Amongst notable Métis people are television actor Tom Jackson,[98] Commissioner of the

Northwest Territories Tony Whitford, and Louis Riel who led two resistance movements:
The Red River Rebellion of 1869-1870 and the North-West Rebellion of 1885, which ended
in his trial [99][100][101]

The languages inherently Métis are either Métis French or a mixed language called Michif.
Michif, and Mechif or Métchif is a phonetic spelling of Métif, a variant of Métis. [102] The
Métis today predominantly speak English, with French a strong second language, as well
as numerous Aboriginal tongues. A 19 th century community of the Métis people, the Anglo-
Métis, were referred to as Countryborn. They were children of the Rupert’s Land fur trade
typically of Orcadian, Aboriginal maternal descent. [103] Their first languages would have
been Aboriginal (Cree, Saulteaux, Assiniboine, etc.) and English. Their fathers spoke
Gaelic, thus leading to the development of an English dialect referred to as “Bungee”.[104]

S.35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 mentions the Métis yet there has been long debate over
legally defining the term Métis,[105] but on September 23,2003, the Supreme Court of
Canada ruled that Métis are distinct people with significant rights (Powley ruling).[106]

Métis

Mixed-blood fur trader, c 1870

The Métis are people descended from marriages between Europeans (mainly French) [95]
and Cre, Ojibway, Algonquin, Saulteaux, Menominee, Mi’kmaq, Maliseet and other First
Nations.[14] Their history dates to the mid-17th century.[3] When Europeans first arrived to
Canada, they relied on Aboriginal peoples for fur trading skills and survival. To ensure
alliances, relationships between European fur traders and Aboriginal women were often
consolidated through marriages.[96] The Métis homeland consists of the Canadian
provinces of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Quebec, New
Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Ontario, as well as the Northwest Territories (NWT).[97]

Warfare was common among Inuit groups with sufficient population density. Inuit, such as
the Nunatamiut (Uummarmiut) who inhabited the Mackenzie River delta area, often
engaged in common warfare. The Central Arctic Inuit lacked the population density to
engage in warfare. In the 13th century, the Thule culture began arriving in Greenland from
what is now Canada. Norse accounts are scant. Norse-made items from Inuit campsites in
Greenland were obtained by either trade or plunder.[87] One account, Ívar Bárðarson
speaks of “small people” with whom the Norsemen fought.[88] 14 th century accounts that
a western settlement, one of the two Norse settlements, was taken over by the
Skæling.[89]

After the disappearance of the Norse colonies in Greenland, the Inuit had no contact with
the Europeans for at least a century. By the mid-16th century, Basque fishers were already
working the Labrador coast and had established whaling stations on land, such as been
excavated at Red Bay.[90] The Inuit appear not to have interfered with their operations, but
they did raid stations in winter for tools, and particularly worked iron, which they adapted
to native needs.[91]

Inuit

The Inuit are the descendants of what anthropologist call the Thule culture, which emerged
from western Alaska around 1,000 CE and spread eastward across the Arctic, displacing
the Dorset culture (in Inuktitut, the Tuniit). Inuit historically referred to the Tuniit as
“giants”, or “dwarfs”, who were taller and stronger than Inuit. [85] Researchers
hypothesize that the Dorset culture lacked dogs, larger weapons and other technologies
used by the expanding Inuit society.[86] By 1300, the Inuit had settled in west Greenland,
and finally moved into east Greenland over the following century. The Inuit had trade
routes with more southern cultures. Boundary disputes are common and led to aggressive
actions.[15]
 Inuk in a kayak, c. 1908-1914

Many Aboriginal civilizations [76] established characteristics and hallmarks that included
permanent urban settlements or cities,[77] agriculture, civic and monumental
architecture, and complex societal hierarchies. [78] These cultures had evolved and
changed by the time of the first permanent European arrivals (c. Late 15th – early 16th
centuries), and have been brought forward through archaeological investigations.[79]

There are indications of contact made before Christopher Columbus between the first
peoples and those from other continents. Aboriginal people in Canada interacted with
Europeans around 1000 CE, but prolonged contact came after Europeans established
permanent settlements in the 17th and the 18th centuries.[80] Europeans written accounts
generally recorded friendliness of the First Nations, who profited in trade with
Europeans.[80] Such trade generally strengthened the more organized political entities
such as the Iroquois Confederation.[81] Throughout the 16th century, European fleets
made almost annual visits to the eastern shores of Canada to cultivate the fishing
opportunities. A sideline industry emerged in the un-organized traffic of furs overseen by
the Indian Department.

The Woodland cultural period dates from about 2,000 BCE-1,000 Ce, has locales in
Ontario, Quebec, and Maritime regions. [71] The introduction of pottery distinguishes the
Woodland culture from earlier Archaic stage inhabitants. Laurentian people of southern
Ontario manufactured the oldest pottery excavated to date in Canada. [60] They created
pointed-bottom beakers decorated by a cord marking technique that involved impressing
tooth implements into wet clay. Woodland technology included items such as beaver
incisor knives, bangles, and chisels. The population practising sedentary agricultural life
ways continued to increase on a diet of squash, corn and bean crops.[60]

The Hopewell tradition is an Aboriginal culture that flourished along American rivers from
300 BCE-500CE. At its greatest extent, the Hopewell Exchange System networked cultures
societies with the peoples on the Canadian shores of Lake Ontario. Canadian expression
of the Hopewellian peoples encompasses the Point Peninsula, Saugeen, and Laurel
complexes.[72][73][74]

First Nations

Chief George from the Village of Senakw with his daughter in traditional regalia, c. 1906

First Nations peoples had settled and established trade routes across what is now Canada
by 500 BCE-1000 CE. Communities developed each with its own culture, customs, and
characters.[75] In the northwest were Athapaskan, Slavey, Dogrib, Tutchone, and Tlingit.
Along the Pacific coast were Tsimshian; Haida; Salish; Kwakiutl; Heiltsuk;Nootka; Nisga’a;
Senakw and Gitxsan. In the plains were the Blackfoot; Káínawa; Sarcee and Peigan. In the
northern woodlands were Cree and Chipewyann. Around the Great Lakes were the
Anishinaabe; Algonquin; Iroquois and Huron. Along the Atlantic coast were Beothuk,
Maliseet, Innu, Abenaki and Mi’kmaq.
 Thule site (Copper Inuit) near the waters of Cambridge Bay (Victoria Island)

The west coast of Canada by 7-000-5,000 BCE (9,000-7,000 years ago) saw various
cultures who organized themselves around salmon fishing. [65] The Nuu-chah-nulth of
Vancouver Island began whaling with advanced long spears at about this time.[65] The
Maritime Archaic is one group of North America’s Archaic culture of sea-mammal hunters
in the subarctic. They prospered from approximately 7,000 BCE-1,500 BCE (9,000-3,500
years ago) along the North America.[66] Their settlements included longhouses and boat-
topped temporary or season houses. They engaged in long distance trade, using as
currency white chert, a rock quarried from northern Labrador to Maine.[67] The Pre-
Columbian culture, whose members were called Red Paint People, is indigenous to the
New England and Atlantic Canda regions of North America. The culture flourished between
3,000 - 1,000 BCE (5,000 – 3,000 years ago) and was named after their burial ceremonies,
which used large quantities of red ochre to cover bodies grave goods.[68]

Post Archaic periods

A northerly section focusing on the Saugeen Laurel and Point Peninsula complexes of the
map showing south eastern United States and the Great Lakes area of Canada showing
Hopewell interaction Sphere and in different colours the various local expressions of the
Hopewell cultures, including the Laurel Complex, Saugeen Complex, Point Peninsula
Complex, Marksville Culture, Copena Culture, Kansas City Hopewell, Swift Creek Culture,
Goodall Focus, Crab Orchard culture and Havana Hopewell Culture.

The Old Copper Complex societies dating from 3,000 BCE-500 BCE (5,000 – 2,500 years
ago) are manifestation of the Woodland Culture, and are pre-pottery in nature. [70]
Evidence found in the northern Great Lakes regions indicates that they extracted copper
from local glacial deposits and used it in its natural form of manufacture tools and
implements.[70]

The Arctic small tool tradition is a broad cultural entity that developed along the Alaska
Peninsula, around Bristol Bay, and on the eastern shores of the Bering Strait around 2,500
BCE (4,500 years ago). [69] These Paleo-Arctic peoples had a highly distinctive toolkit of
small blades(microblades) that were pointed at both ends and used as side- or end- barbs
on arrows or spears made of other materials, such as bone or antler. Scrapers, engraving
tools and adze blades were also included in their toolkits.[69] The Acrtic small tool traditon
branches off into two cultural variants. Including the Pre-Dorset, and the Independence
traitions. Thse two groups, ancestors of the Thule people, were displaced by the Inuits by
1000 Common Era (CE). [69]:179-81

The placement of artifacts and materials within an Archaic burial site indicated social
differentiation based upon status.[58] There is a continuous record of occupation of S’ólh
Téméxw by Aboriginal people dating from early Holocene period, 10,000-9,000 years
ago.[62] Archaeological sites at Stave Lake, Coquitlam Lake, Fort Langley and region
uncovered early period artifacts. These early inhabitants were highly mobile hunter-
gatherers, extended family.[62][vertification needed] The Na-Dene people occupied much
of the land area of northwest and central North America starting around 8,000 BCE. [63]
They were the earliest ancestors of the Athabaska-speaking peoples, including the Navajo
and Apache. They had villages with large multi-family dwellings, used seasonally during
summer form which they hunted, fished and gathered food supplies for the winter.[64] The
Wendat peoples settled into Southern Ontario along the Eramosa River around 8,000-
7,000 BCE (10,000-9,000 years ago).[65] They were concentrated between Lake Simcoe
and Georgian Bay. Wendat hunted caribou to survive on the glacier-covered land.[65] Many
different First Nations cultures relied upon the buffalo starting by 6,000-5,000 BCE (8,000-
7,000 years ago). [65] They hunted buffalo by herding migrating buffalo off cliffs. Head-
Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, near Lethbridge, Alberta, is a hunting grounds that was in use
for about 5,000 years.[65]
The Plano cultures was a group of hunter gatherer communities that occupied the Great
Plains area of North America between 12,000-10,000 years ago.[56] The Paleo-Indians
moved into new territory as it emerged from under the glaciers. Big game flourished in this
new environment.[57] The Plano culture are characterized by a range of projectile points
tools collectively called Plano points, which were used to hunt bison. Their diets also
included pronghorn, elk, deer, raccoon and cayote.[56] At the beginning of the Archaic
Era, they began to adopt a sedentary approach to subsistence.[56] Sites in and around
Belmont, Nova Scotia have evidence of Plano-Indians, indicating small seasonal hunting
camps, perhaps re-visited over generations from around 11,000 – 10,000 years ago.[56]
Seasonal large and smaller game fish and fowl were food and raw material sources.
Adaptation to the harsh environment included tailored clothing and skin-covered tents on
wooden frames.[56]

Archaic period

The North American climate stabilized by 8000 BCE (10,000 years ago); climatic conditions
were very similar to today’s.[58] This led to widespread migration, cultivation and later
dramatic rise in population all over the Americas.[58] Over the course of thousands of
years, American indigenous peoples domesticated, bred and cultivated a large array of
plants species. These species now constitute 50-60% of all crops in cultivation worldwide
[59]

Distribution of Na-Dene languages shown in red.

