Aboriginal Peoples circa 1740

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Distribution and Location of Aboriginal Peoples circa 1740

The distribution and location of ethnohistorical societies circa 1740 shows the changes in the distribution of Aboriginal peoples which took place between the time of first European contact to the height of the French Regime in New France. At its height the French were the major influence in both the east and the central interior of present day Canada.

Changes in the distribution of Aboriginal peoples during the period 1630 to 1740 can best be described in a series of time periods.

• Aboriginal Distributions 1630 to 1653
• Aboriginal Distributions 1660 to 1670
• Aboriginal Distributions 1680 to 1701
• Aboriginal Distributions 1702 to 1740
• Aboriginal Distributions 1740

These changes can be attributed to several factors, principal among them were the spread of epidemic diseases, warfare, and the repercussions of European settlement and imperial commercial rivalries.

Aboriginal Distributions 1630 to 1653

The repeated outbreak of influenza, measles and smallpox had a devastating effect on Canada's indigenous population. Indeed, seventeenth century observations suggest that deaths from these diseases resulted in a decline of between one-half and two-thirds of the Aboriginal population of eastern North America during the first one hundred years of European contact.

Another principal factor that had an impact on the Aboriginal population was warfare. Warfare had been part of Aboriginal life before European contact. In eastern Canada some of the Montagnais, Algonquin and all the Huron were allied against the Iroquois.

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An unsuccessful attack by the French and Huron allies on an Iroquois (either Onondaga or Oneida) Village south-east of Lake Ontario.

In order to settle peacefully among these people and establish trade relations, the French were obliged to join the northern alliance while the Dutch (and after 1664, the English) sided with the Iroquois. By the 1640s, Aboriginal warfare had become more destructive. Bent on increasing their population losses by absorbing the Ontario Iroquoian groups and extending their hunting ranges, the Iroquois, armed with Dutch muskets, destroyed the northern alliance (1640 to 1653). These wars resulted in a significant drop in population, the disappearance and amalgamation of some groups and a radical shift in the distribution of most of the remainder.

Aboriginal Distributions 1660 to 1670

By the late 1660s, the French had re-established missionary and trading contacts with refugee groups now in the Lake Michigan-Superior area. Over time these groups became bound to New France through alliances. At the same time an effort was made to neutralize the Iroquois through diplomacy (1654 to 1658) and war (1666).

The Iroquois peace of 1667 permitted the return of many of the Algonquian groups who had fled westward in 1650 to 1653. Their return was hastened in 1670 when the Dakota retaliated against Huron-Petun-Ottawa attempts to take some of their hunting territory. Although French trade in the interior was officially illegal during this period French coureurs-de-bois reached the western Great Lakes and began to trade directly with Aboriginal groups.

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Rival fur traders racing to an Indian camp

The fur trade, as it was pursued by the French, was largely dependent on peaceful Aboriginal relations and traditional Aboriginal ways of life. Both the fur trade and conventional Aboriginal lifestyles were dependent on the exploitation of a wilderness. European settlement, however, was an agent that transformed the wilderness and was therefore incompatible with the fur trade.

The conflicts that ensued as a result of these opposing interests were aggravated by European views (particularly among the Dutch and English) that saw no place for Aboriginal groups settled in their midst. On the east coast, the expansion of Dutch and English settlement precipitated either the destruction or the permanent dislocation of Aboriginal groups. Some were absorbed by their more resilient neighbours, while others drifted west into the Ohio area or north to the St. Lawrence. On Newfoundland, the Beothuk were gradually forced into the interior of the island, away from their coastal resources.

On the other hand, French settlements in Acadia and the St. Lawrence were located in areas that had been uninhabited by Aboriginal groups or, at the most, only seasonally occupied. The fact that settlement in New France did not have the same disruptive impact on Aboriginal lands, coupled with a mutual economic interest in the fur trade, permitted the French to establish better relations with their Aboriginal neighbours.

Aboriginal Distributions 1680 to 1701

Another transformation of Aboriginal geography began in the 1680s. Encouraged by the English, the resurgent Iroquois renewed war against the French and their Aboriginal allies, disrupting the southern frontier of New France, while on its northern frontier, growing competition from the Hudson's Bay Company was making itself felt. In the interior, rival French traders were agitating for a solution that would lead to an equitable distribution of the fur trade. Faced with these problems, France finally decided to take action.

