Editing First Nations in Canada (section)

===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>