The recognition of First Nations as distinct and autonomous nations as defined by the AFN in A Declaration of First Nations and as affirmed by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, is not well understood by many people living in Canada today. Anthropologists John McMillan and Eldon Yellowhorn (2005) write that:
“Canada’s common culture is built on the idea of two founding nations (English and French), and government support for two official languages entrenches that idea. It does not mention the country’s original inhabitants except in such commonly used phrases as ‘Canada’s Aboriginal People’ or ‘Canada’s First Nations’, which describe this relationship in possessive terms.” (p.318).
However, Indigenous peoples lived in these territories long before Canada existed. These diverse peoples had complex economic, political, social, and cultural systems. For example, the Great Law of Peace of the Haudenosaunee (or Iroquois) Confederacy, outlined a form of government and society based on values of peace, power and righteousness.
The tribes of the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Cayuga, the Seneca and the Onondaga united under the Haundenosaunee Confederacy, founded on the laws of peace, taught by Hiawatha as he traveled between communities.
A 2019 statement by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy criticizes Canada’s Indigenous Rights Framework on the basis that it undermines the Nation to Nation status upon which agreements and treaties between the British Crown and the First Nations were based.
The criticism is that the rights based approach, announced by PM Justin Trudeau in 2018, is a way to circumvent the conditions of treaties between the Crown and First Nations.
Thus it is important to understand the Great Law of Peace not simply as a lesson of past wisdom, nor as matter of cultural pride for the Nations but also as the essential foundation of treaties upon which land-claims are based and a living expression of self-determination.
Read the Yellowhead Institute’s critical examination of the Indigenous Rights Framework.
Aaron Carapella, a Cherokee from Oklahoma, made a map of Indigenous communities in Canada before the arrival of Settlers. It shows the locations of 212 Bands, each identified in its own Indigenous language. Prior to his mapping project of Canada, Carapella created a tribal map of the U.S. Starting the project at age 19, he spent 14 years on and off working on this project.
To make the map of Canada, Aaron relied heavily on telephone conversations with people from the different First Nations. He also drew on materials from cultural centres, Indigenous museums, web sites, and military and missionary reports. He made sure to always verify information with someone living in the community before confirming it on the map.
McMillan, J. & Yellowhorn, E. (2004). “Aboriginal People in Canada’s First
Century” (pp.318-322) in First Peoples in Canada. Vancouver and Toronto: Douglas & McIntyre.