Editing First Nations in Canada (section)

==History==
{{For|pre-history|Indigenous peoples in Canada#Paleo-Indian period}}

===Nationhood===
:''First Nations by linguistic-cultural area: [[List of First Nations peoples]]''
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.<ref name="Joe">{{cite book|last1=Joe|first1=Rita|last2=Choyce|first2=Lesley|title=The Native Canadian Anthology|year= 2005|publisher=Nimbus Publishing (CN)|isbn= 1-895900-04-2}}</ref> In the northwest were the [[Athabaskan languages|Athapaskan-speaking]] peoples, [[Slavey language|Slavey]], [[Tłı̨chǫ]], [[Tutchone language|Tutchone-speaking]] peoples, and [[Tlingit]]. Along the Pacific coast were the Haida, [[Tsimshian]], Salish, [[Kwakiutl]], [[Nuu-chah-nulth]], [[Nisga'a]] and [[Gitxsan]]. In the plains were the Blackfoot, [[Kainai Nation|Kainai]], [[Tsuu T'ina Nation|Sarcee]] and [[Northern Peigan]]. In the northern woodlands were the [[Cree]] and [[Chipewyan]]. Around the Great Lakes were the [[Anishinaabe]], [[Algonquin people|Algonquin]], [[Iroquois]] and [[Wyandot people|Wyandot]]. Along the Atlantic coast were the [[Beothuk]], [[Maliseet]], [[Innu]], [[Abenaki]] and [[Mi'kmaq]].

The [[Blackfoot Confederacy]] resides in the [[Great Plains]] of [[Montana]] and [[Provinces and territories of Canada|Canadian provinces]] of [[Alberta]], [[British Columbia]] and [[Saskatchewan]].<ref name="gibson5"/>{{rp|5}} The name ''Blackfoot'' came from the dye or paint on the bottoms of their leather [[moccasin]]s. One account claimed that the Blackfoot Confederacies walked through the ashes of prairie fires, which in turn blackened the bottoms of their moccasins.<ref name="gibson5"/>{{rp|5}} They had migrated onto the Great Plains (where they followed bison herds and cultivated berries and edible roots) from the area of now eastern Canada and the northeastern United States. Historically, they allowed only legitimate traders into their territory, making treaties only when the bison herds were exterminated in the 1870s.{{Citation needed|date=November 2022}}
[[File:Mrs. Joe Capilano.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Squamish people|Squamish]] woman]]
Pre-contact [[Squamish history]] is passed on through [[oral tradition]] of the [[Squamish people|Squamish]] [[indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast]]. Prior to colonization and the introduction of writing had only oral tradition as a way to transmit stories, law, and knowledge across generations.<ref name="Khatsahlano 1966. p16">{{Cite book
 | last1 = Khatsahlano
 | first1 = August Jack
 | last2=Charlie|first2=Dominic
 | title = Squamish Legends: The First People
 | publisher = Oliver N. Wells
 | date = June 1966
 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IT3YAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA16
 | page = 16}}
</ref> The writing system established in the 1970s uses the [[Latin alphabet]] as a base. Knowledgeable elders have the responsibility to pass historical knowledge to the next generation. People lived and prospered for thousands of years until the [[Deluge myth|Great Flood]]. In another story, after the Flood, they repopulated from the villages of [[Schenks and Chekwelp]],<ref>{{Cite book
 | last = Clark
 | first = Ella E
 | title = Indian Legends of the Pacific Northwest
 | publisher = University of California Press
 | year = 2003
 | pages = INSERT p.19
 | isbn =0-520-23926-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z8-3KVL03UYC&pg=PA19}}
</ref> located at [[Gibsons, British Columbia|Gibsons]]. When the water lines receded, the first Squamish came to be. The first man, named Tseḵánchten, built his [[Longhouses of the indigenous peoples of North America|longhouse]] in the village, and later on another man named Xelálten, appeared on his longhouse roof and sent by the Creator, or in the [[Squamish language]] {{lang|squ|keke7nex siyam}}. He called this man his brother. It was from these two men that the population began to rise and the Squamish spread back through their territory.<ref name="Khatsahlano 1966. p16"/>{{rp|20}}
[[File:Theiroquoislonghouse.png|thumb|upright|A traditional Iroquois [[longhouse]].]]
The Iroquois influence extended from northern New York into what are now southern Ontario and the Montreal area of modern Quebec.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|last=Ramsden |first=Peter G.|url=https://thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/iroquois|title=Haudenosaunee (Iroquois)|publisher=[[Historica Canada]]|encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |edition=online |date=October 16, 2018}}</ref> The Iroquois Confederacy is, from oral tradition, formed circa 1142.<ref>{{cite magazine
 | last =Johanson
 | first = Bruce E
 | title = Dating the Iroquois Confederacy
 | magazine= Akwesasne Notes |series=New Series |date=Fall 1995 |volume=1, 3 & 4 |pages=62–63
 | url = http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/DatingIC.html
 | access-date=October 9, 2009
}}</ref> Adept at cultivating the [[Three Sisters (agriculture)|Three Sisters]] ([[maize]]/[[bean]]s/[[Squash (plant)|squash]]), the Iroquois became powerful because of their confederacy. Gradually the Algonquians adopted agricultural practises enabling larger populations to be sustained.

The [[Assiniboine people|Assiniboine]] were close allies and trading partners of the Cree, engaging in wars against the [[Gros Ventres]] alongside them, and later fighting the Blackfoot.<ref name="Assini" /> A Plains people, they went no further north than the [[North Saskatchewan River]] and purchased a great deal of European trade goods through Cree middlemen from the [[Hudson's Bay Company]]. The lifestyle of this group was semi-nomadic, and they followed the herds of [[Plains bison|bison]] during the warmer months. They traded with European traders, and worked with the [[Mandan]], [[Hidatsa]], and [[Arikara]] tribes.<ref name="Assini">{{Cite book
 | last = Denig
 | first = Edwin Thompson
 | editor= J.N.B. Hewitt
 | title = The Assiniboine
 | publisher   =University of Oklahoma Press
 | year = 2000
 | isbn =978-0-8061-3235-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=G9VvgKUDbRcC&pg=PP1}}
</ref>

In the earliest [[oral tradition|oral history]], the Algonquins were from the [[Atlantic Ocean|Atlantic]] coast. Together with other Anicinàpek, they arrived at the "First Stopping Place" near Montreal.<ref name="Algonquins">{{Cite book
 | last = Bright
 | first = William
 | title = Native American Place Names of the United States
 | publisher = University of Oklahoma Press
 | year = 2004 |isbn=978-0-8061-3598-4
 | page = 32 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5XfxzCm1qa4C&pg=PA32
 }}
</ref> While the other Anicinàpe peoples continued their journey up the [[St. Lawrence River]], the Algonquins settled along the [[Ottawa River]] ({{lang|alq|Kitcisìpi}}), an important highway for commerce, cultural exchange, and transportation. A distinct Algonquin identity, though, was not realized until after the dividing of the Anicinàpek at the "Third Stopping Place", estimated at 2,000 years ago near present-day [[Detroit]].<ref name="Algonquins" />
[[File:Eastman Johnson - Ojibwe Wigwam at Grand Portage - ebj - fig 22 pg 41.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Detail of the painting ''Ojibwe Wigwam at Grand Portage'' by [[Eastman Johnson]] ]]
According to their tradition, and from recordings in [[birch bark]] [[scroll]]s ({{lang|oj|[[wiigwaasabak]]}}), Ojibwe (an Algonquian-speaking people) came from the eastern areas of North America, or [[Turtle Island (North America)|Turtle Island]], and from along the east coast.<ref name="Ojibwe">{{Cite book
 | last = Johnston
 | first = Basil
 | title = Ojibway Heritage
 | publisher = McClelland and Stewart
 | year = 1976
 | location = Toronto | isbn = 978-1-55199-590-8
 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Kqbu8yjqYx0C&pg=PP1
}}
</ref> They traded widely across the continent for thousands of years and knew of the canoe routes west and a land route to the west coast. According to the oral history, seven great {{lang|oj|miigis}} (radiant/iridescent) beings appeared to the peoples in the {{lang|oj|Waabanakiing}} to teach the peoples of the [[midewiwin|{{lang|oj|cat=no|mide}} way]] of life. One of the seven great {{lang|oj|miigis}} beings was too spiritually powerful and killed the peoples in the {{lang|oj|Waabanakiing}} when the people were in its presence. The six great {{lang|oj|miigis}} beings remained to teach while the one returned into the ocean. The six great {{lang|oj|miigis}} beings then established {{lang|oj|cat=no|[[Anishinaabe clan system|doodem]]}} (clans) for the peoples in the east. Of these {{lang|oj|doodem}}, the five original Anishinaabe {{lang|oj|doodem}} were the {{lang|oj|Wawaazisii}} ([[Brown bullhead|Bullhead]]), {{lang|oj|Baswenaazhi}} (Echo-maker, i.e., [[Crane (bird)|Crane]]), {{lang|oj|Aan'aawenh}} ([[Northern pintail|Pintail Duck]]), {{lang|oj|Nooke}} (Tender, i.e., [[Bear]]) and {{lang|oj|Moozoonsii}} (Little [[Moose]]), then these six {{lang|oj|miigis}} beings returned into the ocean as well. If the seventh {{lang|oj|miigis}} being stayed, it would have established the [[Thunderbird (mythology)|Thunderbird]] {{lang|oj|doodem}}.<ref name="Ojibwe" />

