Indigenous peoples in Canada
Indigenous peoples in Canada are the Indigenous peoples within the boundaries of Canada. They comprise the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis, representing roughly 5.0% of the total Canadian population. There are over 600 recognized First Nations governments or bands with distinctive cultures, languages, art, and music.
Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are some of the earliest known sites of human habitation in Canada. The characteristics of Indigenous cultures in Canada prior to European colonization included permanent settlements, agriculture, civic and ceremonial architecture, complex societal hierarchies, and trading networks. Métis nations of mixed ancestry originated in the mid-17th century when First Nations and Inuit married Europeans, primarily French settlers. First Nations and Métis peoples played a critical part in the development of European colonies in Canada, particularly for their role in assisting Europeans during the North American fur trade.
Various Aboriginal laws, treaties, and legislation have been enacted between European immigrants and Indigenous groups across Canada. The impact of settler colonialism in Canada can be seen in its culture, history, politics, laws, and legislatures. Historically, this included assimilationist policies affecting Indigenous languages, traditions, religion and the degradation of Indigenous communities that has contemporarily been described by some, including academics and politicians, as a cultural genocide, or genocide.
The modern Indigenous right to self-government provides for Indigenous self-government in Canada and the management of cultural, political, health and economic responsibilities within Indigenous communities. National Indigenous Peoples Day recognizes the vast cultures and contributions of Indigenous peoples to the history of Canada. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis peoples of all backgrounds have become prominent figures in Canada and have helped shape the Canadian cultural identity.
Terminology
In Section 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982, "Aboriginal peoples of Canada" includes Indian, Inuit, and Métis peoples. "Aboriginal" as a collective noun is a specific term of art used as a legal term encompassing all Indigenous peoples living in Canada. Although "Indian" is a term still commonly used in legal documents for First Nations, the descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada; most consider them to be pejorative. Indian remains in place as the legal term used in the Canadian Constitution. Aboriginal peoples has begun to be considered outdated and is slowly being replaced by the term Indigenous peoples. There is also an effort to recognize each Indigenous group as a distinct nation, much as there are distinct European, African, and Asian cultures in their respective places.First Nations has come into general use since the 1970s, replacing Indians and Indian bands in everyday vocabulary. However, on Indian reserves, First Nations is being supplanted by members of various nations referring to themselves by their group or ethnic identity. In conversation, this would be "I am Haida", or "we are Kwantlens", in recognition of their First Nations ethnicities. Also coming into general use since the 1970s, First Peoples refers to all Indigenous groups, i.e. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis.
Notwithstanding Canada's location within the Americas, the term Native American is hardly ever used in Canada, in order to avoid any confusion due to the ambiguous meaning of the word "American". Therefore, the term is typically used only in reference to the Indigenous peoples within the boundaries of the present-day United States. Native Canadians was often used in Canada to differentiate this American term until the 1980s.
In contrast to the more-specific Aboriginal, one of the issues with the term is its general applicability: in certain contexts, it could be used in reference to non-Indigenous peoples in regards to an individual place of origin / birth. For instance, people who were born or grew up in Calgary may call themselves "Calgary natives", as in they are native to that city. With this in mind, even the term native American, as another example, may very well indicate someone who is native to America rather than a person who is ethnically Indigenous to the boundaries of the present-day United States. In this sense, native may encompass a broad range of populations and is therefore not recommended, although it is not generally considered offensive.
The Indian Act sets the legal term Indian, designating that "a person who pursuant to this Act is registered as an Indian or is entitled to be registered as an Indian." Section 5 of the act states that a registry shall be maintained "in which shall be recorded the name of every person who is entitled to be registered as an Indian under this Act." No other term is legally recognized for the purpose of registration and the term Indian specifically excludes reference to Inuit as per section 4 of the act.
The term Eskimo has pejorative connotations in Canada and Greenland. Indigenous peoples in those areas have replaced the term Eskimo with Inuit, though the Yupik of Alaska and Siberia do not consider themselves Inuit, and ethnographers agree they are a distinct people. They prefer the terminology Yupik, Yupiit, or Eskimo. The Yupik languages are linguistically distinct from the Inuit languages, but are related to each other. Linguistic groups of Arctic people have no universal replacement term for Eskimo, inclusive of all Inuit and Yupik across the geographical area inhabited by them.
Besides these ethnic descriptors, Aboriginal peoples are often divided into legal categories based on their relationship with the Crown. Section 91 of the Constitution Act, 1867 gives the federal government 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 Indian Act, passed by the federal Parliament in 1876, has long governed its interactions with all treaty and non-treaty peoples.
