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Aborigional Affairs history in Canada

Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" are falling into disuse in Canada. Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are some of the earliest archaeological sites of human habitation in Canada. The Paleo-Indian Clovis, Plano cultures and Pre-Dorset pre-date American indigenous and Inuit cultures. Projectile point tools, spears, pottery, bangles, chisels and scrapers mark archaeological sites, thus distinguishing cultural periods, traditions and lithic reduction styles.

The characteristics of Canadian Aboriginal civilizations included permanent settlements, agriculture, civic and ceremonial architecture, complex societal hierarchies and trading networks. The Métis culture of mixed blood originated in the mid-17th century when First Nation and native Inuit married European settlers. The Inuit had more limited interaction with European settlers during that early period. Various laws, treaties, and legislation have been enacted between European immigrants and First Nations across Canada. Aboriginal Right to Self-Government provides opportunity to manage historical, cultural, political, health care and economic control aspects within first people's communities.

As of the 2006 census, Aboriginal peoples in Canada totaled 1,172,790 people, or 3.8% of the national population, spread over 600 recognized First Nations governments or bands with distinctive cultures, languages, art, and music. National Aboriginal Day recognises the cultures and contributions of Aboriginals to the history of Canada. In all walks of life First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples have become prominent figures serving as role models in the Aboriginal community and help to shape the Canadian cultural identity.

Terminology

Aboriginal peoples in Canada
First Nations · Inuit · Métis This article is part of a series
History[show] Paleo-Indians Pre-colonization Genetics Integration  · Conflicts First Nation  · Inuit
Politics[show] Crown and Aboriginals Treaties  · Health Policy Royal Commission Indian Act · Politics Organizations · Case law Indian Affairs Canada
Culture[show] Aboriginal cultures Aboriginal personalities
Demographics[show] AB (FN, Métis)  · Atlantic CA  · BC MB  · ON  · QC  · SK Territories  · Pacific Coast
Linguistics[show] Aboriginal languages Inuit language Indigenous Languages Aboriginal syllabics Inuit grammar
Religions[show] Inuit mythology Traditional beliefs
Wikiprojects[show] Portal Aboriginal Canadian portal WikiProject Indigenous North Americans First Nations Commons · Wiktionary Inuit Commons · Wiktionary Métis Commons · Wiktionary
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The terms First Peoples and First Nations are interchangeable. The terms First Peoples or Aboriginals in Canada are normally broader terms than First Nations, as they include Inuit, Métis and First Nations. First Nations (most often used in the plural) has come into general use for the Indigenous peoples of North America located in Canada, and their descendants, who are neither Inuit nor Métis. First Nations person is used on reserves is being supplanted by members of various nations referring to themselves by their group or national identity. In conversation this would be as "I am Haida", or "we are Kwantlens", in recognition of their First Nations ethnicities. In this Act, "Aboriginal peoples of Canada" includes the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.

Indian remains in place as the legal term used in the Canadian Constitution; its usage outside such situations can be considered offensive. Aboriginals is more commonly used to describe all Indigenous peoples of Canada. It also refers to self-identification of Aboriginal people who live within Canada claiming rights of Sovereignty or Aboriginal title to lands.

The term Eskimo has pejorative connotations in Canada and Greenland. Indigenous peoples have replaced the term Eskimo with Inuit. The Yupik of Alaska and Siberia do not consider themselves Inuit, and ethnographers agree they are a distinct people. They prefer the terminology Yupik, Yupiit, or Eskimo. The Yupik languages are linguistically distinct from the Inuit languages. Linguistic groups of Arctic people have no universal replacement term for Eskimo, inclusive of all Inuit and Yupik people across the geographical area inhabited by the Inuit and Yupik peoples.

History

Paleo-Indians period

Maps depicting each phase of a three-step early human migrations for the peopling of the Americas.