A Clovis point created using bi-facial percussion flaking (that is each face is flaked on both
edges alternatively with percussor)

Clovis sites dated at 13,500 years ago were discovered in western North America during
1930s. Clovis peoples were regarded as the first widespread Paleo-Indian inhabitants of
the New World and ancestors to all indigenous peoples in the Americas. [49]
Archaeological discoveries in the past thirty years have brought forward other distinctive
knapping cultures who occupied the Americas from the lower Great Plains to the shores of
Chile[50]

Localized regional cultures developed from time of the Younger Dryas cold climate period
from 12,900 to 11,500 years ago.[51] The Folson points as projectile tips at the
archaeological sites. These tools assisted activities at the kill sites that marked the
slaughter and butchering of bison.[52]

The land bridge existed until 13,000 – 11,000 years ago, long after the oldest proven human
settlements in the New World began. [53] Lower Sea levels in the Queen Charlotte sound
and Hecate Strait produced great grass lands called archipelago of Haida Gwaii.[54]
Hunters gatherers of the area left distinctive lithic technology tools and the remains of
large butchered mammals, occupying the area from 13,000 – 9,000 years ago.[54] In July
1992, the Federal Government officially designated Xá:ytem (near Mission, British
Columbia) as a National Historic Site, one of the first Indigenous spiritual sites in Canada
to be formally recognized in this manner.[55]

The first inhabitants of North America arrived in Canada at least 15,000 years ago, though
increasing evidences suggests an even earlier arrival.[40] It is believed the inhabitants
entered the Americas pursuing Pleistocene mammals such as the giant beaver, steppe
wisent, musk ox, mastodons, woolly mammoths and ancient reindeer (early caribou).[41]
One route hypothesized is that people walked south by way of an ice-free corridor on the
east side of the Rocky Mountains, and then fanned out across North America before
continuing on to South Americ.[42] The other conjectured route is that they migrated,
either on food or using primitive boats, down the Pacific Coast to the tip of South Americ,
and then crossed the Rockies and Andes.[43] Evidence of the latter has been covered by a
sea level rise of hundreds of metres following the last ice age.[44][45]

The Old Crow Flats and basic was one of the areas in Canada untouched by glaciations
during the Pleistocene Ice ages, thus it is served as a pathway and refuge for ice age plants
and animals.[46] The area holds evidences of early human habitations in Canada dating
from about 12,000.[47] Fossils from the area include some never accounted for in Noth
America, such as hyenas and large camels.[48] Bluefish Caves is an archaeological site in
Yukon, Canada from which a specimen of apparently human-worked mammoth bone has
been radiocarbon dated to 12,000 years ago.[47]

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

According to archaeological and genetic evidence, North and South America were the last
continents in the world with human habitations.[27] During the Wisconsin glaciation,
50,000-17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the Bering land
bridge that joined Siberia to north west North America (Alaska). [28] Alaska was ice-free
because of low snowfall, allowing a small population to exist. The Laurentide ice sheet
covered most of Canada, blocking nomadic inhabitants and confining them to Alaska (East
Beringia) for thousands of years. [29][30]

Aboriginal genetic studies suggest that the first inhabitants of the Americas share a single
ancestral population, one that developed in isolation, conjectured to be
Beringia.[31][32][33] The isolation of these peoples in Beringia might have lasted 10,000 –
20,000.[34]35][36] Around 16,500 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to
move south and east into Canada and beyond.[37][38][39]
 An Aboriginal community in Northern Ontario

The term Eskimo has pejorative connotations in Canada and Greenland. Indigenous
peoples in those areas have replaced the term Eskimo with Inuit.[23][24] The Yupik of
Alaska and Siberia do not consider themselves Inuit, and ethnographers agree they are a
distinct people.[8][24] They prefer the terminology Yupik, Yupiit, or Eskimo. The Yupik
languages are linguistically distinct from the Inuit languages.[8] Linguistic groups of Arctic
people have non universal replacement term for Eskimo, inclusive of all Inuit and Yupik
people across the geographical area inhabited by the Inuit and Yupik people.[8]

Besides these ethnic descriptors, Aboriginal peoples are often divided into legal categories
based on their relationship with the Crown (i.e. the state). Section 91 (clause 24) of the
Constitution Act,1867 gives the federal government (as opposed to the provinces) the sole
responsibility for “Indians, and Lands reserved for the Indians”. The government inherited
treaty obligations from the British colonial authorities in Eastern Canada and signed
treaties itself with First Nations in Western Canada (the Numbered Treaties). It also passed
the Indian Act in 1876 which governed its interactions with all treaty and non-treaty
peoples. Members of First Nations bands that are subject to the Indian Act with the Crown
are compiled on a list called the Indian Register, and such people are called Status
Indians. Many non-treaty First Nations are all Inuit and Métis peoples are not subject to the
Indian Act. However, two court cases have clarified that Inuit, Métis, and non-status First
Nations people Inuit, are all covered by the term “Indians” in the Eskimos in 1939 covering
the Inuit, the second to Métis and non-Status First Nations.[25]

Notwithstanding Canada’s location within the Americas, the term “Native American” is not
used in Canada as it is typically used solely to describe the indigenous peoples within the
boundaries of the present-day United Staes.[26]
The characteristics of Canadian Aboriginal culture included permanent settlements,[10]
agriculture,[11] civic and ceremonial architecture,[12] complex societal hierarchies and
trading networks.[13] The Métis culture of mixed blood originated in the mid-17th century
when the First Nation and Inuit people married Europeans.[14] The Inuit had more limited
interaction with European settlers during the early period.[15] Various laws, treaties, and
legislation have been enacted between European immigrants and First Nations across
Canada. Aboriginal Right to Self-Government provides opportunity to manage historical,
cultural, political, health care and economic control aspects within first people’s
communities.

As of the 2011 census, Aboriginal peoples in Canada totaled 1,400,685 people or 43% of
the national population, spread over 600 recognized First Nations governments or bands
with distinctive cultures, languages , art, and music[1][16] National Aboriginal Dady
recognizes the cultures and contributions of Aboriginal peoples to the history of Canada.
[17] First Nations, Inuit and Métis people of all backgrounds have become prominent
figures and have served as role models in the Aboriginal community and help to shape the
Canadian cultural identity.[18]

The terms First Peoples and First Nations are both used to refer to indigenous peoples of
Canada.[19] The terms Fist Peoples or Aboriginal peoples in Canada are normally broader
terms than First Nations, as they include Inuit, Métis and First Nations. First Nations (most
often used in the plural) has come into general use for the indigenous peoples of North
America in Canada, and their descendants, who are neither Inuit nor Métis. On reserves,
First Nations is being supplanted by members of various nations referring to themselves by
their group or ethnical identity. In conversation this would be “I am Haida”, or “we are
Kwantlens”, in recognition of their First Nations ethnicities.[20] In this Act, “Aboriginal
peoples of Canada’ includes the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.[21]

Indian remains in place as the legal term used in the Canadian Constitution. Its usage
outside such situations can be considered offensive.[7] Aboriginal peoples is more
commonly used to describe all indigenous peoples of Canada.[22] The term Aboriginal
people is beginning to be considered outdated and slowly being replaced by the term
indigenous people.[2]

Indigenous peoples in Canada

Indigenous peoples in Canada,[2] also known as Indigenous Canadians or Aboriginal

Canadians, are the indigenous people within the boundaries of present-day Canada. They
comprise the First Nations,[3] Inuit[4] and Métis.[5] Although “Indian” is a term still
commonly used in legal documents, the descriptors “Indian” and “Eskimo” have
somewhat fallen into disuse in Canada and some consider them to be pejorative.[6][7][8]
Similarly, “Aboriginal” as a collective noun is a specific term of art used in some legal
documents, including the Constitution Act 1982, though in some circles that word is also
falling into disfavour.[9]

Old Cros Flats and Bluefish Caves are some of the earliest known sites of human
habitation in Canada. The Paleo-Indian Clovis, Plano and Pre-Dorset cultures pre-date
current indigenous peoples of the Americas. Projectile point tools, spears, pottery,
bangles, chisels and scrapers mark archaeological sites, thus distinguishing cultural
periods, traditions and lithic reduction styles.

Under letters patent from King Henry VII of England, the Italia John Cabot became the first
European known to have landed in Canada after the time of the Vikings. [33] Records
indicate that on 24 June 1497 he sighted land at a northern location believed to be
somewhere in the Atlantic provinces. [34] Official tradition deemed the first landing site to
be at Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland, although other locations are possible. [35] After
1497 Cabot and his son Sebastian Cabot continued to make other voyages to find the
Northwest Passage, and other explorers continued to sail out of England to the New World,
although the details of these voyages are not well recorded.[36]

Based on the Treaty of Tordesillas, the Spanish Crown claimed it had territorial rights in the
area visited by John Cabot in 1497 and 1498 CE. [37] However, Portuguese explorers like
João Fernandes Lavrador would continue to visited the north Atlantic coast, which
accounts for the appearance of “Labrador” on topographical maps of the period. [38] In
1501 and 1502 the Corte-Real brothers explored Newfoundland (Terra Nova) and Labrador
claiming these lands as part of the Portuguese Empire. [38][39] In 1506, King Manuel I of
Portugal created taxes for the cod fisheries in Newfoundland waters.[40] João Alvares
Fagundes and Pêro de Barcelos established fishing outposts in Newfoundland and Nova
Scotia around 1521 CE; however, these were later abandoned, with the Portuguese
colonizers focusing their efforts
L’Anse aux Meadows on the island of Newfoundland, site of Norsemen colony about year
1000.

