History | Canada's Indigenous Water Crisis

http://origins.osu.edu/article/canada-s-dark-side-indigenous-peoples-and-canada-s-150th-celebration — Taken at Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Canada on July 1st, 2017. Indigenous protesters build a teepee in defiance of Canada’s 150th birthday celebrations. Photo credit: TML Weekly Information Project.

Canada Day: July 1st, 2017

Canadians from across the country celebrated the 150th anniversary of the formation of a nation. But, the reference to the 1867 establishment date overlooked the generations of Indigenous peoples who had called the land “home” long before European settlement (Neylan, 2018). This is one small example of an ongoing push to get Canada to acknowledge the histories of the Indigenous people. This acknowledgement encompasses much more than a people and their culture, but years of oppression imposed from a government level.

A Look Back in Time

As previously covered in the section on Indigenous Peoples in Canada, the First Nations people were with whom the European settlers had first contact with upon arrival in what is now known as eastern Canada. Including the eastern regions, they inhabited different geographical locations across Canada that historians have grouped into six categories based on culture (Government of Canada, 2017). These are highlighted in the map below. Each region vastly differed in certain attributes such as hunting styles that were tailored to suit the environment.

http://www.canadiangeographic.com/atlas/themes.aspx?id=first&sub=first_cultures_subarctic&lang=En — The six major cultural groups of Canada’s First People. Click on the link to explore an interactive map.

From first arrival to the modern era, the relationships between both the French and British explorers with First Nations people has been anything but consistent. The Europeans sought to communicate “peace” with the establishment of treaties (Hall, 2011). In essence, these treaties were ways for the Europeans to gain access to natural resources and create alliances in trade and warfare. In the modern era, these treaties divide two nations and are subject to misinterpretations that have stripped away many Indigenous rights including those of their environments. Certain movements such as Idle No More highlight the rights of Indigenous peoples written in these treaties that are often overlooked.