According to archaeological and genetic evidence, North and South America were the last continents in the world with human habitation. 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 north west North America (Alaska). Alaska was ice-free due to low snowfall, allowing a small population to exist. The Laurentide ice sheet covered the majority of Canada, blocking nomadic inhabitants and confining them to Alaska (East Beringia) for thousands of years.

Aboriginal genetic studies indicate that the first inhabitants of the Americas share a single ancestral population, one that developed in isolation, conjectured to be Beringia. The isolation of these peoples in Beringia might have lasted 10,000 — 20,000 years. Around 16,500 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada and beyond.

The first inhabitants entered the Americas pursuing Pleistocene mammals such as the giant beaver, steppe wisent, musk ox, mastodons, woolly mammoths and ancient reindeer (early caribou). One route hypothesized is that people walked south via 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. 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. Evidence of the latter has been covered by a sea level rise of hundreds of metres following the last ice age.

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. The area holds evidence of early human habitation in Canada dating from about 20,000 years ago and ending about 11,000 years ago. Fossils from the area include some never accounted for in North America, such as hyenas and large camels. Bluefish Caves is an archaeological site in the Yukon Territory of Canada from which a specimen of apparently human-worked mammoth bone has been radiocarbon dated to 18,000 years ago.

During the 1950s, geologists first conjectured that an ice-free corridor ran north and south through Alberta during the Late Wisconsin period. Lithic reduction stone scrapers and choppers were preserved from archaeological sites in Grimshaw, Bow River, and Lethbridge. These Lithic flaked stone tools discovered under glacial sand and gravel are classified as pre-glacial and indicate nomadic humans occupied the area as early as 23,000 years ago. Archaeologists are still finalising the dates recorded for the Alberta and the Old Crow flats sites.

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. Archaeological discoveries in the past thirty years have brought forward other distinctive knapping cultures who occupied the Americas from the lower Great Plains to the shores of Chile.

Localised regional cultures developed from the time of the Younger Dryas cold climate period from 12,900 to 11,500 years ago. The Folsom tradition are characterised by their 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.

The land bridge existed until 13,000 — 11,000 years ago, long after the oldest proven human settlements in the New World began. Lower sea levels in the Queen Charlotte sound and Hecate Strait produced great grass lands called archipelago of Haida Gwaii. 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 Federal Government officially designated X̲á:ytem as a National Historic Site, one of the first Indigenous spiritual sites in Canada to be formally recognised in this manner.

The Plano culture was a group of hunter-gatherer communities that occupied the Great Plains area of North America between 12,000 — 10,000 years ago. The Paleo-Indians moved into new territory as it emerged from under the glaciers. Big game flourished in this new environment. The Plano culture are characterised by a range of projectile point tools collectively called Plano points, which were used to hunt bison. Their diets also included pronghorn antelope, elk, deer, raccoon and coyote. At the beginning of the Archaic Era, 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.

Archaic period

The North American climate stabilized by 8000 BCE (10,000 years ago); climatic conditions were very similar to today's. This led to wide spread migration, cultivation and subsequently a dramatic rise in population all over the Americas. Over the course of thousands of years, American indigenous peoples domesticated, bred and cultivated a large array of plant species. These species now constitute 50 – 60% of all crops in cultivation worldwide.

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. Aboriginal religions developed from anthropomorphism and animism philosophies.

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 Aboriginal people dating from the early Holocene period, 10,000 — 9,000 years ago. 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 approximately 20 to 50 members of an extended family. The Na-Dene people occupied much of the land area of northwest and central North America starting around 8,000 BCE. 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. The Wendat peoples settled into Southern Ontario along the Eramosa River around 8,000 — 7,000 BCE (10,000 — 9,000 years ago). They were concentrated between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay. Wendat hunted caribou to survive on the glacier-covered land. Many different First Nations cultures relied upon the buffalo starting by 6,000 — 5,000 BCE (8,000 — 7,000 years ago). 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.

