven to put her into the chiefest of the ice and there to let her lie it was a labyrinth without end Hudson headed south desperately searching for another outlet to the ocean his men protested they wanted to go back the way they came Hudson would not hear of it then he ran the discovery into a dead end at the bottom of the bay era master was in despair for he thought we should never have got out of this ice but there have perished to speak of all our trouble to be too tedious they were trapped in another realm stranded in a place they deemed unfit for man the crewmen blamed their captain for their plate stuck here through the long bitter winter with no contact from anyone until a man came out of the scrub trees on the shoreline he was a native trapper and he had come to trade to this savage our master gave a knife a looking-glass and buttons who received them thankfully and made signs that after he had slept he would come again which he did and when he came he brought with him a sled which he drew after him and upon a two deer skins and - beaver skins this was the first modest transaction on the bay that would bear Hudson's name in time one of the world's greatest fur trade empires would be built here but for the crew of the discovery it was just another day closer to death it was June when the ice broke into a maze of flows and open water and Hudson still had every intention of finding the Northwest Passage this was devastating news to the crew they turned to plans of mutiny Wilson the bosun and Henry Greene came to me and told me that they and the rest of their associates would shift the company and turn the master and all the sick men into the shallop and let them ship for themselves when I heard this I told them that for their sakes they should not commit so foul a thing in this side of God and man Andrey Greenbay me on my peace for he knew the worst which was to be hanged when he came out therefore of the two he'd rather be hanged at alman and starved abroad the master came out of his cabin Wilson bound his arms behind him we asked them what they meant they told him he should know when he was in the shallow then the shallop was all up to the ship side and the poor sick and lame men were called upon to get them out of their cabins and ended the shallow among those put into the boat with Hudson was his son John they kept pace with the discovery for a few days then fell back over the horizon and out of sight no trace of Hudson was ever found but Hudson's Bay would prove to be the northern gateway into the very heart of the continent in the 18th century there were few British heroes as great as Captain James Cook it was as if he had conquered the world Antarctica Polynesia New Zealand Australia and the Sandwich Islands by 1778 he was heading towards the uncharted waters off the west coast of North America he was looking for the outlet of the Northwest Passage instead he came upon an entire civilization unknown to white men the people didn't know what on earth it was when the ship came into the harbor the people went out to the ship they thought they were looking at fish come alive into people they were taking a real good look at those white people on the deck there when white men had a real hooked nose and one of the people said to another see he must have been a dog salmon that one there he's got a hooked nose they called their village yuquot but the name got muddled in the first clumsy conversation between the natives and Captain Cook on my arrival in this inlet I had honored it with the name of King George's sound but I afterwards found but it is called Nootka by the natives the people started talking our language to them telling them to go around the sound to drop anchor they were saying look guy is him what cut is him which means you go around the harbor Captain Cook says oh they're calling us the name of this place is Nootka that's how not cookout its name [Music] a great many canoes filled with natives were about the ships all day and trade commenced betwixt us and them which was carried on with the strictest honesty on both sides the articles which they offer for sale were the skins of various animals in exchange they took knives chisels pieces of iron and tin nails looking-glasses buttons or any kind of metal nothing would go down without visitors but metal before we had left the place there was hardly a bit of it left on the ships except what belong to our necessary instruments Cook's men wanted something else they offered pewter plates and cutlery so that women would be brought to the ships two of the officers joined in David Samwell and Charles Clerk these are the dirtiest set of people I've ever met with they continuously rub in their faces and bodies all over the one set of Filth or another on this constant repetition the dirt is so ingrained in the skin that it's absolutely hard to tell what color our good mother nature originally gave them goes Oh in order to rent themselves agreeable to us are taken great pains to rub their faces and hair with red ochre however or young gentlemen we're not gonna take this as an obstacle they were prevailed upon to sleep aboard the ships or rather they were forced to it [Music] [Music] [Applause] in 1803 the trade ship Boston sailed into Nootka sound on board was a 19 year old Englishman named John Jewett he was a blacksmith an occupation that would save his life I had never before beheld a savage of any nation it may readily be supposed that the novelty of their appearance so different for many people I had hitherto seen excited in me strong feelings of surprise and curiosity I was however particularly struck with the looks of their king who was a man of a dignified aspect about six feet in height and extremely straight in well proportioned [Music] he had an air of Savage magnificence his name was Mac wina he was a chief and a power broker his village at Nootka had become a wealthy trading post in the 25 years since Captain Cook's visit McQuinn his people had come to depend on metal goods forged by the traders but hatred festered between the natives and the whites there had been