[[File:Nuu-chah-nulth children in Friendly Cove.jpg|thumb|Three [[Nuu-chah-nulth]] (Nootka) children at Friendly Cove, British Columbia in the 1930s]]

The [[Nuu-chah-nulth]] are one of the Indigenous peoples of the [[Pacific Northwest|Pacific Northwest Coast]]. The term ''Nuu-chah-nulth'' is used to describe fifteen separate but related First Nations, such as the [[Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations]], [[Ehattesaht First Nation]] and [[Hesquiaht First Nation]] whose traditional home is on the west coast of [[Vancouver Island]].<ref>{{cite book|last=McMillan|first=Alan D.|title=Since the Time of the Transformers: The Ancient Heritage of the Nuu-chah-nulth, Ditidaht, and Makah|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=FoxeHCjALygC&pg=PP1|year=1999|publisher=UBC Press|isbn=978-0-7748-4237-2}}</ref> In pre-contact and early post-contact times, the number of nations was much greater, but [[smallpox]] and other consequences of contact resulted in the disappearance of groups, and the absorption of others into neighbouring groups. The Nuu-chah-nulth are relations of the [[Kwakwaka'wakw]], the [[Haisla people|Haisla]], and the [[Ditidaht First Nation|Ditidaht]]. The [[Nuu-chah-nulth language]] is part of the [[Wakashan languages|Wakashan language]] group.<ref>{{cite book|last=Jacobson|first=William H. Jr|editor1=Lyle Campbell |editor-link1=Lyle Campbell |editor2=Marianne Mithun|title=The Languages of Native America: Historical and Comparative Assessment|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=maGDBAAAQBAJ&pg=PP1|year=1999|publisher=University of Texas Press|isbn=978-0-292-76850-5|chapter=Hokan Inter-Branch Comparisons}}</ref>

In 1999 the discovery of the body of [[Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi]] provided archaeologists with significant information on indigenous tribal life prior to extensive European contact. Kwäday Dän Ts'ìnchi (meaning "Long Ago Person Found" in [[Southern Tutchone]]), or "Canadian Ice Man", is a naturally [[mummy|mummified]] body that a group of hunters found in [[Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park]] in British Columbia. [[Radiocarbon dating]] of artifacts found with the body placed the age of the find between 1450&nbsp;AD and 1700&nbsp;AD.<ref name="background">{{cite web|title=Kwaday Dän Ts'inchi Project Introduction – Archaeology – Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts |url=http://www.tsa.gov.bc.ca/archaeology/kwaday_d%C3%A4n_ts%E2%80%99inchi/project_introduction.htm |publisher=Government of British Columbia Tourism, Culture and the Arts Archaeology |date=July 22, 2008 |access-date=October 7, 2009  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080612044728/http://www.tsa.gov.bc.ca/archaeology/kwaday_d%C3%A4n_ts%E2%80%99inchi/project_introduction.htm |archive-date=June 12, 2008 }}</ref><ref name="relatives">{{cite news |title=Scientists find 17 living relatives of 'iceman' discovered in B.C. glacier |url=http://www.lincolnheritage.org/scientists-find-17-living-relatives-of-iceman-discovered-in-b-c-glacier/ |archive-url=https://archive.today/20150202080835/http://www.lincolnheritage.org/scientists-find-17-living-relatives-of-iceman-discovered-in-b-c-glacier/  |archive-date=February 2, 2015 |date=April 25, 2008 |publisher=[[CBC News]] |access-date=October 7, 2009 }}</ref> [[Genetic testing]] showed that he was a member of the [[Champagne and Aishihik First Nations]].<ref name="background"/><ref name="relatives" /><ref name="photos">{{cite web|title=Kwaday Dän Ts'inchi Project Photos Archaeology Ministry of Tourism, Culture and the Arts |url=http://www.tsa.gov.bc.ca/archaeology/kwaday_d%C3%A4n_ts%E2%80%99inchi/pages/7.9.3_index.htm |publisher=Government of British Columbia Tourism, Culture and the Arts Archaeology |date=July 22, 2008 |access-date=October 7, 2009  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080501070334/http://www.tsa.gov.bc.ca/archaeology/kwaday_d%C3%A4n_ts%E2%80%99inchi/pages/7.9.3_index.htm |archive-date=May 1, 2008 }}</ref>

===European contact===
{{See also|Hudson's Bay Company|North American fur trade}}
[[File:Langs N.Amer.png|upright=1.5|thumb|alt="Colour-coded map of North America showing the distribution of North American language families north of Mexico"|[[Indigenous languages of the Americas|Linguistic areas of North American Indigenous peoples]] at the time of European contact.]]
Aboriginal people in Canada interacted with Europeans as far back as 1000 AD,<ref name="Woodcock"/>{{rp|Part 1}} but prolonged contact came only after Europeans established permanent settlements in the 17th and 18th centuries. European written accounts noted friendliness on the part of the First Nations,<ref name="Woodcock" />{{rp|Part 1}} who profited in trade with Europeans. Such trade strengthened the more organized political entities such as the Iroquois Confederation.<ref name="wolf"/>{{rp|Ch 6}} The [[Population history of indigenous peoples of the Americas|Aboriginal population]] is estimated to have been between 200,000<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Wilson|first1=Donna M|last2=Northcott|first2=Herbert C.|title=Dying and Death in Canada|publisher=University of Toronto Press|location=Toronto|year=2008|page=25|isbn=978-1-55111-873-4}}</ref> and two million in the late 15th century.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Thornton|first=Russell|title=A Population History of North America|editor=Michael R. Haines |editor2=Richard Hall Steckel|publisher=Cambridge University Press|location=Cambridge|year=2000|page=13|chapter=Population history of Native North Americans|isbn=0-521-49666-7}}</ref> The effect of European colonization was a 40 to 80 percent Aboriginal population decrease post-contact. This is attributed to various factors, including repeated outbreaks of European [[infectious disease]]s such as [[influenza]], [[measles]] and [[smallpox]] (to which they had not developed immunity), inter-nation conflicts over the fur trade, conflicts with colonial authorities and settlers and loss of land and a subsequent loss of nation self-suffiency.<ref name="dying">{{Cite book|author1=Wilson|author2=Northcott|title=Dying and Death in Canada|year=2008|pages=25–27}}</ref> For example, during the late 1630s, smallpox killed more than half of the [[Wyandot people|Huron]], who controlled most of the early [[fur trade]] in what became Canada. Reduced to fewer than 10,000 people, the Huron Wendat were attacked by the Iroquois, their traditional enemies.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Robertson|first=Ronald G|title=Rotting Face: Smallpox and the American Indian|publisher=Caxton Press|location=Caldwell, Idaho|year=2001|isbn=0-87004-419-2|pages=[https://archive.org/details/rottingfacesmall0000robe/page/107 107–108]|url=https://archive.org/details/rottingfacesmall0000robe/page/107}}</ref> In the Maritimes, the Beothuk disappeared entirely.

There are reports of contact made before [[Christopher Columbus]] between the first peoples and those from other continents.
Even in Columbus' time there was much speculation that other Europeans had made the trip in ancient or contemporary times; [[Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés]] records accounts of these in his ''General y natural historia de las Indias'' of 1526, which includes biographical information on Columbus.<ref name="Madrid">{{Cite book
 | last = de Amezúa
 | first = Agustín G.
 | title   =Introduction to the facsimile reprint of ''Libro de Claribalte''
| publisher = Spanish Royal Academy
 | year = 1956
 | location = Madrid
}}
</ref> Aboriginal first contact period is not well defined. The earliest accounts of contact occurred in the late 10th century, between the Beothuk and [[Norsemen]].<ref name=Middleton/> According to the [[Sagas of Icelanders]], the first European to see what is now Canada was [[Bjarni Herjólfsson]], who was blown off course en route from [[Iceland]] to [[Greenland]] in the summer of 985 or 986 CE.<ref name=Middleton>{{Cite book
|title=The Norse Discovery of America
|first=Arthur Middleton
|last=Reeves
|author-link=Arthur Middleton Reeves
|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HkoPUdPM3V8C&pg=PA7
|publisher=BiblioLife
|format=Digitized online by Google books
|page=191
|year=2009
|access-date=April 15, 2010
|isbn=978-0-559-05400-6}}</ref> The first European explorers and settlers of what is now Canada relied on the First Nations peoples, for resources and trade to sustain a living. The first written accounts of interaction show a predominantly Old world bias, labelling the indigenous peoples as "savages", although the indigenous peoples were organized and self-sufficient. In the early days of contact, the First Nations and Inuit populations welcomed the Europeans, assisting them in living off the land and joining forces with the French and British in their various battles. It was not until the colonial and imperial forces of Britain and France established dominant settlements and, no longer needing the help of the First Nations people, began to break treaties and force them off the land that the antagonism between the two groups grew.

