Land & Geography
The area of land that an Indigenous nation has traditionally lived on, used, cared for, and maintained relationships with.
Traditional Territory
A person's or group's sense of who they are, often shaped by culture, language, family, history, beliefs, and connections to place
Identity
The system or group responsible for making decisions, creating rules, and organizing a community.
Government
The main vehicle used for travel by Indigenous societies prior to European contact.
Birchbark Canoes
Corn, beans, and squash are traditionally grown together in this important agricultural system.
Three Sisters
Manitoba and Ontario
The confederacy which dominated the Albertan prairies prior to European contact.
Blackfoot Confederacy
A way of making decisions by discussing an issue until the members of a group can reach general agreement.
Consensus
An economic system in which people meet their needs primarily by hunting animals, fishing, and gathering wild plants rather than growing crops.
Hunter-Gatherer Economy
This aquatic plant was an important traditional food for some Indigenous peoples, particularly in regions around the Great Lakes.
Wild Rice
The Treaty that we currently live in.
Treaty 7
A society where men are placed at the top and women are secondary.
Patriarchy
In Mi'kmaq society, this term refers to a leader or chief responsible for representing and helping lead a community.
Saqamaw
An economic system based largely on growing crops and raising or managing plants and animals for food.
Farming Economy
This term describes a society or social system in which women hold particularly important positions of authority or influence.
Matriarchal
This lake allowed for the Haudenosaunee to grow crops due to its large content of freshwater.
Lake Ontario
A group of people who share a common ancestry or family connection and are organized as a social group.
Clan
In Haudenosaunee society, this woman had an important leadership role within her clan, including responsibilities connected to choosing or removing a male chief.
Clan Mother
Systems of exchange that connected different communities so they could obtain goods and materials that were not available in their own territories.
Trading Networks
An alliance in which separate nations or groups join together and cooperate while maintaining aspects of their own identity and governance.
Confederacy
The practice of living in one area during the winter, and then moving elsewhere for the summer
A system in which family descent and membership are traced through the mother's side of the family.
Matrilineal
A governing body in Haudenosaunee political organization where representatives from different nations met to discuss matters affecting the Confederacy.
Grand Council
Tools created by Indigenous peoples to make travel by foot easier in the winer.
Snowshoes.
This system of laws and principles provided a foundation for governance, relationships, decision-making, and peace among the nations of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy.
Great Law of Peace