:Indigenous peoples in Canada

In Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, "Aboriginal peoples of Canada" includes Indian, Inuit, and Métis peoples.{{cite web| title = Constitution Act, 1982 Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms| work = Department of Justice| publisher = Government of Canada| year = 1982| url = http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/ca_1982.html| access-date =October 5, 2009 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091021182217/http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/ca_1982.html| archive-date=October 21, 2009| url-status=live}} "Aboriginal" as a collective noun{{cite web|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/indigenous-aboriginal-which-is-correct-1.3771433 |title= Indigenous or Aboriginal: Which is correct? | date =September 21, 2016|access-date=November 19, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160922085332/https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/indigenous-aboriginal-which-is-correct-1.3771433 |archive-date=September 22, 2016}} is a specific term of art used as a legal term encompassing all Indigenous peoples living in Canada.{{cite web|url=http://www.aidp.bc.ca/terminology_of_native_aboriginal_metis.pdf |title=Terminology of First Nations, Native, Aboriginal and Metis (NAHO) |work=aidp.bc.ca/ |access-date=October 5, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100714021655/http://www.aidp.bc.ca/terminology_of_native_aboriginal_metis.pdf |archive-date=July 14, 2010 }}{{cite web|url=http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ap/tln-eng.asp|title=Terminology|work=Indian and Northern Affairs Canada| access-date =October 5, 2009 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091027041022/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ap/tln-eng.asp| archive-date=October 27, 2009| url-status=live}} Although "Indian" is a term still commonly used in legal documents for First Nations, the descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada, and most consider them to be pejorative.{{cite web|title=Words First An Evolving Terminology Relating to Indigenous peoples in Canada |url=http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/pub/wf/trmrslt_e.asp?term=12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030106123913/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/pub/wf/trmrslt_e.asp?term=12 |archive-date=January 6, 2003 |publisher=Communications Branch of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada |year=2004 |access-date=June 26, 2010}}{{sfn|Olson|Pappas|1994|p=213}} Aboriginal peoples has begun to be considered outdated and is slowly being replaced by the term Indigenous peoples.{{refn|group=nb|The words Aboriginal and Indigenous are capitalized when used in a Canadian context.{{cite web | title=The Canadian Style | website=TERMIUM Plus® | date=October 8, 2009 | url=https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tcdnstyl-chap?lang=eng&lettr=chap_catlog&info0=14 | access-date=July 16, 2024}}{{cite web | title=4.11 Races, languages and peoples, 4.12 | website=TERMIUM Plus® | date=October 8, 2009 | url=https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tcdnstyl-chap?lang=eng&lettr=indx_catlog&info0=4.11&info1=4.12 | access-date=July 16, 2024}}{{cite web | title=Indigenous Peoples | website=University of Guelph | date=November 14, 2019 | url=https://news.uoguelph.ca/guides/style-guide/inclusive-language/indigenous-peoples/ | access-date=July 24, 2024}}{{cite web|title=14.12 Elimination of Racial and Ethnic Stereotyping, Identification of Groups|url=https://www.btb.termiumplus.gc.ca/tcdnstyl-srch?lang=eng&srchtxt=indigenous&cur=2&nmbr=2&lettr=14&info0=14.12#zz14|website=Translation Bureau|publisher=Public Works and Government Services Canada|access-date=July 2, 2020|language=en|year=2017}}{{cite web|last1=McKay |first1=Celeste |title=Briefing Note on Terminology |url=http://umanitoba.ca/student/indigenous/terminology.html |publisher=University of Manitoba |access-date=July 2, 2020 |date=April 2015 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161025224808/http://umanitoba.ca/student/indigenous/terminology.html |archive-date=October 25, 2016 }}{{Cite journal|last=Todorova|first=Miglena|date=2016|title=Co-Created Learning: Decolonizing Journalism Education in Canada|journal=Canadian Journal of Communication|volume=41|issue=4|pages=673–92|doi=10.22230/cjc.2016v41n4a2970|doi-access=free}}}} There is also an effort to recognize each Indigenous group as a distinct nation, much as there are distinct European, African, and Asian cultures in their respective places.{{cite web|title=University Of Guelph Brand Guide {{!}} Indigenous Peoples|url=https://guides.uoguelph.ca/guides/style-guide/inclusive-language/indigenous-peoples/|access-date=June 25, 2021|website=guides.uoguelph.ca|date=November 14, 2019 }}

First Nations (most often used in the plural) has come into general use since the 1970s replacing Indians and Indian bands in everyday vocabulary. However, on Indian reserves, First Nations is being supplanted by members of various nations referring to themselves by their group or ethnic identity. In conversation, this would be "I am Haida", or "we are Kwantlens", in recognition of their First Nations ethnicities.{{cite book |title=Language and Identity |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wwvOjiqyU-EC&pg=PA1|first= John |last=Edwards |publisher= Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-69602-9 |year=2009 }} Also coming into general use since the 1970s, First Peoples refers to all Indigenous groups, i.e. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis.{{cite book|url=http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_treaties/john_fp33_indianact.html|title=The Indian Act of Canada – Origins: Legislation Concerning Canada's First Peoples |author=Elizabeth II |publisher=Assembly of First Nations |year=2004 |series=1 |place=Ottawa |page=3 |author-link=Elizabeth II |access-date=January 11, 2015}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/pub/wf/trmrslt_e.asp?term=11 |title=Words First An Evolving Terminology Relating to Aboriginal Peoples in Canada |year=2004 |publisher=Communications Branch of Indian and Northern Affairs Canada |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030106124111/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/pr/pub/wf/trmrslt_e.asp?term=11 |archive-date=January 6, 2003 |access-date=May 24, 2020 }}{{cite web |url=http://www.aidp.bc.ca/terminology_of_native_aboriginal_metis.pdf |title=Terminology of First Nations, Native, Aboriginal and Métis |year=2009 |publisher=Aboriginal Infant Development Programs of B.C. |access-date=June 26, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100714021655/http://www.aidp.bc.ca/terminology_of_native_aboriginal_metis.pdf |archive-date=July 14, 2010 }}

Notwithstanding Canada's location within the Americas, the term Native American is hardly ever used in Canada, in order to avoid any confusion due to the ambiguous meaning of the word "American". Therefore, the term is typically used only in reference to the Indigenous peoples within the boundaries of the present-day United States.{{cite web|title=Native American |url=http://oaadonline.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/native-american |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121122035018/http://oaadonline.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/dictionary/native-american |archive-date=November 22, 2012 |access-date=May 27, 2013 |work=Oxford Advanced American Dictionary |quote=In Canada, the term Native American is not used, and the most usual way to refer to the Aboriginal peoples of Canada, other than the Inuit and Métis, is First Nations.}} Native Canadians was often used in Canada to differentiate this American term until the 1980s.{{cite web |website=firstpeoplesofcanada.com |title=Origins of Canada's First Peoples |url=http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_groups/fp_groups_origins.html |access-date=March 25, 2021}}

In contrast to the more-specific Aboriginal, one of the issues with the term {{Wikt-lang|en|native|i=no}} is its general applicability: in certain contexts, it could be used in reference to non-Indigenous peoples in regards to an individual place of origin / birth.{{cite web |url=https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/terminology/#native |title=Terminology |website=Indigenous Foundations |publisher=First Nations & Indigenous Studies, University of British Columbia |year=2009}} For instance, people who were born or grew up in Calgary may call themselves "Calgary natives", as in they are native to that city. With this in mind, even the term native American, as another example, may very well indicate someone who is native to America rather than a person who is ethnically Indigenous to the boundaries of the present-day United States. In this sense, native may encompass a broad range of populations and is therefore not recommended, although it is not generally considered offensive.

The Indian Act (Revised Statutes of Canada (R.S.C.), 1985, c. I-5) sets the legal term Indian, designating that "a person who pursuant to this Act is registered as an Indian or is entitled to be registered as an Indian."{{cite web|url=http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-5/|title=Consolidated federal laws of canada, Indian Act|last=Branch|first=Legislative Services|website=laws-lois.justice.gc.ca|language=en|access-date=October 4, 2017}} Section 5 of the act states that a registry shall be maintained "in which shall be recorded the name of every person who is entitled to be registered as an Indian under this Act." No other term is legally recognized for the purpose of registration and the term Indian specifically excludes reference to Inuit as per section 4 of the act.{{cite web | title=The Indian Act | website=The Canadian Encyclopedia | date=Jun 6, 1944 | url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/timeline/the-indian-act | access-date=Nov 20, 2024}}

Indian remains in place as the legal term used in the Canadian Constitution; however, its usage outside such situations can be considered offensive.{{refn|group=nb|Indian is used here because of the historical nature of the article and the precision of the name, as with Indian hospital.{{cite web|title=Terminology Guide: Research on Aboriginal Heritage|url=https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/aboriginal-heritage/Documents/Terminology%20Guide%20%20Aboriginal%20Heritage.pdf|publisher = Library and Archives Canada |date=2012|accessdate=April 8, 2023}} It was, and continues to be, used by government officials, Indigenous peoples and historians while referencing the school system. The use of the name also provides relevant context about the era in which the system was established, specifically one in which Indigenous peoples in Canada were homogeneously referred to as Indians rather than by language that distinguishes First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. Use of Indian is limited throughout the article to proper nouns and references to government legislation.}}

File:Aboriginal Community in Northern Ontario.JPG]]

The term Eskimo has pejorative connotations in Canada and Greenland. Indigenous peoples in those areas have replaced the term Eskimo with Inuit,{{cite book|last1=Hirschfelder| first1 = Arlene B|last2=Beamer|first2=Yvonne| title = Native Americans today: resources and activities for educators, grades 4–8| publisher = Teacher Ideas Press, 2000| year = 2002|page=3| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=p5SnvwKV5m8C&q=%22Inuit+or+Eskimo&pg=PA3| access-date =January 11, 2015|isbn=978-1-56308-694-6 }}

{{cite web|url=http://www.expansionistparty.org/Eskimo.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071013174643/http://www.expansionistparty.org/Eskimo.html|archive-date=October 13, 2007|title="Eskimo" vs. "Inuit"|work=Expansionist Party of the United States | access-date =October 5, 2009 }} though the Yupik of Alaska and Siberia do not consider themselves Inuit, and ethnographers agree they are a distinct people.{{sfn|Olson|Pappas|1994|p=213}} They prefer the terminology Yupik, Yupiit, or Eskimo. The Yupik languages are linguistically distinct from the Inuit languages, but are related to each other.{{sfn|Olson|Pappas|1994|p=213}} Linguistic groups of Arctic people have no universal replacement term for Eskimo, inclusive of all Inuit and Yupik across the geographical area inhabited by them.{{sfn|Olson|Pappas|1994|p=213}}

Besides these ethnic descriptors, Aboriginal peoples are often divided into legal categories based on their relationship with the Crown (i.e. the state). Section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867 gives the federal government (as opposed to the provinces) the sole responsibility for "Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians." The government inherited treaty obligations from the British colonial authorities in Eastern Canada and signed treaties itself with First Nations in Western Canada (the Numbered Treaties). The Indian Act, passed by the federal Parliament in 1876, has long governed its interactions with all treaty and non-treaty peoples.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

Members of First Nations bands who are subject to the Indian Act are compiled on a list called the Indian Register, and such people are designated as status Indians. Many non-treaty First Nations and all Inuit and Métis peoples are not subject to the Indian Act. However, two court cases have clarified that Inuit, Métis, and non-status First Nations people are all covered by the term Indians in the Constitution Act, 1867. The first was Reference Re Eskimos (1939), covering the Inuit; the second was Daniels v. Canada (2013), which concerns Métis and non-status First Nations.{{cite web|url=http://ctvnews.ca/canada/court-rules-metis-non-status-indians-qualify-as-indians-under-act-1.1105186 |title=Court rules Metis, non-status Indians qualify as 'Indians' under Act |date=January 8, 2013 |access-date=November 23, 2016|url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130108152901/http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/court-rules-metis-non-status-indians-qualify-as-indians-under-act-1.1105186 |archive-date=January 8, 2013 |publisher=CTV News}}

{{See also|History of Canada}}

{{See also|Peopling of the Americas|Paleo-Indians}}

{{Further|Technological and industrial history of Canada#The Stone Age: Fire (14,000 BC – AD 1600)}}

File:Early migrations mercator.svg based on the Out of Africa theory; figures are in thousands of years ago (kya){{cite book|first= Göran |last= Burenhult |title=Die ersten Menschen |publisher= Weltbild Verlag |year= 2000 |isbn= 978-3-8289-0741-6}}]]

