The British ordered the Acadians expelled from their lands in 1775 during the

French and Indian War, an event called the expulsion of the Acadians or le
Grand Derangement. 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. 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. 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 a colony of occupation for the
British to a settled colony with stronger ties to New England. 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 Thousand
Islands and the Battle of Sainte-Foy in 1760.

Amongst notable Métis people are television actor Tom Jackson, 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.

The languages inherently Métis are either Métis French or a mixed language
called Michif. Michif, Mechif or Métchif is a phonetic spelling of Métif, a
variant of Métis. The Métis today predominantly speak English, with French a
strong second language, as well as numerous Aboriginal tongues. A 19th-
century community of the Métis people, the Anglo-Métis, were referred to as
Countryborn. They were children of Rupert's Land fur trade typically of
Orcadian, Scottish, or English paternal descent and Aboriginal maternal
descent. 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".

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

Mixed-blood fur trader, c. 1870

The Métis are people descended from marriages between Europeans (mainly
French) and Cree, Ojibway, Algonquin, Saulteaux, Menominee, Mi'kmaq,
Maliseet, and other First Nations. Their history dates to the mid-17th century.
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
marriage The Metis 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).

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. One account, Ívar Bárðarson, speaks of
"small people" with whom the Norsemen fought 14th-century accounts that a
western settlement, one of the two Norse settlements, was taken over by the
Skræling.

After the disappearance of the Norse colonies in Greenland, the Inuit had no
contact with 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. The Inuit appear not to
have interfered with their operations, but they did raid the stations in winter for
tools, and particularly worked iron, which they adapted to native needs.
Inuit

Inuk in a kayak, c. 1908-1914

The Inuit are the descendants of what anthropologists 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 the Inuit. Researchers hypothesize that the Dorset culture lacked
dogs, larger weapons and other technologies used by the expanding Inuit
society. 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 were common and led to aggressive
actions.

Many Aboriginal civilization established characteristics and hallmarks that

included permanent urban settlements or cities, agriculture, civic and
monumental architecture, and complex societal hierarchies 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.

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 18th centuries.
European written accounts generally recorded the friendliness of the First
Nations, who profited in trade with Europeans. Such trade generally
strengthened the more organized political entities such as the Iroquois
Confederation. 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 unorganized traffic of furs
overseen by the Indian Department.
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-1,000 CE. Communities developed each with its own
culture, customs, and character. In the northwest were the Athapaskan, Slavey,
Dogrib, Tutchone, and Tlingit. Along the Pacific coast were the Tsimshian;
Haida; Salish; Kwakiutl; Heiltsuk; Nootka; Nisga'a; Senakw and Gitxsan. In the
plains were the Blackfoot; Káinawa; Sarcee and Peigan. In the northern
woodlands were the Cree and Chipewyan. Around the Great Lakes were the
Anishinaabe; Algonquin; Iroquois and Huron. Along the Atlantic coast were the
Beothuk, Maliseet, Innu, Abenaki and Mi'kmaq.

The Woodland cultural period dates from about 2,000 BCE-1,000 CE, and has
locales in Ontario, Quebec, and Maritime regions. The introduction of pottery
distinguishes the Woodland culture from the earlier Archaic stage inhabitants.
Laurentian people of southern Ontario manufactured the oldest pottery
excavated to date in Canada. 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.

The Hopewell tradition is an Aboriginal culture that flourished along American

rivers from 300 BCE-500 CE. At its greatest extent, the Hopewell Exchange
System networked cultures and 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.
Thule site (Copper Inuit) near the waters of Cambridge Bay (Victoria
Island)

The west coast of Canada by 7,000-5000 BCE (9,000-7,000 years ago) saw
various cultures that organized themselves around salmon fishing. The Nuu-
chah-nulth of Vancouver Island began whaling with advanced long spears at
about this time. 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
Atlantic Coast of North America. Their settlements included longhouses and
boat-topped temporary or seasonal houses. They engaged in long-distance trade,
using as currency white chert, a rock quarried from northern Labrador to Maine.
The Pre-Columbian culture, whose members were called Red Paint People, is
indigenous to the New England and Atlantic Canada regions of North America.
The culture flourished between 3,000 BCE-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 and grave goods.

