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Traditional Life

First Nations people in button blankets at Quatsino Sound
First Nations people in button blankets at Quatsino Sound, 19-- Photo Credit: Ben W. Leeson (VPL #14079)

This page will help you find information on traditional life among Indigenous peoples in Canada, focusing on aspects of survival and social life, such as food, shelter, clothing, games, transportation, religion, and legends.

Building Effective Catalogue Searches

By subject heading - region - subdivision:

By group:

Useful subdivisions include:

  • Social Life and Customs
  • Folklore
  • Food
  • History
  • Rites and Ceremonies
  • Religion
  • Legends

Note: Be aware that terms or forms of names used in cataloguing or in titles of books may be different from those currently in use. For best results, you may need to use a variety of keyword search terms or forms of names.

Examples:

  • "Bella Bella" or "Heiltsuk"
  • "Nootka" or "Nuchalnuth"
  • "Indians" or "First Nations"

Useful Websites

The Buffalo Nations Luxton Museum tells the story of the First Nations people of the Plains through interpretive exhibitions, artifacts, and dioramas. Information about aspects of Plains life, including clothing, weapons, transportation, hunting and more.

Explores the role of whaling, fishing, communal hunting, farming, and trading in Canadian Indigenous societies. Part of the First Peoples of Canada online exhibition.

Information about houses from six Northwest cultural groups, as represented by an exhibition in the Grand Hall at the Canadian Museum of Civilization.

Simon Fraser University program to maintain and develop ongoing partnerships with First Nations communities engaged in language revitalization efforts.

Website from UBC serves as a starting point for the reader who might be looking for specific topics relating to cultural traditions, materials or resources of Pacific Northwest First Nations.

History and traditional life and culture of the Inuit.

Online exhibitions include canoe traditions of the Fijian, Squamish, and Haida people, weavers in the First Nations community of Musqueam, and the making of a Chilkat robe.

Recommended Books
Cover Image for Being in Being: The Collected Works of Skaay of the Qquuna Qiighawaay

Being in Being: The Collected Works of Skaay of the Qquuna Qiighawaay

Skaay

Call Number
398.2097011 S62b
Publication Year
2001
Cover Image for Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes

Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes

Waldman, Carl

Call Number
970.103 W16e2
Publication Year
2006
Cover Image for The First Nations of British Columbia: An Anthropological Overview

The First Nations of British Columbia: An Anthropological Overview

Muckle, Robert James

Call Number
970.411 M94fa2
Publication Year
2014
Cover Image for Handbook of North American Indians

Handbook of North American Indians

Sturtevant, William C.

Call Number
970.1 H23s

Isuma Inuit Studies Reader: An Inuit Anthology

Robinson, Gillian 1958-

Call Number
970.419 R66i
Publication Year
2004

An Iron Hand Upon the People: The Law Against the Potlatch on the Northwest Coast

Cole, Douglas

Call Number
970.411 C68i
Publication Year
1990
Cover Image for A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples

A Native American Encyclopedia: History, Culture, and Peoples

Barry Pritzker

Call Number
970.103 P96n
Publication Year
2000
Cover Image for One of the Family: Metis Culture in Nineteenth-Century Northwestern Saskatchewan

One of the Family: Metis Culture in Nineteenth-Century Northwestern Saskatchewan

Brenda Macdougall

Call Number
970.4124 M13o
Publication Year
2010
Cover Image for These Mysterious People: Shaping History and Archaeology in a Northwest Coast Community

These Mysterious People: Shaping History and Archaeology in a Northwest Coast Community

Susan Roy

Call Number
970.3 C65R8t
Publication Year
2010

Recommended DVDs

Atanarjuat: The Fast Runner

Zacharias Kunuk

Call Number
IKU MOVIE ATA
Publication Year
2002

Potlatch: To Give

Barb Cranmer

Call Number
970.3 K98P8c
Publication Year
2011

Shluk: Nuxalk Dried Spring Salmon on the Bella Coola River

Al Elsey and Barb Grossman

Call Number
970.3 B43E4s
Publication Year
2003

Unikkausivut: Sharing Our Stories

Nicole Lamothe

Call Number
970.419 U58L
Publication Year
2011

Writing the Land

National Film Board of Canada

Call Number
970.3 C65W9b
Publication Year
2007

Digital Library Resources
Culture and History Subject Icon

Finding tool for historical information about BC in books, magazines and newspapers in the Vancouver Public Library collection.

Access:
Everywhere for everyone
Culture and History Subject Icon

Online version of the 1999 resource that describes the nation’s 119 different ethnic groups: their process of migration, arrival and settlement, community life, intergroup relations, language and culture.

Access:
Everywhere for VPL cardholders

Contact Us

Northwest History Index

This card index in Special Collection provides access to the Northwest History Collection, a heritage collection covering the early history and exploration of British Columbia and the Pacific Northwest.

The collection includes:

  • magazine and newspaper articles
  • pamphlets
  • books
  • chapters in books
  • many other resources

As of August 1998, no new material has been added to the Northwest History Index. It is continued by the British Columbia Index.