According to North American archaeological and genetic evidence, migration to North and South America made them the last continents in the world with human habitation.{{cite web|title=Atlas of the Human Journey-The Genographic Project|publisher=National Geographic Society.|date=1996–2008|url=https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html?era=e003|access-date=October 6, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110501094643/https://genographic.nationalgeographic.com/genographic/atlas.html?era=e003|archive-date=May 1, 2011}} During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50,000–17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the Bering land bridge that joined Siberia to northwest North America (Alaska).{{cite journal |title=The Late Pleistocene Dispersal of Modern Humans in the Americas |url=http://www.centerfirstamericans.com/cfsa-publications/Science2008.pdf |year=2008 |doi=10.1126/science.1153569 |pmid=18339930 |volume=319 |issue=5869 |journal=Science |pages=1497–502 |vauthors=Goebel T, Waters MR, O'Rourke DH|bibcode=2008Sci...319.1497G |s2cid=36149744 }}

Alaska was ice-free because of low snowfall, allowing a small population to exist. The Laurentide ice sheet covered most of Canada, blocking nomadic inhabitants and confining them to Alaska (East Beringia) for thousands of years.{{cite news |first=Nicholas |last=Wade |title=Pause Is Seen in a Continent's Peopling |work=The New York Times |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/13/science/linguistic-study-sheds-new-light-on-peopling-of-north-america.html?ref=science |date=March 13, 2014}}{{cite book |last=Pielou |first=E.C. |title=After the Ice Age: The Return of Life to Glaciated North America |publisher=University of Chicago Press |year=1991 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MO4QFKshlVcC&pg=PP1 |isbn=978-0-226-66812-3}}{{page needed|date=June 2016}}

Indigenous genetic studies suggest that the first inhabitants of the Americas share a single ancestral population, one that developed in isolation, conjectured to be Beringia.{{cite book |first1=Spencer |last1=Wells |first2=Mark |last2=Read |title=The Journey of Man – A Genetic Odyssey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WAsKm-_zu5sC&pg=PP1 |publisher=Random House |isbn=978-0-8129-7146-0 |year=2002 |pages=138–140}}{{cite journal |first=Cecil M. |last=Lewis |title=Hierarchical modeling of genome-wide Short Tandem Repeat (STR) markers infers native American prehistory |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=141 |issue=2 |pages=281–289 |date=February 2010 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.21143 |pmid=19672848}} The isolation of these peoples in Beringia might have lasted 10,000–20,000 years.{{cite web |title=New World Settlers Took 20,000-Year Pit Stop |first=Ker |last=Than |url=http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080214-america-layover.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080219013512/http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080214-america-layover.html |archive-date=February 19, 2008 |publisher=National Geographic Society |year=2008 |access-date=January 23, 2010}}{{cite journal |first1=Sigrún |last1=Sigurðardóttir |first2=Agnar |last2=Helgason |first3=Jeffrey R. |last3=Gulcher |first4=Kári |last4=Stefansson |first5=Peter |last5=Donnelly |title=The Mutation Rate in the Human mtDNA Control Region |journal=American Journal of Human Genetics |volume=66 |date=May 2000 |pmid=10756141 |issue=5 |pages=1599–1609 |pmc=1378010 |doi=10.1086/302902}}

{{cite web|title=First Americans Endured 20,000-Year Layover – Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News |url=http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/13/beringia-native-american.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080214210946/http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/13/beringia-native-american.html |archive-date=February 14, 2008 |access-date=November 18, 2009 |quote=Archaeological evidence, in fact, recognizes that people started to leave Beringia for the New World around 40,000 years ago, but rapid expansion into North America didn't occur until about 15,000 years ago, when the ice had literally broken}} [http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/13/beringia-native-american-02.html page 2] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120313061401/http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2008/02/13/beringia-native-american-02.html |date=March 13, 2012 }} Around 16,500 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada and beyond.{{cite journal |last1=Tamm |first1=Erika |first2=Toomas |last2=Kivisild |first3=Maere |last3=Reidla |display-authors=etal |title=Beringian Standstill and Spread of Native American Founders |journal=PLoS ONE |volume=2 |date=September 5, 2007 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0000829 |pmid=17786201 |issue=9 |pages=e829 |pmc=1952074|bibcode=2007PLoSO...2..829T |doi-access=free }}

{{cite web |last1=Dyke |first1=A.S. |first2=A. |last2=Moore |first3=L. |last3=Robertson |year=2003 |url=http://geopub.nrcan.gc.ca/moreinfo_e.php?id=214399 |title=Deglaciation of North America |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120216073131/http://geopub.nrcan.gc.ca/moreinfo_e.php?id=214399 |archive-date=February 16, 2012 |work=Geological Survey of Canada Open File, 1574}} (Thirty-two digital maps at 1:7 000 000 scale with accompanying digital chronological database and one poster (two sheets) with full map series.{{cite web |first=David K |last=Jordan |title=Prehistoric Beringia |url=http://www.anthro.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/arch/beringia.html |publisher=University of California-San Diego |year=2009 |access-date=April 15, 2010 |archive-date=February 12, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140212155854/http://www.anthro.ucsd.edu/~dkjordan/arch/beringia.html }}

The first inhabitants of North America arrived in Canada at least 14,000 years ago. It is believed the inhabitants entered the Americas pursuing Pleistocene mammals such as the giant beaver, steppe wisent (bison), muskox, mastodons, woolly mammoths and ancient reindeer (early caribou).{{cite book |last=Meltzer |first=David J. |title=First Peoples in a New World: Colonizing Ice Age America |chapter=Chapter 2: The Landscape of Colonization: Glaciers, Climates, and the Environments of Ice Age North America |publisher=University of California Press |year=2009 |isbn=978-0-520-25052-9}} One route hypothesized is that people walked south by way of an ice-free corridor on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, and then fanned out across North America before continuing on to South America.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=dZYGdbWTXesC&pg=PA6 |title=American environmental history: an introduction |first=Carolyn |last=Merchant |publisher=Columbia University Press |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-231-14034-8 |page=6}} The other conjectured route is that they migrated, either on foot or using primitive boats, down the Pacific coast to the tip of South America, and then crossed the Rockies and Andes.{{cite journal |first=K. R. |last=Fladmark |title=Alternate Migration Corridors for Early Man in North America |journal=American Antiquity |jstor=279189 |date=January 1979 |volume=44 |issue=1 |pages=55–69 |doi=10.2307/279189|s2cid=162243347 }} Evidence of the latter has been covered by a sea level rise of hundreds of metres following the last ice age.{{cite web |url=http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/01/sea-will-rise-to-levels-of-last-ice-age/ |title=68 Responses to Sea will rise 'to levels of last Ice Age' |date=January 26, 2009 |via=realclimate.org |publisher=Center for Climate Systems Research, Columbia University |access-date=October 6, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091027133849/http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2009/01/sea-will-rise-to-levels-of-last-ice-age/ |archive-date=October 27, 2009 |url-status=live}}{{cite book |last1=Harris |first1=Ann G. |last2=Tuttle |first2=Esther |last3=Tuttle |first3=Sherwood D. |title=Geology of National Parks |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Xr7v7GNmHs0C&pg=PP1 |year=2004 |publisher=Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company |isbn=978-0-7872-9970-5 |pages=1–}}

The Old Crow Flats and basin was one of the areas in Canada untouched by glaciations during the Pleistocene Ice ages, thus it served as a pathway and refuge for ice age plants and animals.{{cite web |title=Life in Crow Flats-Part 1 |work=Old Crow's official Website |publisher=Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation |date=1998–2009 |url=http://www.oldcrow.ca/cf1.htm |access-date=September 18, 2009}} The area holds evidence of early human habitation in Canada dating from about 12,000 years ago.{{cite book |first1=Linda S. |last1=Cordell |first2=Kent |last2=Lightfoot |first3=Francis |last3=McManamon |first4=George |last4=Milner |title=Archaeology in America: An Encyclopedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=arfWRW5OFVgC&pg=PA3-PA249 |volume=4 |year=2008 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-02189-3 |page=3}} Fossils from the area include some never accounted for in North America, such as hyenas and large camels.{{cite web |url=http://www.taiga.net/wetlands/oldcrow/oc_gen.html |title=Old Crow Flats |publisher=taiga.net |access-date=August 5, 2007 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070823023629/http://www.taiga.net/wetlands/oldcrow/oc_gen.html |archive-date=August 23, 2007 }} Bluefish Caves is an archaeological site in Yukon from which a specimen of apparently human-worked mammoth bone was radiocarbon dated to 12,000 years ago.

File:Clovis Point.jpg created using bi-facial percussion flaking (that is, each face is flaked on both edges alternatively with a percussor)]]

Clovis sites dated at 13,500 years ago were discovered in western North America during the 1930s. Clovis peoples were regarded as the first widespread Paleo-Indian inhabitants of the New World and ancestors to all Indigenous peoples in the Americas.{{cite book |title=Ice Age People of North America |last=Lepper |first=Bradley T. |editor-last1=Bonnichsen |editor-first1=Robson |editor-last2=Turnmire |editor-first2=Karen |year=1999 |publisher=Oregon State University Press |location=Corvallis |isbn=978-0-87071-458-0 |pages=362–394 |chapter=Pleistocene Peoples of Midcontinental North America |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0mNuAAAAMAAJ&pg=PP1}} Archaeological discoveries in the years 1979–2009 brought forward other distinctive knapping cultures who occupied the Americas from the lower Great Plains to the shores of Chile.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

Localized regional cultures developed from the time of the Younger Dryas cold climate period from 12,900 to 11,500 years ago.{{cite journal |last1=Kennett |first1=D.J. |last2=Kennett |first2=J.P. |last3=West |first3=A. |display-authors=etal |title=Nanodiamonds in the Younger Dryas boundary sediment layer |journal=Science |volume=323 |issue=5910 |page=94 |date=January 2009 |pmid=19119227 |doi=10.1126/science.1162819|bibcode=2009Sci...323...94K |s2cid=206514910 |url=http://doc.rero.ch/record/16088/files/PAL_E3879.pdf }} The Folsom tradition is characterized by the use of Folsom points as projectile tips at archaeological sites. These tools assisted activities at kill sites that marked the slaughter and butchering of bison.{{cite book|last=Hillerman|first=Tony |chapter=The Hunt for the Lost American|title=The Great Taos Bank Robbery: And Other Indian Country Affairs|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nYCEz1UrFFEC&pg=PA52|date=June 1980|publisher=University of New Mexico Press|isbn=978-0-8263-0530-5|page=52}}

The land bridge existed until 13,000–11,000 years ago, long after the oldest proven human settlements in the New World began.{{cite journal |last1=Dyke |first1=Arthur S. |last2=Prest |first2=Victor K. |title=Late Wisconsinan and Holocene History of the Laurentide Ice Sheet |journal=Géographie Physique et Quaternaire |volume=41 |issue=2 |pages=237–263 |date=1987 |doi=10.7202/032681ar |url=https://www.erudit.org/revue/gpq/1987/v41/n2/032681ar.pdf|doi-access=free }} Lower sea levels in the Queen Charlotte sound and Hecate Strait produced great grass lands called archipelago of Haida Gwaii.{{cite web |title=Prehistory of Haida Gwaii |work=Civilization.ca-Haida-The people and the land-Prehistory |publisher=Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation |date=June 8, 2001 |url=http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/aborig/haida/happr01e.shtml}}

Hunter-gatherers of the area left distinctive lithic technology tools and the remains of large butchered mammals, occupying the area from 13,000–9,000 years ago. In July 1992, the Government of Canada officially designated X̱á:ytem (near Mission, British Columbia) as a national historic site, one of the first Indigenous spiritual sites in Canada to be formally recognized in this manner.{{sfn|Jameson|1997|p=159}}

The Plano cultures was a group of hunter-gatherer communities that occupied the Great Plains area of North America between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago.{{cite web|last1=Reynolds |first1=Graham |first2=Richard |last2=MacKinnon |first3=Ken |last3=MacDonald |publisher=Folkus Atlantic Productions |title=Period 1 (10,000–8,000 years ago) Palaeo-Indian culture |work=Learners Portal |url=http://www.learnersportal.com/CanadaFP/Ancient/per1.html |access-date=September 18, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110713193402/http://www.learnersportal.com/CanadaFP/Ancient/per1.html |archive-date=July 13, 2011 }} The Paleo-Indians moved into new territory as it emerged from under the glaciers. Big game flourished in this new environment.{{sfn|Taylor|2002|p=10}} The Plano culture is characterized by a range of projectile point tools collectively called Plano points, which were used to hunt bison. Their diets also included pronghorn, elk, deer, raccoon and coyote. At the beginning of the Archaic period, they began to adopt a sedentary approach to subsistence. Sites in and around Belmont, Nova Scotia, have evidence of Plano-Indians, indicating small seasonal hunting camps, perhaps re-visited over generations from around 11,000–10,000 years ago. Seasonal large and smaller game fish and fowl were food and raw material sources. Adaptation to the harsh environment included tailored clothing and skin-covered tents on wooden frames.