There are reports of contact made before 1492 voyages of Christopher Columbus and the
age of discovery between First Nations, Inuit and those from other continents. The Norse,
who had settled in Greenland, Iceland, arrived around the year 1000 and built small
settlement at L’Anse aux Meadows at the northernmost tip of Newfoundland (carbon
dating estimate 990 – 1050 CE) [31] L’Anse aux Meadows is also notable for its connection
with the attempted colony of Vinland established by Leif Erikson around the same period
or more broadly, with Norse exploration of the Americas[31][32]

Pre-Columbian distribution of Na-Dene languages in Norther America

The Interior of British Columbia was home to the Salishan language groups such as the
Shuswap (Secwepemc), Okanagan and Southern Athabaska language groups, primariy the
Dakelh (Carrier) and the Tsilhqot’in. [27] The inlets and valleys of the British Columbia
Coast sheltered large, distinctive populations, such as the Haida, Kwakwaka’wakw and
Nuu-chah-nulth, sustained by the region’s abundant salmon and shellfish.[27] These
peoples developed complex cultures dependent on the western red cedar that included
wooden houses, seagoing whaling and war canoes and elaborately carved potlatch items
and totem poles.[27]

In the Arctic Archipelago, the distinctive Paleo-Eskimos known as Dorset peoples, whose
culture has been traced back to around 500 BCE, were replaced by the ancestors of
today’s Inuit by 1500 CE.[28] This transition is supported by archaeological records and
Inuit mythology that tells of having driven off the Tuniit or first inhabitants. [29] Inuit
traditional laws are anthropologically different from Western law. Customary law was non-
existent in Inuit society before the introduction of the Canadian legal system.[30]

Pre-Columbian distribution of Algonquian languages in North America.

Speakers of eastern Algonquian languages included the Mi’kmaq and Abenaki of the
Maritime region of Canada and likely the extinct Beothuk of Newfoundland.[18][19] Tge
Ojibwa and other Anishinaabe speakers of the central Algonquian languages retain on ora
tradition of having moved to their lands around the western and central Great Lakes from
the sea, likely the east coast.[20] According to oral tradition, the Ojibwa formed the
Council of Three Fires in 796 CE with the Odawa and Potawatomi.[21]

The Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) were centered from at least 1000 CE in northern New York,
but their influence extended into what is now southern Ontario and the Montreal area of
modern Quebec.[22] The Iroquois Confederacy, according to oral tradition, was formed
1142 CE.[23][24] On the Great Plains there Cree or Nēhilawē ( who spoke closely related
Central Algonquian language, the plains Cree language) depended on the vast herds of
bison to supply food and many of their other needs.[25] To the northwest were the peoples
of the Na-Dene languages, which include the Athapaskan-speaking peoples and the Tlingit,
who lived on the islands of southern Alaska and northern British Columbia. The Na-Dene
language group is believed to be linked to the Yeniseian languages of Siberia.[26] The Dene
of the western Arctic may represent a distinct wave of migration from Asia to North
America.

Great Lakes area of the Hopewell Interaction Area

The Woodland cultural period dates from about 2000 BCE to 1000 CE and includes the
Ontario, Quebec, and Maritime regions.[12] The introduction of pottery distinguishes the
Woodland culture from the previous Archaic-stage inhabitants. The Laurentian-related
people of Ontario manufactured the oldest pottery excavated to date in Canada.[13]

The Hopewell tradition is an Aboriginal culture that flourished along American rivers from
3000 BCE to 500 CE. At its greatest extent, the Hopewell Exchange System connected
cultures and societies to the peoples on the Canadian shores of Lake Ontario.[14]
Canadian expressions of the Hopewellian peoples encompasses the Point Peninsula,
Saugeen, and Laurel Complexes.[15]
The eastern woodland areas of what become Canada were home to the Algonquian and
Iroquoian peoples. The Algonquian language is believed to have originated in the western
plateau of Idaho or the plains of Montana and moved eastward,[16] eventually extending
all the way from Hudson Bay to what is today Nova Scotia in the east and as far south as
the Tidewater region of Virginia.[17]

The North America climate stabilized around 8000 BCE(10,000 years ago). Climatic
conditions were similar to modern patterns; however, the receding glacial ice sheets still
covered large portions of the land, creating lakes of meltwater.[10] Most population groups
during the Archaic periods were still highly mobile hunter-gatherers.[11] However,
individual groups started to focus on resources available to them locally; thus with the
passage of time, there is a pattern of increasing regional generalization ( i.e.: Paleo-Arctic,
Piano and Maritime Archaic traditions). [11]

A northerly section focusing on the Saugeen Laurel and Point Peninsula complexes of the
map showing south eastern United States and the Great Lakes area of Canada showing the
Hopewell Interactions Sphere and in different colours the various local expressions of the
Hopewell Interaction Sphere and in different colours the various local expressions of the
Hopewell cultures, including the Laurel Complex, Marksville culture, Copena culture,
Kansas City Hopewell, Swift Creek Culture, and Goodall Focus, Crab Orchard culture and
Havana Hopewell culture.
 The Great Lakes are estimated to have been formed at the end of the last glacial period
(about 10,000 years ago), when the Laurentide ice sheet receded.

Archaeological and Aboriginal genetic evidence indicate that North and South America
were the last continents into which humans migrated.[1] During the Wisconsin
glaciation,50,000-17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the
Bering land bridge (Beringia), from Siberia into northwest North America.[2] At that point,
there were blocked by the Laurentide ice sheet that covered most of Canada, confining
them to Alaska and the Yukon for thousands of years.[3] The exact dates and routes of the
peopling of the Americas are the subject of an ongoing debate[4][5] By 16,000 years ago
the glacial melt allowed people to move by land south and east of Beringia into Canada.[6]
The Queen Charlotte Islands, Old Crow Flats, and Bluefish Caves contain some of the
earliest Paleo-Indian archaeological sites in Canada.[7][8][9] Ice Age hunter-gatherers of
this period left lithic flake flute stone tools and the remains of large butchered mammals.

History of Canada

The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of Paleo-Indians thousands of
years ago to the present day. Canada has been inhabited for millennia by distinctive
groups of Aboriginal peoples, with distinct trade networks, spiritual beliefs, and styles of
social organization. Some of these civilizations had long faded by the time of the first
European arrivals and have been discovered through archaeological investigations.
Various treaties and laws have been enacted between European settlers and the Aboriginal
populations.

Beginning in the late 15th century, French and British expeditions explored, and later
settled, along the Atlantic Coast. France ceded nearly all of its colonies in North America
to Britain in 1763 after the Seven Years’ War. In 1857, with the union of three British North
American colonies through Confederation, Canada was formed as a federal dominion of
four provinces. This began an accretion of provinces and territories and a process of
increasing autonomy from the British Empire, which became official with the Statute of
Westminster of 1931 and completed in Canada Act of 1982, which severed the vestiges of
legal dependence on the British parliament.

Great Depression

Canada was hard hit by the worldwide Great Depression that began in 1929. Between 1929
and 1933, the gross national product dropped 40% (compared to 37% in the US).

Unemployment reached 27% at the depth of the Depression in 1933.[169] Many

businesses closed, as corporate profits of $369 million in 1933. Canadian exports shrank
by 50% from 1929 to 1933. Construction all but stopped (down 82%, 1929-33), and
wholesale prices dropped 30%. Wheat prices plunged from 78c per bushel (1928 crop) to
29c in 1932.[169]

Urban unemployment nationwide was 19%; Toronto’s rate was 17% according to the
census of 1931. Farmers who stayed on their farms were not considered unemployed.[170]
By 1933, 30% of the labour force was out of work, and one fifth of the population became
dependent of government assistance. Wages fell as did prices. Worst hit were areas
dependent on primary industries such as farming, mining and logging, as prices fell and
there were few alternative jobs. Most families had moderate losses and little hardship,
though they too became pessimistic and their debts become heavier as prices fell. Some
families saw most or all of their assets disappear, and suffered severely.[171][172]

In 1930, in the first stage of the long depression Prime Minister Mackenzie King believed
that the crisis was a temporary swing of the business cycle and that the economy would
soon recover without government intervention. He refused to provide unemployment relief
or federal aid to the provinces, saying that if Conservative provincial governments
demanded federal dollars, he would not give them “a five cent piece.” [173] His blunt
wisecrack was used to defeat the Liberals in the 1930 election. The main issue was the
rapid deterioration in the economy and whether the prime minster was out of touch with
the hardships of ordinary people.[174][175] The winner of the 1930 election was Richard
Bedford Bennet and the Conservatives. Bennet had promised high tariffs and large-scale
spending, but as deficits increased, he became wary and cut back severely on Federal
spending. With falling support and the depression getting only worse, Bennett attempted
to introduce policies based on the New Deal of President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) in the
United States, but he got little passed. Bennetts’s government became a focus of popular
discontent. For example, auto owners saved on gasoline by using horses to pull their cars,
dubbing them Bennett Buggies. The Conservative failure to restore prosperity led to the
return of Mackenzie King’s Liberals in the 1935 elections.[176]

In 1935, the Liberals used the slogan “King or Chaos” to win a landslide in the 1935
election.[177] Promising a much-desired trade treaty with the U.S., the Mackenzie King
government passed the 1935 Reciprocal Trade Agreement. It marked the turning point in
Canadian-American economic relations, reversing the disastrous trade war of 1930-31,
lowering tariffs, and yielding a dramatic increase in trade.[178]

The worst of the Depression has passed by 1935, as Ottawa launched relief programs such
as the National Housing act and National Employment Commission. The Canadian
Broadcasting Corporation became a crown corporation in 1936. Trans-Canada Airlines
(the precursor to Air Canada) was formed in 1937, as was the National Film Board of
Canada in 1939. In 1938, Parliament Transformed the Bank of Canada from a private entity
to a crown corporation.[179]

One political response was highly restrictive immigrations policy and a rise in
nativism.[180]

Times were especially hard in western Canada, where a full recovery did not occur until the
Second World War began in 1939. One response was the creation of new political parties
such as the Social Credit movement and the Cooperative Commonwealth Federation, as
well as popular protest in the form of the On-to-Ottawa Trek.[181]

Second World War

Canada’s involvement in the Second World War began when Canada declared war on Nazi
Germany on September 10,1939, delaying it once week after Britain acted to symbolically
demonstrate independence. The war restored Canada’s economic health and its self-
confidence, as it played a major role in the Atlantic and in Europe. During the war, Canada
became more closely linked to the U.S. The Americans took virtual control of Yukon in
order to build the Alaska Highway, and were a major presence in the British colony of
Newfoundland with major airbases.[182]
Mackenzie King — and Canada — were largely ignored by Winston Churchill and the British
government despite Canada’s major role in supplying food, raw materials, munitions and
money to the hard-pressed British economy, training airmen for the Commonwealth,
guarding the western half of the North Atlantic Ocean against German U-boats, and
providing combat troops for the invasions of Italy, France and Germany in 1943-45. The
government successfully mobilized the economy for war, with impressive results in
industrial and agricultural output. The depression ended, prosperity returned, and
Canada’s economy expanded significantly. On the political side, Mackenzie King rejected
any notion of a government of national unity. [183] The Canadian federal election, 1940
was held as normally scheduled, producing another majority for the Liberals.

