Aboriginal Peoples circa 1823

View this map

---

Abstract

This map shows the distribution of Aboriginal peoples at the height of British rule when the Hudson's Bay Company dominated the fur trade. Ethnohistorical societies are identified on the map by the major linguistic family to which they belong. Ethnohistorical societies are Aboriginal peoples that were known by name and location to Europeans early in the nineteenth century. A linguistic family code identifies each ethnohistorical society on the map and is used to reference specific information for each ethnohistorical society.

---

ABORIGINAL PEOPLES IN CANADA circa 1823 depicts an early nineteenth century European view of the Aboriginal population in Canada. The year 1823 was selected for this map because unusually complete population and locational data are available for a large part of Canada from a census ordered by the Governor and Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company in 1822.

• Distribution and Location of Aboriginal Peoples circa 1823

In the early 1820s the aboriginal population of what is now Canada stood at about 150 000, a significant drop from the 200 000 estimated for the 1740s and 250 000 estimated for the early 1630s. Up to the late 18th century this decline was largely due to epidemic diseases and to a lesser extent warfare. As the 19th century progressed, disease continued to take a dreadful toll across Canada, but starvation increasingly manifested itself in the eastern parts of the country where the spread of European settlement, overhunting and overtrapping were changing the Aboriginal subsistence base.

Hudson's Bay Company 1822 Census of the Aboriginal Population

In 1821, the Northwest Company and the Hudson's Bay Company, the last remaining major fur companies in British North America, merged after many years of fierce competition. This merger made it necessary to take stock of posts, personnel, transportation systems, and fur and food resources in the vast territory now under monopoly control. This reappraisal was needed in order to rationalize the fur trade into a profitable system based on a sustained yield.

[D]
Click for larger version, 12 KB
The North West Company house on Vaudreuil Street, Montreal. The company was first formed in the 1770s by a group of fur merchants.

One aspect of this reappraisal was a census of the Aboriginal population ordered on February 27, 1822, by the Governor and Committee of the Hudson's Bay Company. In accordance with these instructions, George Simpson, Governor of the Company's Northern Department, issued a directive to the traders in the various districts:

"…to furnish particular reports of the general total of Indians within their jurisdiction; particularizing the Tribes, Chiefs, Heads of Families and followers, with the District of Country in which they hunt…"

By the end of 1823, most officers of the Company had complied; some in astonishing detail. Since the above was made a standing order, additional information was gathered with the expansion of trade into new areas or as traders gained greater familiarity with the various aboriginal groups with whom they had contact. Although the individual enumerations and estimates by the traders were never compiled into a comprehensive report, the data were used by the Company in its planning process.