The Cache

 A panel here explains that the Museum does not display artifacts excavated from First Nations burials anymore, but instead relies on reproductions in such cases.

First Nations peoples occupied the vast stretches of the Boreal Forest and made their lives hunting in the thousands of kilometres of woodland for thousands of years.

Some of the tools they would have used for hunting can be seen in examples like this.

7000 years ago, people began working with copper in the north. The McCollum Cache was uncovered by Lake Nipigon in Ontario's north- a cache of copper artifacts buried 4000 years ago indicating great wealth. Part of the cache is on display.

In the Far North, before Inuit peoples moved into the region, there were others who lived in the Canadian Arctic that existed for thousands of years before disappearing into the mists of time.

This is one of the oldest representations of a face in North America, an ivory carving found on Devon Island in the Arctic. 

Dorset peoples of the region left behind effigies and carvings of animals, including polar bears, hinting at their spirituality.

In the woodlands of Eastern North America, the Algonquian tribes took hold and developed their own lives. We'll pick up here tomorrow.