===16th–18th centuries===
{{See also|European colonization of the Americas}}

The [[List of Portuguese monarchs|Portuguese Crown]] claimed that it had territorial rights in the area visited by Cabot. In 1493 [[Pope Alexander VI]] – assuming international jurisdiction – had divided lands discovered in America between Spain and Portugal. The next year, in the [[Treaty of Tordesillas]], these two kingdoms decided to draw the dividing line running north–south, 370 [[League (unit)|leagues]] (from {{convert|1500|to|2200|km|abbr=on}} approximately depending on the league used) west of the [[Cape Verde]] Islands. Land to the west would be Spanish, to the east Portuguese. Given the uncertain geography of the day, this seemed to give the "new founde isle" to Portugal. On the 1502 [[Cantino planisphere|Cantino map]], Newfoundland appears on the Portuguese side of the line (as does Brazil). An expedition captured about 60 Aboriginal people as slaves who were said to "resemble [[Romani people|gypsies]] in colour, features, stature and aspect; are clothed in the skins of various animals ...They are very shy and gentle, but well formed in arms and legs and shoulders beyond description ...." Some captives, sent by [[Gaspar Corte-Real]], reached Portugal. The others drowned, with Gaspar, on the return voyage. Gaspar's brother, [[Miguel Corte-Real]], went to look for him in 1502, but also failed to return.

[[File: Non-Native-American-Nations-Territorial-Claims-over-NAFTA-countries-1750-2008.gif|thumb|upright|Non-indigenous land claims in North America, 1750–2008.]]

In 1604 King [[Henry IV of France]] granted [[Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons]] a fur-trade monopoly.<ref name="Vaugeois">{{Cite book|last1=Vaugeois|first1=Denis |last2=Litalien|first2=Raymonde|others=Translated by Käthe Roth|title=Champlain: The Birth of French America|publisher=McGill-Queen's Press|year=2004|pages=146, 242|isbn=0-7735-2850-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZnE0tjj9MbgC&pg=PA242 |format=Digitized online by Google Books| access-date =October 9, 2009}}
</ref> Dugua led his first colonization expedition to an island located near to the mouth of the [[St. Croix River (Maine-New Brunswick)|St. Croix River]]. [[Samuel de Champlain]], his geographer, promptly carried out a major exploration of the northeastern coastline of what is now the United States. Under Samuel de Champlain, the [[Saint Croix Island, Maine|Saint Croix settlement]] moved to [[Port-Royal (Acadia)|Port Royal]] (today's [[Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia]]), a new site across the [[Bay of Fundy]], on the shore of the [[Annapolis Basin]], an inlet in western Nova Scotia. [[Acadia]] became France's most successful colony to that time.<ref>{{Cite book
 | last = Brasseaux
 | first = Carl A
 | title = The Founding of New Acadia: The Beginnings of Acadian Life in Louisiana, 1765–1803
 | publisher = [[Louisiana State University]] Press
 | year = 1987
 | location = Baton Rouge, LA
 | isbn =0-8071-1296-8 }}
</ref> The cancellation of Dugua's fur monopoly in 1607 ended the Port Royal settlement. Champlain persuaded First Nations to allow him to settle along the St. Lawrence, where in 1608 he would found France's first permanent colony in Canada at Quebec City. The colony of [[Acadia]] grew slowly, reaching a population of about 5,000 by 1713. [[New France]] had [[cod]]-fishery coastal communities, and farm economies supported communities along the St. Lawrence River. French ''[[voyageurs]]'' travelled deep into the hinterlands (of what is today Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba, as well as what is now the American Midwest and the [[Mississippi River|Mississippi Valley]]), trading with First Nations as they went – guns, gunpowder, cloth, knives, and kettles for beaver furs.<ref>{{Cite book
 | last = Podruchny
 | first = Carolyn
 | title = Making the Voyageur World: Travelers and Traders in the North American Fur Trade
 | publisher   =[[University of Toronto Press]]
 | year = 2006
 | location = Toronto
 | isbn = 978-0-8020-9428-5}}
</ref> The fur trade kept the interest in France's overseas colonies alive, yet only encouraged a small colonial population, as minimal labour was required. The trade also discouraged the development of agriculture, the surest foundation of a colony in the New World.<ref>{{Cite book
 | last = Rich
 | first = E.E.
 | title = The Fur Trade and the Northwest to 1857
 | publisher = McClelland and Stewart Limited
 | year = 1967
 | location = Toronto
 | page = 296
}}
</ref>

According to [[David L. Preston]], after French colonisation with Champlain "the French were able to settle in the depopulated St. Lawrence Valley, not directly intruding on any Indian nation's lands. This geographic and demographic fact presents a striking contrast to the British colonies' histories: large numbers of immigrants coming to New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and the Carolinas all stimulated destructive wars over land with their immediate Indian neighbors...Settlement patterns in New France also curtailed the kind of relentless and destructive expansion and land-grabbing that afflicted many British colonies."<ref>{{cite book|last=Preston|first=David L.|title=The Texture of Contact: European and Indian Settler Communities on the Frontiers of Iroquoia, 1667–1783|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L-9N6-6UCnoC&pg=PA43|year=2009|publisher=University of Nebraska Press|isbn=978-0-8032-2549-7|pages=43–44|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160112102431/https://books.google.com/books?id=L-9N6-6UCnoC&pg=PA43|archive-date=January 12, 2016}}</ref>

====The Métis====
{{Main|Métis in Canada}}
The Métis (from French ''métis'' – "mixed") are descendants of unions between [[Cree]], [[Ojibwe]], [[Algonquin people|Algonquin]], [[Saulteaux]], [[Menominee]] and other First Nations in the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries and [[Ethnic groups in Europe|Europeans]],<ref>
{{cite web
 |url=http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogie/022-905.004-e.html
 |title=Ethno-Cultural and Aboriginal Groups
 |publisher=Collectionscanada.gc.ca
 |date=May 19, 2010
 |access-date=July 1, 2010
 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006095911/http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogie/022-905.004-e.html
 |archive-date=October 6, 2014
}}
</ref> mainly French.<ref>Rinella, Steven. 2008. ''American Buffalo: In Search of A Lost Icon''. NY: Spiegel and Grau.</ref> The Métis were historically the children of French fur traders and Nehiyaw women or, from unions of English or Scottish traders and Northern Dene women ([[Anglo-Métis]]). The Métis spoke or still speak either [[Métis French]] or a [[mixed language]] called [[Michif language|Michif]]. ''Michif'', ''Mechif'' or ''Métchif'' is a [[Pronunciation spelling|phonetic spelling]] of the Métis pronunciation of ''Métif'', a variant of ''Métis''. The Métis {{as of | 2013 | lc = on}} predominantly speak [[Canadian English|English]], with [[Canadian French|French]] a strong second language, as well as numerous Aboriginal tongues. Métis French is best preserved in Canada, Michif in the United States, notably in the [[Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation]] of [[North Dakota]], where Michif is the [[official language]] of the Métis that reside on this [[Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians|Chippewa]] reservation. The encouragement and use of Métis French and Michif is growing due to outreach within the five provincial Métis councils after at least a generation of steep decline. Canada's Indian and Northern Affairs define Métis to be those persons of mixed First Nation and European ancestry.<ref name="well">{{Cite book |last1=Bardwell |first1=Lawrence J. |last2=Dorion |first2=Leah |last3=Hourie |first3=Audreen |year=2006 |title=Métis legacy Michif culture, heritage, and folkways |series=Métis legacy series |volume=2 |publisher=[[Gabriel Dumont Institute]] | isbn=0-920915-80-9 }}</ref>

====Colonial wars====
{{Main|French and Indian Wars|Father Rale's War|Father Le Loutre's War}}

[[File:Conference Between the French and Indian Leaders Around a Ceremonial Fire by Vernier.jpg|thumb|Conference between the French and First Nations leaders by [[Émile Louis Vernier]].]]