Building up the Royal Canadian Air Force was a high priority; It was kept separate from
Britain’s Royal Air Force. The British Commonwealth Air Training Plan Agreement, signed in
December 1939, bound Canada, Britain, New Zealand, and Australia to a program that
eventually trained half the airmen from those four nations in the Second World War.[184]

After the start of war with Japan in December 1941, the government, in cooperation with
the U.S., began the Japanese-Canadian internment, which sent 22,000 British Columbia
residents of Japanese descent to relocation camps far from the coast. The reason was
intense public demand for removal and fears of espionage or sabotage.[185] The
government ignored reports from the RCMP and Canadian military that most of the
Japanese were law-abiding and not a threat.[186]

The Batlle of the Atlantic began immediately, and from 1943 to 1945 was ed by Leonard W.
Murray, from Nova Scotia. German U-boats operated in Canadian and Newfoundland
waters throughout the war, sinking many naval and merchant vessels, as Canada took
charge of the defenses of the western Atlantic. [187] The Canadian army was involved in
the failed defence of Hong Kong, the unsuccessful Dieppe Raid in August 1942, the Allied
invasion of Italy, and the highly successful invasion of France and the Netherlands in 1944-
45.[188]

The Conscription Crisis of 1944 greatly affected unity between French and English-
speaking Canadians, though was not as politically intrusive as that of the First World War.
[189] Of a population of approximately 11.5 million, 1.1 million Canadians served in the
armed forces in the Second World War. Many thousands more served with the Canadian
Merchant Navy.[190] In all, more than 45,000 died, and another 55,000 were wounded.

Post-war Era 1945-1960

Prosperity returned to Canada during the Second World war and continued in the
proceeding years, with the development of universal health care, old-age pensions, and
veterans’ pensions.[193][194] The financial crisis of the Great Depression had led the
Dominion of Newfoundland to relinquish responsible government in 1934 and become a
crown colony ruled by a British governor. [195] In 1948, the British government gave voters
three Newfoundland Referendum choices: remaining a crown colony, returning to
Dominion status (that is, independence), or joining Canada. Joining the United States was
not made an option. After bitter debate Newfoundlanders voted to join Canaa 1949 as a
province.[196]

The Avro Canada CF-105 Arrow (Recreation)

The foreign policy of Canada during the Cold War was closely tied to that of the United
States. Canada was a founding member of NATO (which Canada wanted to be a
transatlantic economic and political union as well [197]). In 1950, Canada sent combat
troops to Korea during the Korean War as part of the United Nations forces. The federal
government’s desire to assert its territorial claims in the Arctic during the Cold War
manifested with the High Arctic relocation, in which Inuit were moved from Nunavik (the
northern third of Quebec) to barren Cornwallis Island; [198] this project was later the
subject of a long investigation by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. [199]

In 1956, the United Nations responded to the Suez Crisis by convening a United Nations
Emergency Force to supervise the withdrawal of invading forces. The peacekeeping force
was initially conceptualized by Secretary of External Affairs and future Prime Minister
Lester B. Pearson. [200] Pearson was awarded the Nobel Peace Pearson.[200] Pearson
was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for his work in establishing the peacekeeping
operation. [200] Throughout the mid-19-50s, Louis St. Laurent (12th Prime Minister of
Canada) and his successor John Diefenbaker attempted to create a new, highly advanced
jet fighter, the Avro Arrow. [201] The controversial aircraft was cancelled by Diefenbaker in
1959. Diefenbaker instead purchased the BOMARCH missile defense system and
American aircraft. In 1958 Canada American Aerospace Defense Command
(NORAD).[202]

In 1604, a North American fur trade monopoly was granted to Pierre Du Gua, Sieur de
Mons. [49] The fur trade became one of the main economic ventures in North America.[50]
Du Gua led his first colonization expedition to an island located near the mouth of St. Croix
River. Among his lieutenants was a geographer named Samuel de Champlain, who
promptly carried out a major exploration of the northeastern coastline of what is now the
United States.[49] In the spring of 1605, under Sauel de Champlain, the new St. Croix
settlement was moved to Port Royal (today’s Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia). [51]

The Quebec Settlement: A. — The Warehouse B. —Pigeon-loft. C. —Detached Buildings

where we keep our arms and for Lodging our Workmen. D.—Another Detached Building for
the Workmen. E, —Sun-dial. F.—Another Detached Building where is the Smithy and where
the Workmen are Lodged. G. —Galleries all around the Lodgings. H. —The Sieur de
Champlain’s Lodgings. I. —The door of the Settlement with a Draw. -bridge. L Promenade
around the Settlement ten Feet in width to the edge of the Moat. M. -Moat the whole way
around the Settlement. O —The Sieur de Champlain’s Garden P. —The Kitchen. Q —Space
in front of the Settlement on the Shore of the River. R. —The great River St. Lawrence.

Music

The Aboriginal peoples of Canada encompass diverse ethnic groups with their individual
musical traditions. Music is usually social (public) or ceremonial (private). Public, social
music may be dance music accompanied by rattles and drums. Private, ceremonial music
includes vocal songs with accompaniment on percussion, used to mark occasions like
Midewivin ceremonies and Sun Dances.

Music

The Aboriginal peoples of Canada encompass diverse ethnic groups with their individual
musical traditions. Music is usually social (public) or ceremonial (private). Public, social
music may be dance music accompanied by rattles and drums. Private, ceremonial music
includes vocal songs with accompaniment on percussion, used to mark occasions like
Midewivin ceremonies and Sun Dances.
Traditionally, Aboriginal peoples used the materials at hand to make their instruments for
centuries before Europeans immigrated to Canada. [156] First Nations people made
gourds and animal horns into rattles, which were elaborately carved and brightly
painted.[157] In woodland areas, they made horns of birch bark and drumsticks of carved
antlers and wood. Traditional percussions instruments such as drums were generally
made of carved wood and animal hides. These musical instruments provide the
backgrounds for songs, and songs the background for dances. Traditional First Nations
people consider songs and dance to be sacred. For years After Europeans came to
Canada, First Nations people were forbidden to practice their ceremonies.[155][156]

Demographics and classification of Indigenous peoples

Cultural areas of North American Indigenous peoples at the time of European contact

There are three ( First Nations,[3] Inuit [4] and Métis[5] distinctive groups of North America
indigenous peoples recognized in the Canadian Constitution Act,1982, sections 25 and
35.[21] Under the Employment Equity Act, Aboriginal people are a designated group along
with women, visible minorities, and persons with disabilities.[158] They are not a visible
minority under the Employment Equity Act and in the view of Statistics Canada. [159]

The 2011 Canadian Census enumerated 1,400,685 Aboriginal people in Canada, 4.3% of
the country’s total population. [1] This total comprises 851,560 people of First Nations
descent, 451,795 Métis, and 59,445 Inuit. National representative bodies of Aboriginal
people in Canada include the Assemble of First Nations, the Inuit Tapirlit Kanatami, the
Métis National Council, the Native Women’s Association of Canada, the National
Association of Native Friendship Centres and the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples.[160]
Visual Art

Indigenous peoples were producing art for thousands of years before the arrival of
European settler colonists and the eventual establishment of Canada as a nation state.
Like the peoples who produced them, indigenous art traditions spanned territories across
North America. Indigenous art traditions are organized by art historians according to
cultural, linguistic or regional groups: Northwest Coast Plaeau, Plains, Eastern
Woodlands, Subarctic, and Arctic. [152]

Art traditions vary enormously amongst and within these diverse groups. Indigenous art
with a focus on portability and the body is distinguished from European traditions and its
focus on architecture. Indigenous visual art may be used conjunction with other arts.
Shamans’ masks and rattles are used ceremoniously in dance, storytelling and music.
[152] Artworks preserved in museum collections date from the period after European
contact and show evidence of the creative adoption and adaptation of European trade
goods such as metals and glass beads. [153] The distinct Métis cultures that have arisen
from inter-cultural relationships with Europeans contribute culturally hybrid art
forms.[154] During the 19th and the first half of the 20th century the Canadian government
pursued an active policy indigenous people. The Indian Act banned manifestations of the
Sun Dance, the Potlatch, and works of art of depicting them.[155]

It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that indigenous artists such as Mungo Martin, Bill Reid
and Norval Morrisseau began to publicly renew and re-invent indigenous art traditions.
Currently there are indigenous artists practising in all media in Canada and two indigenous
artists, Edward Poitras and Rebecca Belmore, have represented Canada at the Venice
Biennale in 1995 and 2005 respectively.[152]

Approximately 40,115 individuals of Aboriginal heritage could not be counted during the
2006 census. [161][162] This is due to the fact that certain Aboriginal reserves and
communities in Canada did not participate in the 2006 census, since enumeration of those
communities were not permitted. [161][163] In 2006, 22 Native communities were not
completely enumerated unlike in the year 2001, when 30 First Nation communities were
not enumerated and during 1996 when 77 Native communities could not be completely
enumerated. [161][163] Hence, there were probably 1,212,905 individuals of Aboriginal
ancestry (North American Indian, Métis and Inuit) residing in Canada during the time when
the 2006 census was conducted in Canada.

