For those that have not grown up around them, First Nations people are as mysterious as the inhabitants of the lost city of Atlantis.
Who are they? Where do they come from? What role do they play in the civilization of the lands that they call home? Perhaps most importantly, what is being done to ensure that the culture and the history of these people will continue to live, even when they are gone?
The First Nations people are to Canada what the Native Americans are to the United States-the indigenous people that called it home long before the first European set foot on its shores. They constitute the tribes found from the Atlantic to the Pacific, including those of the:
FREE OFFER!
We’d like to welcome you with $200.00 or more in exclusive monthly savings, a special 10% discount and a ton of tips, tricks and secrets for getting the best deals on First Nations Art. Claim this Free, no obligation gift by entering your first name and primary email here:
Blackfoot, Blood, Piegan, Cree, Gros Ventre, Sarcee, Kootenay, Beaver, Slavey, Assiniboine, Micmac, and Malecite.
These number only a small percentage of the over six hundred tribes that make up the First Nations. Ironically enough, the First Nations does not refer to the Aboriginal tribes that originally inhabited the plains and forests of Canada.
The term ‘First Nations’ was created in the 1980s to replace the term ‘Indian Band’, “a body of Indians for whose collective use and benefit lands have been set apart or money is held by the Canadian Crown, or declared to be a band for the purposes of the Indian Act”
Terminology Guide, Indian and Northern Affairs Canada.
This was done at the preference of the tribes, most of whom continue to prefer ‘First Nations’ over its crude predecessor.
The First Nations people were the original settlers of Canada, the ‘indian’ tribes that inhabited the land. Although it is impossible to be sure, it’s speculated that their ancestors traveled to North America across the Bering Strait and by way of Greenland fifteen to twenty thousand years ago.
The population of the First Nations was once much larger than it is today. As with many of the native tribes of North America, disease carried into their midst by the Europeans swept through their population in a deadly epidemic. This caused some nations, such as the Beothuk, to disappear completely. (The last member of the Beothuk died in 1829 of tuberculosis.)
Since the introduction of the Europeans the people of the First Nations have been “encouraged” to adopt a European/Canadian culture, a movement that has been exacerbated by pressure from the government to set up a Canadian residential school and laws passed forbidding the practice of many of the native ceremonies, such as the Potlach.
These attempts eventually failed, but the damage done by these measures was both severe and irreparable.
While ideally the Canadian government would recognize the value of the preservation of the culture of these incredible tribes, the simple truth is that in spite of the best efforts of individuals determined to change the inevitable outcome time and progress wait for no man.
It is up to the First Nations people to ensure that their way of life is not forgotten, and they have done so spectacularly. The culture and history of the First Nations lives on in the stories, songs and first nations art handed down from generation to generation.