A Blending of Cultures

Early contact between First Nations and Inuit peoples and Europeans, beginning in the 16th century, was generally peaceful. The new settlers understood that without the help of their Native allies, they had no hope of establishing themselves permanently. By the 17th and 18th centuries, however, disputes over the fur trade, among other existing rivalries, had generated conflicts between some Aboriginal peoples and the settlers. These tensions were further aggravated by the competitive colonial aspirations of the "old world."

After several unsuccessful initiatives to establish better relations between settlers and Aboriginal peoples, the governor of New France, Hector de Callières, successfully negotiated a treaty, The Great Peace of Montréal, signed in 1701 by 39 chiefs. It set out terms for the harmonious cohabitation of the Aboriginal peoples and the French colonists. By agreeing to accommodate the newcomers, however, these Aboriginal peoples unwittingly opened the door to the eventual breakdown of their cultural identity and way of life.

As the settlements of the new "Canadians" spread, the Aboriginal peoples retreated further and further from them, occasionally aggregating around settlers' villages, trying to maintain their customs amidst the increasing dominance of foreign ways and religions. Following the Seven Years' War, fought by England and France over the new colonies, the victorious English King George III granted all Aboriginal peoples his protection in the Royal Proclamation of 1763. In reality, his gesture did little to help the people it claimed to protect. Viral diseases, the introduction of alcohol and other disruptive elements that accompanied the colonists helped decimate Aboriginal populations. Their continued submersion in European culture led to the extinction of entire Aboriginal cultures and many languages.

Adding to the complexity of European-Aboriginal relations, a new people had emerged over the course of the 19th century: the Métis, then known as "mixed bloods" or "half-breeds," a distinct people with their own language (Michif). Born of marriages between Indians and French, Scottish and Irish settlers, their existence was at first consistently ignored by public authorities. In 1870, however, their leader Louis Riel succeeded in establishing the province of Manitoba, where Métis rights were to be guaranteed. The struggle of the Métis to maintain control over their territories culminated in the 1885 Battle of Batoche, where their revolt was crushed, an event that has left a lasting scar.The rapid pace of economic and social development in the 19th century had a devastating effect on Aboriginal peoples in Canada. In particular, it corrupted their special relationship with the land, a link that had always defined their spirituality and core identity. In growing desperation, some Aboriginal leaders went to political authorities for help - appealing, for instance, to Governor General Lord Elgin in 1848. Their petitions had little effect. On the contrary, the colonial province of Canada adopted legislation in 1857 that sought to "encourage the gradual Civilization of the Indian Tribes."

From time to time over the years of contact with Europeans, Aboriginal leaders had been persuaded to sign treaties with various "old world" states and eventually, colonial governments. Unfortunately, these were rarely respected and often ignored altogether. The government of the Dominion of Canada, established at Confederation in 1867, continued this questionable practice. Even worse, it adopted the Indian Act in 1876, establishing a policy framework that limited First Nations and Métis communities to reserve lands and aimed to assimilate them into the mainstream culture. This legislation was to dictate the government's treatment of Aboriginal people for over 100 years, under the nearly absolute control of the Ministry of Indian Affairs. The Act forced Aboriginal groups to adopt the band council political system, which splintered their societies into 650 communities scattered across the country. Under this system, they had few rights; until 1960, they could not even vote.

A series of policies following the passage of the Indian Act worsened conditions for Indians. In 1884, the government amended the Act to prohibit the potlatch, a ceremonial ritual that provided an opportunity to assemble clans and confirm lineage. Many sacred artifacts and objects associated with the potlatch were confiscated, destroyed or given away by the authorities before the clause banning the tradition was repealed in 1951.

In 1927, an amendment to the Indian Act compelled "Indians" to obtain the permission of federal authorities before bringing their land title claims before the courts. This effectively prevented them from claiming land that had been promised, but never allocated, under the terms of their treaties with Canada. Despite this history of mistreatment, Aboriginal peoples have always participated in the defense of this land, whether in the 1760 battles between France and England, in the 1775 and 1812 conflicts with the United States, or in the 20th century's First and Second World Wars.In 1892, the federal government began to follow a policy of forced assimilation of young Aboriginal children. With the support and cooperation of churches, it removed Indian (and, from the early 1960s on, Inuit) children from their families and placed them in residential schools, where they were forced to abandon their language, their spirituality, their identity and their family ties. In the end, nearly 150,000 youth were taken from their families and sent to these schools.

The year 1982 marked the beginning of a recovery of full ancestral rights for Aboriginal peoples: it was the year the new Constitution Act was proclaimed. Section 35 of the Constitution clearly states that "the existing Aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal peoples of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed." This guarantee, which applies to Indians, Inuit, and Métis, goes far beyond the protection of rights promised in the 1763 Royal Proclamation.

Since this historic constitutional change, Aboriginal peoples have gradually been regaining control of their own cultural identities, governance, and lands, often with the support of judgments from Canada's highest courts. In 1998, the federal government took one step forward when it announced that "[t]he Government of Canada … formally expresses to all Aboriginal people in Canada our profound regret for past actions of the federal government which have contributed to these difficult pages in the history of our relationship together" and pledged to compensate the victims. In 2006, the government reached a financial settlement with Indian, Inuit and Métis representatives in partial recognition of the damage it inflicted through years of oppressive assimilation policies.