{{See also|Pre-Columbian era}}

The North American climate stabilized by 8000 BCE (10,000 years ago); climatic conditions were very similar to today's. This led to widespread migration, cultivation and later a dramatic rise in population all over the Americas. Over the course of thousands of years, Indigenous peoples of the Americas domesticated, bred and cultivated a large array of plant species. These species now constitute 50–60% of all crops in cultivation worldwide.{{cite book |title=Foreign agriculture |volume=24 |year=1962 |publisher=Bureau of Agricultural Economics |location=United States, Foreign Agricultural Service |page=167}}{{isbn|978-0-16-038463-9}}

File:Na-Dene langs.png shown in red]]

The vastness and variety of Canada's climates, ecology, vegetation, fauna, and landform separations have defined ancient peoples implicitly into cultural or linguistic divisions. Canada is surrounded north, east, and west with coastline and since the last ice age, Canada has consisted of distinct forest regions. Language contributes to the identity of a people by influencing social life ways and spiritual practices. Indigenous religions developed from anthropomorphism and animism philosophies.{{cite book |last=Friesen |first=John |title=Rediscovering the First Nations of Canada. |year=1997 |publisher=Detselig Enterprises Ltd |location=Calgary, AB |isbn=978-1-55059-143-9}}

The placement of artifacts and materials within an Archaic burial site indicated social differentiation based upon status. There is a continuous record of occupation of S'ólh Téméxw by Indigenous people dating from the early Holocene period, 10,000–9,000 years ago.{{cite book |title=You Are Asked to Witness: The Stó:lō in Canada's Pacific Coast History |year=1997 |publisher=((Stó:lō Heritage Trust))|location=Chilliwack, BC |isbn=978-0-9681577-0-1 |editor=Carlson, Keith Thor}} Archaeological sites at Stave Lake, Coquitlam Lake, Fort Langley and region uncovered early period artifacts. These early inhabitants were highly mobile hunter-gatherers, consisting of about 20 to 50 members of an extended family.{{verify source | reason=Removed another citation for this sentence to a personal website; not sure if remaining citation verifies the information in the sentence on its own. | date=March 2014}} The Na-Dene people occupied much of the land area of northwest and central North America starting around 8,000 BCE.{{cite web |url=http://www.historyandtheheadlines.abc-clio.com/ContentPages/ContentPage.aspx?entryId=1171754¤tSection=1161468&productid=5 |title=American Indian Heritage Month: Commemoration vs. Exploitation |work=ABC-CLIO |access-date=October 2, 2009}} They were the earliest ancestors of the Athabaskan-speaking peoples, including the Navajo and Apache. They had villages with large multi-family dwellings, used seasonally during the summer, from which they hunted, fished and gathered food supplies for the winter.{{cite book |last=Leer |first=Jeff |author2=Doug Hitch |author3=John Ritter |title=Interior Tlingit noun dictionary: The dialects spoken by Tlingit elders of Carcross and Teslin, Yukon, and Atlin, British Columbia |year=2001 |publisher=Yukon Native Language Centre |location=Whitehorse, Yukon Territory |isbn=978-1-55242-227-4}}

The Wendat peoples settled into Southern Ontario along the Eramosa River around 8,000–7,000 BCE (10,000–9,000 years ago).{{sfn|Ray|1996|p=}} They were concentrated between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay. Wendat hunted caribou to survive on the glacier-covered land.{{sfn|Ray|1996|p=}} Many different First Nations cultures relied upon the buffalo starting by 6,000–5,000 BCE (8,000–7,000 years ago).{{sfn|Ray|1996|p=}} They hunted buffalo by herding migrating buffalo off cliffs. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, near Lethbridge, Alberta, is a hunting grounds that was in use for about 5,000 years.{{sfn|Ray|1996|p=}}

File:Cambridge Bay Thule Site 1998-06-28.jpg site (Copper Inuit) near the waters of Cambridge Bay (Victoria Island)]]

By 7,000–5000 BCE (9,000–7,000 years ago) the west coast of Canada saw various cultures who organized themselves around salmon fishing.{{sfn|Ray|1996|p=}} The Nuu-chah-nulth of Vancouver Island began whaling with advanced long spears at about this time.{{sfn|Ray|1996|p=}} The Maritime Archaic is one group of North America's Archaic culture of sea-mammal hunters in the subarctic. They prospered from approximately 7,000 BCE–1,500 BCE (9,000–3,500 years ago) along the Atlantic Coast of North America.{{cite web|url=http://www.therooms.ca/museum/mnotes12.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060510135435/http://www.therooms.ca/museum/mnotes12.asp |archive-date=May 10, 2006 |title=Museum Notes-The Maritime Archaic Tradition |work=By James A. Tuck-The Rooms Provincial Art Gallery |access-date=October 5, 2009}} Their settlements included longhouses and boat-topped temporary or seasonal houses. They engaged in long-distance trade, using as currency white chert, a rock quarried from northern Labrador to Maine.{{cite book |last=Tuck |first=J. A. |title=The excavation of an Archaic Indian Cemetery in Newfoundland. Newfoundland Social and Economic Studies 17 |year=1976 |publisher=Institute of Social and Economic Research |location=St. John's |chapter=Ancient peoples of Port au Choix |isbn=978-0-919666-12-2}} The Pre-Columbian culture, whose members were called Red Paint People, is indigenous to the New England and Atlantic Canada regions of North America. The culture flourished between 3,000 BCE – 1,000 BCE (5,000–3,000 years ago) and was named after their burial ceremonies, which used large quantities of red ochre to cover bodies and grave goods.{{cite web |title=The so-called "Red Paint People |access-date=October 18, 2009 |year=1997 |publisher=University of Maine |work=Brian Robinson |url=http://www.seacoastnh.com/history/prehistoric/redpaint.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100114031021/http://www.seacoastnh.com/history/prehistoric/redpaint.html |archive-date=January 14, 2010 }}

The Arctic small tool tradition is a broad cultural entity that developed along the Alaska Peninsula, around Bristol Bay, and on the eastern shores of the Bering Strait around 2,500 BCE (4,500 years ago). These Paleo-Arctic peoples had a highly distinctive toolkit of small blades (microblades) that were pointed at both ends and used as side- or end-barbs on arrows or spears made of other materials, such as bone or antler. Scrapers, engraving tools and adze blades were also included in their toolkits. The Arctic small tool tradition branches off into two cultural variants, including the Pre-Dorset, and the Independence traditions. These two groups, ancestors of Thule people, were displaced by the Inuit by 1000 CE.{{rp|179–81}}

{{Clear}}

{{See also|List of archaeological periods (North America)}}

{{Annotated image | image=Hopewellsphere2 map HRoe 2008.jpg

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PP{{=}}Point Peninsula complex
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| alt=A northerly section focusing on the Saugeen, Laurel and Point Peninsula complexes of the map showing south eastern United States and the Great Lakes area of Canada showing the Hopewell Interaction Sphere and in different colours the various local expressions of the Hopewell cultures, including the Laurel complex, Saugeen complex, Point Peninsula complex, Marksville culture, Copena culture, Kansas City Hopewell, Swift Creek culture, Goodall focus, Crab Orchard culture and Havana Hopewell culture.

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The Old Copper complex societies dating from 3,000 BCE – 500 BCE (5,000–2,500 years ago) are a manifestation of the Woodland culture, and are pre-pottery in nature.{{sfn|Winchell|1881|pp=601–602}} Evidence found in the northern Great Lakes regions indicates that they extracted copper from local glacial deposits and used it in its natural form to manufacture tools and implements.{{sfn|Winchell|1881|pp=601–602}}

The Woodland cultural period dates from about 1,000 BCE – 1,000 CE, and has locales in Ontario, Quebec, and Maritime regions.{{cite web|title=C. Prehistoric Periods (Eras of Adaptation) |publisher=The University of Calgary (The Applied History Research Group) |year=2000 |url=https://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/firstnations/periods.html |access-date=April 15, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100412205024/http://www.ucalgary.ca/applied_history/tutor/firstnations/periods.html |archive-date=April 12, 2010 }} The introduction of pottery distinguishes the Woodland culture from the earlier Archaic stage inhabitants. Laurentian people of southern Ontario manufactured the oldest pottery excavated to date in Canada. They created pointed-bottom beakers decorated by a cord marking technique that involved impressing tooth implements into wet clay. Woodland technology included items such as beaver incisor knives, bangles, and chisels. The population practising sedentary agricultural life ways continued to increase on a diet of squash, corn, and bean crops.{{cite book |last=Fagan |first=Brian M. |others=University of California |title=People of the Earth: An Introduction to World Prehistory |year=1992 |publisher=Harper Collins |isbn=978-0-321-01457-3 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/peopleofearthint09edfaga }}

The Hopewell tradition is an Indigenous culture that flourished along American rivers from 300 BCE – 500 CE. At its greatest extent, the Hopewell Exchange System networked cultures and societies with the peoples on the Canadian shores of Lake Ontario. Canadian expression of the Hopewellian peoples encompasses the Point Peninsula, Saugeen, and Laurel complexes.{{cite web |title=A History of the Native People of Canada |work=Dr. James V. Wright |publisher=Canadian Museum of Civilization |year=2009 |url=http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/archeo/hnpc/npvol25e.shtml |access-date=October 9, 2009}}{{cite web |author=Ohio Historical Society |url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=1283 |title=Hopewell Culture-Ohio History Central-A product of the Ohio Historical Society |publisher=Hopewell-Ohio History Central |year=2009 |access-date=September 18, 2009}}{{cite book |first1=Douglas T. |last1=Price |first2=Gary M. |last2=Feinman |year=2008 |title=Images of the Past, 5th edition |pages=[https://archive.org/details/imagesofpast0005pric/page/274 274–277] |location=New York |publisher=McGraw-Hill |isbn=978-0-07-340520-9 |url=https://archive.org/details/imagesofpast0005pric/page/274 }}

{{Main|First Nations in Canada}}

File:Chief George and daughter.jpg with his daughter in traditional regalia, {{circa|1906}}]]

First Nations peoples had settled and established trade routes across what is now Canada by 500 BCE – 1,000 CE. Communities developed each with its own culture, customs, and character.{{cite book |last1=Joe |first1=Rita |first2=Lesley |last2=Choyce |title=The Native Canadian Anthology |year=2005 |publisher=Nimbus Publishing (CN) |isbn=978-1-895900-04-0}} In the northwest were the Athapaskan speaking, Slavey, Tłı̨chǫ, Tutchone, and Tlingit. Along the Pacific coast were the Tsimshian; Haida; Salish; Kwakwakaʼwakw; Heiltsuk; Nootka; Nisga'a; Senakw and Gitxsan. In the plains were the Niisitapi; Káínawa; Tsuutʼina; and Piikáni. In the northern woodlands were the Cree and Chipewyan. Around the Great Lakes were the Anishinaabe; Algonquin; Haudenosaunee and Wendat. Along the Atlantic coast were the Beothuk, Wolastoqiyik, Innu, Abenaki and Mi'kmaq.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

Many First Nations civilizations{{cite web |url=http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/civilization |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120718042505/http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/civilization |archive-date=July 18, 2012 |title=civilization – definition of civilization in English from the Oxford dictionary |publisher=Oxforddictionaries.com |access-date=October 25, 2015}} established characteristics and hallmarks that included permanent urban settlements or cities,{{cite encyclopedia |last=Prine |first=Elizabeth |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/1357826/Native-American |title=Native American | indigenous peoples of Canada and United States |encyclopedia=Britannica.com |date=April 17, 2015 |access-date=October 25, 2015}} agriculture, civic and monumental architecture, and complex societal hierarchies. These cultures had evolved and changed by the time of the first permanent European arrivals ({{Circa|late 15th}}–early 16th centuries), and have been brought forward through archaeological investigations.{{cite book |last1=Willey |first1=Gordon R |first2=Philip |last2=Phillips |title=Method and Theory in American Archaeology |access-date=October 18, 2009 |year=1957 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |pages=1(introduction) |url=https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6136197 |archive-date=June 28, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120628025551/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=6136197 }} {{isbn|978-0-226-89888-9}}