Allied with the French, the first nations of the [[Wabanaki Confederacy]] of [[Acadia]] fought six colonial wars against the British and their native allies (See the [[French and Indian Wars]], [[Father Rale's War]] and [[Father Le Loutre's War]]).<ref>In [[British America]] nomenclature, the sitting British monarch became the war's namesake, such as [[King William's War]] or [[Queen Anne's War]]. Because there had already been a [[King George's War]] in the 1740s, British colonists named the second war in [[George II of Great Britain|King George II's]] reign after their opponents, so it became the ''French and Indian War''.</ref> In the second war, [[Queen Anne's War]], the British conquered [[Acadia]] (1710). The sixth and final [[French and Indian War|colonial war]] between the nations of [[Ancien Régime in France|France]] and [[Kingdom of Great Britain|Great Britain]] (1754–1763), resulted in the French giving up their claims and the British claimed the lands of [[Canada (New France)]].

In this final war, the [[Franco-Indian alliance]] brought together Americans, First Nations and the French, centred on the [[Great Lakes]] and the [[Illinois Country]].<ref name="volo">{{cite book|last1=Volo |first1=James M. |last2=Volo |first2=Dorothy Denneen |title=Family Life in Native America |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-9Nfy4ztuPwC&pg=PA316 |access-date=August 31, 2009 |date=September 30, 2007 |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]] |isbn= 978-0-313-33795-6 |page=316}}</ref> The alliance involved French settlers on the one side, and on the other side were the Abenaki, Odawa, [[Menominee]], [[Ho-Chunk]] (Winnebago), [[Mississaugas]], [[Illinois Confederation|Illiniwek]], Huron-[[Petun]], [[Potawatomi]] etc.<ref name="volo" /> It allowed the French and the Indians to form a haven in the middle-[[Ohio River|Ohio valley]] before the open conflict between the European powers erupted.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Calloway |first1=Colin G. |title=The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities (Studies in North American Indian History) |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5YWahCbKiUoC&pg=PA6 |access-date=August 31, 2009 |date=April 28, 1995 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |isbn=978-0-521-47569-3 |page=6}}</ref>

In the [[Royal Proclamation of 1763]], the British recognized the treaty rights of the indigenous populations and resolved to only settle those areas purchased lawfully from the indigenous peoples. Treaties and land purchases were made in several cases by the British, but the lands of several indigenous nations remain unceded and/or unresolved.

====Slavery====
{{Main|Slavery in Canada}}

First Nations routinely captured slaves from neighbouring tribes. Sources report that the conditions under which First Nations slaves lived could be brutal, with the [[Makah]] tribe practising death by [[starvation]] as punishment and Pacific coast tribes routinely performing ritualized killings of slaves as part of social ceremonies into the mid-1800s.<ref>Donald, Leland (1997). Aboriginal Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America, University of California Press, p. 237</ref> Slave-owning tribes of the fishing societies, such as the [[Yurok (tribe)|Yurok]] and [[Haida people|Haida]] lived along the coast from what is now [[Alaska]] to [[California]].<ref>{{Cite encyclopedia
 | title =Welcome to Encyclopædia Britannica's Guide to Black History
 | encyclopedia= Slavery in the New World
 | publisher = Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
 | year = 2009
 | url = https://www.britannica.com/blackhistory/article-24156
}}
</ref> Fierce warrior indigenous [[History of slavery|slave-traders]] of the Pacific Northwest Coast raided as far south as California. Slavery was hereditary, the slaves and their descendants being considered [[Prisoner of war|prisoners of war]]. Some tribes in British Columbia continued to segregate and ostracize the descendants of slaves as late as the 1970s.<ref>Donald, 1997, pp. 249–251</ref> Among Pacific Northwest tribes about a quarter of the population were slaves.<ref name="afua"/>

The citizens of New France received slaves as gifts from their allies among First Nations peoples. Slaves were prisoners taken in raids against the villages of the [[Meskwaki]], a tribe that was an ancient rival of the [[Miami tribe|Miami people]] and their [[Algonquian peoples|Algonquian]] allies.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://historycooperative.org/journal/slavery-the-fox-wars-and-the-limits-of-alliance-2/|title=Slavery, the Fox Wars, and the Limits of Alliance|last=Rushforth|first=Brett|date=January 2006|publisher=William and Mary Quarterly|volume=63|format=digitised online by History cooperative|issue=1}} Rushforth confuses the two Vincennes explorers. François-Marie was 12 years old during the First Fox War.
</ref>
Native (or "pani", a corruption of [[Pawnee people|Pawnee]]) slaves were much easier to obtain and thus more numerous than African slaves in New France, but were less valued. The average native slave died at 18, and the average African slave died at 25<ref name="afua"/> (the average European could expect to live until the age of 35<ref>
{{cite web|url=http://sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/history10/activity/unit2/u2act1sis.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120721183644/http://sasked.gov.sk.ca/docs/history10/activity/unit2/u2act1sis.html  |archive-date=July 21, 2012 |work=Saskatchewan Education. (1992). History 10: Social Organizations A Teacher's Activity Guide |title=Standard of Living in 18th century Canada :section 2 |access-date=October 9, 2009 }}
</ref>). By 1790 the [[Abolitionism in the United Kingdom|abolition movement]] was gaining ground in Canada and the ill intent of slavery was evidenced by an incident involving a slave woman being violently abused by her slave owner on her way to being sold in the United States.<ref name="afua"/> The [[Act Against Slavery]] of 1793 legislated the gradual abolition of slavery: no slaves could be imported; slaves already in the province would remain enslaved until death, no new slaves could be brought into [[Upper Canada]], and children born to female slaves would be slaves but must be freed at age 25.<ref name="afua">
{{Cite book|last1= Cooper |first1= Afua |title= The Hanging of Angelique: Canada, Slavery and the Burning of Montreal |date= February 2006 |publisher= [[HarperCollins|HarperCollins Canada]] |isbn= 978-0-00-200553-1 }}
</ref> The act [[coming into force|remained in force]] until 1833 when the [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|British Parliament's]] [[Slavery Abolition Act 1833|Slavery Abolition Act]] finally abolished slavery in all parts of the [[British Empire]].<ref name=SectionLXIV>
{{cite web|url=http://www.pdavis.nl/Legis_07.htm |title=Slavery Abolition Act 1833; Section LXIV |date=August 28, 1833 |access-date=June 3, 2008}}</ref> Historian [[Marcel Trudel]] has documented 4,092 recorded slaves throughout Canadian history, of which 2,692 were Aboriginal people, owned by the French, and 1,400 blacks owned by the British, together owned by approximately 1,400 masters.<ref name="afua"/> Trudel also noted 31 marriages took place between French colonists and Aboriginal slaves.<ref name="afua"/>

====1775–1815====
{{Weasel|section|date=August 2024}}[[File:Fur traders in canada 1777.jpg|thumb|Fur traders in Canada, trading with First Nations, 1777]]

British agents worked to make the First Nations into military allies of the British, providing supplies, weapons, and encouragement. During the [[American Revolutionary War]] (1775–1783) most of the tribes supported the British. In 1779, the Americans [[Sullivan Expedition|launched a campaign]] to burn the villages of the Iroquois in New York State.<ref>
Max M. Mintz, ''Seeds of Empire: The American Revolutionary Conquest of the Iroquois'' (New York University Press, 1999).
</ref> The refugees fled to Fort Niagara and other British posts, with some remaining permanently in Canada. Although the British ceded the Old Northwest to the United States in the Treaty of Paris in 1783, it kept fortifications and trading posts in the region until 1795. The British then evacuated American territory, but operated trading posts in British territory, providing weapons and encouragement to tribes that were resisting American expansion into such areas as Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin.<ref>
Robert S. Allen, ''His Majesty's Indian allies: British Indian policy in the defence of Canada, 1774–1815'' (Toronto: Dundurn Press, 1992)</ref> Officially, the British agents discouraged any warlike activities or raids on American settlements, but the Americans became increasingly angered, and this became one of the [[Origins of the War of 1812|causes of the War of 1812]].<ref>
David S. Heidler, and Jeanne T., Heidler, eds., ''Encyclopedia of the War of 1812'' (1997) pp=253, 392</ref>