arguments and violence rapes and beatings even murder then John Jewett ship arrived the captain of the Boston gave Makwana a fowling gun as a present in return McKenna gave him nine ducks but he broke the gun Makwana was scolded like a careless child in front of his warriors he spoke not a word in reply but his countenance sufficiently expressed the rage he felt though he exerted himself to suppress it and I observed him while the captain was speaking repeatedly put his hand to his throat and Robert upon his bosom which he afterwards told me was to keep down his heart which was rising into his throat and choking him [Music] the next day McQuinn ax was back this time performing a dance for the assembled crew of the Boston acting as if nothing had happened over his face he wore a very ugly mask of wood representing the head of some wild beasts he appeared to be remarkably good human and gay entertaining us with a variety of antic tricks and gestures [Music] I felt stunned and senseless upon the floor I was however soon recalled to my recollection by three loud shouts or yells from the savages which convinced me that they had got possession of the ship it is impossible to describe my feelings at this [Music] terrific sound I looked up to see savages standing in a circle around me covered with the blood of my murdered comrades with their daggers uplifted in their hands prepared to strike he then asked me if I would be his slave during my life if I would fight for him in his battles if I would repair his muskets and make daggers and knives for him - all of which I was careful to answer yes [Music] the Boston was emptied and scuttled McQuinn his men had cut off the heads of Jewett's fellow crew members and forced him to identify them one by one then the Quinnie held a potlatch it was a feast a dance and a triumphant show of power where chief would welcome his guests by lavishing his excess riches on them I had determined from the first of my capture to adopt a conciliating conduct toward them and conform myself as far as was in my power to their customs and mode of thinking trusting that the same divine goodness that had rescued me from death would not always suffer me to languish in captivity among these heathens Jewett was exposed to an unbelievable wealth of ancient nations among them the Nootka the maca the Haida the Salish and the qua feudal they cut through the ocean and huge hand carved cedar canoes they were artists and dancers mystics and whalers headhunters and cannibals they boasted great wealth worshiped wolf spirits and Thunderbirds Jewett became a constant companion to Makwana at Nootka and on his visits to other tribes summers turned into winters and still no rescue ships came into the sound meanwhile Tuma Quinnie Jewett became less of a slave and more of a son so much so that in time he arranged for Jewett to be married I remonstrate against this decision but to no purpose for he told me that should I refuse I would be put to death a blacksmith from England now a husband at Nootka Jewett fell further into the world of Nootka sound succumbing to its customs and rhythms he even came to comprehend the massacre of his crewmates on the Boston here I cannot but indulge a reflection that has frequently occurred to me on the manner in which our people behaved towards the natives for though they are a thievish race yet I have no doubt that many of the melancholy disasters have principally arisen from the imprudent conduct of some of the captains and crews of the ships employed in this tray in exasperating them by insulting plundering and even killing them on slight grounds [Music] on the morning of the 19th of July a day that will be ever held by me and grateful remembrance of the mercies of God my ears were saluted by the joyful sound of three cannon and the cries of the inhabitants exclaiming strangers Whiteman it was an American ship the Lydia Makwana wanted to trade but he feared retribution for the massacre of the Boston's crew [Music] he could neither read nor write so he turned to Jewett to compose a letter of introduction to the American captain he said Joan you know lie but Jewett did lie he wrote a rescue plea that sent my quinna into a trap I found the quinna in irons with a guard over him he looked very melancholy but on seeing me his countenance brightened up I asked the captain's permission to take off his irons assuring him that as I was with him there was no danger of his being in the least troublesome Makwana bartered some otter skins for a greatcoat then he made ready to leave the Lydia and do it I felt a sincere pleasure in freeing from fetters a man who though he had caused the death of my poor comrades had nevertheless always proved my friend and protector then grasping both my hands with machi motion as the tears trickled down his cheeks he badly farewell and stepped into the canoe which immediately paddled him on shore [Music] notwithstanding my joy at my deliverance and the pleasing anticipation I felt of once more beholding a civilized country and again being permitted to offer up my devotions in a Christian Church [Music] I could not avoid experiencing a painful sensation on parting with this savage chief who had preserved my life [Music] and in general treated me with kindness [Music] John Jewett never shook the effects of his time among the Nootka he wrote a book about his adventure he turned that into a song then a play and went around peddling his tale to anyone who would listen it haunted him until he died at age 37 [Music] years later a French trader sailed into Nootka sound it was quiet except for the approach of an aging arthritic man in a canoe he was carrying a small load of otter pelts he was Makwana and he was still eager to trade [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Yeandle31 History Channel

Views: 181,421

Keywords: Canada, People, People's, History, Historian, CBC, Sun, Life, Financial, Canadian, Broadcasting, Cooperation, 15000, BC, BCE, 1800 CE, AD, Radio, Documentary, Education, School

Id: Ylgo4uBbouQ

Length: 108min 4sec (6484 seconds)

Published: Thu Mar 01 2018