There are indications of contact made before Christopher Columbus between the first peoples and those from other continents. Indigenous people in Canada first interacted with Europeans around 1000 CE, but prolonged contact came after Europeans established permanent settlements in the 17th and 18th centuries. European written accounts generally recorded friendliness of the First Nations, who profited in trade with Europeans. Such trade generally strengthened the more organized political entities such as the Iroquois Confederation.{{cite book |first=Eric |last=Wolf |title=Europe and the People Without History |access-date=October 6, 2009 |date=December 3, 1982 |publisher=University of California Press; 1 edition |isbn=978-0-520-04898-0 |chapter-url=https://www.scribd.com/doc/40564/Eric-Wolf-Europe-and-the-People-Without-History-introduction |chapter=Chapter 6 |author-link=Eric Wolf |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/europepeoplewit008258 }} URL gives introduction online Throughout the 16th century, European fleets made almost annual visits to the eastern shores of Canada to cultivate the fishing opportunities. A sideline industry emerged in the un-organized traffic of furs overseen by the British Indian Department.{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oHlLvzRZ-1sC&pg=PP1 |title=A Narrow Vision: Duncan Campbell Scott and the Administration of Indian Affairs in Canada |first=E. Brian |last=Titley |location=Vancouver |publisher=University Of British Columbia Press |year=1992 |isbn=978-0-7748-0420-2}}

Prominent First Nations people include Joe Capilano, who met with King of the United Kingdom, Edward VII, to speak of the need to settle land claims and Ovide Mercredi, a leader at both the Meech Lake Accord constitutional reform discussions and Oka Crisis.{{cite news|title=Ovide Mercredi installed as chancellor of Manitoba's newest university |publisher=CBC News |date=November 7, 2007 |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ovide-mercredi-installed-as-chancellor-of-manitoba-s-newest-university-1.683199 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071109143107/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/ovide-mercredi-installed-as-chancellor-of-manitoba-s-newest-university-1.683199 |archive-date=November 9, 2007 |access-date=October 3, 2009}}{{cite web |title=The History of Metropolitan Vancouver's Hall of Fame Joe Capilano |url=http://www.vancouverhistory.ca/whoswho_C.htm |access-date=October 5, 2009 |archive-date=May 3, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090503033211/http://www.vancouverhistory.ca/whoswho_C.htm }}

{{Main|Inuit}}

Inuit are the descendants of what anthropologists call the Thule culture, which emerged from western Alaska around 1,000 CE and spread eastward across the Arctic, displacing the Dorset culture (in Inuktitut, the Tuniit). Inuit historically referred to the Tuniit as "giants", who were taller and stronger than the Inuit.{{cite web |last=Rigby |first=Bruce |title=101. Qaummaarviit Historic Park, Nunavut Handbook |url=http://www.nunavuthandbook.com/parks_pgs_297_331.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060529123547/http://www.nunavuthandbook.com/parks_pgs_297_331.pdf |archive-date=May 29, 2006 |access-date=October 2, 2009}} Researchers hypothesize that the Dorset culture lacked dogs, larger weapons and other technologies used by the expanding Inuit society.{{cite web |url=http://www.historysociety.ca/content/en/pdfs/Jamieson2.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071030193732/http://www.historysociety.ca/content/en/pdfs/Jamieson2.pdf |archive-date=October 30, 2007 |title=The Dorsets: Depicting Culture Through Soapstone Carving |website=historysociety.ca |access-date=October 5, 2009}} By 1300, the Inuit had settled in west Greenland, and finally moved into east Greenland over the following century. The Inuit had trade routes with more southern cultures. Boundary disputes were common and led to aggressive actions.{{cite web |url=http://www.heritage.nf.ca/aboriginal/innu_culture.html |title=Innu Culture 3. Innu-Inuit 'Warfare' |year=1999 |publisher=Adrian Tanner Department of Anthropology-Memorial University of Newfoundland |access-date=October 5, 2009 |archive-date=August 23, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110823015544/http://www.heritage.nf.ca/aboriginal/innu_culture.html }}

File:Inuit hunter with harpoon.jpg in a kayak, {{circa|1908–1914}}]]

Warfare was common among Inuit groups with sufficient population density. Inuit, such as the Nunamiut (Uummarmiut) who inhabited the Mackenzie River delta area, often engaged in common warfare. The Central Arctic Inuit lacked the population density to engage in warfare. In the 13th century, the Thule culture began arriving in Greenland from what is now Canada. Norse accounts are scant. Norse-made items from Inuit campsites in Greenland were obtained by either trade or plunder.{{cite web |url=http://www.heritage.nf.ca/aboriginal/inuit_history.html |title=Inuit Post-Contact History |publisher=Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. |access-date=October 5, 2009 |archive-date=December 18, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081218132650/http://www.heritage.nf.ca/aboriginal/inuit_history.html }} One account, Ívar Bárðarson, speaks of "small people" with whom the Norsemen fought.{{cite book |first=Hans Christian |last=Gulløv |title=Grønlands Forhistorie |year=2005 |isbn=978-87-02-01724-3 |page=17|publisher=Gyldendal A/S }} 14th-century accounts relate that a western settlement, one of the two Norse settlements, was taken over by the Skræling.{{cite book |last=Fitzhugh |first=William W. |editor1-last=Fitzhugh |editor1-first=William W. |editor2-first=Elisabeth I. |editor2-last=Ward |title=Vikings: The North Atlantic Saga |year=2000 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |location=Washington, D.C. |isbn=978-1-56098-995-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/vikingsnorthatla00fitz/page/193 193–205]|title-link=Atlantic Ocean }}

After the disappearance of the Norse colonies in Greenland, the Inuit had no contact with Europeans for at least a century. By the mid-16th century, Basque fishers were already working the Labrador coast and had established whaling stations on land, such as those excavated at Red Bay.{{cite journal |last=McGhee |first=Robert |title=Northern Approaches. Before Columbus: Early European Visitors to the New World |journal=The Beaver. Exploring Canada's History |date=June–July 1992 |volume=3 |page=194 |issn=0005-7517}} The Inuit appear not to have interfered with their operations, but they did raid the stations in winter for tools, and particularly worked iron, which they adapted to native needs.{{cite book |last=Kleivan |first=H |title=The Eskimos of Northeast Labrador |publisher=Norsk Polarinstitutt Skrifter |year=1966 |volume=139 |page=9 |oclc=786916953}}

Notable among the Inuit are Abraham Ulrikab and family who became a zoo exhibit in Hamburg, Germany, and Tanya Tagaq, a traditional throat singer.{{cite web |last=Minogue |first=Sarah |title=When Inuit become zoo curiosities "We sat there like pieces of art in a showcase on display" |website=Nunatsiaq News |date=September 23, 2005 |url=http://www.nunatsiaq.com/archives/50923/news/features/50923_01.html |access-date=October 6, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090917185643/http://www.nunatsiaq.com/archives/50923/news/features/50923_01.html |archive-date=September 17, 2009 }} Abe Okpik was instrumental in helping Inuit obtain surnames rather than disc numbers and Kiviaq (David Ward) won the legal right to use his single-word Inuktitut name.{{cite web|title=Kiviaq versus Canada film by Zacharias Kunuk Produced by Katarina Soukup |publisher=Isuma Distribution International Inc. |year=2006 |url=http://www.canadacouncil.ca/NR/rdonlyres/97B12343-AC79-4ED6-AC1E-055350618B16/0/InuitFactSheetEN.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101214163906/http://www.canadacouncil.ca/NR/rdonlyres/97B12343-AC79-4ED6-AC1E-055350618B16/0/InuitFactSheetEN.pdf |archive-date=December 14, 2010 |access-date=October 3, 2009}}{{cite web |last=Hanson |first=Ann Meekitjuk |title=Nunavut 99-What's In A Name? Names, as well as events, mark the road to Nunavut |publisher=Nunavut.com |url=http://www.nunavut.com/nunavut99/english/name.html |access-date=October 3, 2009 |archive-date=November 7, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161107123650/http://www.nunavut.com/nunavut99/english/name.html }}

{{Main|Métis}}

File:Mixed blood Fur trader 1870.jpg fur trader, {{circa|1870}}]]

The Métis are people descended from marriages between Europeans (mainly French){{cite book |last=Rinella |first=Steven |title=American Buffalo: In Search of A Lost Icon |access-date=October 18, 2009 |year=2008 |publisher=Spiegel and Grau |location=NY |isbn=978-0-385-52168-0 |page=[https://archive.org/details/americanbuffaloi00rine/page/166 166] |url=https://archive.org/details/americanbuffaloi00rine|url-access=registration }}

and Cree, Ojibwe, Algonquin, Saulteaux, Menominee, Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, and other First Nations.{{cite web|title=What to Search: Topics-Canadian Genealogy Centre-Library and Archives Canada |work=Ethno-Cultural and Aboriginal Groups |publisher=Government of Canada |date=May 27, 2009 |url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogie/022-905.004-e.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090705022732/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogie/022-905.004-e.html |archive-date=July 5, 2009 |access-date=October 2, 2009}} Their history dates to the mid-17th century.

When Europeans first arrived to Canada they relied on Indigenous peoples for fur trading skills and survival. To ensure alliances, relationships between European fur traders and Indigenous women were often consolidated through marriage.{{Cite book |title=Racism, Colonization and Indigeneity in Canada |last=Stevenson |first=Winona |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=2011 |location=Ontario, Canada |pages=44–45}} The Métis homeland consists of the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Ontario, as well as the Northwest Territories (NWT).{{cite book |last=Howard |first=James H |title=The Plains-Ojibwa or Bungi: hunters and warriors of the Northern Prairies with special reference to the Turtle Mountain band |edition=Museum Anthropology Papers 1 |year=1965 |publisher=University of South Dakota |isbn=978-0-16-050400-6}}

Amongst notable Métis people are singer and actor Tom Jackson,{{cite news|url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/singer-tom-jackson-pitches-housing-complex-for-winnipeg-1.836550 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091025092455/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/singer-tom-jackson-pitches-housing-complex-for-winnipeg-1.836550 |archive-date=October 25, 2009 |title=Singer Tom Jackson pitches housing complex for Winnipeg |publisher=CBC |location=Canada |date=October 23, 2009 |access-date=January 27, 2011}} Commissioner of the Northwest Territories Tony Whitford, and Louis Riel who led two resistance movements: the Red River Rebellion of 1869–1870 and the North-West Rebellion of 1885, which ended in his trial and subsequent execution.{{cite encyclopedia |first=George F.G. |last=Stanley |others=revised by Adam Gaudry |encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia |publisher=Historica Canada |title=Louis Riel |date=April 22, 2013 |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/louis-riel}}{{cite web |publisher=A database of materials held by the University of Saskatchewan Libraries and the University Archives |title=Louis Riel |url=http://library2.usask.ca/northwest/background/riel.htm |access-date=September 23, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070925032219/http://library2.usask.ca/northwest/background/riel.htm |archive-date=September 25, 2007 |url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Backgrounder Biography of Anthony W. J. (Tony) Whitford – NWT Commissioner|publisher=Indian and Northern Affairs Canada|work=2005 News Releases|date=October 28, 2008|url=http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/mr/nr/j-a2005/02623bk-eng.asp|access-date=October 6, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613194048/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/mr/nr/j-a2005/02623bk-eng.asp|archive-date=June 13, 2011}}

The languages inherently Métis are either Métis French or a mixed language called Michif. Michif, Mechif or Métchif is a phonetic spelling of Métif, a variant of Métis.{{cite book |url=http://metisresourcecentre.mb.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=72&Itemid=13 |title=The Problem of Michif |publisher=Peter Bakker-Metis Resource Centre |isbn=978-0-19-509711-5 |access-date=October 5, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706184843/http://metisresourcecentre.mb.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=72&Itemid=13 |archive-date=July 6, 2011 |year=1997 }} The Métis today predominantly speak English, with French a strong second language, as well as numerous Indigenous tongues. A 19th-century community of the Métis people, the Anglo-Métis, were referred to as Countryborn. They were children of Rupert's Land fur trade typically of Orcadian, Scottish, or English paternal descent and Indigenous maternal descent.{{cite book |last1=Barkwell |first1=Lawrence J. |first2=Leah |last2=Dorion |first3=Audreen |last3=Hourie |title=Metis legacy Michif culture, heritage, and folkways |volume=Metis legacy series, v. 2. |year=2006 |publisher=Gabriel Dumont Institute |location=Saskatoon, SK |isbn=978-0-920915-80-6}}

Their first languages would have been Indigenous (Cree, Saulteaux, Assiniboine, etc.) and English. Their fathers spoke Gaelic, thus leading to the development of an English dialect referred to as "Bungee".{{cite web |title=The Red River dialect |last=Blain |first=Eleanor M. |year=1994 |publisher=Winnipeg: Wuerz Publishing |url=http://tceplus.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0001097 |access-date=October 15, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080315101109/http://tceplus.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0001097 |archive-date=March 15, 2008 }}{{Dubious||date=July 2020|reason=Gaelic and English are different languages with different ancestry – English dialects are not descended from Gaelic.}}