In the war, the great majority of First Nations supported the British, and many fought under the aegis of [[Tecumseh]].<ref>
Herbert C. W. Goltz, "Tecumseh". in John English, ed., ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online: V (1801–1820)'' (2000) [http://www.biographi.ca/009004-119.01-e.php?BioId=36806&query=tecumseh online]
</ref> But Tecumseh died in battle in 1813 and the Indian coalition collapsed. The British had long wished to create a neutral Indian state in the American Old Northwest,<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Smith | first1 = Dwight L. | year = 1989 | title = A North American Neutral Indian Zone: Persistence of a British Idea | journal = Northwest Ohio Quarterly | volume = 61 | issue = 2–4| pages = 46–63 }}
</ref> and made this demand as late as 1814 at the peace negotiations at Ghent. The Americans rejected the idea, the British dropped it, and Britain's Indian allies lost British support. In addition, the Indians were no longer able to gather furs in American territory. Abandoned by their powerful sponsor, Great Lakes-area natives ultimately assimilated into American society, migrated to the west or to Canada, or were relocated onto reservations in Michigan and Wisconsin.<ref>
Colin G. Calloway, "The End of an Era: British-Indian Relations in the Great Lakes Region after the War of 1812," ''Michigan Historical Review'' 1986 12(2): 1–20. 0890–1686
</ref> Historians have unanimously agreed that the Indians were the major losers in the War of 1812.<ref>
Wesley B. Turner, ''The War of 1812: The War That Both Sides Won'' (2000)</ref>

===19th century===
{{See also|North-West Rebellion|Red River Rebellion}}
[[File:Kane Assiniboine hunting buffalo.jpg|thumb| Painting representing ''[[Assiniboine people|Assiniboine]] hunting buffalo'', c. 1851]]
Living conditions for Indigenous people in the [[Canadian Prairies|prairie]] regions deteriorated quickly. Between 1875 and 1885, settlers and hunters of European descent contributed to hunting the North American bison almost to extinction; the construction of the [[Canadian Pacific Railway]] brought large numbers of European settlers west who encroached on Indigenous territory. European Canadians established governments, police forces, and [[Court|courts of law]] with different foundations from indigenous practices. Various epidemics continued to devastate Indigenous communities. All of these factors had a profound effect on Indigenous people, particularly those from the plains who had relied heavily on bison for food and clothing. Most of those nations that agreed to treaties had negotiated for a guarantee of food and help to begin farming.<ref name="finkelconrad">{{Cite book | last1 = Finkel | first1 = Alvin | last2 = Conrad | first2 = Margaret Conrad | title = History of the Canadian Peoples, 1867–present | publisher = Pearson Education Canada | edition = 4 | date = August 25, 2005 | volume = 2 | isbn = 978-0-321-27009-2 | url-access = registration | url = https://archive.org/details/historyofcanadia0004conr }}</ref> Just as the bison disappeared (the last Canadian hunt was in 1879), [[Lieutenant Governor (Canada)|Lieutenant-Governor]] [[Edgar Dewdney]] cut rations to indigenous people in an attempt to reduce government costs. Between 1880 and 1885, approximately 3,000 Indigenous people starved to death in the [[North-West Territories]].<ref name="finkelconrad"/>

[[File:Poundmaker.png|thumb|left|upright|Chief [[Poundmaker]] ]]

Offended by the concepts of the treaties, Cree chiefs resisted them. [[Big Bear]] refused to sign [[Treaty 6]] until starvation among his people forced his hand in 1882.<ref name="finkelconrad"/> His attempts to unite Indigenous nations made progress. In 1884 the Métis (including the Anglo-Métis) asked [[Louis Riel]] to return from the United States, where he had fled after the [[Red River Rebellion]], to appeal to the government on their behalf. The government gave a vague response. In March 1885, Riel, [[Gabriel Dumont (Métis leader)|Gabriel Dumont]], and [[Honoré Jackson]] (a.k.a. Will Jackson) set up the [[Provisional Government of Saskatchewan]], believing that they could influence the federal government in the same way as they had in 1869.<ref>{{cite web|author=Boulton, Charles A. |year=1886 |title=Reminiscences of the North-West Rebellions |location=Toronto. |url=http://wsb.datapro.net/rebellions/index.html |access-date=October 9, 2009 |author-link=Charles Arkoll Boulton  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091123015618/http://wsb.datapro.net/rebellions/index.html |archive-date=November 23, 2009 }}</ref> The [[North-West Rebellion]] of 1885 was a brief and unsuccessful uprising by the [[Métis people (Canada)|Métis]] people of the [[District of Saskatchewan]] under Riel against the Dominion of Canada, which they believed had failed to address their concerns for the survival of their people.<ref>{{cite web
 | website =Canada in the Making |title=The Riel Rebellions
 | url =http://www.canadiana.org/citm/specifique/rielreb_e.html
 | access-date = October 6, 2007 |archive-date=2006-01-12 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060112173624/http://www.canadiana.org/citm/specifique/rielreb_e.html}}</ref> In 1884, 2,000 Cree from reserves met near [[Battleford]] to organize into a large, cohesive resistance. Discouraged by the lack of government response but encouraged by the efforts of the Métis at armed rebellion, [[Wandering Spirit (Cree leader)|Wandering Spirit]] and other young militant Cree attacked the small town of [[Frog Lake Massacre|Frog Lake]], killing Thomas Quinn, an [[Indian Agent (Canada)|Indian agent]], and eight others.<ref name="finkelconrad"/> Although Big Bear actively opposed the attacks, he was charged and tried for treason and sentenced to three years in prison. After the Red River Rebellion of 1869–1870, Métis moved from [[Manitoba]] to the District of Saskatchewan, where they founded a settlement at [[Batoche, Saskatchewan|Batoche]] on the [[South Saskatchewan River]].<ref>{{Cite book| title = Riel: a life of revolution| author = Siggins, Maggie | year = 1994 | publisher = [[HarperCollins]], Toronto | isbn = 0-00-215792-6| author-link = Maggie Siggins}}</ref> 
[[File:Mik'maq at Province House, Halifax,NS 1879.png|thumb|[[Mi'kmaq]] Grand Chief [[Jacques-Pierre Peminuit Paul]] (3rd from left with beard) meets Governor General of Canada, [[John Campbell, 9th Duke of Argyll|Marquess of Lorne]], Red Chamber, [[Province House (Nova Scotia)|Province House]], Halifax, Nova Scotia, 1879]]
In Manitoba settlers from [[Ontario]] began to arrive. They pushed for land to be allotted in the square concession system of [[English Canada]], rather than the [[Seigneurial system of New France|seigneurial system]] of strips reaching back from a river which the Métis were familiar with in their [[French-Canadian]] culture.

====Colonization and assimilation====
{{Main|Canadian Indian residential school system|Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission}}
[[File:Stpauls-middlechurch-man.jpg|thumb|upright|St. Paul's Indian Industrial School, Manitoba, 1901]]
The history of colonization is complex, varied according to the time and place. France and Britain were the main colonial powers involved, though the United States also began to extend its territory at the expense of indigenous people as well.

From the late 18th century, European Canadians encouraged First Nations to [[Cultural imperialism|assimilate]] into the European-based culture, referred to as "[[Canadian culture]]". The assumption was that this was the "correct" culture because the Canadians of European descent saw themselves as dominant, and technologically, politically and culturally superior.<ref name="RoyalCom-sg3">{{Cite journal
 |title=Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples Stage Three: Displacement and Assimilation
 |volume=1 part 1 chapter 6
 |journal=[[Indian and Northern Affairs Canada]]
 |publisher=Government of Canada
 |date=August 26, 1991
 |url=http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ch/rcap/sg/sgm6_e.html
 |archive-url=https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20080315013149/http://www.ainc-inac.gc.ca:80/ch/rcap/sg/sgm6_e.html
 
 |archive-date=March 15, 2008
 |access-date=October 9, 2009
}}
</ref> There was resistance against this assimilation and many businesses denied European practices. The Tecumseh Wigwam of Toronto, for example, did not adhere to the widely practiced Lord's Day observance, making it a popular spot, especially on Sundays.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Peppiatt|first1=Liam|title=Chapter 12: The Tecumseh Wigwam |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160821091733/http://www.landmarksoftoronto.com/the-tecumseh-wigwam/ |url=http://www.landmarksoftoronto.com/the-tecumseh-wigwam/ |archive-date=August 21, 2016 |website=Robertson's Landmarks of Toronto Revisited}}</ref> Moreover, Canadian policies were at times contradictory, such as through the late 19th century-[[Peasant Farm Policy]] that severely restricted farming on reserves, despite this practice being seen as important to assimilation efforts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=[[Sarah Carter (historian)|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}}</ref> These kinds of attempts reached a climax in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Founded in the 19th century, the [[Canadian Indian residential school system]] was intended to force the assimilation of Aboriginal and First Nations people into European-Canadian society.<ref>{{cite web|last=Dolha |first=Lloyd |url=http://www.firstnationsdrum.com/education/Default.htm |title=Alberni School Victim Speaks Out |work=First Nations drum |access-date=October 9, 2009  |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100419141730/http://www.firstnationsdrum.com/education/Default.htm |archive-date=April 19, 2010 }}</ref> The purpose of the schools, which separated children from their families, has been described by commentators as "killing the Indian in the child."<ref name=chronology>{{cite web|title=Residential Schools – A Chronology |publisher=Assembly of First Nations |url=http://www.afn.ca/article.asp?id=2586 |access-date=January 19, 2009  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090201154953/http://www.afn.ca/article.asp?id=2586 |archive-date=February 1, 2009 }}
</ref><ref>{{cite web
 |title=Canada apologizes for killing the 'Indian in the child' (Roundup)
 |work=Americas News
 |publisher=Deutsche Presse-Agentur
 |date=June 11, 2008
 |url=http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/americas/news/article_1410655.php
 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130129002544/http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/americas/news/article_1410655.php
 
 |archive-date=January 29, 2013
 |access-date=October 9, 2009
}}
</ref>

[[File:Buying provisions for Xmas.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Representation of buying provisions, [[Hudson's Bay Company|Hudson's Bay]] territory, 1870s]]
Funded under the ''[[Indian Act]]'' by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, a branch of the federal government, the schools were run by churches of various denominations – about 60% by Roman Catholics, and 30% by the [[Anglican Church of Canada]] and the [[United Church of Canada]], along with its pre-1925 predecessors, [[Presbyterian Church in Canada|Presbyterian]], [[Congregational church|Congregationalist]] and [[Methodism|Methodist]] churches.