The west coast of Canada by 7,000 — 5000 BCE (9,000 — 7,000 years ago) saw various cultures who organised themselves around salmon fishing. The Nuu-chah-nulth of Vancouver Island began whaling with advanced long spears at about this time. 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. 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. 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.

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 Common Era (CE).^:179-81

Post-Archaic periods

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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. 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.

The Woodland cultural period dates from about 2,000 BCE — 1,000 CE, and has locales in Ontario, Quebec, and Maritime regions. 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 practicing sedentary agricultural life ways continued to increase on a diet of squash, corn, and bean crops.

The Hopewell tradition is an Aboriginal 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.

First Nations

Chief George from the village of Senakw with his daughter in traditional regalia, c.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. In the northwest were the Athapaskan, Slavey, Dogrib, Tutchone, and Tlingit. Along the Pacific coast were the Tsimshian;Haida; Salish; Kwakiutl; Nootka; Nisga'a; Senakw and Gitxsan. In the plains were the Blackfoot; Káínawa; Sarcee and Peigan. In the northern woodlands were the Cree and Chipewyan. Around the Great Lakes were the Anishinaabe; Algonquin; Míkmaq; Iroquois and Huron. Along the Atlantic coast were the Beothuk, Maliseet, Innu, Abenaki and Mi'kmaq.

Many Canadian Aboriginal civilisations established characteristics and hallmarks that included permanent or urban settlements, agriculture, civic and monumental architecture, and complex societal hierarchies. These civilisations had evolved and changed by the time of the first permanent European arrivals (c. late 15th–early 16th centuries), and have been brought forward through archaeological investigations.

There are indications of contact made before Christopher Columbus between the first peoples and those from other continents. Aboriginal people in Canada interacted with Europeans around 1000 CE, but prolonged contact came after Europeans established permanent settlements in the 17th and 18th centuries. In Columbus' time there was speculation that other Europeans had made the trip in ancient or contemporary times; Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés records in his General y natural historia de las Indias of 1526, which includes biographical information on Columbus. European written accounts generally recorded friendliness on the part of the First Nations, who profited in trade with Europeans. Such trade generally strengthened the more organised political entities such as the Iroquois Confederation. 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-organised traffic of furs overseen by the Indian Department.

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.

Inuit

The 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", or "dwarfs", who were taller and stronger than the Inuit. Researchers hypothesize that the Dorset culture lacked dogs, larger weapons and other technologies used by the expanding Inuit society. 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 gave rise to aggressive actions.

Inuk in a kayak, c. 1908-1914

Warfare was common among Inuit groups with sufficient population density. Inuit, such as the Nunatamiut (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. One account, Ívar Bárðarson, speaks of "small people" with whom the Norsemen fought. 14th-century accounts that a western settlement, one of the two Norse settlements, was taken over by the Skræling.

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 fishermen were already working the Labrador coast and had established whaling stations on land, such as been excavated at Red Bay. 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.

Notable among the Inuit are Abraham Ulrikab and family who became a zoo exhibit in Hamburg, Germany, and Tanya Tagaq Gillis, a traditional throat singer. Abe Okpik, CM, was instrumental in helping Inuit obtain surnames rather than disc numbers and Kiviaq (David Ward) won the legal right to use his single-word Inuktituk name.

Métis

Mixed blood fur trader, c.1870

The Métis are a people descended from marriages between Europeans (mainly French) and Cree, Ojibway, Algonquin, Saulteaux, Menominee, Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, and other First Nations. Their history dates to the mid-17th century. The Métis homeland consists of the Canadian provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Ontario, as well as the Northwest Territories (NWT).

Amongst notable Métis people are Tom Jackson, television actor, Tony Whitford, Commissioner of the Northwest Territories, 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.

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. The Métis today predominantly speak English, with French a strong second language, as well as numerous Aboriginal 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 Aboriginal maternal descent. Their first languages would have been Aboriginal (Cree, Saulteaux, Assiniboine, etc.) and English. Their fathers spoke Gaelic, thus leading to the development of an English dialect referred to as "Bungee".

