Thoughts From a "Lost Canadian" About Canadian History - the First Nations Peoples & the Arrival of Europeans

Yesterday I wrote while I know some things about Canada, there are many things I do not yet know, and since I'm a "Lost Canadian" I've decided to learn, really learn about Canada. I started at the beginning (as we all know this is a very good place to start!) and learned about the First Nations Peoples who migrated to Canada from Beringia and I am very happy to share with you the things I am learning about what happened when the first people arrived in North America from Europe. 

• We do have evidence of Vikings reaching Newfoundland in 1021 where they built a small village at  L'Anse aux Meadows.
• Archeologists say the Vikings did not stay more than a few years as they had conflicts with the First Nations Peoples.
• In 1497 an Italian explorer named John Cabot landed in Newfoundland or Cape Breton Island trying to find a way to India.
• Over the ensuing years, Basque, Portuguese, French, and English fishermen visited the Atlantic coasts for seasonal fishing and trading before permanent colonization began.
• Jacques Cartier (1534) sailed into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, met local First Nations Peoples, and claimed the land for France,
• Samuel de Champlain in 1608 began permanent settlements such as Quebec City.
• The first permanent English settlement was Cuper's Cove in Newfoundland in 1610.
• First Nations Peoples traded beaver pelts with the Europeans for things like metal tools and guns.
• The First Nations Peoples acted as much needed guides, and taught the newcomers how to find food, build shelters, and make plant-based medicines to survive harsh Canadian winters.
• French and British traders often married Indigenous women, creating familial bonds and new cultural groups like the Métis. We believe this happened in my family as we think my great-great-great-great grandma was Mi'kmaq and we know she married a man from England in Nova Scotia.
• The French and British competed for land and trade and some First Nations People built alliances with the French and others with the British.
• As happened with the Native Peoples in the US, Europeans brought infectious diseases like smallpox and influenza. First Nations had no natural immunity, leading to catastrophic population losses.
• Indigenous nations and local populations largely felt British rule offered better stability and protection for their lands and interests than an unpredictable American republic, so they did not help them during the Revolutionary War.
• The United States actually tried to take Canada during the Revolutionary War, but the invasion failed.
• After the US's revolutionary war, around 40,000 to 50,000 United Empire Loyalists—colonists who remained faithful to the British Crown—fled the newly independent United States and moved to Canada.
• These settlers relocated to Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and parts of Ontario, drastically increasing the English-speaking population and laying the foundation for future Canadian provinces.
• Iroquois) and other Indigenous nations who allied with Britain lost significant ancestral homelands south of the Great Lakes when the British ceded those territories to the U.S. in the Treaty of Paris. Many relocated to British-controlled lands, such as the Grand River or the Bay of Quinte.
• The Constitutional Act of 1791 divided the region into Upper Canada (mostly English-speaking Protestant, modern-day Ontario) and Lower Canada (mostly French-speaking Catholic, modern-day Quebec).
• The war permanently shifted Canada from a predominantly French and Indigenous territory under British military rule into a divided bicultural and bilingual foundation (English and French).
• In 1807, the British Parliament prohibited the buying and selling of slaves, and in 1833 abolished slavery throughout the Empire. Thousands of slaves escaped from the United States, followed “the North Star” and settled in Canada via the Underground Railroad, a Christian anti-slavery network.

The arrival of European peoples in Canada had a significant impact on the First Nations Peoples and the land which for thousands of years had been the home of First Nations Peoples. Sadly, as the numbers of Europeans grew in Canada and they felt they no longer needed the First Nations Peoples as allies and partners and ended up pushing them onto reservations and forcing the children into residential schools - as happened here in the US. But, in 2008, Ottawa formally apologized to the former students and today Canada seems to be committed to reconciliation to address these injustices and rebuild relationships with the First Nations Peoples. 

Canada is a mix of First Nations Peoples, Europeans, Americans who moved to Canada after the Revolutionary War, and Slaves who escaped North to Canada - and now today there are people from around the world who make Canada their home! 

On their offical website, Canada says; "Canada is often referred to as a land of immigrants because, over the past 200 years, millions of newcomers have helped to build and defend our way of life. In Canada the state has traditionally partnered with faith communities to promote social welfare, harmony and mutual respect; to provide schools and health care; to resettle refugees; and to uphold religious freedom, religious expression and freedom of conscience. Canada’s diversity includes gay and lesbian Canadians, who enjoy the full protection of and equal treatment under the law, including access to civil marriage. Together, these diverse groups, sharing a common Canadian identity, make up today’s multicultural society."

You will find more information about the history of Canada at this link.