Browse "Indigenous People"

​In the first decade of the 19th century, relations between Great Britain and the United States deteriorated, primarily due to the widening influence of the Napoleonic Wars.

Alex Monkman was a constant advocate of roads to the Grande Prairie. In the early 1920s he and some companions discovered a pass lower than the Yellowhead Pass through the Rocky Mountains.

Alikomiak (also spelled Alekámiaq) and Tatimagana, Inuit hunters from the central Arctic, were the first Inuit to be condemned and executed for murder under Canadian law on 1 February 1924. The trials of Alikomiak and Tatimagana have been described as demonstrations of federal authority over the Inuit as well as of Canadian sovereignty in the Arctic.

Almighty Voice (or Kitchi-manito-waya, meaning “Voice of the Great Spirit,” also known as Jean-Baptiste), Cree, outlaw (born around 1875 near Duck Lake, SK; died 30 May 1897 at Batoche, SK).

Anahareo, or Gertrude Philomen Bernard, CM, conservationist (born 18 June 1906 in Mattawa, ON; died 17 June 1986 in Kamloops, BC). An independent, forceful animal welfare advocate, Anahareo is credited with converting her husband, Grey Owl, into a conservationist.

Bastonnais Pangman, Métis buffalo hunter and leader (b at N Saskatchewan R 1778). A skilled hunter, he helped provide buffalo meat to the colony founded by Lord Selkirk in 1812-13.

Black Hawk (Black Sparrow Hawk, Makataimeshekiakiak), Sauk War Chief (b at Saukenuk, near Rock Island, Ill, 1767; d near Des Moines, Iowa, 3 Oct 1838).

Chanie “Charlie” Wenjack (born 19 January 1954; died 23 October 1966 near Redditt, ON). Chanie Wenjack, an Anishinaabe boy from Ontario, ran away from his residential school near Kenora at age 12, and subsequently died from hunger and exposure to the harsh weather. His death in 1966 sparked national attention and the first inquest into the treatment of Indigenous children in Canadian residential schools.

These big-game hunters sought mammoths, mastodons, camels and horses that were native to North America at the time. Following the retreat of the Wisconsin glaciers, these animals became extinct, hastening the end of this stage of North American Prehistory.

Cuthbert Grant, fur trader, Métis leader, captain of the Métis at Seven Oaks (b at Fort de la Rivière Tremblante [Sask] c 1793; d at White Horse Plains [St-François-Xavier, Man] 15 July 1854). Grant,

Dekanahwideh, "the Heavenly Messenger," reputed founder of the Five Nations Confederacy. He was said to have been born among the Huron of a virgin mother, and destined to bring peace and power to his people.

Demasduwit (also known as Shendoreth, Waunathoake, Mary March), one of the last of the Beothuk (born 1796; died 8 January 1820 at Bay of Exploits, Newfoundland). Demasduwit helped to preserve the Beothuk language and culture. In 2007, the Canadian government recognized her as a person of historic significance.

Deskaheh (also known as Levi General), Cayuga chief and speaker of the Six Nations Hereditary Council (born on the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford, Ontario in 1873; died at the Tuscarora Reservation, New York, on 25 June 1925).

Donnacona, St Lawrence Iroquoian leader (d in France probably in 1539), headman of the village of Stadacona [near Québec City] during Jacques Cartier's voyages of 1534-36, protested when Cartier raised his cross in Gaspé in July 1534.

Eenoolooapik, also known as Bobbie, Inuk traveller, guide (born at Qimisuk, Cumberland Sound, NWT 1820?; died at Cumberland Sound 1847), brother of Tookoolito. He travelled to Britain in 1839 with whaling captain William Penny, who had hoped to establish a wintering base for whalers in Cumberland Sound.

Gabriel Dumont, Métis leader (born December 1837 at Red River Settlement; died 19 May 1906 at Bellevue, SK). Dumont rose to political prominence in an age of declining buffalo herds and was concerned about the ongoing economic prosperity and political independence of his people.

Hiawatha is an important figure in the precolonial history of the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) of present-day southern Ontario and upper New York (ca. 1400-1450). He is known most famously for uniting the Five Nations—Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida and Mohawk—into a political confederacy. In 1722, the Tuscarora, a tribe from much farther south, joined the Confederacy, forming what we now know as the Six Nations. The story of Hiawatha should not be confused with the popular poem by Henry Wordsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha (1885). While Longfellow references Hiawatha, the poem’s focus is actually an Algonquian cultural hero, Nanabozho. Whether this was an intentional or accidental error, Longfellow’s poem confused the history of Hiawatha.

On the Council of Assiniboia 1868-69, McKay played a moderating part at the time of the first RIEL rising. He served Manitoba as president of the Executive Council, Speaker of the Legislative Council and minister of agriculture, and was on the Council of the North-West Territories 1873-75.

Jean-Louis Riel, (b at l'Île-à-la-Crosse, Sask. 1817; d at Saint-Boniface 1864), known as Louis Riel Sr/père, leader, patriot. Son of fur trader Jean-Baptiste Riel and a Métis woman, Marguerite Boucher.

The distinctive tools and weapons of the Labrador Archaic people included narrow spear or dart points with a stemmed base for hafting, flaked stone knives and, in some cases, small scrapers for preparing hides.