Discover - Biome Brochure

A biome is a large area on the Earth’s surface that is identified by the types of animals and plants living there.  Climate is a major factor that determines which plants and animals live in any particular biome.  These plants and animals must have adaptations to live in their biome (plant community).  In this activity, you will research one of the biomes in detail.
 

 Notebook: What are the characterisitics of one of the World's biomes?

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    Aboriginal Connection


    Reading about how much of the biome's plant life is used for so many purposes is interesting!

    In the past, the Aboriginal peoples who made the boreal forest their home saw themselves as part of a world instilled with spirits. The animals, the trees, even the lakes and skies, possessed souls that were similar and yet distinct from their own. Thus, the beliefs of the Innu, Cree, Ojibwa, the Algonkians in the east and the Dene in the west did not seek the promise of an afterlife, but the guidance of these spirits for life on earth.

    As hunters, the Aboriginal peoples of the boreal forest were nomadic, and they had to carry their belongings with them. The forest provided bark and pitch for their canoes and wood for fuel and skins for clothing. Their clothing became an outlet for artistic expression. Embroidery of moose hair and coloured thread embellished coats, mittens, and moccasins. Porcupine quills were worked into floral and geometric designs.

    The Ojibwa, whose territory extended outward in all directions from Lake Superior, were one of the many Aboriginal peoples living in the boreal woodlands. A newly born child might be wrapped in a rabbit-skin robe and diapered with absorbent sphagnum moss. Sphagnum has antibiotic properties guarding from infection. The child's first eating bowl may have been carved from spruce. As well, the family wigwam and its spruce pole structure and birch bark outer covering was derived from the trees. The boughs of the spruce were used to cover the floor, providing a cushion on the hard ground. The bough's smell and needles were a natural repellent to small mammals, reptiles, and insects.

    Girls learned skills such as hide-tanning, leatherwork, and the construction of baskets and cooking pots from birch bark. A well-constructed birch bark pot was leak proof and could be used to boil water over a bed of coals.

    Part of a young man's life was to join the hunt armed with birch arrows, bows strung with animal gut, and spears and knives of wood, stone, and bone. These hunters and gatherers took only what they needed from the forest, respecting it as an offering to them from the forest. After the hunt, or even after activities such as berry picking, they expressed their gratitude for the goodness of the Great Spirit and Creator.