Indigenous people assert that their sovereign rights are valid, and points to the Royal
Proclamation of 1763, which is mentioned in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, Section
25, the British North America Acts and the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties
(to which Canada is signatory) in support of this claim. [164][165]

Province/ Number % Indian Métis Inuit Multiple Other

Territory (First Nation)

British 232,290 5.4% 155,015 69,475 1,570 2,480 3,745

Columbia
Alberta 220,695 6.2% 116,670 96,865 1,985 1,875 3,295
Saskwatch 157,740 15.6% 103,205 52,450 290 670 1,120
ewan
Manitoba 199,940 17.0% 130,075 78,835 580 1,205 1,055
Ontario 301,430 2.4% 201,100 86,015 3,360 2,910 8,045
Quebec 141,915 1.8% 82,425 40,960 12,570 1,550 4,410
New 22,620 3.1% 16,120 4,850 485 145 1,020
Brunswick
Nova 33,845 3.7% 21,895 10,050 695 225 980
Scotia
Prince 2,230 1.6% 1,520 410 55 0 235
Edward
Island
Newfoundl 35,800 7.1% 19,315 7,665 6,260 260 2,300
and and
Labrador
Yukon 7,710 23.1% 6,585 845 175 30 70
Northwest 21,160 51.9% 13,345 3,245 4,335 45 185
Territories
Nunavut 27,360 86.3% 130 135 27,070 15 15
Canada 1,400,685 4.3% 851,560 451,795 59,445 11,415 26,470

Languages

There are 13 Aboriginal language groups, 11 oral and 2 sign, in Canada, made up of more
than 65 distinct dialects.[148] Of these, only Cree Inuktitut and Ojibway have a large
enough population of fluent speakers to be considered viable to survive in the long term.
[149] Two of Canada’s territories give official status to native languages. In Nunavut,
Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun are official languages alongside the national languages of
English and French, and Inuktitut is a common vehicular language in territorial
government.[150] In the NWT, the Official Languages Act declares that there eleven
different languages: Chipewyan, Cree, English, French, Gwich’in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut,
Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey and Tłı̨chǫ.[151] Besides English and French,
these languages are not vehicular in government; official status entitles citizens to receive
services in them on request and to deal with government in them.[149]
Aboriginal language No. Of speakers Mother Tongue Home Language
Cree 99,950 78,855 47,190
Inuktitut 35,690 32,010 25,290
Ojibway 32,460 11,115 11,115
Montagnais- 11,815 10,970 9,720
Naskapi(Innu)
Dene 11,130 9,750 7,490
Oji-Cree 12,605 8,480 8,480
Mi’kmaq 8,750 7,365 3,958
Siouan languages 6,495 5,585 3,780
(Dakota/Siuox)
Atikamekw 5,645 5,245 4,745
Blackfoot 4,915 3,085 3,085

Aboriginal cultural areas depend upon their ancestors' primary lifeway, occupation, at the
time of European contact. These culture areas correspond closely with physical and
ecological regions of Canada. [143] The indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast
were centered around ocean and river fishing; in the interior of British Columbia, hunter-
gatherer and river fishing. In both of these areas the salmon was of chief importance. For
the people of the plains bison hunting was the primary activity. In the subarctic forest,
other species such as the moose were more important. For peoples near the Great Lakes
and Saint Lawrence River, shifting agriculture was practised, including the raising of maize,
beans, and squash.[16][143] While for the Inuit, hunting was the primary food with seals
the primary component of their diet.[144] The caribou, fish other marine mammals and to a
lesser extent plants, berries and seaweed arte part of the Inuit diet. One of the most
noticeable symbols of Inuit culture, the inukshuk is the emblem of the Vancouver 2010
Winter Olympics. Inuksuit are rock sculptures made by stacking stones; in the shape of a
human figure, they are called inunnguaq.[145]

Culture of Indigenous peoples

Through storytelling and other interactive learning styles, countless North American
Indigenous words, inventions and games have become an everyday part of Canadian
language and use. Thanks to groups such as the Aboriginal Language and Culture (AC)
teachers of British Columbia, these practices continue to be passed down to each
generation. The conoe, snowshoes, the toboggan, lacrosse, tug of war, maple syrup and
tobacco are just a few of the products, inventions and games. [138] Some of the words
include the barbecue, caribou, chipmunk, woodchuck, hammock, skunk, and moose.[139]
Many places in Canada, both natural features and human habitations, use indigenous
names. The word “Canada” itself derives from the St. Lawrence Iroquoian word meaning
“village” or “settlement”.[140] The province of Saskatchewan River, which in the Cree
language is called “Kisiskatchewani Sipi”, meaning “swift-flowing river”.[141] Canada’s
capital city of Ottawa comes from the Algonquin language term “adawe” meaning “to
trade”. [141] Modern youth groups such as Scouts Canada and the Girl Guides of Canada
include programs based largely on Indigenous lore, arts and crafts, character building and
outdoor camp craft and living.[142]

Indian reserves, established in Canadian law by treaties such as Treaty 7, are lands of First
Nations recognized by non-indigenous governments.[146] Some reserves are within cities,
such as the Opawikoschikan Reserve in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Wendake in Quebec
City or Stony Plain 135 in the Edmonton Capital Region. There are more reserves in Canada
than there are First Nations, which were ceded multiple reserves by treaty. [147] Aboriginal
people currently work in a variety of occupations and may live outside their ancestral
homes. The traditional cultures of their ancestors, shaped by nature, still exert a strong
influence on them, from spirituality to political attitudes. [16][143] National Aboriginal Day
is a day of recognition of the cultures and contributions of the First Nations, Inuit and Métis
people of Canada. The day was first celebrated in 1996, after it was proclaimed that year,
by the Governor General of Canada Roméo LeBlanc, to be celebrated on June 21 annually.
[17] Most provincial jurisdictions do not recognize it as a statutory holiday.[17]

Royal Commission

The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples was a Royal Commision undertaken by the
Government of Canada in 1991 to address issues of the Aboriginal peoples of Canada.
[128] Itt assessed past government policies toward Aboriginal people, such as residential
schools, and provided policy recommendations to the government. [129] The Commission
issued its final report in November 1996. The five-volume, 4,000-page report covered a vast
rave of issues; its 440 recommendations called for sweeping changes to the interaction
between Aboriginal, non-Aboriginal people and the governments in Canada. [128] The
report “set out a 20-year agenda for change.” [130]

Political organization

First Nations and Inuit organizations ranged in size from band societies of a few people to
multi-nation confederacies like the Iroquois. First Nations leaders from across the country
formed the Assembly of First Nations, which began as the National Indian Brotherhood in
1968. [136] The Métis and the Inuit are represented nationally by the Métis National
Council and Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami respectively.

Today’s political organizations have resulted from interaction with European-style

methods of government through the Federal Interlocutor for Métis and Non-Status Indians.
Aboriginal political organizations throughout Canada vary in political standing, viewpoints,
and reasons for forming.[137] First Nations, Métis and Inuit negotiate with the Canadian
Government through Indian and Northern Affairs Canada in all affairs concerning land,
entitlement and rights.[136] The First Nation groups that operate independently do not
belong to these groups.[136]

Health Policy

In 1995, the federal government announced the Aboriginal Right to Self-Government

Policy. [131] This policy recognizes that First Nations and Inuit have the constitutional right
to shape their own forms of government to suit their particular historical, cultural, political
and economic circumstances. The Indian Health Transfer Policy provided a framework for
the assumption of control of health services by Aboriginal peoples, and set forth a
developmental approach to transfer centered on self-determination in health. [132][133]
Through this process, the decision to enter transfer discussions with Health Canada rests
with each community. Once involved in transfer, communities can take control of health
programme responsibilities at a pace determined by their individual circumstances and
health management capabilities.[134] The National Aboriginal Health Organization (NAHO)
incorporated in 2000, is an Aboriginal-designed-and-controlled not-for-profit body in
Canada that works to influence and advance the health and well-being of Aboriginal
Peoples.[135]

Those people accepted into band membership under band rules may not be status
Indians. C-31 clarified that various sections of the Indian Act would apply to band
members. The sections under debate concern community life and land holdings. Sections
pertaining to Indians (First Nations peoples) as individuals (in this case, wills and taxation
of personal property) were not included.[127]

Indian Act
The Indian Act is federal legislation that dates from 1876. There have been oer 20 major
changes made to the original Act since then, the last time being in 1951; amended in 1985
with Bill C-31. The Indian Act indicates how Reserves and Bands can operate and defines
who is recognized as in “Indian”.[126]

In 1985, the Canadian Parliament passed Bill C-31, “An Act to Amend the Indian Act”.
Because of Constitutional requirement, the Bill took effect on April 17,1985.[127]

• It ends discriminatory provisions of the Indian Act, especially those that

discriminated against women.[127]
• It changes the meaning of “status” and for the first time allows for limited
reinstatement of Indians who were denied or lost status and/or Band
membership.[127]
• It allows bands to define their own membership rules.[127]

According to the First Nations-Federal Crown Political Accord “cooperation will be

cornerstone for partnership between Canada and First Nations, wherein Canada is the
short form of reference to Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada.[122] The Supreme
Court argued that treaties “served to reconcile pre-existing Aboriginal sovereignty with
assumed Crown sovereignty, and to define Aboriginal rights.” [122] First Nations people
interpreted agreements covered in treaty 8 to last “as long as the sun shines, grass grows
and rivers flow.” [125]

Political, law and legislation

Treaties

The Canadian Crown and Aboriginal peoples began interactions during the European
colonialization period. Numbered treaties, the Indian Act, the Constitution Act of 1982 and
case laws were established. Aboriginal peoples construe these agreements as being
between them and the Crown of Canada through the districts Indian Agents, and not the
Cabinet of Canada.[122] The most Māori interprets the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand
similarly.[123] A series of eleven treaties were signed between First Nations in Canada and
the reigning Monarch of Canada from 1871 to 1921. The Government of Canada created
the policy, commissioned the Treaty Commissioners and ratified the agreements. These
Treaties are agreements with the Government of Canada administered by Canadian
Aboriginal law and overseen by the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern
Development.[124]

Because of law and policies that encouraged or required indigenous peoples to assimilate
into Eurocentric society, Canada violated the Unite Nations Genocide Convention that
Canada signed in 1949 and passed through Parliament in 1952.[119] The residential school
system that removed Aboriginal children from their homes has led scholars to believe that
Canada can be tried in international court genocide.[119] A legal case resulted in
settlement of 2 billion C$ in 2006 and the establishment of a Truth and Reconciliation
Commissoin which confirmed the injurious effect on children of this system and turmoil
created between Aboriginal Canadians and Canadian Society.[120] In 2008 Prime Minister
Stephen Harper issued an apology in behalf of the Canadian government and its citizens
for the residential school system.[121]

Of all the initiatives that were undertaken in the first century of Confederation, none was
more ambitious or central to the civilizing strategy of the Department, to its goal of
assimilation, than the residential school system... it was the residential school experience
that would lead children most effectively out of their “savage” communities into “higher
civilization” and “full citizenship.” [116]

Beginning in 1847 and lasting until 1996, the Canadian government, in partnership with the
Catholic Church, ran 130 residential boarding schools across Canada for Aboriginal
children, who were forcibly taken from their homes. [117] While the schools were said to
educate, they were plagued by under-funding, disease, and abuse. [118]

Forced Assimilation

From the late 18th century, European Canadians (and the Canadian government)
encouraged assimilation of Aboriginal culture into what was referred to as “ Canadian
culture.” [109][110] These attempts reached a climax in the late 19 th and early 20th
centuries, with series of initiatives that aimed at complete assimilation and subjugation of
the Aboriginal peoples. These policies, which were made possible by legislation such as
the Gradual Civilization Act [111] and the Indian Act,[112] focused on European ideals of
Christianity, sedentary living, agriculture, and education.

