Were All Indigenous People Nomadic?

There has been a long-held idea that all Indigenous Peoples were nomadic peoples living in primitive conditions roaming the land searching for their next meal. There is a great deal of archaeological evidence to suggest that while some Indigenous Peoples were nomadic a great number were not.

For example, midden sites in coastal British Columbia date back thousands of years. A midden site is where Indigenous People heaped their clam shells after consumption. Archaeologists use these midden sites to count the layers of clam shells like rings on a tree to see how long and how many people lived in an area. This is a clear indication that some Indigenous Peoples were stationary, and if they did move, it was to go from a summer house site to a winter house site. In the Fraser Valley, one of the popular Sto:lo First Nation sites at Xá:ytem is dated at about 9000 years, providing evidence of continued occupation of one site for 9000 years.

There were other Peoples who did move around throughout the year; fishing in one place in the summer and hunting in another place in the winter but it was always within a traditional territory. Sometimes those territories were shared with other communities; for example, the Cree, Assiniboine and Ojibway share a similar history and cultural traditions due to their use of overlapping territory for hunting and gathering of food.

Our Indigenous awareness courses cover the common misconceptions held by some non-Indigenous people.

Featured photo: Summer lodges of the Ojibway taken in the vicinity of Dufferin, Manitoba between 1872 and 1873. Photo: Credit: Library and Archives Canada / PA-121615