First Nations of Canada

Text pages 177 - 190

Terminology

Acceptable terminology Aboriginal Inuit Métis First Nation (FN) Indigenous Native _________

Who was here first

Not the Europeans: They came in the last 500 years.

Aboriginals, where did they come from?

The three indigenous groups

Inuit: Live mostly in the far north. North American Indian: Live in the

southern parts of Canada. Métis: include people of mixed Aboriginal

and European decent. (They were only recognized as of 1982)

Respond to the questions at http://www12.statcan.ca/english/census01/teacher's_kit/activity11_part3.cfm

1.The North American Indian population of Canada is __________ times the Métis and Inuit population combined.

2.Using this table, let’s look at how the three groups are distributed across Canada.

The largest number of Inuit people live in ________________ , ________________ and _________________________ . The Métis are concentrated in the ________________ provinces of Canada. __________________ and

______________________ have the largest North American Indian populations.

The treaty making process

Why have treaties? At first to share resources: The French and

the British made treaties with the FNs. Over time, the relationship changed

drastically. The British Royal Proclamation of 1763

established 2 importand principles: Land ownership of the FNs must be

respected They must be compensated for their land.

What went wrong?

1) Many of the treaties proved to be unfair. Wordings were misrepresentative of what

the FNs were expecting. Only “status Indians” were allowed rights. The government decided how reserve lands

were to be used.

2) Loss of Land and Economic Base (text page 180)

3) Lack of Self Government (text page 181)

The Creation of Nunavut

Nunavut means “our land” in Inuktitut 85% of Nunavut is Inuit As a small minority of the Northwest

Territories, they felt that they had little influence over their culture, and economic base.

Yellowknife made most of the decisions Now Nunavut is self governed.

Low education was an issue but is being resolved.

Starting on Page 188 of the text, what are the challenges facing Nunavut?