The attempt at Christianization of the Aboriginal people of Canada had been ongoing since
the first missionaries arrived in the 1600s, however it became more systematic with the
Indian Act in 1876, which would bring new sanctions for those who did not convert to
Christianity. For example, the new laws would prevent non-Christian Aboriginal people
from testifying or having their cases heard in court and ban alcohol consumption.[113]
When the Indian act was amended in 1884, traditional religious and social practices, such
as the Potlatch, would be banned, and further amendments in 1920 would prevent “status
Indians” (as defined in the Act) from wearing traditional dress or performing traditional
dances in an attempt to stop all non-Christian practices. [113]

Another focus of the Canadian government was to make the Aboriginal groups of Canada
sedentary, as they thought that this would make them easier to assimilate. In the 19th
century, the government began to support the creation of model farming villages, which
were meant to encourage non-sedentary Aboriginal groups to settle in an area and begin to
cultivate agriculture. [114] When most of these model farming villages failed,[114] the
government turned instead to the creation of Indian reserves with the Indian Act of 1876.
[112] With the creation of these reserves came many restricting laws, such as further bans
on all intoxicants, restrictions on eligibility to vote in band elections, decreased hunting
and fishing areas, and inability for status Indians to visit other groups on their
reservations.[112]

Through the Gradual Civilization Act in 1857, the government would encourage Indians
(i.e., First Nations) to enfranchise – to remove all legal distinctions between [Indians] and
Her Majesty’s other Canadian Subjects. [111] If an Aboriginal chose to enfranchise, it
would strip them and their family of Aboriginal title, with the idea that they would become
“less savage” and “more civilize”, thus become assimilated into Canadian society. [115]
However, they were often still defined as non-citizens by Europeans, and those few who
did enfranchise were often met with disappointment. [115]

Canada under British Rule (1763-1867)

Map showing British territorial gains following the “Seven Years’ War”. Treaty of Paris gains
in pink, and Spanish territorial gains after the Treaty of Fontainebleau in yellow.

With the end of the Seven Years’ War and the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1763), France
ceded almost all of its remaining territory in mainland North America, except for fishing
rights of Newfoundland and the two small islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon where its
fishermen could dry their fish. France had already secretly ceded its vast Louisiana
territory to Spain under the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762) in which King Louis XV of France
had given his cousin King Charles III of Spain the entire area of the drainage basin of the
Mississippi River from the Great Lakes to Gulf of Mexico and from the Appalachian.
Canada under British rule (1763-1867)

Map showing British territorial gains following the “Seven Years’ War”. Treaty of Paris gains
in pink, and Spanish territorial gains after the Treaty of Fontainebleau in yellow.

The new British rulers of Canada retained and protected most of the property, religious,
political, and social culture of the Frenc-speaking habitants, guaranteeing the right of the
Canadiens to practice the Catholic faith and to the use of French civil law (now Quebec
law) through the Quebec Act of 1774.[95] The Royal Proclamation of 1763 had been issued
in October, by King George III following Great Britain’s acquisition of French territory.[96]
The proclamation organized Great Britain’s new North American empire and stabilized
relations between the British Crown and Aboriginal peoples through regulation of trade,
settlement and land purchases on the western frontier.[96]

With the end of the Severn Years’ War and the signing of the Treaty of Paris (1763), France
ceded almost all of its remaining territory in mainland North America, except for fishing
rights off Newfoundland and the two small islands of Saint Pierre and Miquelon where its
fishermen could dry their fish. France had already secretly ceded its vast Louisiana
Territory to Spain under the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762) in which King Louis XV of France
had given his cousin King Charles III of Spain the entire area of the drainage basic of the
Mississippi River from the Great Lakes to the Gulf of Mexico and from the Appalachian
Mountains to the Rocky Mountains. France and Spain kept the Treaty of Fontainebleau
secret from other countries until 1764.[93] in return for acquiring Canada, Britain returned
to France its most important sugar-producing colony, Guadeloupe, which the French at
the time considered more valuable than Canada. (Guadeloupe produced more sugar than
all the British island combined, and Voltaire had notoriously dismissed Canada as
“Quelques arpents de neige”, “A few acres of snow’). [94]

When the British evacuated New York City in 1783, they took many Loyalist refugees to
Nova Scotia, while other Loyalist went to southwestern Quebec. So may Loyalists arrived
on the shores of the St. John River that a separate colony—New Brunswick—was created in
1784;[100] followed in 1791 by the division of Quebec into the largely French-speaking
Lower Canada (French Canada) along the St. Lawrence River and Gaspé Peninsula and an
anglophone Loyalist Upper Canada, with its capital settled by 1790 most of the new
settlers were American farmers searching for new lands; although generally favorable to
republicanism, they were relatively non-political and stayed neutral in the War of
1812.[102]

American Revolution and the Loyalists

During the America Revolution, there was some sympathy for the American cause among
the Acadians and the New Englanders in Nova Scotia. [97] Neither party joined the rebels,
although several hundred individuals joined the revolutionary cause.[97][98] An invasion of
Quebec by the Continental Army in 1775, with a goal to take Quebec from British control,
was halted at the Battle of Quebec by Guy Carleton, with the assistance of local militias,
The defeat of the British army during the Siege of Yorktown in October 1781 signaled the
end of Britain’s struggle to suppress the American Revolution.[99]

War of 1812

The War of 1812 was fought between the United States and the British, with the British
North American colonies being heavily involved. [106] Greatly outgunned by the British
Royal Navy, the American war plans focused on an invasion of Canada (especially what is
today eastern and western Ontario). The American frontier states voted for war to suppress
the First Nations raids that frustrated settlement of the frontier. [106] The war on the
border with the United States was characterize by a series of multiple failed invasions and
fiascos on both sides. American forces took control of Lake Erie in 1813, driving the British
out of western Ontario, killing the Native American leaders Tecumseh, and breaking the
military power of his confederacy. [107] The war was overseen by British army officers like
Isaac Brock and Charles de Salaberry with the assistance of First Nations and loyalist
informants, most notably Laura Secord. [108]
Lower emphasizes the positive benefits of the Revolution for Americans, making them an
energetic people, while for English Canada the results were negative:

[English Canada] inherited, not the benefits, but the bitterness of the Revolution. It got no
shining scriptures out of it. It got little release of energy and no new horizons of the spirit
were opened up. It had been calamity, pure and simple. [105] To take the place of the
internal fire that was urging Americans westward across the continent, there was only
melancholy contemplation of things as they might have been and dingy reflection of that
ineffably glorious world across the stormy Atlantic. English Canada started its life with as
powerful as nostalgic shove backward into the past as the Conquest had given to French
Canada: two little peoples officially devoted to counter-revolution, to lost causes, to the
tawdry ideals of a society of men and masters, and not to the self-reliant freedom
alongside of them.[105]

The signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 formally ended the war. Britain made several
concessions to the Americans at the expense of the North American colonies. [103]
Notably, borders between Canada and the United States were officially demarcated;[103]
all land south of the Great Lakes, which was formerly a part of the Province of Quebec and
included modern day Michigan, Illinois and Ohio, was ceded to the Americans. Fishing
rights were also granted to the United States in the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the coast of
Newfoundland and the Grand Banks. [103] The British ignored part of the treaty and
maintained their military outposts in the Great Lakes areas it had ceded to the U.S., and
they continued to supply their native allies with munitions. The British evacuated the
outposts with the Jay Treaty of 1795, but the continued supply of munitions irritated the
Americans in the run-up to the War of 1812.[104]

Rebellions and the Durham Report

The rebellions of 1837 against the British colonial government took place in both Upper
and Lower Canada. In Upper Canada, a band of Reformers under the leadership of
Williamm Lyon Mackenzie took up arms in a disorganized and ultimately unsuccessful
series of small-scale skirmishes around Toronto, London, and Hamilton. [110]

In Lower Canada, a more substantial rebellion occurred against British rule. Both English-
and French- Canadian rebels, sometimes using bases in the neutral United States, fought
several skirmishes against the authorities. The towns of Chambly and Sorel were taken by
the rebels, and Quebec City was isolated from the rest of the colony. Montreal rebel leader
Robert Nelson read the “Declaration of Independence of Lower Canada” to a crowd
assembled at the town of Napierville in 1838. [111] The rebellion of the Patriote movement
was defeated after battles across Quebec. Hundreds were arrested, and several villages
were burnt in reprisal. [111]

The War ended with no boundary changes thanks to the Treaty of Ghent of 1814, and the
Rush-Bagot Treaty of 1817.[106] A demographic results was the shifting of the destination
of American migration from Upper Canada to Ohio, Indiana and Michigan, without fear of
Indian attacks. [106] After the war supporters of Britain tried to repress the republicanism
that was common among American immigrants to Canada. [106] The troubling memory of
the war and the American invasions etched itself into the consciousness of Canadiands as
distrust of the intentions of the United States towards the British presence in North
America. [109] pp. 254-255

British Government then sent Lord Durham to examine the situation; he stayed in Canada
only five months before returning to Britain and brought with him his Durham Report, which
strongly recommended responsible government. [112] A less well-received
recommendation was the amalgamation of Upper and Lower Canada for the deliberate
assimilation of the French-speaking population. The Canadas were merged into a single
colony, the United Province of Canada, by the 1840 Act of Union, and responsible
government was achieved in 1848, a few months after it was accomplished in Nova Scotia.
[112] The parliament of United Canda in Montreal was set on fire by a mob of Tories in 1849
after the passing of an indemnity bill for the people who suffered losses during the
rebellion in Lower Canada. [113]

Between the Napoleonic Wars and 1850, some 800,000 immigrants came to the colonies
of British North America, mainly from the British Isles, as part of the great migration of
Canada. [114] These included Gaelic-speaking Highland Scots displaced by the Highland
Clearances to Nova Scotia and Scottish and English settlers to the Canadas, particularly
Upper Canada. The Irish Famine of the 1840s significantly increased the pace of Irish
Catholic immigration to British North America, with over 35,000 distressed Irish landing in
Toronto alone in 1847 and 1848.[115]

Spanish explorers had taken the lead in Pacific Northwest coast, with the voyages of Juan
José and Pérez Hernández in 1774 and 1775. [116] By the time the Spanish determined to
build a fort on Vancouver Island, the British navigator James Cook had visited Nootka
Sound and charted the coast as far as Alaska, while British and American maritime fur
traders had begun a busy era of commerce with the coastal peoples to satisfy the brisk
market for sea otter pelts in China Trade. [117] In 1789 war threated between Britain and
Spain on their respective rights; the Nootka Crisis was resolved peacefully largely in favor
of Britain, the much stronger naval power. In 1793 Alexander MacKenzie, a Canadian
working for the North West Company, crossed the continent and with his Aboriginal guides
and French-Canadian crew reached the mouth of the Bella Coola River, completing the
first continental crossing north of Mexico, missing George Vancouver’s charting expedition
to the region by only a few weeks. [118] In 1821, the North West Company and Hudson’s
Bay Company merged, with a combined trading territory that was extended by a licence to
the North-Western Territory and the Columbia and New Caledonia fur districts, which
reached the Arctic Ocean on the north and the Pacific Ocean on the west. [119]

