First Nations of Canada By Region:
When Christopher Columbus first stepped ashore onto the North American continent back in 1492, he thought he had finally found India, and named the inhabitants of the land 'Indians.' Though he was wrong with what he discovered, having not found India at all, but another completely new and mostly undiscovered continent (evidence suggests that a viking by the name of Leif Eiriksson had discovered North Eastern Canada around 1000 A.D.) the name 'Indians' stuck for a long time.
What had been discovered was a diverse land, immense in size and heavilly populated by the 'First Peoples' albeit they lived in accord with nature, travelling with the seasons and going where the good hunting was at any given time. Their culture was not one of permanent buildings that could be readily seen for instead of destroying nature to make such permanent villages and cities, they lived in peaceful harmony within it, with various tribes or bands spread across many different regions or 'hunting territories' across Canada, of which the following are some of them....
What had been discovered was a diverse land, immense in size and heavilly populated by the 'First Peoples' albeit they lived in accord with nature, travelling with the seasons and going where the good hunting was at any given time. Their culture was not one of permanent buildings that could be readily seen for instead of destroying nature to make such permanent villages and cities, they lived in peaceful harmony within it, with various tribes or bands spread across many different regions or 'hunting territories' across Canada, of which the following are some of them....
* Caribou Inuit
* Central Inuit * Eskaleuts * Iglulingmiut (Iglulik Inuit) * Inuinnaq (Copper Inuit) * Inuvialuit (MacKenzie Delta Inuit) * Labrador Inuit * Netsilingmiut (Netsilik Inuit) * Nunatsiarmiut (Southern Baffin Island Inuit) * Nunavimiut (Nunavik Inuit) * Qikirtamiut (Belcher Islands Inuit [Sanikiluaq]) * Sallirmiut * Salluit |
* Athapaskans
* Chipewyan * Dakelh-ne (Carrier) * Dane-zaa (Beaver) * Dene Tha (Chateh) * Dogrib * Gwich'in (Kutchin) (NWT) * Gwitchin (Kutchin) (Yukon) * Inland Tlingit * Kaska Dena * Metis * Sahtu Dene (Bearlake) * Sahtu Dene (Hare) * Sahtu Dene (Mountain) * Sekani * Slavey * Tagish * Tahltan * Tr'ondek Hwech'in (Han) * Ts'ilh'qot'in (Chilcotin) * Tutchone * Western Woods Cree * Yellowknife |
* Abenaki
* Algonquin * Anishnaabe (Ojibwa) * Atikamekw (Attikamek) * Beothuk * Cree * Gayogho:no (Cayuga) * Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) * Huron - Wendat * Kanien'kehaka (Mohawk) * Montagnais / Innu * Naskapi * Odawa (Ottawa) * Onodagehono (Onondaga) * Onodowaga (Seneca) * Onyota'a:ka (Oneida) |
* Iroquois
* Metis * Maliseet (Malecite) * Mi'kmaq (MicMac) |
* Coast Salish
* Coast Tsimshian * Gitksan * Haida * Heiltsuk (Bella Bella) * Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) * Nisga'a * Northwest Coast * Nuu-chah-nulth (Nootka) * Nuxalk (Bella Coola) * Tsimshian (Potlatch) |
* Ktunaxa (Kootenay)
* Okanagan * Nlaka'pamux (Thompson) * Secwepemc (Shuswap) |
* Anishnaabe
(Plains Oijibwa, Saulteaux) * Dakota (Eastern Sioux) * Kainai (Blood) * Lakota (Western Sioux) * Metis * Nakota (Sioux, Assiniboine, Yankton) * Nehiyaw (Plains Cree) * Niisitapiikwan (Blackfoot Confederacy) * Oceti Sakowin (Sioux) * Piikunii (Peigan) * T'suu T'ina (Sarcee) |
References
- Morrison, Bruce R. & Wilson, C. Roderick. (2004). Native people's: The Canadian experience. Third Edition. Don Mills: Oxford University Press.
- Canadian Museum of Civilization. (2012). Gateway to Aboriginal heritage. Culture areas. Retrieved November 27, 2012, from
- http://www.civilization.ca/cmc/exhibitions/tresors/ethno/etb0170e.shtml