There is debate over legally defining the term Métis. Unlike First Nations people and Inuit, there is no distinction between status and non-status. S.35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 mentions the Métis. Métis, their heritage and aboriginal ancestry have been absorbed and assimilated into their surrounding populations. On September 23, 2003, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that Métis are in fact a distinct people with significant rights (Powley ruling).

Integration

St. Paul's Indian Industrial School, Middlechurch, Manitoba, 1901

From the late 18th century, European Canadians encouraged Aboriginals to assimilate into their own culture, referred to as "Canadian culture". These attempts reached a climax in the late 19th and early 20th centuries with forced integration. Due to laws and policies that encouraged or required Aboriginals to assimilate into a Eurocentric society, Canada may be in violation of the United Nations Genocide Convention that Canada signed in 1949 and passed through Parliament in 1952. The residential school system that removed Aboriginal children from their homes for placement in Christian-run schools has led scholars to believe that Canada can be tried in international court for genocide. In 2008 Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an apology on behalf of the Canadian government and its citizens for the residential school system.

Politics, law and legislation

Treaties

The Indian Chiefs Medal, presented to commemorate Treaties 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7, bearing the image of Queen Victoria.

The Canadian Crown and Aboriginal peoples began interactions during the European colonialisation period. Numbered treaties, the Indian Act, the Constitution Act of 1982 and case laws were established. Aboriginals construe these agreements as being between them and the Crown of Canada via the districts Indian Agent, and not the Cabinet of Canada. The Māori interprets the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand similarly. A series of eleven treaties were signed between Aboriginals in Canada and the reigning Monarch of Canada from 1871 to 1921. The Government of Canada created the policy, commissioned the Treaty Commissioners and ratified the agreements. These Treaties are agreements with the Government of Canada administered by Canadian Aboriginal law and overseen by the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development.

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 argued that treaties "served to reconcile pre-existing Aboriginal sovereignty with assumed Crown sovereignty, and to define Aboriginal rights". First Nations people interpreted agreements covered in treaty 8 to last "as long as the sun shines, grass grows and rivers flow."

Indian Act and Bill C-31

Former Federal Minister for Indian Affairs and Northern Development, the Honorable David Crombie was responsible for Bill C-31

The Indian Act is federal legislation that dates from 1876. There have been over twenty major changes made to the original Act since then, the last time being in 1951; amended in 1985 with Bill C-31. The Indian Act indicates how Reserves and Bands can operate and defines who is recognised as an "Indian".

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 as of April 17, 1985.

• 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 and/or Band membership in the past.
• 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 would apply to band members. The sections under debate concern community life and land holdings. Sections pertaining to Indians (Aboriginals) as individuals (in this case, wills and taxation of personal property) were not included.

Royal Commission

The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was a Royal Commission undertaken by the Government of Canada in 1991 to address issues of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada. It assessed past government policies toward Aboriginal people, such as residential schools, and provided policy recommendations to the government. 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 Aboriginal, non-Aboriginal people and the governments in Canada. The report "set out a 20 — year agenda for change."

Health policy

In 1995, the federal government announced the Aboriginal Right to Self-Government Policy. This policy recognises 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 Aboriginal peoples, and set forth a developmental approach to transfer centred on the concept of self-determination in health. Through this process, the decision to enter into transfer discussions with Health Canada rests with each community. Once involved in transfer, communities are able to take control of health programme responsibilities at a pace determined by their individual circumstances and health management capabilities. The National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO) incorporated in 2000, is an Aboriginal-designed and-controlled not-for-profit body in Canada that works to influence and advance the health and well-being of Aboriginal Peoples.

Political organization

First Nations and Inuit organisations 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.

Today's political organisations have resulted from interaction with European-style methods of government via the Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians. Aboriginal political organisations throughout Canada vary in political standing, viewpoints, and reasons for forming. First Nations, Métis and Inuit negotiate with the Canadian Government through Indian 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.