Confederation

The Seventy-Two Resolutions from the 1864 Quebec Conference and Charlottetown
Conference laid out the framework for uniting British colonies in North America into a
federation. [121] They had been adopted by the majority of the provinces of Canada and
became the basis for the London Conference of 1866, which led to the formation of the
Dominion of Canada on July 1, 1867. [121] The term dominion was chosen to indicate
Canada’s status of a self-governing colony of the British Empire, the first time it was used
about a country. [122] With the coming into force of the British North America Act (enacted
by the British Parliament), the Province of Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia
became a federated kingdom in its own right. [123][123][125]

The Colony of Vancouver Island was chartered in 1849, with the trading post of Fort
Victoria as the capital. This was followed by the Colony of the Queen Charlotte Islands in
1853, and by the creation of the Colony of British Columbia in 1858 and the Stikine Territory
in 1861, with the latter three being founded expressly to keep those regions from being
overrun and annexed by American gold miners. [120] The Colony of the Queen Charlotte
Islands and most of the Stikine Territory were merged into the Colony of British Columbia in
1863 (the remainder, north of the 60th Parallel, became part of the North-Western
Territory). [120]

Post-Confederation Canada 1867-1914

 The Battle of Fish Creek, fought April 24, 1885, at Fish Creek, Saskatchewan, was a major
Métis victory over the Dominion of Canada forces attempting to quell Louis Riel’s North-
West Rebellion.

Expansion

Using the lure of the Canadian Pacific Railway, a transcontinental line that would unite the
nation Ottawa attracted support in the Maritimes and in British Columbia and the Colony
of British Columbia; it joined the Canadian Confederation in 1871, In 1873, Prince Edward
Island joined. Newfoundland—which had no use for a transcontinental railway—voted no
in 1869, and did not join Canada until 1949.[127]

Federation emerged from multiple impulses: the British wanted Canada to defend itself;
the Maritimes needed railroad connections, which were promised in 1867; British-
Canadian nationalism sought to unite the lands into one country, dominated by the English
language and British culture; many French-Canadians saw an opportunity to exert political
control within a new largely French-speaking Quebec [109] pp. 323-324 and fears of
possible U.S. expansion northward. [122] On a political level, there was a desire for the
expansion of responsible government and elimination of the legislative deadlock between
Upper and Lower Canada, and their replacement with provincial legislatures in a
federation.[122] This was especially pushed by the liberal Reform movement of Upper
Canada and the French-Canadian Parti rouge in Lower Canada who favored a
decentralized union in comparison to the Upper Canadian Conservative party and to some
degree the French-Canadian Parti bleu, which favored a centralize union.[122][126]

In 1905 when Saskatchewan and Alberta were admitted as provinces, they were growing
rapidly thanks to abundance wheat crops that attracted immigration to the plains by
Ukrainians and Northern and Central Europeans and by settlers from the United States,
Britain and eastern Canada. [132][133]

A photochrome postcard showing downtown Montreal, circa 1910. Canada’s population

became urbanized during the 20th century.

The Alaska boundary dispute, simmering since the Alaska purchase of 1867, became
critical when the gold was discovered in the Yukon during the late 1890s, with the U.S.
controlling all possible ports of entry. Canada argued its boundary included the port of
Skagway. The dispute went to arbitration in1903, but the British delegate sided with the
Americans, angering Canadians who felt the British had betrayed Canadian interests to
curry favour with the U.S. [134]

In the 1890s, legal experts codified a framework of criminal law, culminating in the
Criminal Code, 1892. [135] This solidified the liberal ideal of “equality before the law” in a
way that made an abstract principle into a tangible reality for every adult Canadian. [136]
Wilfrid Laurier who served 1896-1911 as the Seventh Prime Minister of Canada felt Canada
was on the verge of becoming a world power, and declared that the 20 th century would
“belong to Canada” [137]
Laurier signed a reciprocity treaty with the U.S. that would lower tariffs in both directions.
Conservatives under Robert Borden denounced it, saying it would integrate Canada’s
economy into that of the U.S. and loosen ties with Britain. The Conservative party won the
Canadian federal election, 1911.[38]

In 1873 John A. Macdonald (First Prime Minister of Canada) created the North-West
Mounted Police (now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) to help police the Northwest
Territories. [128] Specifically the Mounties were to assert Canadian sovereignty ovoer
possible American encroachments into the sparsely populated land. [128]

The Mounties’ first large-scale mission was to suppress the second independence
movement by the Manitoba’s Métis, a mixed blood people of joint First Nations and
European descent, who originated in the mid-17th century. [129] The desire for
independence erupted in the Red River Rebellion in 1869 and the later North-West
Rebellion in 1885 led by Louis Riel. [128][130] Suppressing the Rebellion was Canada’s
first independent military action. It cost about $5 million and demonstrated the need to
complete the Candian Pacific Railway. It guaranteed Anglophone control of the Prairies,
and demonstrated the national government was capable of decisive action. However, it
lost the Conservative Party most of their support in Quebec and led to permanent distrust
of the Anglophone community on the part of Francophones.[131]

Popular culture

In Canada, leisure in the country is related to the decline in work hours and is shaped by
moral values, and the ethnic-religious and gender communities. In a cold country with
winter’s long nights, and summer’s extended daylight, favorite leisure activities include
horse racing, team sports such as hockey, singalongs, Rollerskating and board games.
[139][140][141] The churches tried to steer leisure activities, by preaching against drinking
and scheduling annual revivals and weekly club activities.[142] By 1930 radio played a
major role in uniting Canadians behind their local or regional hockey teams. Play-by-play
sports coverage, especially of ice hockey, absorbed fans far more intensely than
newspaper accounts the next day. Rural areas were especially influenced by sports
coverage. [143] Canadians in the 19th century came to believe themselves possessed of a
unique “northern character,” due to the long, harsh winters that only those of hardy body
and mind could survive. This hardiness was claimed as a Canadian trait, and such sports
as ice hockey and snowshoeing that reflected this were asserted as characteristically
Canadian. [144] Outside the sports arena Canadians express the national characteristics
of being peaceful, orderly and polite. Inside they scream their lungs out at the ice hockey
games, cheering the speed, ferocity, and violence, making hockey an ambiguous symbol of
Canada. [145]
Support for Great Britain during the First World War caused a major political crisis over
conscription, with Francophones, mainly from Quebec, rejective national policies. [149]
During the crisis, large numbers of enemy aliens (especially Ukrainians and Germans) were
put under government controls. [150] The Liberal party was deeply split, with most of its
Anglophone leaders joining the unionist government headed by Prime Minister Robert
Borden, the leaders of the Conservative party. [151] The Liberals regained their influence
after the war under the leadership of William Lyon Mackenzie King, who served as prime
minister with three separate terms between 1921 and 1949.[152]

World wars and interwar years 1914-1945

First World War

The Canadian Forces and civilian participation in the First World War helped to foster a
sense of British-Canadian nationhood. The highpoints of Canadian military achievement
during the First Word War came during the Somme, Vimy, Passchendaele battles and what
later became known as “Canada’s Hundred Days”. [146] The reputation Canadian flying
aces including WIlliam George Barker and Billy Bishop, helped to give the nation a new
sense of identity. [147] The War office in 1922 reported approximately 67,000 killed ad
173,000 wounded during the war. [148] This excludes civilian deaths in war time incidents
like the Halifax Explosion. [148]

Woman suffrage

Women’s political status without the vote was vigorously promoted by the National
Council of Women of Canada from 1894 to 1918. It promoted a vision of “transcendent
citizenship for women. The ballot was not needed, for citizenship was to be exercised
through personal influence and moral suasion, through the election of men with strong
moral character, and through raising public-spirited sons. [153] The National Council
position reflected its nation-building program that sought to uphold Canada as a White
settler nation. While the woman suffrage movement was important for extending the
political rights of White women, it was also authorized through race-based arguments that
linked White women’s enfranchisement to the need to protect the nation from “racial
degeneration.” [153]
Women did have a local vote in some provinces as in Canada West from 1850, where
women owning land could vote for school trustees. By 1900 other provinces adopted
similar provisions, and in 1916 Manitoba took the lead in extending full woman’s suffrage.
[154] Simultaneously suffragists gave strong support to the prohibition movement,
especially in Ontario and Western provinces. [155][156]

Women did have a local vote in some provinces, as in Canada West from 1850, where
women owning land could vote for school trustees. By the 1900 other provinces adopted
similar provisions, and in 1916 Manitoba took the lead in extending full woman’s suffrage.
[154] Simultaneously suffragists gave strong support to the prohibition movement,
especially in Ontario and the Western provinces. [155][156]

The Military Voters Act of 1917 gave the vote to British women who were war widows or had
sons or husbands serving overseas. Unionists Prime Minister Borden pledged himself
during the 1917 campaign to equal suffrage for women. After his landslide victory, he
introduced a bill in 1918 for extending the franchise to women. This passed without
division, but did not apply to Quebec provincial and municipal elections. The women of
Quebec gained full suffrage in 1940. The first woman elected to Parliament was Agnes
Macphail Ontario in 1921. [157]

Anachronous map of the world between 1920 and 1945 which shows The League of
Nations and the world.
On the world stage

As a result of its contribution to Allied victory in the First World War, Canada became more
assertive and less deferential to British authority. Convinced that Canada had proven itself
on the battlefields of Europe, Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden demanded that it have a
separate seat at the Paris Peace Conference in 1919. This was initially opposed not only by
Britain but also by the United States, which saw such a delegation as an extra British vote.
Borden responded by pointing out that since Canada had lost nearly 60,000 men, a far
larger proportion of its men, its right to equal status as a nation had been consecrated on
the battlefield. British Prime Minster David Lloyd George eventually relented, and
convinced the reluctant Americans to accept the presence of delegations from Canada,
India, Australia, Newfoundland, New Zealand, and South Africa. These also received their
own seats in the League of Nations. [158] Canada asked for neither reparations nor
mandates. It played only modest role at Paris, but just having a seat was a matter of pride.
It was cautiously optimistic about the new League of Nations, in which it played an active
and independent role. [159]

In 1923 British Prime Minister, David Lloyd George, appealed repeatedly for Canadian
support in the Chanak Crisis, in which a war threatened between Britain and Turkey.
Canada refused. [160] The Department of External Affairs, which had been founded in
1909, was expanded and promoted Canadian autonomy as Canada reduced its reliance on
British diplomats as Norman Robertson and Hume Wrong, and future prime minster ester
Pearson. [162]