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Ojibway Indians shooting the rapids, by Frederick Arthur Verner (1836 to 1928)

In 1681 the interior fur trade was legalized through a permit system, and in 1686 the English posts on James Bay were taken by military action. The fur trade became firmly entrenched in the hands of the French as the number of posts under their control increased. Furs began to flood into Montreal, creating a glut of beaver on the market by 1690s.

Military action against the Iroquois began in 1687 with an attack on the Seneca. Warriors from virtually every French allied Aboriginal group took part in this campaign. Following retaliatory Iroquois raids on their settlements, the French launched further attacks on the Iroquois in 1693 (Mohawk) and 1697 (Onondaga and Oneida).

Deserted by the English, who had made a separate peace with France (1697), the Iroquois finally signed a treaty of neutrality in 1701. This marked an end to major French-Iroquois hostilities until the Seven Years War.

With the costly Iroquois wars at an end, the frontier at peace, and the glut of beaver that had accumulated over the years, France decided to close most of its interior posts in 1696. The founding of Detroit in 1701 as the major French post in the interior, the outbreak of hostilities with the Dakota and the Iroquois peace of 1701, led to a major shift of Aboriginal groups into the vacant lands of southern Ontario and the Wabash-Maumee River-Detroit area.

In the north, some groups gravitated to the north shore of Lake Superior to trade at Albany on James Bay, retaken by the English in 1693. The Ojibwa, who managed to maintain good relations with the Dakota, began their westward migration along the south shore of Lake Superior.

Aboriginal Distributions 1702 to 1740

War between England and France broke out again in 1702 and ended with the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713. The Treaty stipulated that the lower Great Lakes-Ohio area be open to the trade of both nations and that a commission settle the bounds between New France, the eastern English colonies and the English on Hudson Bay. New France was in danger of losing the North American interior if Aboriginal trade were to continue unchecked to Hudson Bay, and to the itinerant Iroquois and English traders in the lower Great Lakes-Ohio area.

The French moved quickly to reopen and extend their string of posts. As a result, all southern posts were garrisoned, and their commandants instructed to maintain Aboriginal alliances with lavish gifts, and use force if necessary.

Further to the northwest, the Assiniboin and Cree, armed with Hudson's Bay Company muskets began to move into the territory occupied by the Blackfoot, Gros Ventre and Chipewyan in order to secure new trapping territory and to consolidate their position as middlemen in the European trade.

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Cree Camp

Not all Aboriginal groups could be persuaded to return to the French alliance. Beginning in 1712 French troops fought a series of wars against the Fox which did not end until 1734. These wars led to a number of other clashes with some of the Aboriginal groups between the lower Great Lakes and the Mississippi. The Miami and the Detroit Huron also clashed with the French and as a result moved south into the Ohio area. Some of the Ojibwa were attacked by the Dakota and moved into the area between Lake Superior and Rainy Lake, eventually reaching Lake Winnipeg and the bison-rich plains. This precipitated the movement of the Ojibwa to the northwest. However, the old animosities between the Dakota and the Assiniboin-Cree-Ojibwa did not end until the 19th century.

Aboriginal Distributions 1740

By 1740 a number of trends had become clearly established that affected the lives of Aboriginal peoples. Both European powers tried to extend control over the interior of North America through Aboriginal alliances. Instead of using English troops, the Atlantic colonies worked through an alliance system, dominated by the Iroquois in order to harass or cajole Aboriginal groups into leaving the French area along the southern Great Lakes frontier.

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A reproduction painting of a C.W. Jeffery's work on the cover of a 1915 Hudson's Bay Company Calendar, depicting the chartering of the HBC in 1670 in London, England as the "Company of Merchant Adventurers Trading into Hudson's Bay".

Although the Hudson's Bay Company did not encourage warfare, their Aboriginal trading partners used muskets to good advantage to extend the influence of the Company far into the western interior of Canada. Threatened by English-sponsored pressure from the north and south, the French responded with garrisoned posts and direct intervention with troops in order to preserve their alliance system and trade.

Both European powers were well aware that their imperial ambitions could only be maintained with Aboriginal help. The ensuing wars, some due to pre-European animosities, others instigated or encouraged by the European powers, were the dominant cause of Aboriginal population movements.

In the Arctic, contact with the eastern and central Inuit was sporadic and judged to be unprofitable by the English. The Inuit generally avoided European contact and managed to maintain a traditional way of life. The locations of Inuktitkuk groups are based on limited European knowledge at this time and are based on later contemporary sources.