The placement of artifacts and materials within an Archaic burial site indicated
social differentiation based on status. There is a continuous record of occupation
of S'olh Téméxw by Aboriginal people dating from the early Holocene period,
10,000-9,000 years ago. Archaeological sites at Stave Lake, Coquitlam Lake,
Fort Langley, and the region uncovered early-period artifacts. These early
Inhabitants were highly mobile hunter-gatherers, consisting of about 20 to 50
members of an extended family. The Na-Dene people occupied much of the
land area of northwest and central North America starting around 8,000 BCE.
They were the earliest ancestors of the Athabaskan-speaking peoples, Including
the Navajo and Apache. They had villages with large multi-family dwellings,
used seasonally during the summer, from 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). They were concentrated between Lake Simcoe and Georgian
Bay. Wendat hunted caribou to survive on the glacier-covered land. Many
different First Nations cultures relied upon the buffalo starting by 6,000-5,000
BCE (8,000-7,000 years ago). They hunted buffalo by herding and migrating
buffalo off cliffs. Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump, near Lethbridge, Alberta, is
a hunting ground that was in use for about 5,000 years.
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). 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. The Arctic small tool tradition branches off into two
cultural variants, including the Pre-Dorset, and the Independence traditions.
These two groups, ancestors of the Thule people, were displaced by the Inuit by
the 1000 Common Era (CE).

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 the 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 a manifestation of the Woodland Culture, and are pre-
pottery in nature. Evidence found in the northern Great Lakes regions indicates
that they extracted copper from local glacial deposits and used it in its natural
form to manufacture tools and implements.

The Plano culture was a group of hunter- gatherer communities that occupied
the Great Plains area of North America between 12,000-10,000 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 are
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 Era, 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.

Archaic Period

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

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

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. Archaeological discoveries in the past thirty years
have brought forward other distinctive knapping cultures that occupied the
Americas from the lower Great Plains to the shores of Chile.

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 are
characterized by their 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 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.

The first inhabitants of North America arrived in. Canada at least 15,000 years
ago, though Increasing evidence suggests an even earlier arrival. 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). 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.[47] Fossils from the area
include some never accounted for in North America, such as hyenas and large
camels. Specimen of apparently human-worked mammoth bone has been
radiocarbon dated to 12,000 years ago.

Maps depicting each phase of three-step early human migrations for

the people of the Americas

According to archaeological and genetic evidence, North and South America

were 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 north west
North America (Alaska). 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.

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. 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.

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.
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 Linguistic groups of Arctic people have no universal
replacement term for Eskimo, inclusive of all Inuit and Yupik people across the
geographical area inhabited by the Inuit and Yupik peoples.

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 and 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, all are covered
by the term "Indians" in the Constitution Act, 1867. The first was Re Eskimos
in 1939 covering the Inuit, the second being Daniels v. Canada in 2013 which
applies to Métis and non-Status First Nations.
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 States.

The characteristics of Canadian Aboriginal culture included permanent

settlements, agriculture,civic and ceremonial architecture, complex societal
hierarchies and trading networks. The Métis culture of mixed blood originated
in the mid-17th century when First Nation and Inuit people married Europeans.
The Inuit had more limited interaction with European settlers during that early
period. 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 4.3% of the national population, spread over 600 recognized First Nations
governments or bands with distinctive cultures, languages, art, and music.
National Aboriginal Day recognizes the cultures and contributions of
Aboriginal peoples to the history of Canada First Nations, Inuit and Métis
peoples 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.

The terms First Peoples and First Nations are both used to refer to indigenous
peoples of Canada. The terms First 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 In this Act, "Aboriginal peoples of
Canada" includes the Indian, Inuit and Métis peoples of Canada.