S.35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 mentions the Métis yet there has long been debate over legally defining the term Métis,{{cite book |first=Martha |last=Harroun Foster |title=We know who we are: Métis identity in a Montana community |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JAI1vW_wyKAC&pg=PA12 |date=January 2006 |publisher=University of Oklahoma Press |isbn=978-0-8061-3705-6 |page=12}} but on September 23, 2003, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Métis are a distinct people with significant rights (Powley ruling).{{cite web |url=http://www.canlii.org/en/ca/scc/doc/2003/2003scc43/2003scc43.pdf |title=Her Majesty The Queen vs. Steve Powley and Roddy Charles Powley (R. v. Powley, 2 S.C.R. 207, 2003 SCC 43) |publisher=Federation of Law Societies of Canada |year=2003 |access-date=March 11, 2010}}

Unlike First Nations people, there has been no distinction between status and non-status Métis;{{cite book |author=Houghton Mifflin Company |title=The American Heritage guide to contemporary usage and style |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xb6ie6PqYhwC&pg=PA185 |date=September 28, 2005 |publisher=Houghton Mifflin Harcourt |isbn=978-0-618-60499-9 |page=185}} the Métis, their heritage and Indigenous ancestry have often been absorbed and assimilated into their surrounding populations.{{cite book |last1=Barkwell |first1=Lawrence J. |first2=Leah |last2=Dorion |first3=Darren |last3=Prefontaine |title=Metis Legacy: A Historiography and Annotated Bibliography |year=2001 |publisher=Pemmican Publications Inc. and Saskatoon: Gabriel Dumont Institute |location=Winnipeg, MB |isbn=978-1-894717-03-8}}

{{Main|Canadian genocide of Indigenous peoples|Settler colonialism in Canada}}

From the late 18th century, European Canadians (and the Canadian government) encouraged assimilation of Indigenous culture into what was referred to as "Canadian culture."{{cite web |publisher=Indian and Northern Affairs Canada |title=Stage Three: Displacement and Assimilation |date=February 8, 2006 |url=http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sgm6_e.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030621180528/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sgm6_e.html |archive-date=June 21, 2003 |access-date=October 3, 2009 |via=Government of Canada Web Archive}}{{cite book |title=Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples |chapter=Stage Three: Displacement and Assimilation |date=February 8, 2006 |url=http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sgmm_e.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030608024259/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sgmm_e.html |archive-date=June 8, 2003 |access-date=October 3, 2009}} These attempts reached a climax in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with a series of initiatives that aimed at complete assimilation and subjugation of the Indigenous peoples. These policies, which were made possible by legislation such as the Gradual Civilization Act{{cite web |title=Gradual Civilization Act, 1857 |url=http://caid.ca/GraCivAct1857.pdf |publisher=Government of Canada |access-date=October 17, 2015}} and the Indian Act, focused on European ideals of Christianity, sedentary living, agriculture, and education.{{cite web | title=What the debate around Indigenous genocide says about Canada | website=Macleans.ca | date=Jun 7, 2019 | url=https://macleans.ca/news/canada/what-the-debate-around-indigenous-genocide-says-about-canada/ | access-date=Nov 20, 2024}}

File:Study period at Roman Catholic Indian Residential School, Fort Resolution, NWT (14112957392).jpg Indian Residential School in Fort Resolution, NWT| alt=Indigenous children working at long desks]]

Missionary work directed at the Indigenous people of Canada had been ongoing since the first missionaries arrived in the 1600s, generally from France, some of whom were martyred (Jesuit saints called the Canadian Martyrs). Christianization as government policy became more systematic with the Indian Act in 1876, which would bring new sanctions for those who did not convert to Christianity. For example, the new laws would prevent non-Christian Indigenous people from testifying or having their cases heard in court, and ban alcohol consumption.{{cite book |last1=Armitage |first1=Andrew |title=Comparing the Policy of Aboriginal Assimilation: Australia, Canada, and New Zealand. |date=1995 |publisher=University of British Columbia Press |location=Vancouver, Canada |pages=77–78 }} When the Indian Act was amended in 1884, traditional religious and social practices, such as the Potlatch, would be banned, and further amendments in 1920 would prevent "status Indians" (as defined in the Act) from wearing traditional dress or performing traditional dances in an attempt to stop all non-Christian practices.

Another focus of the Canadian government was to make the Indigenous groups of Canada sedentary, as they thought that this would make them easier to assimilate. In the 19th century, the government began to support the creation of model farming villages, which were meant to encourage non-sedentary Indigenous groups to settle in an area and begin to cultivate agriculture.{{cite journal |last1=Dorsett |first1=Shaunnagh |title=Civilisation and Cultivation: Colonial Policy and Indigenous Peoples in Canada and Australia |journal=Griffith Law Review |date=1995 |volume=4 |issue=2 |page=219}} When most of these model farming villages failed, the government turned instead to the creation of Indian reserves with the Indian Act of 1876.{{cite web|title=Indian Act |url=http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-5/ |publisher=Government of Canada |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130216033916/http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/I-5/ |archive-date=February 16, 2013 |date=April 8, 2019 }} With the creation of these reserves came many restricting laws, such as further bans on all intoxicants, restrictions on eligibility to vote in band elections, decreased hunting and fishing areas, and inability for status Indians to visit other groups on their reserves. Farming was still seen as an important practice for assimilation on reserves; however, by the late 19th century the government had instituted restrictive policies here too, such as the Peasant Farm Policy, which restricted reserve farmers largely to the use of hand tools.{{Cite book |last=Buckley |first=Helen |title=From Wooden Ploughs to Welfare: Why Indian policy failed in the Prairie provinces |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |year=1992 |isbn=0-7735-0893-7 |location=Montreal and Kingston |pages=52–53 |language=en}} This was implemented largely to limit the competitiveness of First Nations farming.{{Cite book |last=Carter, Sarah |title=Lost Harvests: Prairie Indian reserve farmers and government policy |publisher=McGill-Queen's University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-7735-0755-8 |location=Montreal and Kingston |page=193 |language=en}}

Through the Gradual Civilization Act in 1857, the government would encourage Indians (i.e., First Nations) to enfranchise – to remove all legal distinctions between [Indians] and Her Majesty's other Canadian Subjects. If an Indigenous chose to enfranchise, it would strip them and their family of Aboriginal title, with the idea that they would become "less savage" and "more civilized," thus become assimilated into Canadian society.{{cite book |last1=Miller |first1=J. R. |title=Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens: A History of Indian-White Relations in Canada |date=2000 |publisher=University of Toronto Press |location=Toronto, Canada |page=140 }} However, they were often still defined as non-citizens by Europeans, and those few who did enfranchise were often met with disappointment.

File:Stpauls-middlechurch-man.jpg

The final government strategy of assimilation, made possible by the Indian Act was the Canadian residential school system:

{{Blockquote|Of all the initiatives that were undertaken in the first century of Confederation, none was more ambitious or central to the civilizing strategy of the Department, to its goal of assimilation than the residential school system… it was the residential school experience that would lead children most effectively out of their "savage" communities into "higher civilization" and "full citizenship."{{cite book |last1=Milloy |first1=John |title=A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School System, 1879 to 1986 |date=1999 |publisher=University of Manitoba Press |location=Winnipeg, Canada |pages=21–22 }}}}

Beginning in 1874 and lasting until 1996, the Canadian government, in partnership with the dominant Christian Churches, ran 130 residential boarding schools across Canada for Indigenous children, who were forcibly taken from their homes.{{cite journal |last1=Popic |first1=Linda |title=Compensating Canada's 'Stolen Generations' |journal=Journal of Aboriginal History |date=2008 |page=14 |issue=December 2007 – January 2008}} While the schools provided some education, they were plagued by under-funding, disease, and abuse.{{cite journal |last1=Charles |first1=Grant |last2=DeGane |first2=Mike |title=Student-to-Student Abuse in the Indian Residential Schools in Canada: Setting the Stage for Further Understanding |journal=Child & Youth Services |date=2013 |volume=34 |issue=4 |pages=343–359 |doi=10.1080/0145935X.2013.859903 |s2cid=144148882 }}

According to some scholars, the Canadian government's laws and policies, including the residential school system, that encouraged or required Indigenous peoples to assimilate into a Eurocentric society, violated the United Nations Genocide Convention that Canada signed in 1949 and passed through Parliament in 1952. Therefore, these scholars believe that Canada could be tried in international court for genocide.{{cite book |last=Restoule |first=Jean-Paul |title=Aboriginal Identity: The Need for Historical and Contextual Perspectives |volume=24 |issue=2 |access-date=October 28, 2009 |year=2002 |publisher=Pearson/Prentice Hall |location=Toronto, ON |pages=102–12 |chapter-url=http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/detail?accno=EJ630059 |chapter=Seeing Ourselves. John Macionis and Nijole v. Benokraitis and Bruce Ravelli}} A legal case resulted in settlement of {{CAD|2 billion}} in 2006 and the 2008 establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which confirmed the injurious effect on children of this system and turmoil created between Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous peoples.{{cite web |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-17161893 |title=Canada commission issues details abuse of native children |author=Unattributed |date=February 25, 2012 |publisher=BBC |access-date=February 25, 2012}} In 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an apology on behalf of the Canadian government and its citizens for the residential school system.{{cite news |last=Benjoe |first=Kerry |title=Group gathers for Harper's apology |newspaper=The Leader-Post |date=June 12, 2008 |url=http://www2.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=2e362bf9-0f5a-43c6-ab5e-81a276b4767c |access-date=October 2, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120915023426/http://www2.canada.com/reginaleaderpost/news/story.html?id=2e362bf9-0f5a-43c6-ab5e-81a276b4767c |archive-date=September 15, 2012 }}

{{See also|Monarchy of Canada and the Indigenous peoples of Canada}}

{{see|Canadian Indigenous law}}

The term Canadian Indigenous law refers to Indigenous peoples' own legal systems. This includes the laws and legal processes developed by Indigenous groups to govern their relationships, manage their natural resources, and manage conflicts.{{cite web

|url= http://publications.gc.ca/collections/collection_2008/lcc-cdc/JL2-66-2006E.pdf

|title= Indigenous Legal Traditions in Canada |author= John Borrows

|date= 2006|work= Report for the Law Commission of Canada |publisher= Law Foundation Chair in Aboriginal Justice and Governance Faculty of Law, University of Victoria|quote= In Canada, Indigenous legal traditions are separate from but interact with common law and civil law to produce a variety of rights and obligations for Indigenous people....Many Indigenous societies in Canada possess legal traditions. These traditions have indeterminate status in the eyes of many Canadian institutions. }} Indigenous law is developed from a variety of sources and institutions, which differ across legal traditions.{{Cite web|url=https://guides.library.queensu.ca/Aboriginal-and-Indigenous-law/introductory|title=Research Guides: Aboriginal Law & Indigenous Laws: A note on terms|first=Amy|last=Kaufman|website=guides.library.queensu.ca|quote="Indigenous law exists as a source of law apart from the common and civil legal traditions in Canada. Importantly, Indigenous laws also exist apart from Aboriginal law, though these sources of law are interconnected. Aboriginal law is a body of law, made by the courts and legislatures, that largely deals with the unique constitutional rights of Aboriginal peoples and the relationship between Aboriginal peoples and the Crown. Aboriginal law is largely found in colonial instruments (such as the Royal Proclamation of 1763, the Constitution Acts of 1867 and 1982 and the Indian Act) and court decisions, but also includes sources of Indigenous law. "Indigenous law consists of legal orders which are rooted in Indigenous societies themselves. It arises from communities and First Nation groups across the country, such as Nuu Chah Nulth, Haida, Coast Salish, Tsimshian, Heiltsuk, and may include relationships to the land, the spirit world, creation stories, customs, processes of deliberation and persuasion, codes of conduct, rules, teachings and axioms for living and governing."}} Canadian Aboriginal law is the area of law related to the Canadian government's relationship with the Indigenous peoples. Section 91(24) of the Constitution Act, 1867 gives the federal parliament exclusive power to legislate in matters related to Aboriginals, which includes groups governed by the Indian Act, different Numbered Treaties and outside of those acts.{{cite book|author1=Christian Leuprecht|author2=Peter H. Russell |title=Essential Readings in Canadian Constitutional Politics |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kDN1WzoaFNEC&pg=PA477 |year=2011 |publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-1-4426-0368-4|page=477}}

File:Medal-Viki.jpg 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, bearing the image of Queen Victoria]]

The Monarchy of Canada and the Indigenous peoples of Canada began interactions in North America during the European colonization period. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 recognized Indigenous title and the Treaty of Niagara of 1764 bound the Crown and the Indigenous peoples of the Great Lakes basin together in a familial relationship, a relationship that exists to this day, exemplified by First Nations attendance at the coronation of King Charles III.{{sfn |Cote |Tidridge |2024 |p=43}} Post-Confederation Canada adopted a paternalistic approach and imposed an approach as though the nation-to-nation relationship did not exist, administering relations solely under Canadian law.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

