History of Canada – Aboriginal Peoples

Maps about Canada’s history have been integral to the success of all six editions of The Atlas of Canada. Maps on exploration and territorial evolution represent the core of the historical content in all editions. The maps that fall in the category of history reconstruct past geographies through an understanding of the cultures, economies and politics that governed the people and their relationships to each other and to their environment. This level of interpretation can only be derived from a detailed analysis of the historical record, as provided by written documents, maps and archaeological studies. Historical geography plays an important role in learning about our country as it was in the past, thereby helping us to understand the many issues of the present. The selection of historical maps follows, more or less chronologically by year (and not by Atlas edition), Canada’s history from about 1630, the beginning of European colonization, to 1949, when Newfoundland joined Confederation.

Native Peoples, 1630 Map

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Native Peoples, 1630 map

The map represents a temporal cross-section of Aboriginal peoples early in the seventeenth century. It shows the location of Aboriginal peoples prior to the great eastern population dislocations precipitated by the fur trade, intertribal war and epidemic European diseases. It represents a period during which a great deal of distributional information had been compiled in documents and maps.

Native Peoples, 1740 Map

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Native Peoples, 1740 map

The map represents one hundred and fifty years of Aboriginal-European contact at the height of the French regime. Good manuscript and printed map coverage for New France and Hudson Bay, along with contemporary population estimates, are available for this period. Population data for 1740 are based on censuses conducted by the French in 1739 to 1741 in order to assess the number of warriors within their alliance system. On the basis of these, as well as other estimates, it is likely that the Aboriginal population depicted on the Canadian portion of this map stood at about 45 000. Based on data from the late 18th and 19th centuries and making allowances for the ravages of disease and war, it is likely that the total Aboriginal population of Canada in 1740 did not exceed 200 000.

Native Peoples, 1823 Map

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Native Peoples, 1823 map

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 the 250 000 estimated for the early 1630s. Until the late 18th century, this decline was due largely 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, over hunting and over trapping were changing the Aboriginal subsistence base.

Indian Treaties Map

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Indian Treaties map

The map depicts the history of Canadian and Aboriginal relations between 1725 and 1923 in terms of political agreements called treaties. These treaties varied in purpose and scope, depending upon the circumstances and objectives of the parties making them. The early treaties were made for peace, trade, alliance, neutrality and military support. As European settlement grew, treaties were made to establish relations for peaceful coexistence and to acquire Aboriginal lands and resources. After Confederation, the treaty-making process became more complex and difficult to negotiate as the Government of Canada sought to build its new country.