Members of First Nations bands who are subject to the Indian Act are compiled on a list called the Indian Register, and such people are designated as status Indians. Many non-treaty First Nations and all Inuit and Métis are not subject to the Indian Act. However, two court cases have clarified that Inuit, Métis, and non-status First Nations are all covered by the term Indians in the Constitution Act, 1867. The first was Reference Re Eskimos, covering Inuit; the second was Daniels v. Canada, which concerns Métis and non-status First Nations.
History
Paleo-Indian period
According to North American archaeological and genetic evidence, migration to North and South America made them the last continents in the world with human habitation. During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50,000–17,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people to move across the Bering land bridge that joined Siberia to northwest North America. Alaska 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 for thousands of years.Indigenous genetic studies suggest that the first inhabitants of the Americas share a single ancestral population, one that developed in isolation, conjectured to be Beringia. The isolation of these peoples in Beringia might have lasted 10,000–20,000 years. Around 16,500 years ago, the glaciers began melting, allowing people to move south and east into Canada and beyond.
The first inhabitants of North America arrived in Canada at least 14,000 years ago. It is believed the inhabitants entered the Americas pursuing Pleistocene mammals such as the giant beaver, steppe wisent, muskox, mastodons, woolly mammoths and ancient reindeer. One route hypothesized is that people walked south by way of an ice-free corridor on the east side of the Rocky Mountains, and then fanned out across North America before continuing on to South America. The other conjectured route is that they migrated, either on foot or using primitive boats, down the Pacific coast to the tip of South America, and then crossed the Rockies and Andes. Evidence of the latter has been covered by a sea level rise of hundreds of metres following the last ice age.
The Old Crow Flats and basin was one of the areas in Canada untouched by glaciations during the Pleistocene Ice ages, thus it served as a pathway and refuge for ice age plants and animals. The area holds evidence of early human habitation in Canada dating from about 12,000 years ago. Fossils from the area include some never accounted for in North America, such as hyenas and large camels. Bluefish Caves is an archaeological site in Yukon from which a specimen of apparently human-worked mammoth bone was radiocarbon dated to 12,000 years ago.
File:Clovis Point.jpg|thumb|left|upright|alt=A Clovis blade with medium to large lanceolate spear-knifepoints. Side is parallel to convex and exhibit careful pressure flaking along the blade edge. The broadest area is near the midsection or toward the base. The Base is distinctly concave with a characteristic flute or channel flake removed from one or, more commonly, both surfaces of the blade. The lower edges of the blade and base is ground to dull edges for hafting. Clovis points also tend to be thicker than the typically thin latter stage Folsom points. Length: 4–20 cm/1.5–8 in. Width: 2.5–5 cm/1–2 | A Clovis point created using bi-facial percussion flaking
Clovis sites dated at 13,500 years ago were discovered in western North America during the 1930s. Clovis peoples were regarded as the first widespread Paleo-Indian inhabitants of the New World and ancestors to all Indigenous peoples in the Americas.
Localized regional cultures developed from the time of the Younger Dryas cold climate period from 12,900 to 11,500 years ago. The Folsom tradition is characterized by the use of Folsom points as projectile tips at archaeological sites. These tools assisted activities at kill sites that marked the slaughter and butchering of bison.
The land bridge existed until 13,000–11,000 years ago, long after the oldest proven human settlements in the New World began. Lower sea levels in the Queen Charlotte sound and Hecate Strait produced great grass lands called archipelago of Haida Gwaii.
Hunter-gatherers of the area left distinctive lithic technology tools and the remains of large butchered mammals, occupying the area from 13,000–9,000 years ago. In July 1992, the Government of Canada officially designated X̱á:ytem as a national historic site, one of the first Indigenous spiritual sites in Canada to be formally recognized in this manner.
The Plano cultures was a group of hunter-gatherer communities that occupied the Great Plains area of North America between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago. The Paleo-Indians moved into new territory as it emerged from under the glaciers. Big game flourished in this new environment. The Plano culture is characterized by a range of projectile point tools collectively called Plano points, which were used to hunt bison. Their diets also included pronghorn, elk, deer, raccoon and coyote. At the beginning of the Archaic period, they began to adopt a sedentary approach to subsistence. Sites in and around Belmont, Nova Scotia, have evidence of Plano-Indians, indicating small seasonal hunting camps, perhaps re-visited over generations from around 11,000–10,000 years ago. Seasonal large and smaller game fish and fowl were food and raw material sources. Adaptation to the harsh environment included tailored clothing and skin-covered tents on wooden frames.