After Canada's acquisition of Rupert's Land and the North-Western Territory in 1870, the eleven Numbered Treaties were imposed on the First Nations from 1871 to 1921. These treaties are agreements with the Crown administered by Canadian Aboriginal law and overseen by the Minister of Crown–Indigenous Relations.{{cite web|last=Hall|first=Anthony J.|date=June 6, 2011|title=Treaties with Indigenous Peoples in Canada {{!}} The Canadian Encyclopedia|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aboriginal-treaties |access-date=August 5, 2021|website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca}}

Treaty rights would be recognized and incorporated into the 1982 Constitution. Many agreements signed before the Confederation of Canada are recognized in Canadian law, such as the Peace and Friendship Treaties, the Robinson Treaties, the Douglas Treaties, and many others, although many First Nations still have no treaty with the Crown recognizing their title, such as the Mikmaq, the Anishnaabe and several northern British Columbia nations.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

For many years, Canada did not negotiate with First Nations to address their aboriginal title. Canadian court judgments and political pressure led to a change in ways following the Canadian Centennial year. The first treaty implemented under the new framework was the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement in 1970 between the Cree and Quebec. This was followed by the Inuvialuit Final Agreement in 1984 that led to the creation of the Inuvialuit Settlement Region.{{cite web|url=https://irc.inuvialuit.com/about-irc/inuvialuit-final-agreement/ |title=Inuvialuit Final Agreement |access-date=August 19, 2024 |publisher=Inuvialuit Regional Corporation}} The Nunavut Land Claims Agreement of 1993 lead to the creation of the Inuit-majority territory of Nunavut later that decade. The Canadian Crown continues to sign new treaties with Indigenous peoples, notably though the British Columbia Treaty Process.{{cite web|last=Crowe|first=Keith|date=March 2, 2015|title=Comprehensive Land Claims: Modern Treaties {{!}} The Canadian Encyclopedia |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/comprehensive-land-claims-modern-treaties |access-date=August 5, 2021|website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca}}

According to the First Nations–Federal Crown Political Accord, "cooperation will be a cornerstone for partnership between Canada and First Nations, wherein Canada is the short-form reference to Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada. The Supreme Court of Canada argued that treaties "served to reconcile pre-existing Indigenous sovereignty with assumed Crown sovereignty, and to define Aboriginal rights." First Nations interpreted agreements covered in Treaty 8 to last "as long as the sun shines, grass grows and rivers flow."{{cite news|url=http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/aboriginals/treaty8.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040807043635/http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/aboriginals/treaty8.html |archive-date=August 7, 2004 |title=What is Treaty 8? |via=cbc.ca |publisher=Canadian Broadcasting Corporation |access-date=October 5, 2009}} However, the Canadian government has frequently breached the Crown's treaty obligations over the years, and tries to address these issues by negotiating specific land claim.{{cite web|last=Albers|first=Gretchen|date=March 2, 2015|title=Indigenous Peoples and Specific Claims {{!}} The Canadian Encyclopedia|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/specific-claims |access-date=August 5, 2021|website=www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca}}

{{Main|Indian Act}}

File:Crombie1983.jpg was responsible for Bill C-31.]]

The Indian Act is Canadian law that dates from 1876. The Act replaced pre-Confederation Canadian laws, and was intended to administer the Indigenous people, and define Canadian interactions. Successive Canadian governments used its powers to impose conditions on the First Nations, and guide their integration into Canada. Today still, the Indian Act indicates how reserves and bands can operate and defines who is recognized as an "Indian."{{cite web| title = The Indian Act| work = Indian Act. Current to March 16, 2014| publisher = Department of Justice Canada| date = March 16, 2014| url = http://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/PDF/I-5.pdf}} There have been many updates to this law since then, allowing Canadian citizenship and voting rights among others.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

In 1985, the Canadian Parliament passed Bill C-31, An Act to Amend the Indian Act. Because of a constitutional requirement, the bill took effect on April 17, 1985.{{cite web|title = First Nations, Bill C-31, Indian Act|work = Communications Branch|publisher = Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development|url = http://www.johnco.com/nativel/bill_c31.html|access-date = October 2, 2009|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090730192508/http://www.johnco.com/nativel/bill_c31.html|archive-date = July 30, 2009|df = mdy-all}}

• It ends discriminatory provisions of the Indian Act, especially those that discriminated against women.
• It changes the meaning of status and for the first time allows for limited reinstatement of Indians who were denied or lost status or band membership.
• It allows bands to define their own membership rules.

Those people accepted into band membership under band rules may not be status Indians. C-31 clarified that various sections of the Indian Act apply to band members. The sections under debate concern community life and land holdings. Sections pertaining to Indians (First Nations peoples) as individuals (in this case, wills and taxation of personal property) were not included.

{{Main|Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples}}

File:TRC in the Community (Map 1) without captions.svg took part in outreach and statement gathering events over the impact of Canadian residential schools with the Indigenous peoples of Canada]]

The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was a royal commission undertaken by the Government of Canada in 1991 to address issues of the Indigenous peoples of Canada. It assessed past government policies toward Indigenous people, such as residential schools, and provided policy recommendations to the government.{{cite book|first=Alan |last=Cairns |title=Citizens plus: aboriginal peoples and the Canadian state|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TmQ_T6XSPFIC&pg=PA116|year=2000|publisher=UBC Press|isbn=978-0-7748-0767-8|page=116}} The Commission issued its final report in November 1996. The five-volume, 4,000-page report covered a vast range of issues; its 440 recommendations called for sweeping changes to the interaction between Indigenous , non-Indigenous people and the governments in Canada.{{cite web |url=http://www.iog.ca/publications/healthrcap.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030614014908/http://iog.ca/publications/healthrcap.pdf |archive-date=June 14, 2003 |title=Summary of the Final Report of The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples: Implications for Canada's Health Care System |publisher=The Institute on Governance |access-date=October 5, 2009}} The report "set out a 20-year agenda for change."{{cite book|first1=Wanda D. |last1=McCaslin |author2=University of Saskatchewan. Native Law Centre |title=Justice as healing: indigenous ways |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HOCsEIqU-pEC&pg=PA27|date=July 2005|publisher=Living Justice Press|isbn=978-0-9721886-1-6|page=27}}

{{Main|Indian Health Transfer Policy}}

In 1995, the Government of Canada announced the Aboriginal Right to Self-Government Policy.{{cite web|title = Aboriginal Health & Cultural Diversity Glossary|publisher = University of Saskatchewan, College of Nursing|year = 2003|url = https://www.usask.ca/nursing/aboriginalglossary/i.htm|access-date = October 2, 2009|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20091024031441/http://www.usask.ca/nursing/aboriginalglossary/i.htm|archive-date = October 24, 2009|df = mdy-all}} This policy recognizes that First Nations and Inuit have the constitutional right to shape their own forms of government to suit their particular historical, cultural, political and economic circumstances. The Indian Health Transfer Policy provided a framework for the assumption of control of health services by Indigenous peoples, and set forth a developmental approach to transfer centred on self-determination in health.{{cite book| last1 =Jacklin |first1 =Kristen |first2= Wayne |last2=Warry| editor1-first=Arachu |editor1-last=Castro |editor2-first=Merrill |editor2-last=Singer| title = Unhealthy health policy: a critical anthropological examination|chapter=14 Then Indian Health Transfer Policy in Canada: Toward Self-Determination or Cost Containment?| publisher = Rowman Altamira|place=Oxford United Kingdom| year = 2004| page = 215| chapter-url = https://books.google.com/books?id=XWbF_tfYUuEC&pg=PA215| isbn =978-0-7591-0510-2}}{{cite web| title = Indian Health Policy 1979 |via=hc-sc.gc.ca | publisher = Health Canada| date = October 25, 2007| url = http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ahc-asc/branch-dirgen/fnihb-dgspni/poli_1979-eng.php| author= First Nations & Inuit Health Branch| access-date =October 2, 2009 }} Through this process, the decision to enter transfer discussions with Health Canada rests with each community. Once involved in transfer, communities can take control of health programme responsibilities at a pace determined by their individual circumstances and health management capabilities.{{cite web|last=Lemchuk-Favel|first=Laurel|title=Financing a First Nations and Inuit Integrated Health System A Discussion Document|publisher=Health Canada |via=hc-sc.gc.ca|date=February 22, 1999|url=http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fniah-spnia/alt_formats/fnihb-dgspni/pdf/pubs/agree-accord/1999_finance_integr-eng.pdf|archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20130111060520/http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fniah-spnia/alt_formats/fnihb-dgspni/pdf/pubs/agree-accord/1999_finance_integr-eng.pdf|archive-date=January 11, 2013|access-date=October 2, 2009}} The National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO) incorporated in 2000, was an Indigenous -designed and-controlled not-for-profit body in Canada that worked to influence and advance the health and well-being of Indigenous Peoples.{{cite book|first1=James Burgess |last1=Waldram |author-link=James B. Waldram |first2=Ann |last2=Herring |first3=T. Kue |last3=Young |title=Aboriginal health in Canada: historical, cultural, and epidemiological perspectives |date=July 30, 2006|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-8579-5|page=85}} Its funding was discontinued in 2012.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

{{Further|Band government|History of Indigenous organizations in Canada}}

First Nations and Inuit organizations ranged in size from band societies of a few people to multi-nation confederacies like the Iroquois. First Nations leaders from across the country formed the Assembly of First Nations, which began as the National Indian Brotherhood in 1968.{{cite book |last=Price |first=Richard |title=The Spirit of the Alberta Indian Treaties |publisher=University of Alberta Press > the University of Michigan |year=1999 |isbn=978-0-88864-327-8 |url=https://archive.org/details/spiritofalbertai0s65unse }} The Métis and the Inuit are represented nationally by the Métis National Council and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami respectively.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

Today's political organizations have resulted from interaction with European-style methods of government through the Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians. Indigenous political organizations throughout Canada vary in political standing, viewpoints, and reasons for forming.{{cite web|url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/aboriginal-heritage/020016-4010-e.html|title=Post-war Rise of Political Organizations|work=Library and Archives Canada| access-date =October 6, 2009}} First Nations, Métis and Inuit negotiate with the Government of Canada through Crown–Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada in all affairs concerning land, entitlement, and rights. The First Nation groups that operate independently do not belong to these groups.

{{See also|Mythologies of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}

File:Snow Shoe Maker between ca. 1900-1930.jpg maker, {{circa|1900}}]]

Countless Indigenous words, inventions and games have become an everyday part of Canadian language and use. The canoe, snowshoes, the toboggan, lacrosse, tug of war, maple syrup and tobacco are just a few of the products, inventions and games.{{cite web|url=http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/foundation_gr2/blms/2-2-1c.pdf |title=Diverse Peoples – Aboriginal Contributions and Inventions|work=The Government of Manitoba| access-date =October 17, 2009 }} Some of the words include the barbecue, caribou, chipmunk, woodchuck, hammock, skunk, and moose.{{cite web|last=Newhouse |first=David |url=http://www.cst.ed.ac.uk/2005conference/papers/Newhouse_paper.pdf |title=Hidden in Plain Sight Aboriginal Contributions to Canada and Canadian Identity Creating a new Indian Problem |work=Centre of Canadian Studies, University of Edinburgh |access-date=October 17, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110723221908/http://www.cst.ed.ac.uk/2005conference/papers/Newhouse_paper.pdf |archive-date=July 23, 2011 }}

Many places in Canada, both natural features and human habitations, use Indigenous names. The word Canada itself derives from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning 'village' or 'settlement'.{{cite book|first1=Bruce G. |last1=Trigger |first2=James F. |last2=Pendergast |year=1978 |chapter=Saint-Lawrence Iroquoians |title=Handbook of North American Indians |volume=15 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |pages= 357–361|isbn=978-0-16-004575-2}} The province of Saskatchewan derives its name from the Saskatchewan River, which in the Cree language is called Kisiskatchewani Sipi, meaning 'swift-flowing river'. Ottawa, the name of Canada's capital city, comes from the Algonquin language term adawe, meaning 'to trade'.{{cite web|url=http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/mr/is/info106-eng.asp |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090126183335/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/mr/is/info106-eng.asp |archive-date=January 26, 2009 |title=Aboriginal place names contribute to a rich tapestry |work=Indian and Northern Affairs Canada |access-date=October 17, 2009}}

Modern youth groups, such as Scouts Canada and the Girl Guides of Canada, include programs based largely on Indigenous lore, arts and crafts, character building and outdoor camp craft and living.{{cite web |url=http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/CubScouts/AboutCubScouts/history.aspx |title=History of Cub Scouting |work=Boy Scouts of America |access-date=October 17, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091031045900/http://www.scouting.org/scoutsource/CubScouts/AboutCubScouts/history.aspx |archive-date=October 31, 2009 }}