In 1931 the British Parliament passed the Statue of Westminster which gave each
dominion the opportunity for almost complete legislative independence from London.
[163] While Newfoundland never adopted the statute, for Canada the Statute of
Westminster became its declaration of independence. [164]

In 1926 Prime Minster Mackenzie King advised the Governor General, Lord Byng, to
dissolve Parliament and call another election, but Byng refused, the only time that the
Governor General has exercised such a power. Instead, Byng called upon Meighen, the
Conservative Party leader, to form a government. [167] Meighen attempted to do so, but
was unable to obtain a majority in the Commons and he, too, advised dissolution, which
this time was accepted. The episode, the King-Byng Affair, marks a constitutional crisis
that was resolved by a new tradition of complete non-interference in Canadian political
affairs on the part of the British government.[168]

H America, New France and colonization 1534-1763

Replica of Port Royal habitation, located at the Port-Royal National Historic Site of Canada,
Nova Scotia.[44]

French interest in the New World began with Francis I of France, who in 1524 sponsored
Giovanni da Verrazzano to navigate the region between Florida and Newfoundland in
hopes of finding a route to the Pacific Ocean. [45] In 1534, Jacques Cartier planted a cross
in the Gaspé Peninsula and claimed the land in the name of Francis I. [46] Earlier the
colonization attempts by Cartier at Charlesbourg-Royal in 1541, at Sable Island in 1598 by
Marquis de La Roche-Mesgouez, and at Tadoussac, Quebec in 1600 by François Gravé Du
Pont had failed. [47] Despite these initial failures, French fishing fleets began to sail to the
Atlantic coast and into alliances with First Nations. [48]

Domestic affairs

In 1921 to 1926, William Lyon Mackenzie King’s Liberal government pursued a conservative
domestic policy with the object of lowering wartime taxes and, especially, cooling wartime
ethnic tensions, as well as defusing postwar labour conflicts. The Progressives refused to
join the government, but did help the Liberals defeat non-confidence motions. King faced a
delicate balancing act of reducing tariffs enough to please the Prairie-based Progressives,
but not too much to alienate his vital support in industrial Ontario and Quebec, which
needed tariffs to compete with American imports. King and Conservative leader Arthur
Meighen sparred constantly and bitterly in Commons debates. [165] The Progressives
gradually weakened. Their effective and passionate leader, Thomas Crerar, resigned to
return to his grain business, and was replaced by the more placid Robert Forke. The
socialist reformer J.S. Woodsworth gradually gained influence and power among the
Progressives, and he reached an accommodation with King on policy matters.

Champlain’s Quebec City habitation c. 1608

In 1608 Champlain founded what is now Quebec City, one of the earliest permanent
settlements, which would become the capital of New France. [52] He took personal
administration over the city and its affairs, and sent out expeditions to explore the interior.
[53] Champlain himself discovered Lake Champlain in 1609. By 1615, he had travelled by
canoe up the Ottawa River through Lake Nipissing and Georgian bay to the centre of Huron
country Near Lake Simcoe.[54] During these voyages, Champlain aided the Wendat (aka
‘Hurons’) in their battles against the Iroquois Confederacy. [55] As a result, the Iroquois
would become enemies of the French and be involved in multiple conflicts (known as the
French and Iroquois Wars) until the signing of the Great Peace of Montreal in 1701. [56]

The English, led by Humphrey Gilbert, had claimed St. John’s Newfoundland, in 1583 as
the first North American English colony by royal prerogative of Queen Elizabeth I. [57] In the
reign of King James I, the English established additional colonies in Cupids and Ferryland,
Newfoundland, and soon after established the first successful permanent settlements of
Virginia to the south.[58] On September 29, 1621, a charter for the foundation of a New
World Scottish colony was granted by King James to Sir William Alexander.[59] In 1622, the
first settlers left Scotland. They initially failed and permanent Nova Scotian settlements
were not firmly established until 1629 during the end of the Anglo-French War.[59] These
colonies did not last long: in 1631, under Charles I of England, the Treaty of Suza was
signed, ending the war and returning Nova Scotia to the French. [60] New France was not
fully restored to French rule until the 1632 Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye.[61] This led to
new French immigrants and the founding of Trois-Rivières in 1634.[62]
In 1604, a North American fur trade monopoly was granted to Pierre Du Gua, Sieur de
Mons.[49] The fur trade became one of the main economic ventures in North America.[50]
Du Gua led his first colonization expedition to an island located near the mouth of St. Croix
River. Among his lieutenants was a geographer named Samuel de Champlain, who
promptly carried out a major exploration of the northeastern coastline of what is now the
United States.[49] In the spring of 1605, under Samuel de Champlain, the new St. Croix
settlement was moved to Port Royal (today’s Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia). [51]

The Quebec Settlement: A.—The Warehouse. B.—Pigeon-loft. C. —Detached Buildings

where we keep our arms and for Lodging our Workmen. D. —Another Detached Building for
Workmen. E. —Sun-dial. F. —Another Detached Building where is the Smithy and where
the Workmen are Lodged. G. —Galleries all around the Lodgings. H. —The Sieur de
Champlain’s Lodgings. I.—The door of the Settlement with a Draw-bridge. L Promenade
around the Settlement ten feet in width to the edge of the Moat. M. —Moat that whole way
around the Settlement. O.—The Sieur de Champlain’s Garden P. —The Kitchen. Q. —
Space in front of the Settlement of the Shore of the River. R. —The great River St. Lawrence.

Although immigration rates to New France remained very low under direct French control
[68] most of the new arrivals were farmers, and the rate of population growth among the
settler themselves had been very high. [69] The women had about 30 per cent more
children than comparable women who remained in France. [70] Yves Landry says,
"Canadians had an exceptional diet for their time.” [70] The 1666 census of New France
was conducted by France’s intendant, Jean Talon, in the winter of 1665-1666. The census
showed a population count of 3,215 Acadians and habitants (French-Canadian farmers) in
the administrative districts of Acadia and Canada.[71] The census also revealed a great
difference in the number of men at 2,034 versus 1,81 women. [72]

During this period, in contrast to the higher density and slower moving agricultural
settlement development by the English inward from the east coast of the colonies, New
France’s interior frontier would eventually cover an immense area with a thing network
centered on fur trade, conversion efforts by missionaries, establishing and claiming an
empire, and military efforts to protect and further those efforts. [63] Thar largest of these
canoe networks covered much of present-day Canda and cental present-day United
States.[64]

After Champlain’s death in 1635, the Roman Catholic Church and the Jesuit establishment
became the most dominant force in New France and hoped to establish a utopian
European and Aboriginal Christian community. [65] In 1642, the Sulpicians sponsored a
group of settlers led by Paul Chomedey de Maisonneuve, who founded Ville-Marie,
precursor to present-day Montreal.[66] In 1663 the French crown took direct control of the
colonies from the Company New France.[67]

Map of North America in 1702 showing forts, towns and areas occupied by European
settlements. Britain(pink), France(blue), and Spain(orange)

By the early 17000s the New France settlers were well established along the shores of the
Saint Lawrence River and parts of Nova Scotia, with a population around 16,000.[73]
However new arrivals stopped coming from France in proceeding decades, [74][75][76]
resulting in the English and Scottish settlers in Newfoundland Nova Scotia, and the
southern Thirteen Colonies to vastly outnumber the French population approximately ten
to one by the 1750s.[68][77] From 1670, through the Hudson’s' Bay and its drainage basic
known as Rupert’s Land establishing new trading posts and forts, while continuing to
operate fishing settlements in Newfoundland.[78] French expansion along the Canadian
canoe routes challenged the Hudson’s Bay Company claims, and in 1686, Pierre Troyes led
an overland expedition from Montreal to the shore of the bay, where they managed to
capture a handful of outposts. [79] La Salle’s explorations gave France a claim to the
Mississippi River Valley, where fur trappers and a few settlers set up scattered forts and
settlements.[80]

There were four French and Indian Wars and two additional wars in Acadia and Nova Scotia
between the Thirteen American Colonies and New France from 1688 to 1763. During King
William’s War (1688 to 1697), military conflicts in Acadia included: Battle of Port Royal
(1960); a naval battle in the Bay of Fundy (Action of July 14,1696); and the Raid on
Chignecto (1696). [81] The Treaty of Ryswick in 1697 ended the war between the two
colonial powers of England and France for a brief time. [82] During Queen Anne’s War
(1702 to 1713), the British Conquest of Acadia occurred in 1710,[83] resulting in Nova
Scotia, other than Cape Breton, being officially ceded to the British by the Treaty of Utrecht
including Rupert’s Land, which France had conquered in the late 17 th century ( Battle of
Hudson’s Bay). [84] As an immediate result of this setback, France founded the powerful
Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island.[85]

Louisbourg was intended to serve as a year-round military and naval base for France’s
remaining North American empire and to protect the entrance to the St. Lawrence River.
Father Rale’s Way resulted in both the fall of New France influence in present-day Maine
and the British recognition of having to negotiate with Mi’kmaq in Nova Scotia. During King
George’s War (1744 to 1748), an army of new Englanders led by William Pepperrell
mounted an expedition of 90 vessels and 4,000 men against Louisbourg in 1745. [86]
Within three months the fortress surrendered. The return of Louisbourg to French control
by the peace treaty prompted the British to found Halifa in 1749 under Edward Cornwallis.
[87] Despite the official cessation of war between the British and French empires with the
Treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle; the conflict in Acadia and Nova Scotia continued on as the
Father le Loutre’s War.[88]

The British ordered the Acadians expelled from their lands in 1755 during the French and
Indian War, an event called the Expulsion of the Acadians or le Grand Dérangement.[89]
The “expulsion” resulted in approximately 12,000 Acadians being shipped to destinations
throughout Britain’s North America and to France, Quebec and the French Caribbean
colony of Saint-Domingue. [90] The first wave of the expulsion of the Acadians began with
the bay of Fundy Campaign (1755) and the second wave began after the final Siege of
Louisbourg (1758). Many of the Acadians settled in southern Louisiana, creating the Cajun
culture there. [91] Some Acadians managed to hide and others eventually returned to Nova
Scotia, but they were far outnumbered by a new migration of New England Planters who
were settled on the former lands of the Acadians and transformed Nova Scotia from colony
occupation for the British to a settled colony with stronger ties to New England. [91] Britain
eventually gained control of Quebec City and Montreal after the Battle of the Plains of
Abraham and Battle of Fort Niagara in 1759, and the Battle of the Thousands islands and
Battle of Sainte-Foy in 1760[92]