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

Indigenous peoples in Canada

Indigenous peoples in Canada, also known as Indigenous Canadians or

Aboriginal Canadians, are the indigenous peoples within the boundaries of
present-day Canada. They comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. 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. 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 disfavor.

Old Crow 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 Italian John Cabot
became the first European known to have landed in Canada after the time of the
Vikings. Records indicate that on 24 June 1497 he sighted land at a northern
location believed to be somewhere in the Atlantic provinces. Official tradition
deemed the first landing site to be at Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland, although
other locations are possible 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.

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. 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. In 1501 and 1502 the Corte-Real brothers
explored Newfoundland (Terra Nova) and Labrador claiming these lands as part
of the Portuguese Empire. In 1506, King Manuel I of Portugal created taxes for
the cod fisheries in Newfoundland waters João Álvares Fagundes and Péro 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, the site of a

Norsemen colony about the year 1000.

There are reports of contact made before the 1492 voyages of Christopher
Columbus and the age of discovery between First Nations, Inuit and those from
other continents. The Norse, who had settled Greenland and Iceland, arrived
around the year 1000 and built a small settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows at the
northernmost tip of Newfoundland (carbon dating estimate 990-1050 CE)
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.

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

The Interior of British Columbia was home to the Salishan language groups
such as the Shuswap (Secwepemc), Okanagan and southern Athabaskan
language groups, primarily the Dakelh (Carrier) and the Tsilhqot'in. 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 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.
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. This transition is supported by
archaeological records and Inuit mythology that tells of having driven off the
Tuniit or 'first Inhabitants'. 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.

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. The Ojibwa and other Anishinaabe speakers of the central
Algonquian languages retain an oral tradition of having moved to their lands
around the western and central Great Lakes from the sea, likely the east coast.
According to oral tradition, the Ojibwa formed the Council of Three Fires in
796 C with the Odawa and the Potawatomi.

The Iroquois (Haudenosaunee) were centred 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. The Iroquois Confederacy, according to
oral tradition, was formed in 1142 CE. On the Great Plains the Cree or
Nēhilawe (who spoke a 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. 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.
The Dene of the western Arctic may represent a distinct wave of migration from
Asia to North America.

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 (1690); a naval battle in the Bay of Fundy
(Action of July 14, 1696); and the Raid on Chignecto (1696). The Treaty of
Ryswick in 1697 ended the war between the two colonial powers of England
and France for a brief time. 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 17th
century (Battle of Hudson's Bay). As an immediate result of this setback, France
founded the powerful Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island.

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.

Archeological and Aboriginal genetic evidence indicate that North and South
America were the last continents into which humans migrated. 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. At that point, they were blocked by the Laurentide
ice sheet that covered most of Canada, confining them to Alaska and the Yukon
for thousands of years. The exact dates and routes of the people of the Americas
are the subject of an ongoing debate. By 16,000 years ago the glacial melt
allowed people to move by land south and east out of Beringia, and into Canada
The Queen Charlotte Islands, Old Crow Flats, and Bluefish Caves contain some
of the earliest Paleo-Indian archaeological sites in Canada. Ice Age hunter-
gatherers of this period left lithic flake fluted 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 1867, 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 the 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. Many businesses closed, as corporate profits of $396 million in 1929
turned into losses of $98 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

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. By 1933, 30% of the labour force was out of work, and one fifth
of the population became dependent on 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.
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." 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 minister was out of touch with the hardships of
ordinary people. The winner of the 1930 election was Richard Bedford Bennett
and the Conservatives. Bennett 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.
Bennett'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 election.

In 1935, the Liberals used the slogan "King or Chaos to win a landslide in the
1935 election. 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.

The worst of the Depression had 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.

One political response was a highly restrictive immigration policy and a rise in
nativism.
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.

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 one 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.

