Darius+-+What+was+life+like+500+years+ago?

=What was life like 500 years ago?= = =

They had no technology and many people had stone or wood houses or even mud huts if they were extremely poor.
===Some people lived in wigwams. These dome-shaped houses were made using trees and bark. There were also longhouses which were long,narrow buildings with arched roofs. People lived in apartments inside the longhouse. Two families lived in each apartment. About twenty people lived in each longhouse. 500 years ago people used runners to convey messages in spoken form. Smoke signals and fires were also used as a non-verbal way of communication.===

===They didn't know about real fashion. The women often wore dresses and leggings. These clothes were made from animal hide. The men would wear loincloths in the summer months. These were strips of cloth that covered the lower parts of their body. When it became cold, they put on leggings under the loincloth. Mittens were made out of the skins and furs of muskrats and beavers. Men often wore a headdress called a hair roach. This was a strip of porcupine hair that sat on the back of their head. If the weather was hot, men would wear sashes instead of leggings. Women often tied sashes around their waist. These sashes were made from woven plant fibres. The shoes they wore were called moccasins, they were made from animal hide.===

===The men work seperately from the women. The women worked at home taking care of the children and planted the gardens while the men hunted, travelled for trade and worked as labourers. Sometimes two or three couples and their children often lived together, hunting, fishing, gathering plant foods, and moving camp several times a year to take advantage of seasonal foods in different localities. During the season when food was most available, usually summer, these small groups would gather together, with several hundred people spending a few weeks in feasting, trading, and visitiing.===

===The Cree relied on the land for all of their food. They hunted the animals that roamed the area and found fish in nearby waters. They also picked wild berries and found many vegetables that grew in nature.=== ===Five hundred years ago, people used special tools to help them move from one place to another. In summer, they travelled on foot for short journeys. For longer trips, they travelled by water using canoes made from birchbark. The canoes were strong enough to use on fast-flowing rivers, but light enough to carry between rivers and lakes. In winter, the waters were frozen. Most winter travel was done by foot. They used snowshoes to keep them from sinking or getting stuck in the snow. The snowshoe frames were made of wood. Strips of animal hide were woven around the frames.===

Ojibwa and more. The men worked hard to provide for their families. The women and girls took care of the homes and the gardens.
===School was held in a settler's home, the general stone or village church before a schoolhouse was built. The parents had to build the school, pay the teacher and buy school materials. The first schoolhouse were simple log cabins with a big box stove in the middle. The students sat on two or three rows of benches and worked at a big table. The floor was dirt and the windows were covered with greased paper instead of glass. Rags were stuffed in the cracks in the walls to keep out the cold.=== ===I would not have wanted to live 500 years ago because, as a boy I would have to help hunt for food because there were no stores. In winter, they didn't have heaters like me have today. They had no television or games like we do. They even had to make their own clothes. They had to do a lot of walking even in the winter time. I do like the way how families were working together and helping each other.===