The attempt to [[Forced assimilation|force assimilation]] involved punishing children for speaking their own languages or practising their own faiths, leading to allegations in the 20th century of [[cultural genocide]] and [[ethnocide]]. There was widespread physical and [[sexual abuse]]. Overcrowding, poor sanitation, and a lack of medical care led to high rates of [[tuberculosis]], and death rates of up to 69%.<ref>{{cite web | last1 = Curry | first1 = Bill | last2 = Howlett | first2 = Karen | title = Natives died in droves as Ottawa ignored warnings Tuberculosis took the lives of students at residential schools for at least 40 years | work = [[The Globe and Mail|Globe and Mail]] | date = April 24, 2007 | url = http://www.heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.8.GlobeAndMail.1.htm | format = Digitised online by Heyoka Magazine | access-date = October 9, 2009  | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20090413064440/http://www.heyokamagazine.com/HEYOKA.8.GlobeAndMail.1.htm | archive-date = April 13, 2009 }}
</ref> Details of the mistreatment of students had been published numerous times throughout the 20th century, but following the closure of the schools in the 1960s, the work of indigenous activists and historians led to a change in the public perception of the residential school system, as well as official government apologies, and a (controversial) legal settlement.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Carney |first=Robert |date=1995 |title=Aboriginal Residential Schools Before Confederation: The Early Experience |journal=Historical Studies |volume=61 |pages=13–40 |publisher=Canadian Catholic Historical Association |access-date=13 August 2024 |url=https://catholicvoices.ca/indian-residential-schools-resources-historical-cultural-background/ }}</ref>

Colonization had a significant impact on First Nations diet and health. According to the historian Mary-Ellen Kelm, "inadequate reserve allocations, restrictions on the food fishery, overhunting, and over-trapping" alienated First Nations from their traditional way of life, which undermined their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health.<ref>Kelm, Mary-Ellen (1998). Colonizing Bodies: Aboriginal Health and Healing in British Columbia 1900–50. Vancouver: UBC Press, p. 37.</ref>

===20th century===
[[File:Frances Densmore recording Mountain Chief2.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Ethnomusicologist [[Frances Densmore]] plays a recording for [[Blackfoot Confederacy|Blackfoot]] chief [[Mountain Chief]] (1916)]]
As Canadian ideas of [[Progressivism|progress]] evolved around the start of the 20th century, the federal Indian policy was directed at removing Indigenous people from their communal lands and encouraging assimilation.<ref name="finkelconrad"/> Amendments to the ''Indian Act'' in 1905 and 1911 made it easier for the government to expropriate reserve lands from First Nations.<ref>{{Cite web|title=The Indian Act|url=https://indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/the_indian_act/|access-date=2021-01-20|website=indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|last=Joseph|first=Bob|title=21 Things You May Not Have Known About The Indian Act|url=https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/21-things-you-may-not-have-known-about-the-indian-act-|access-date=2021-01-20|website=www.ictinc.ca}}</ref> The government sold nearly half of the Blackfoot reserve in Alberta to settlers.{{Citation needed|date=February 2012}}

When the Kainai (Blood) Nation refused to accept the sale of their lands in 1916 and 1917, the Department of Indian Affairs held back funding necessary for farming until they relented.<ref name="finkelconrad"/> In British Columbia, the [[McKenna–McBride Royal Commission]] was created in 1912 to settle disputes over reserve lands in the province. The claims of Indigenous people were ignored, and the commission allocated new, less valuable lands (reserves) for First Nations.<ref name="finkelconrad"/>

Those nations who managed to maintain their ownership of good lands often farmed successfully. Indigenous people living near the [[Cowichan River|Cowichan]] and [[Fraser River|Fraser]] rivers, and those from Saskatchewan managed to produce good harvests.<ref name="finkelconrad"/> Since 1881, those First Nations people living in the prairie provinces required permits from Indian Agents to sell any of their produce. Later the government created a pass system in the old Northwest Territories that required indigenous people to seek written permission from an Indian Agent before leaving their reserves for any length of time.<ref name="finkelconrad"/> Indigenous people regularly defied those laws, as well as bans on [[Sun Dance]]s and potlatches, in an attempt to practice their culture.<ref>{{cite web
 | title = An historical overview
 | work = The Justice System and Aboriginal People The Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission
 | publisher = Manitoba Government
 | url = http://www.ajic.mb.ca/volumel/chapter3.html#1
 | access-date =September 11, 2009 }}
</ref>

The [[wikisource:Constitution Act, 1930 (annotated)|''1930 Constitution Act'']] or [[Natural Resources Acts]] was part of a shift acknowledging [[indigenous rights]]. It enabled provincial control of [[Crown land]] and allowed Provincial laws regulating game to apply to Indians, but it also ensured that "Indians shall have the right&nbsp;... of hunting, trapping and fishing game and fish for food at all seasons of the year on all unoccupied Crown lands and on any other lands to which the said Indians may have a right of access."<ref>''Statutes of Great Britain (1930)'', 20–21 [[George V]], chapter 26.</ref>

===First and Second World Wars===
[[File:Aboriginal War Veterans monument.JPG|thumb|upright|Aboriginal War Veterans monument]]
More than 6,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis served with [[British Armed Forces|British forces]] during [[World War I|First World War]] and [[World War II|Second World War]]. A generation of young native men fought on the battlefields of Europe during the Great War and approximately 300 of them died there.{{Citation needed|date=April 2021}} When Canada declared war on [[Nazi Germany|Germany]] on September 10, 1939, the native community quickly responded to volunteer. Four years later, in May 1943, the government declared that, as [[British subject]]s, all able Indian men of military age could be called up for training and service in Canada or overseas.

===Late 20th century===
Following the end of the Second World War, laws concerning First Nations in Canada began to change, albeit slowly. The federal prohibition of potlatch and Sun Dance ceremonies ended in 1951. Provincial governments began to accept the right of Indigenous people to vote. In June 1956, section 9 of the ''[[Canadian Citizenship Act 1946|Citizenship Act]]'' was amended to grant formal citizenship to Status Indians and Inuit, retroactively as of January 1947.

In 1960, First Nations people received the right to vote in federal elections without forfeiting their Indian status. By comparison, Native Americans in the United States had been allowed to vote since the 1920s.<ref>{{cite web
 | last = Kinnear
 | first = Michael
 | title = The Effect of Expansion of the Franchise on Turnout
 | work = Electoral Insight
 | publisher = Elections Canada
 | date = November 2003
 | url = http://www.elections.ca/res/eim/article_search/article.asp?id=28&lang=e&frmPageSize=
 | access-date =April 29, 2014 }} 
</ref>

====1969 White Paper====

In his [[1969 White Paper]], then-[[Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (Canada)|Minister of Indian Affairs]], [[Jean Chrétien]], proposed the abolition of the ''Indian Act'' of Canada, the rejection of [[Aboriginal land claim]]s, and the assimilation of First Nations people into the Canadian population with the status of "other ethnic minorities" rather than as a distinct group.<ref name="two">{{cite web|url=http://www.afn.ca/misc/AFN-AGA-2009.pdf |title=Assembly of First Nations Annual Report |work=AFN Executive Committee Reports |publisher=Assembly of First Nations |date=2008–2009 |access-date=October 6, 2009  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091102145955/http://www.afn.ca/misc/AFN-AGA-2009.pdf |archive-date=November 2, 2009 }}</ref>

[[Harold Cardinal]] and the Indian Chiefs of Alberta responded with a document entitled "Citizens Plus" but commonly known as the "Red Paper". In it, they explained Status Indians' widespread opposition to Chrétien's proposal. [[Prime Minister of Canada|Prime Minister]] [[Pierre Trudeau]] and the [[Liberal Party of Canada|Liberals]] began to back away from the 1969 White Paper, particularly after the [[Calder v. British Columbia (Attorney General)|Calder case]] decision in 1973.<ref name="ndp-ear">{{cite news |last1=Tester |first1=Frank James |last2=McNicoll|first2=Paule McNicoll |author3=Jessie Forsyth |title=With an ear to the ground: The CCF/NDP and Aboriginal policy in Canada, 1926–1993 |work=Journal of Canadian Studies |publisher=CBS Interactive Inc |date=Spring 1999|url=http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3683/is_199904/ai_n8843392/pg_9 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070706013520/http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3683/is_199904/ai_n8843392/pg_9  |archive-date=2007-07-06 |access-date=October 9, 2009}}</ref> After the Canadian Supreme Court recognized that indigenous rights and treaty rights were not extinguished, a process was begun to resolve land claims and treaty rights and is ongoing today.