In June 2008, the Prime Minister offered an official apology on behalf of the Government of Canada to former students of Indian residential schools in a solemn declaration in the House of Commons. The government recognizes that the treatment of children in these schools is a sad chapter in our history and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on Aboriginal culture, heritage, and language.

A Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been established, which will hear the testimonies of the victims and define the principles of a new and lasting relationship based on mutual faith and confidence.

A land claims settlement process has been in place since 1982, designed to resolve age-old disputes. It was under this process that Nunavut, a new and separate territory largely controlled by Inuit, was created in 1999. The healing continues.

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1 Haida Nation v. British Columbia (Minister of Forests), [2004] 3 S.C.R. 511, 2004 S.C.C. 73, at 25.

Parliament of Canada: Senate of Canada

The "original relationship" between Aboriginal peoples and Euro-Canadians from the time of the first contact to the end of the fur trade includes some examples characterized by respect, cooperation and an appreciation for each other's culture, both distinctions, and shared characteristics. Although explorers were coming to North America in search of various riches in the 15th and 16th centuries, most showed little interest in settling permanently in Newfoundland, Labrador and the north shore of the River Kanata (St. Lawernce River). The British visited each summer to fish, landing temporarily to dry their catch. Other countries also fished in the region and some hunted whales further north. The French, like the British, were content for the rest of the sixteenth century to use North America as a fishing resource.The survival of the whitemanEuropeasn in the new territories required the cooperation and support of the Aboriginal peoples. The survival skills, medicines, maps and ways of the land were imparted by the Aboriginal people to the new inhabitants. It is during this earliest contact that the greatest exchange of cultures, economic advantage and language occurred. The rise of the Metis population exemplifies this initial 'mixing' of the cultures. 

This early trade was relatively simple and beneficial to both parties.  First Nations brought furs and the Europeans brought other trade goods.

*Julie Cuickshank. "Oral Tradition and Oral History: Reviewing Some Issues,: The Canadian Historical Review LXXV/3 (1994):403-418 in Report on the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Looking Forward, Looking Back. Ottawa: Canada Communication Group, Vol 1., (1996):35. 

Colonial practices and abuses inflicted on the First Nations population in what is now known as Canada are well documented. Prior to Confederation, early European explorers reaching the eastern seaboard of North America would claim to have discovered the lands, despite the presence of cultures that had been there for countless generations. These explorers claimed sovereignty over these lands for their respective kings and queens, who often funded their voyages of discovery. 

One such explorer was Jacques Cartier, who in 1534 was sent by King Francis I of France on a voyage of discovery. He reached the Canadian east coast, sailed past New-Found-Land, rounded the Gulf of St Lawrence, landed on the Gaspé Peninsula, crossed the St Lawrence estuary and received credit for the “discovery” of the St Lawrence River, even though First Nations had canoed in those waters for centuries. 

In 1670, colonialism became entrenched when King Charles II of England granted the Royal Charter incorporating the Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC). The charter’s provisions gave trading rights to his cousin, Prince Rupert of the Rhine, and 17 other noblemen, who formed a group known as the Company of Adventurers. In effect, this group of “adventurers” received dominion over all lands whose rivers and lakes drained into the Hudson Bay, some 15 million square miles, which was over one-third the area of present-day Canada. The vast Education Is Our Buffalo • 11 territory became known as Rupert’s Land, and it became the scene of the great North American fur trade. For several centuries, operating out of its headquarters at York Factory on the shore of the Hudson Bay, the HBC controlled the lucrative fur trade throughout much of British-controlled North America and functioned as the de facto government in much of the continent. It had the power to establish and enforce laws, erect forts, maintain ships of war, and make peace or war with the First Nations peoples. The company’s traders and trappers established trading relationships with many First Nations groups, and it built a system of trading posts that functioned as centres of official authority in many areas of western Canada and the United States. 

In 1870 the vast territory of the HBC, all of it privately owned, became the largest component in the newly formed Dominion of Canada. As the fur trade began to decline, the company evolved into a business that sold staples to settlers in the Canadian west and north, and it is best known today as a major department store. In 1870, as the fur trade declined, Rupert’s Land was transferred to the newly established country by an act of the British parliament upon payment of 300,000 pounds. This all occurred without consultation with or consent from the Indigenous people whose land was being bartered. Ultimately, this led to the fight for restitution of land rights by the Métis people under the leadership of Louis Riel, who led the Métis resistance in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. 

Colonialism has created many wounds that have not healed. Present-day First Nations people are both mystified and enraged that a foreign people could claim to discover land that they had lived on for generations, claim it in the name of a foreign monarch, and exploit the inhabitants and the raw materials of that place for their own benefit.

More information on treaties, land claims, accords, white papers and the impact of these documents on the Aboriginal People, can be found at: Education is Our Buffalo

Published on Jan 18, 2014 The fur trade through the eyes of First Nations woman, Metis woman, and a First Nations child. We did this screencast for our Social Studies Curriculum class at the University of Alberta. C3 would like to thank the Metis elder, here in Edmonton, we interviewed for this project, she is a wonderful lady and could not have made this video without her. 

Metis Centre@NAHO

uploaded on Jun 1, 2008