Indigenous cultural areas depend upon their ancestors' primary lifeway, or occupation, at the time of European contact. These culture areas correspond closely with physical and ecological regions of Canada.{{cite book|editor=Goddard, Ives|others=W. C. Sturtevant|title=Languages. Handbook of North American Indians|volume=17|year=1996|publisher=Smithsonian Institution|location=Washington, D. C.|isbn=978-0-16-048774-3}} The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast were centred around ocean and river fishing; in the interior of British Columbia, hunter-gatherer and river fishing. In both of these areas, the salmon was of chief importance. For the people of the plains, bison hunting was the primary activity. In the subarctic forest, other species such as the moose were more important. For peoples near the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River, shifting agriculture was practised, including the raising of maize, beans, and squash. While for the Inuit, hunting was the primary source of food with seals the primary component of their diet.{{cite journal|last=Searles|first=Edmund|journal=Food & Foodways|pages=55–78|title=Food and the Making of Modern Inuit Identities |volume=10 |issue=1 |date=January 2002|doi=10.1080/07409710212485|s2cid=144692404|quote=Although the Inuit of the Canadian Arctic have access to an ever-expanding market of different kinds of foods, they continue to invest considerable time and money obtaining Inuit foods, that is, foods hunted, fished, and gathered within the Inuit homeland.}} The caribou, fish, other marine mammals and to a lesser extent plants, berries and seaweed are part of the Inuit diet. One of the most noticeable symbols of Inuit culture, the inuksuk is the emblem of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Inuksuit are rock sculptures made by stacking stones; in the shape of a human figure, they are called inunnguaq.{{cite web|url=http://www.vancouver2010.com/ |title=Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games Emblem |work=2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games |access-date=October 17, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091025194336/http://www.vancouver2010.com/ |archive-date=October 25, 2009 }}

File:Tsuu Tsina parade.JPG children at a parade]]

Indian reserves, established in Canadian law by treaties such as Treaty 7, are lands of First Nations recognized by non-Indigenous governments.{{cite web|url=http://www.uarctic.org/module_12_tmDGm.pdf.file+Land+Claims,+Ownership,+and+Co-management&hl=en&gl=ca |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120707201242/http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:LX5RxMzdkJsJ:www.uarctic.org/module_12_tmDGm.pdf.file+Land+Claims,+Ownership,+and+Co-management&hl=en&gl=ca |archive-date=July 7, 2012 |title=Land Claims, Ownership, and Co-management |work=Developed by Ken Coates, Dean, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Saskatchewan and Greg Poelzer, Chair, Political Science Program, University of Northern British Columbia |format=PDF |access-date=October 5, 2009}} Some reserves are within cities, such as the Opawikoscikan Reserve in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Wendake in Quebec City or Enoch Cree Nation 135 in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region. There are more reserves in Canada than there are First Nations, which were ceded multiple reserves by treaty.{{cite web |url=http://www.literacycommunity.com/grade3/firstnations/reserve.htm|title=The First Nations-Communities: Reserves|work=The Literacy Community|access-date=October 5, 2009|archive-url=https://archive.today/20080918073318/http://www.literacycommunity.com/grade3/firstnations/reserve.htm |archive-date=September 18, 2008 }} Indigenous people currently work in a variety of occupations and may live outside their ancestral homes. The traditional cultures of their ancestors, shaped by nature, still exert a strong influence on them, from spirituality to political attitudes. National Indigenous Peoples Day is a day of recognition of the cultures and contributions of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada. The day was first celebrated in 1996, after it was proclaimed that year, by then Governor General of Canada, Roméo LeBlanc, to be celebrated on June 21 annually.{{cite web |url=http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/R32-179-2000E.pdf|title=National Aboriginal Day History|work=Indian and Northern Affairs Canada | access-date =October 18, 2009}} Most provincial jurisdictions do not recognize it as a statutory holiday.

{{Further|Indigenous languages of the Americas|Languages of Canada#Indigenousl languages}}

{{See also|Canadian Aboriginal syllabics}}

There are thirteen Indigenous language groups, eleven oral and two sign, in Canada, made up of more than sixty-five distinct dialects.{{cite web|url=http://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2006/dp-pd/tbt/Rp-eng.cfm?LANG=E&APATH=3&DETAIL=0&DIM=0&FL=A&FREE=0&GC=0&GID=0&GK=0&GRP=1&PID=89149&PRID=0&PTYPE=88971,97154&S=0&SHOWALL=0&SUB=733&Temporal=2006&THEME=73&VID=0&VNAMEE=&VNAMEF=|title=Aboriginal languages|work=Statistics Canada|access-date =October 5, 2009}} Of these, only Cree, Inuktitut, and Ojibwe have a large enough population of fluent speakers to be considered viable to survive in the long term.{{cite book|last=Gordon|first=Raymond G. Jr.|title=Ethnologue: Languages of the world|place=Dallas, Texas|publisher=SIL International|year=2005|edition=15|format=Web Version online by SIL International, formerly known as the Summer Institute of Linguistics|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/web.asp|isbn=978-1-55671-159-6|access-date=October 6, 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091012192013/http://www.ethnologue.com/web.asp|archive-date=October 12, 2009}} Two of Canada's territories give official status to native languages. In Nunavut, Inuktut, also known as the Inuit language, (Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun) are official languages alongside the national languages of English and French.{{cite web|url=https://www.itk.ca/projects/inuktut/ |title=Inuktut|access-date=June 17, 2024|publisher=Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami|website=www.itk.ca}}{{cite web|url=https://langcom.nu.ca/en |title=Information|website=www.langcom.nu.ca|publisher=Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut}}{{cite web|url=https://langcom.nu.ca/investigation-process/your-linguistic-rights |title=Your Linguistic Rights|access-date=June 17, 2024|website=www.langcom.nu.ca|publisher=Office of the Languages Commissioner of Nunavut}}

In the Northwest Territories, the Official Languages Act declares that there are 11 different languages: Chipewyan, Cree, English, French, Gwichʼin, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey, and Tłįchǫ.{{cite web| title = Official Languages Act| work = Legislation Division, Department of Justice| year = 1988| url = http://www.justice.gov.nt.ca/PDF/ACTS/Official_Languages.pdf| access-date =October 2, 2009 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080625231116/http://www.justice.gov.nt.ca/PDF/ACTS/Official_Languages.pdf|archive-date = June 25, 2008}} Besides English and French, these languages are not vehicular in government; official status entitles citizens to receive services in them on request and to deal with the government in them.

{{Further|Visual arts of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}

File:Metis shawl.JPG girl wearing a traditional shawl]]

Indigenous peoples were producing art for thousands of years before the arrival of European settler colonists and the eventual establishment of Canada as a nation state. Like the peoples who produced them, Indigenous art traditions spanned territories across North America. Indigenous art traditions are organized by art historians according to cultural, linguistic or regional groups: Northwest Coast, Plateau, Plains, Eastern Woodlands, Subarctic, and Arctic.

Art traditions vary enormously amongst and within these diverse groups. Indigenous art with a focus on portability and the body is distinguished from European traditions and its focus on architecture. Indigenous visual art may be used in conjunction with other arts. Among Inuit the masks and rattles of the angakkuq (shaman) are used ceremoniously in dance, storytelling and music.{{cite book |last=Hessel |first=Ingo |author2=Hessel, Dieter |title=Inuit Art: An introduction |year=1998 |publisher=British Museum Press |location=London |isbn=978-0-7141-2545-9 }} Artworks preserved in museum collections date from the period after European contact and show evidence of the creative adoption and adaptation of European trade goods such as metal and glass beads.{{cite encyclopedia|url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/aboriginal-art-in-canada|title=Aboriginal art in Canada|encyclopedia=The Canadian Encyclopedia |publisher= Historica-Dominion | access-date =November 27, 2013}} The distinct Métis cultures that have arisen from inter-cultural relationships with Europeans contribute culturally hybrid art forms.{{cite book|first=Andrew |last=Hempstead|title=Moon Alberta: Including Banff, Jasper & the Canadian Rockies|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U3U-WpBsL80C&pg=PA477|date=May 11, 2010|publisher=Avalon Travel|isbn=978-1-59880-371-6|page=477}} During the 19th and the first half of the 20th century the Canadian government pursued an active policy of forced and cultural assimilation toward Indigenous peoples. The Indian Act banned manifestations of the Sun Dance, the Potlatch, and works of art depicting them.{{cite web |title=An Act further to amend 'The Indian Act, 1880' |website=Indian and Northern Affairs Canada |date=March 21, 1881 |url=http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/arp/ls/pubs/d81c17/d81c17-eng.asp|access-date=October 18, 2009|archive-date=June 13, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110613180222/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/arp/ls/pubs/d81c17/d81c17-eng.asp}}

File:Drumdance.jpg, Nunavut]]

It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that Indigenous artists such as Mungo Martin, Bill Reid and Norval Morrisseau began to publicly renew and re-invent Indigenous art traditions. Currently, there are Indigenous artists practising in all media in Canada and two Indigenous artists, Edward Poitras and Rebecca Belmore, have represented Canada at the Venice Biennale in 1995 and 2005 respectively.

{{Main|Indigenous music of Canada}}

Indigenous peoples in Canada encompass diverse ethnic groups with their individual musical traditions. Music is usually social (public) or ceremonial (private). Public, social music may be dance music accompanied by rattles and drums. Private, ceremonial music includes vocal songs with accompaniment on percussion, used to mark occasions like Midewivin ceremonies and Sun Dances.{{cn|date=November 2024}}

Traditionally, Indigenous peoples used the materials at hand to make their instruments for centuries before Europeans immigrated to Canada.{{cite book|last=Patterson|first=Nancy-Lou|author-link=Nancy-Lou Patterson|title=Canadian native art; arts and crafts of Canadian Indians and Eskimos|year=1973|publisher=Collier-Macmillan|location=Don Mills, ON|isbn= 978-0-02-975610-2}} First Nations people made gourds and animal horns into rattles, which were elaborately carved and brightly painted.{{cite web| title = Information First Nations Music in Canada| work = Indian and Northern Affairs Canada| publisher = Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada| url = http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ach/lr/ks/rrds/rrds_infsht_mus-eng.asp| format =PDF|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706181516/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ach/lr/ks/rrds/rrds_infsht_mus-eng.asp|archive-date=July 6, 2011|access-date=May 13, 2013}} In woodland areas, they made horns of birch bark and drumsticks of carved antlers and wood. Traditional percussion instruments such as drums were generally made of carved wood and animal hides. These musical instruments provide the background for songs, and songs the background for dances. Traditional First Nations people consider song and dance to be sacred. For years after Europeans came to Canada, First Nations people were forbidden to practice their ceremonies.

{{See|Population of Canada#Indigenous peoples|Population history of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}

{{See also|List of First Nations peoples in Canada|List of Indian reserves in Canada}}

File:Indigenous population by census division.svg.]]

There are three (First Nations, Inuit and Métis{{sfn|Todd|Thornton|Collins|2001|p=10}}) distinctive groups of Indigenous peoples that are recognized in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, sections 25 and 35. Under the Employment Equity Act, Indigenous people are a designated group along with women, visible minorities, and persons with disabilities;{{cite web| title = Canadian Human Rights Commission :: Resources :: Frequently Asked Questions :: About Employment Equity| work = Canadian Human Rights Commission| publisher =Government of Canada| date = August 27, 2009| url = http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/publications/ee_faq_ee-en.asp#1| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070927003006/http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/publications/ee_faq_ee-en.asp| archive-date = September 27, 2007| access-date =September 18, 2009}}

as such, they are neither a visible minority under the Act or in the view of Statistics Canada.{{cite web|title = Classification of visible minority|publisher = Statistics Canada |via=statcan.gc.ca|date = July 25, 2008|url = http://www.statcan.gc.ca/concepts/definitions/minority01-minorite01a-eng.htm|access-date = September 18, 2009|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110714060402/http://www.statcan.gc.ca/concepts/definitions/minority01-minorite01a-eng.htm|archive-date = July 14, 2011|df = mdy-all}}

The 2021 Census data reveals that there are over 1.8 million Indigenous people in Canada, comprising 5.0% of the overall population and a slight increase from 4.9% in 2016.{{cite web | title=Canada’s Indigenous population | website=Statistics Canada | date=2023-06-21 | url=https://www.statcan.gc.ca/o1/en/plus/3920-canadas-indigenous-population | access-date=2024-12-18}}

The growth of the Indigenous population has slowed compared to previous years. The population grew by 18.9% between 2011 to 2016, while the growth from 2016 to 2021 was only 9.4%. For the first time, the Census recorded more than 1 million First Nations people living in Canada. The Indigenous population continues to grow at a faster rate than the non-Indigenous population but at a reduced speed. The Indigenous population is projected to reach between 2.5 million and 3.2 million in the next 20 years.

