Terry Crowley - Canadian History: Pre-Colonization to 1867 Essentials

Our knowledge of Canada prior to the arrival of the first Europeans is fragmented and open to contention. The generally accepted theory holds that North Americas aboriginal peoples migrated from Asia across the Bering Strait. While the timing of these migrations is disputed, humans were present in the Americas between 15 000 and 10 000 B.C. They were a rich diversity of peoples whose lifestyles varied with each locality. They migrated within the continent. Inuit, for instance, occupied part of the north shore of the St. Lawrence River until driven farther north by Montagnais Indians, who called them Eskimo (eaters of raw meat).

While the number of aboriginal peoples north of Mexico at the time of the Europeans arrival has been estimated at 10 million, those in what is now Canada varied between a half million and two and a half million. Amer-Indians have been classified according to linguistic, tribal, and cultural traits, such as are described in the following.

The first Indians that Europeans met were the Eastern Woodland Indians. Basically, they are divided into two groupings, the Algonkian (or Algonquin) and Iroquoian speaking peoples. Algonkians such as the Beothuk in Newfoundland (who became extinct in the nineteenth century) and the Micmacs of the Maritimes, the Maliseets (Malecites) of New Brunswick, and the Montagnais, Ottawas, and Algonquins of central Canada were foragers who lived in small bands of 20 to 100 people and hunted and fished.

Settlements Among Aboriginal Peoples

Iroquoian speaking peoples lived further inland and engaged in slash and burn agriculture. They included two important confederacies: the Huron, consisting of the Bear, Rock, Cord, and Deer peoples in the area between Lake Simcoe and Georgian Bay in Ontario; and the Iroquois or Five Nations, Six Nations after they were joined by the Tuscaroras in the early eighteenth centurythe Mohawks, Senecas, Oneidas, Onondagas, and Cayuga, living principally south of Lake Ontario. The Petun, Erie, and Neutral nations in southwestern Ontario were other Iroquoians. This linguistic grouping of people lived in longhouses, containing 20 to 30 families, and settled in villages that moved every decade or so in search of fertile ground in which to grow maize and other vegetable crops.

Peoples living in the West and on the West coast had a different manner of food-gathering. Peoples living on the Plains used horses to hunt bison (buffalo), while others living in woodlands and parklands obtained food through different means. The Crees, who were Algonkian speakers, and Assiniboines were the largest groupings. The aboriginal peoples of the West coast lived off the wealth of the sea. Settled in villages with wooden buildings, they developed hierarchical societies divided into nobles, commoners, and slaves.

In the north, above the 56th parallel, various Athapaskan speakers hunted animals such as caribou and moose in small bands and fished, while in the Arctic, the Inuit (the people) depended on sea mammals for their living.