====Health transfer policy====
{{Main|Indian Health Transfer Policy (Canada)}}
In 1970, severe [[mercury poisoning]], called [[Ontario Minamata disease]], was discovered among [[Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation]] and [[Wabaseemoong Independent Nations]] people, who lived near [[Dryden, Ontario]]. There was extensive mercury pollution caused by Dryden Chemicals Company's waste water effluent in the [[Wabigoon River|Wabigoon]]-[[English River (Ontario)|English River]] system.<ref name="itri">{{cite journal|author1=D'ltri, P. A. |author2=D'ltri, F. M. | title=Mercury contamination: A human tragedy | journal=Environmental Management | volume=2 | issue=1 | pages=3–16 |date=January 1978 | doi=10.1007/BF01866442|bibcode=1978EnMan...2....3D |s2cid=153666705 }}</ref><ref name="mcdonald">{{cite book|author=McDonald, A. | chapter=Indigenous peoples' vulnerabilities exposed: Lessons learned from Canada's Minamata incident: An Environmental analysis based on the case study of methyl-mercury pollution in northwestern Ontario, Canada | title=JACS Conference 2007 | publisher=Japanese Association for Canadian Studies | chapter-url=http://jacs.jp/AnnualConf2007/JACS2007/JACS2007resume/20070923mcdonald-e.pdf | access-date=December 14, 2007|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071014080420/http://www.jacs.jp/AnnualConf2007/JACS2007/JACS2007resume/20070923mcdonald-e.pdf <!-- Bot retrieved archive --> |archive-date = October 14, 2007}}</ref> Because local fish were no longer safe to eat, the Ontario provincial government closed the commercial fisheries run by the First Nation people and ordered them to stop eating local fish. Previously it had made up the majority of their diet.<ref>{{cite news
 | title = Mercury Rising: The Poisoning of Grassy Narrows
 | publisher = CBC TV
 | date = November 1, 1970
 | url = http://archives.cbc.ca/IDC-1-70-1178-6450/disasters_tragedies/grassy_narrows_mercury_pollution/clip1
 | access-date =August 31, 2009 }}
</ref> In addition to the acute mercury poisoning in [[northwestern Ontario]], [[Aamjiwnaang First Nation]] people near [[Sarnia]], Ontario, experienced a wide range of chemical effects, including severe mercury poisoning. They suffered low birth rates, skewed birth-gender ratio, and health effects among the population.<ref>{{cite web|last1=Gilbertson |first1=Michael |author2=Occupational and Environmental Health Research Group |title=Injury to Health: a forensic audit of the Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement (1972 to 2005) with special reference to congenital Minamata disease |publisher=University of Stirling |year=2007 |url=https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/1893/249/3/M-Gilbertson-PhD-Master-Thesis.pdf |access-date=September 11, 2009  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110718083716/https://dspace.stir.ac.uk/dspace/bitstream/1893/249/3/M-Gilbertson-PhD-Master-Thesis.pdf |archive-date=July 18, 2011 }}
</ref><ref>{{cite web
 | title = Rachel's environment and Health weekly
 | work = From: Globe and Mail (Toronto, Ontario, Canada) (pg. A4), Apr. 11, 2007 The Mystery of the missing boys; Chemical pollutants flagged in new study as possible factor in skewed sex ratio By Martin Mittelstaedt, Environment Reporter
 | url = http://www.ecomall.com/activism/rachel232.htm
 | access-date = September 11, 2009}}
</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Mercury Study Report to Congress Volume V: Health Effects of Mercury and Mercury Compounds |work=EPA-452/R-97-007 |publisher=United States Environmental Protection Agency |date=December 1997 |url=http://www.epa.gov/ttncaaa1/t3/reports/volume5.pdf |access-date=September 11, 2009  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111202224416/http://www.epa.gov/ttncaaa1/t3/reports/volume5.pdf |archive-date=December 2, 2011 }}
</ref> This led to legislation and eventually the [[Indian Health Transfer Policy (Canada)|Indian Health Transfer Policy]] that provided a framework for the assumption of control of health services by First Nations people, and set forth a developmental approach to transfer centred on the concept of [[self-determination]] in health.<ref>{{cite web|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 |title=Financing a First Nations and Inuit Integrated Health System |work=Health Canada |publisher=Government of Canada |access-date=October 9, 2009 }}</ref> 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.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/fniah-spnia/pubs/finance/index-eng.php#agree-accord |title=Funding – Reports and Publications |work=Health Canada|publisher=Government of Canada|access-date=October 9, 2009|date=July 2005 }}</ref>

The capacity, experience and relationships developed by First Nations as a result of health transfer was a factor that assisted the creation of the [[First Nations Health Authority]] in British Columbia.

====Elijah Harper and the Meech Lake Accord====
{{Main|Meech Lake Accord}}
In 1981, [[Elijah Harper]], a Cree from [[Red Sucker Lake First Nation|Red Sucker Lake]], Manitoba, became the first "Treaty Indian" in Manitoba to be elected as a [[Member of the Legislative Assembly|member]] of the [[Legislative Assembly of Manitoba]]. In 1990, Harper achieved national fame by holding an eagle feather as he refused to accept the [[Meech Lake Accord]], a [[constitutional amendment]] package negotiated to gain Quebec's acceptance of the ''[[Constitution Act, 1982]]'', but also one that did not address any First Nations grievances. The accord was negotiated in 1987 without the input of Canada's [[Indigenous peoples|Aboriginal peoples]].<ref>{{Cite book
 | last1 = Rose
 | first1 = Jürgen
 | first2 = Johannes Ch |last2=Traut |author3=George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies
 | title = Federalism and: perspectives for the transformation process in Eastern and Central Europe Volume 2 of George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies
 | publisher = LIT Verlag Berlin-Hamburg-Münster
 | year = 2001
 | page = 151
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=FtxtDf418LsC&q=aboriginal&pg=PA151
 | isbn = 978-3-8258-5156-9}}
</ref><ref>{{cite news|title=Man who died at scrapyard was Elijah Harper's brother |publisher=CBC News |date=March 25, 2009 |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/man-who-died-at-scrapyard-was-elijah-harper-s-brother-1.791875 |access-date=September 11, 2009  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090328144756/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/man-who-died-at-scrapyard-was-elijah-harper-s-brother-1.791875 |archive-date=March 28, 2009 }}
</ref><ref>{{cite web
 |last=Parkinson
 |first=Rhonda
 |title=The Meech Lake Accord
 |work=Maple Leaf Web
 |publisher=Department of Political Science, University of Lethbridge
 |date=November 2006
 |url=http://www.rhondaparkinson.com/meech-lake-accord.htm
 |access-date=September 11, 2009
 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090312070451/http://www.rhondaparkinson.com/meech-lake-accord.htm
 |archive-date=March 12, 2009
}}
</ref> The third, final constitutional conference on Aboriginal peoples was also unsuccessful. The Manitoba assembly was required to unanimously consent to a motion allowing it to hold a vote on the accord, because of a procedural rule. Twelve days before the ratification deadline for the Accord, Harper began a [[filibuster]] that prevented the assembly from ratifying the accord. Because Meech Lake failed in Manitoba, the proposed constitutional amendment failed.<ref>{{Cite book
 | last = Cohen
 | first = Andrew
 | title = A Deal Undone: The Making and Breaking of the Meech Lake Accord
 | publisher = Douglas & McIntyre
 | year   =1990
 | location = Vancouver/Toronto
 | isbn =0-88894-704-6  }}
</ref> Harper also opposed the [[Charlottetown Accord]] in 1992, even though [[Assembly of First Nations]] Chief [[Ovide Mercredi]] supported it.<ref name="two"/>

====Women's status and Bill C-31====
{{Main|Indian Act}}
According to the ''Indian Act'', [[status Indian]] women who married men who were not status Indians lost their [[Indian Register|treaty status]], and their children would not get status. However, in the reverse situation, if a status Indian man married a woman who was not a status Indian, the man would keep his status and his children would also receive treaty status. In the 1970s, the Indian Rights for Indian Women and [[Native Women's Association of Canada]] groups campaigned against this policy because it discriminated against women and failed to fulfill treaty promises.<ref name="finkelconrad"/> They successfully convinced the federal government to change the section of the act with the adoption of Bill C-31 on June 28, 1985. Women who had lost their status and children who had been excluded were then able to register and gain official Indian status. Despite these changes, status Indian women who married men who were not status Indians could pass their status on only one generation: their children would gain status, but (without a marriage to a full-status Indian) their grandchildren would not. A status Indian man who married a woman who was not a status Indian retained status as did his children, but his wife did not gain status, nor did his grandchildren.