The First Nations population overall increased by 9.7% from 2016 to 2021. However, Status First Nations saw a slower growth of 4.1%, compared to those without Registered Indian status, which grew by 27.2%. The Métis population rose by 6.3%, and the Inuit population grew by 8.5%. More than half of First Nations people (55. 5%) lived in Western Canada as of 2021. Ontario had the highest number of First Nations people, with 251,030 (about 23.9%) of the total First Nations population. Approximately 11.1% of First Nations people lived in Quebec, with 7.6% in Atlantic Canada and 1.9% in the territories.

The 2021 Census showed nearly three in four Canadians lived in urban areas, with 801,045 Indigenous people living in large urban centers. This is an increase of 12.5% from 2016, signifying that Indigenous people were more likely to reside in these areas compared to before.

Moreover, the Indigenous population is generally younger than the non-Indigenous population. In 2021, the average age of Indigenous people was 33.6 years, compared to 41.8 years for non-Indigenous people. The Inuit population was the youngest, averaging 28.9 years, followed by First Nations at 32.5 years and Métis at 35.9 years. In total, there were 459,215 Indigenous children aged 14 years and younger, making up 25.4% of the Indigenous population, while only 16.0% of the non-Indigenous population fell into this age category.

In the 20th century, the Indigenous population of Canada increased tenfold.{{cite web| title = Aboriginal peoples of Canada: A demographic profile| publisher = Statistics Canada| via = statcan.gc.ca| year = 2001| url = http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Analytic/companion/abor/canada.cfm| access-date = October 2, 2009| archive-date = May 17, 2008| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080517064517/http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/analytic/companion/abor/canada.cfm/}} Between 1900 and 1950 the population grew by 29%. After the 1960's the infant mortality level on reserves dropped dramatically.{{cite web |url=http://www.vancouverprofile.com/aboutvancouver/content.php/id/2221|title=Aboriginals First Nations |website=vancouverprofile.com |access-date=October 15, 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100616164320/http://www.vancouverprofile.com/aboutvancouver/content.php/id/2221|archive-date=June 16, 2010}} Since the 1980's, the number of First Nations babies more than doubled and currently almost half of the First Nations population is under the age of 25.{{cite web |url=http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/Products/Analytic/companion/abor/canada.cfm |title=Aboriginal peoples of Canada |publisher=Statistics Canada |via=statcan.gc.ca |access-date=October 5, 2009 |archive-date=May 17, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080517064517/http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/products/analytic/companion/abor/canada.cfm/ }}

Indigenous people assert that their sovereign rights are valid, pointing to the Royal Proclamation of 1763, which is mentioned in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, Section 25, the British North America Acts and the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (to which Canada is a signatory) in support of this claim.{{cite web |url=http://www.ohlj.ca/archive/articles/34_1_mcneil.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706191452/http://www.ohlj.ca/archive/articles/34_1_mcneil.pdf |archive-date=July 6, 2011 |first=Kent |last=McNeil |title=Aboriginal Governments and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms |publisher =Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples |page=73 |year=1996| access-date =October 6, 2009}}{{cite web|url=http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/rp_1763.html |title=The Royal Proclamation |work= By The King George R. A Proclamation | access-date =October 6, 2009| archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091013182626/http://www.solon.org/Constitutions/Canada/English/PreConfederation/rp_1763.html| archive-date=October 13, 2009| url-status=live}}

{{clear}}

Ethnographers commonly classify Indigenous peoples of the Americas in the United States and Canada into ten geographical regions, cultural areas, with shared cultural traits.{{cite web| website=Civilization.ca |title=Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage-Culture Areas Index| publisher=Canadian Museum of Civilization Corporation| date = May 12, 2006| url = http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/ethno/etb0170e.shtml| access-date =October 6, 2009 | archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091020033621/http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/ethno/etb0170e.shtml| archive-date=October 20, 2009| url-status=live}} The Canadian regions are:

• Arctic cultural area (Eskaleut languages)
• Subarctic culture area (Na-Dene languages and Algic languages)
• Eastern Woodlands (Northeast) cultural area (Algic languages and Iroquoian languages)
• Plains cultural area (Siouan–Catawban languages)
• Northwest Plateau cultural area (Salishan languages)
• Northwest Coast cultural area (Penutian languages, Tsimshianic languages and Wakashan languages)

Across Canada, 56% of Indigenous peoples live in urban areas. The urban Indigenous population is the fastest-growing population segment in Canada.{{cite web|url=https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100014265/1369225120949 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171101183603/https://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100014265/1369225120949 |archive-date=November 1, 2017 |url-status=deviated |title=Urban Indigenous peoples |website=Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada |language=en |access-date=October 31, 2017 |date=November 21, 2008}}

Canada census 2021.{{Cite web |publisher=Government of Canada, Statistics Canada |date=June 21, 2023 |title=Indigenous ancestry responses by single and multiple Indigenous ancestry responses: Canada, provinces and territories, census metropolitan areas and census agglomerations with parts |url=https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/t1/tbl1/en/tv.action?pid=9810029001 |access-date=June 24, 2024 |website=www150.statcan.gc.ca}}

• The abbreviation "n.o.s." means "not otherwise specified." This category includes responses indicating North American Indigenous origins, not otherwise specified (e.g., "Aboriginal," "Indigenous").
• The abbreviation "n.i.e." means "not included elsewhere." This category includes specific Anishinaabe origins, not included elsewhere (e.g., "Mississauga," "Nipissing").

{{portal|border=no|Canada|Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}

• Index of articles related to Indigenous Canadians
• Indigenous peoples in Northern Canada
• Aboriginal land title in Canada
• Settler colonialism in Canada
• Indigenous education in Canada

{{Reflist|group=nb}}

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• {{cite book |last=Winchell |first=N.H. |title = Ancient Copper Mines of Isle Royale |volume=19 |year=1881 |publisher=Popular Science Monthly |location=New York }}

{{Refend}}

{{Further|Bibliography of Canadian history#Indigenous}}

{{Refbegin|}}

• Handbook of North American Indians, ongoing 20-volume series generally edited by William C. Sturtevant. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution, 1978–.
• {{cite book|first=Michael|last=Asch|title=Aboriginal and treaty rights in Canada: essays on law, equality, and respect for difference|publisher=University of British Columbia Press|year=1998|isbn=978-0-7748-0581-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9Uae4mTTyYYC&q=Aboriginal%20and%20treaty%20rights%20in%20Canada%20%3A%20essays%20on%20law%2C%20equality%2C%20and%20respect%20for%20differen&pg=PP1}}
• {{cite book|first1=D|last1=Beavon|first2=C|last2=Voyageur|first3=D|last3=Newhouse|title=Hidden in plain sight: contributions of Aboriginal peoples to Canadian|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2005|isbn=978-0-8020-8800-0|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u_KHdgEr61UC&q=Aboriginal%20peoples%20%20Canada&pg=PP1}}
• {{Cite book|last=Borrows|first=John|year=2002|title=Recovering Canada: the resurgence of Indigenous law|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3c0x55W22qoC&q=law%20in%20%20Canada&pg=PP1|publisher=University of Toronto Press|isbn=978-0-8020-3679-7}}
• {{cite book|first=Alan|last=Cairns|title=Citizens plus: aboriginal peoples and the Canadian state|publisher=University of British Columbia Press|year=2000|isbn=978-0-7748-0767-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kjjn8Rvbk1UC&q=Aboriginal%20peoples%20%20Canada&pg=PP1}}
• {{cite book|first=Tantoo|last=Cardinal|title=Our story: Aboriginal voices on Canada's past|publisher=Doubleday Canada|year=2004|isbn=978-0-385-66075-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XfUnl0yiW0gC&q=Canadian%20Aboriginals&pg=PP1}}
• {{Cite book|last=Cavell|first=Edward|year=2009|title=Classic Images of Canada's First Nations: 1850–1920|url=https://archive.org/details/classicimagesofc00edwa_0|url-access=registration|quote=First nations of canada.|publisher=Heritage House|isbn=978-1-894974-64-6}}
• {{cite book|first=Ella Elizabeth|last=Clark|title=Indian Legends of Canada|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YbWB7HDOwCMC&pg=PP1|date=October 5, 2011|publisher=Random House Digital, Inc.|isbn=978-1-55199-512-0}}
• {{Cite book|last=Dickason|first=Olive Patricia|year=1992|title=Canada's first nations: a history of founding peoples from earliest times|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M5KhH8l1ldMC&q=First%20nations%20of%20canada&pg=PP1|publisher=University of Oklahoma Press|isbn=978-0-8061-2438-4}}
• {{cite book|last=Daschuk|first=James W.|title=Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life|year=2013|publisher=University of Regina Press|location=Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada|isbn=978-088977-296-0}}
• {{cite book|first1=Renée|last1=Dupuis|title=Justice for Canada's Aboriginal peoples|publisher=James Lorimer and Company|year=2002|isbn=978-1-55028-775-2|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IDtqbuKaRb8C&q=Aboriginal%20peoples%20%20Canada&pg=PP1}}
• {{cite book|first=Peter Douglas|last=Elias|title=Development of aboriginal people's communities|publisher=Captus Press|year=1991|isbn=978-0-921801-51-1|url=https://archive.org/details/developmentofabo0000elia|url-access=registration|quote=Aboriginal peoples Canada.}}
• {{cite book|first=Kerstin|last=Knopf|title=Aboriginal Canada revisited|publisher=University of Ottawa Press|year=2008|isbn=978-0-7766-0679-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8-CyfD-Exc4C&q=Canadian%20Aboriginals&pg=PP1}}
• Leacock, Stephen (2009), [https://books.google.com/books?id=vDPhCLHXybsC&dq=Canadian%20History&pg=PP1 The Dawn of Canadian History: A Chronicle of Aboriginal Canada], Dodo Press {{ISBN|1-4099-4930-3|}}
• {{cite book |last1=Loovers |first1=Jan Peter Laurens |title=Reading Life with Gwich'in An Educational Approach |date=2019 |publisher=Routledge |location=Oxon |isbn=978-0-429-86804-7}}
• {{cite book|first=Robert|last=Magocsi|title=Aboriginal peoples of Canada: a short introduction|publisher=University of Toronto Press|year=2002|isbn=978-0-8020-3630-8}}
• {{cite book|first1=David|last1=Nock|first2=Celia|last2=Haig-BroWN|title=With good intentions: Euro-Canadian and Aboriginal relations in colonial Canada|publisher=University of British Columbia Press|year=2006|isbn=978-0-7748-1138-5|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vxFzgKZ0LKoC&q=Canadian%20Aboriginals&pg=PP1}}
• {{cite book |surname=Pettipas |given=Katherine |year=1994 |title=Serving the Ties That Bind: Government Repression of Indigenous Religious Ceremonies on the Prairies |series=Manitoba Studies in Native American History |format=PDF |url=https://www.academia.edu/91800582 |place=Winnipeg |publisher=University of Manitoba Press |isbn=0-88755-638-8}}

{{Refend}}

{{Commons category|Indigenous peoples in Canada}}

{{Wikisource category}}

• [http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/ Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada Portal] – Government of Canada
• [http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ap/index-eng.asp Aboriginal Peoples and Communities] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110825155906/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ap/index-eng.asp |date=August 25, 2011 }} – Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada
• [http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/aboriginal-heritage/Pages/introduction.aspx Aboriginal Heritage Resources and Services] – Library and Archives Canada
• [http://www.museevirtuel-virtualmuseum.ca/Search.do?Ntk=SearchAll_EN&Ntx=mode%2Bmatchallany&Ntt=Aboriginal&QSo=Search&ex=on Aboriginal Virtual Exhibits] – Virtual Museum of Canada
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20080218001822/http://archives.cbc.ca/IDD-1-73-1238/politics_economy/aboriginal_treaty_rights/ Battle for Aboriginal Treaty Rights] – Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (Digital Archives)
• [http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/aborig/fp/fpint01e.shtml First Peoples of Canada] – The Canadian Museum of Civilization
• {{cite web |url=http://www.canadiana.org/citm/themes/aboriginals_e.html |title=Aboriginals: Treaties and Relations |website=Canada in the Making |publisher=Canadiana.org |archive-date=June 3, 2004 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040603022752/http://www.canadiana.org/citm/themes/aboriginals_e.html}}
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20160305005704/http://www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100029169/1100100029170 Map of historical territory treaties] – Natural Resources Canada

{{People of Canada}}

{{Indigenous peoples of the Americas}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Indigenous Peoples In Canada}}

Category:Social history of Canada

Canada

Category:Hunter-gatherers of Canada