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. 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.
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. The government ignored reports from the RCMP and
Canadian military that most of the Japanese were law-abiding and not a threat.

The Battle of the Atlantic began immediately, and from 1943 to 1945 was led
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. The Canadian army was involved in the failed defense 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.

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. 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. 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 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 Canada in 1949 as a province.
 The Avro Canada CF- 105 Arrow
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) 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; this project was later the subject of a long
investigation by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

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. Pearson was awarded the
Nobel Peace Prize in 1957 for his work in establishing the peacekeeping
operation. Throughout the mid-1950s, 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. The controversial aircraft was
cancelled by Diefenbaker in 1959. Diefenbaker instead purchased the
BOMARC missile defense system and American aircraft. In 1958 Canada
established (with the United States) the North American Aerospace Defense
Command (NORAD).

In 1604, a North American fur trade monopoly was granted to Pierre Du Gua,
Sieur de Mons. The fur trade became one of the main economic ventures in
North America. Du Gua led his first colonization expedition to an island located
near the mouth of the 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.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).

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.

Traditionally, Aboriginal peoples used the materials at hand to make their

instruments for centuries before Europeans immigrated to Canada. First
Nations people made gourds and animal horns into rattles, which were
elaborately carved and brightly painted. In woodland areas, they made horns of
birch bark and drumsticks of carved antlers and wood. Traditional percussion
instruments such as drums were generally made of carved wood and animal
hides. These musical instruments provide the background for songs, and songs
the background for dances. Traditional First Nations people consider song and
dance to be sacred. For years after Europeans came to Canada, First Nations
people were forbidden to practice their ceremonies.

Demographics and classification of Indigenous peoples

Cultural areas of North America Indigenous peoples at the time of

European contact.
There are three (First Nations, Inuit and Méti) distinctive groups of North
America indigenous peoples recognized in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982,
sections 25 and 35. Under the Employment Equity Act, Aboriginal people are a
designated group along with women, visible minorities, and persons with
disabilities. They are not a visible minority under the Employment Equity Act
and in the view of Statistics Canada.

The 2011 Canadian Census enumerated 1,400,685 Aboriginal people in Canada,

4.3% of the country's total population. 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 Assembly of First Nations,
the Inuit Tapiriit 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.

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, Plateau, Plains, Eastern Woodlands, Subarctic, and Arctic.

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. 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 metal and
glass beads. The distinct Métis cultures that have arisen from inter-cultural
relationships with Europeans contribute culturally hybrid art forms. During the
19th and the first half of the 20th century the Canadian government pursued an
active policy of forced and cultural assimilation toward indigenous peoples. The
Indian Act banned manifestations of the Sun Dance, the Potlatch, and works of
art depicting them.

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.

Approximately 40,115 individuals of Aboriginal heritage could not be counted

during the 2006 census. 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. 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. Hence, there were
probably 1,212,905 individuals of Aboriginal ancestry (North American Indian,
Metis, 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 point 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 a signatory) in support
of this claim.

Language

There are 13 Aboriginal language groups, 11 oral and 2 sign, in Canada, made
up of more than 65 distinct dialects. 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. Two of Canada's territories give official status to
native languages. In Nunavut, Inuktitut and Inuinnagtun are official languages
alongside the national languages of English and French, and Inuktitut is a
common vehicular language in territorial government In the NWT, the Official
Languages Act declares that there are eleven different languages: Chipewyan,
Cree, English, French, Gwich'in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North
Slavey, South Slavey and Tijcho 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 the government in them.

Aboriginal cultural areas depend upon their ancestors' primary lifeway, or

occupation, at the time of European contact. These culture areas correspond
closely with physical and ecological regions of Canada. The indigenous peoples
of the Pacific Northwest Coast were centred 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. While for the Inuit, hunting was the primary
source of food with seals the primary component of their diet. The caribou, fish,
other marine mammals and to a lesser extent plants, berries and seaweed are
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.