Bill C-31 also gave elected bands the power to regulate who was allowed to reside on their reserves and to control development on their reserves. It abolished the concept of "[[Gradual Civilization Act|enfranchisement]]" by which First Nations people could gain certain rights by renouncing their Indian status.<ref>{{cite web
 |last         = Laurin
 |first        = I
 |title        = First Nations, Bill C-31, Indian Act
 |work         = Indian and Northern Affairs Canada
 |date         = September 1995
 |url          = http://www.johnco.com/nativel/bill_c31.html
 |access-date  = October 9, 2009
 
 |archive-url  = https://web.archive.org/web/20090730192508/http://www.johnco.com/nativel/bill_c31.html
 |archive-date = July 30, 2009
 }}
</ref>

====Erasmus–Dussault commission====
{{Main|Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples}}
In 1991, Prime Minister [[Brian Mulroney]] created the [[Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples]] chaired by René Dussault and [[Georges Erasmus]]. Their 1996 report proposed the creation of a government for (and by) the First Nations that would be responsible within its own jurisdiction, and with which the federal government would speak on a "Nation-to-Nation" basis.<ref name="Royal"/> This proposal offered a far different way of doing politics than the traditional policy of assigning First Nations matters under the jurisdiction of the Indian and Northern Affairs, managed by one minister of the federal cabinet. The report also recommended providing the governments of the First Nations with up to [[Canadian dollar|$]]2 billion every year until 2010, in order to reduce the economic gap between the First Nations and the rest of the Canadian citizenry.<ref name="Royal"/> The money would represent an increase of at least 50% to the budget of Indian and Northern Affairs.<ref name="Royal"/> The report engaged First Nations leaders to think of ways to cope with the challenging issues their people were facing, so the First Nations could take their destiny into their own hands.<ref name="Royal">{{cite web|last1=Dussault |first1=René |last2=Erasmus|first2=George |title=The High Arctic Relocation: A Report on the 1953–55 Relocation |work=Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples |publisher=Canadian Government Publishing |year=1994 |url=http://www.fedpubs.com/subject/aborig/arctic_reloc.htm |access-date=October 9, 2009  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091001232453/http://www.fedpubs.com/subject/aborig/arctic_reloc.htm |archive-date=October 1, 2009 }}
</ref>

The federal government, then headed by Jean Chrétien, responded to the report a year later by officially presenting its apologies for the forced acculturation the federal government had imposed on the First Nations, and by offering an "initial" provision of $350 million.<ref name="Royal"/>

In the spirit of the Eramus–Dussault commission, tripartite (federal, provincial, and First Nations) accords have been signed since the report was issued. Several political crises between different provincial governments and different bands of the First Nations also occurred in the late 20th century, notably the [[Oka Crisis]], [[Ipperwash Crisis]], [[Burnt Church Crisis]], and the [[Gustafsen Lake standoff]].<ref name="Royal"/>

===Early 21st century===
{{See also|Grand River land dispute|Kelowna Accord}}
In 2001, the [[Quebec government]], the federal government, and the Cree Nation signed "[[Agreement Respecting a New Relationship Between the Cree Nation and the Government of Quebec|La Paix des Braves]]" (''The Peace of the Braves'', a reference to the 1701 peace treaty between the French and the Iroquois League). The agreement allowed [[Hydro-Québec]] to exploit the province's [[hydroelectric]] resources in exchange for an allocation of $3.5 billion to be given to the government of the Cree Nation. Later, the Inuit of [[Nord-du-Québec|northern Quebec]] ([[Nunavik]]) joined in the agreement.
[[File: The Defense of Cree Rights.jpg|thumb|left|upright|Defence of Cree rights]]

In 2005, the leaders of the First Nations, various provincial governments, and the federal government produced an agreement called the [[Kelowna Accord]], which would have yielded $5 billion over 10 years, but the new federal government of [[Stephen Harper]] (2006) did not follow through on the working paper.
First Nations, along with the Métis and the Inuit, have claimed to receive inadequate funding for education, and allege their rights have been overlooked. [[James Bartleman]], [[Lieutenant Governor of Ontario]] from 2002 to 2007, listed the encouragement of indigenous young people as one of his key priorities. During his term, he launched initiatives to promote literacy and bridge-building. Bartleman was the first Aboriginal person to be lieutenant governor in Ontario.

In 2006, 76 First Nations communities had [[boil-water advisory]] conditions.<ref>{{cite news|title=Water still a problem on 76 reserves |url=https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/water-still-a-problem-on-76-reserves-1.605364 |publisher=[[Canadian Broadcasting Corporation]] |date=February 20, 2006 |access-date=July 1, 2007  |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070813005820/http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2006/02/20/aboriginal-water060220.html |archive-date=August 13, 2007 }}</ref>
In late 2005, the [[Water scarcity|drinking water crisis]] of the [[Kashechewan First Nation]] received national [[media of Canada|media]] attention when ''[[E. coli]]'' was discovered in their [[water supply system]], following two years of living under a boil-water advisory. The [[drinking water]] was supplied by a new [[Water treatment|treatment plant]] built in March 1998. The cause of the tainted water was a plugged chlorine injector that was not discovered by local operators, who were not qualified to be running the treatment plant. When officials arrived and fixed the problem, [[chlorine]] levels were around 1.7&nbsp;mg/L, which was blamed for [[Skin disease|skin disorders]] such as [[impetigo]] and [[scabies]]. An investigation led by [[Health Canada]] revealed that skin disorders were likely due to living in squalor. The evacuation of Kashechewan was largely viewed by Canadians as a cry for help for other underlying social and economic issues that Aboriginal people in Canada face.

On June 29, 2007, Canadian Aboriginal groups held countrywide protests aimed at ending First Nations poverty, dubbed the [[Aboriginal Day of Action]]. The demonstrations were largely peaceful, although groups disrupted transportation with blockades or bonfires; a stretch of the [[Highway 401 (Ontario)|Highway 401]] was shut down, as was the [[Canadian National Railway]]'s line between [[Toronto]] and Montreal.<ref>{{cite news
 |last=Sibonney
 |first=Claire
 |title=Poverty the focus of Canada-wide native protests
 |url=http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=bd61f2dd-0a80-4fc9-af3f-01698fb6e099&k=90824
 |agency=Reuters
 |date=June 29, 2007
 |access-date=July 1, 2007
 
 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071016172727/http://canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=bd61f2dd-0a80-4fc9-af3f-01698fb6e099&k=90824
 |archive-date=October 16, 2007
}}</ref>

The [[Idle No More]] [[Social movement|protest movement]] originated among the Aboriginals in  Canada  and their non-Aboriginal supporters in Canada, and to a lesser extent, internationally. It consisted of a number of political actions worldwide, inspired in part by the [[hunger strike]] of [[Attawapiskat First Nation]] Chief [[Theresa Spence]]<ref name=Raveena>{{cite news|last=Aulakh|first=Raveena|title=Chief Theresa Spence's hunger strike has full backing of Attawapiskat residents|url=https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1306869--chief-theresa-spence-s-hunger-strike-has-full-backing-of-attawapiskat-residents|work=theStar.com|access-date=December 27, 2012|location=Toronto|date=December 25, 2012}}</ref> and further coordinated via [[social media]]. A reaction to alleged abuses of indigenous [[treaty rights]] by the federal government, the movement took particular issue with the [[omnibus bill]] Bill C-45.<ref>[http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&DocId=5942521&File=4 Bill C-45] was part of the [[41st Canadian Parliament#Omnibus bills|41st Canadian Parliament Omnibus bills]] and was a "second Act to implement certain provisions of the budget tabled in Parliament on March 29, 2012, and other measures." Bill C-45 was assented to on December 14, 2012.</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=History of Idle No More |date=December 23, 2012 |url=http://idlenomore1.blogspot.ca/p/background-on-idle-no-more.html  |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130113101803/http://idlenomore1.blogspot.ca/p/background-on-idle-no-more.html |archive-date=January 13, 2013 }}</ref>