Canada is home to Aboriginal Peoples who are seeking recognition and self-determination on the world stage.

Many of today's Indigenous Rights issues are rooted in historic experiences and injustices, making knowledge of indigenous histories important for mapping a way forward. As discussed, Indigenous Peoples have unique and varied histories, which are impossible to completely or accurately summarize in just a few pages.  However, there are some experiences which are common to many Indigenous Peoples.  This section highlights some of those common experiences and provides examples from the history of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada.

Indigenous Peoples historically have one of the earliest connections to the lands which they inhabit.  For instance, Indigenous peoples have lived in North America for between 15,000 and 40,000 years.    Before the arrival of Europeans, there were many Indigenous societies and cultural groups speaking over fifty languages across the continent.

The connection of Indigenous Peoples to traditional lands was often disrupted with the arrival of colonizers or settler communities. In many cases, they were displaced or pushed off their homelands as a result of the growth in trade (e.g. beaver and other furs in North America, precious minerals in South America), agricultural, industrial and natural resource development and urban growth. In other cases Indigenous Peoples were forcibly removed from their territories.  

European colonizers first began to establish permanent communities in North America during the 17th century and moved their way across the continent right up to the 20th century (in the north). While the arrival of Europeans dramatically affected the lives of Aboriginal peoples, Aboriginal peoples also influenced the lives of European colonizers. Alliances between Europeans and Aboriginal peoples had important impacts in a number of colonial wars, including the American War of Independence and the War of 1812.  Aboriginal peoples also shared their knowledge and expertise on how to adapt to the challenging North American environment with European colonizers. This knowledge, along with Aboriginal technologies like snowshoes and the canoe, became essential to Europeans' survival in the North American wilderness.

Indigenous Peoples faced cultural discrimination as colonizers and settlers tried to impose European lifestyles, cultural practices, values, languages and religion on Indigenous communities. This attempt to assimilate the Indigenous peoples, in some instances led to more drastic measures bordering on genocide .

European colonizers brought foreign diseases (notably small pox and typhus), which decimated Indigenous populations and threatened the very survival of some Indigenous groups. Disease, displacement and violence took its toll: by the mid-nineteenth century Indigenous peoples became a minority in North America for the first time in history.

In the 19th century, in response to the pressures arising from displacement and conflict, colonial governments adopted policies to isolate Indigenous communities on reserves and assimilate them into the European culture. The belief was that once on reserve lands, Indigenous people would become farmers, send their children to European-style schools, and convert to Christianity. Underlying this policy was a belief in the superiority of European civilization and the need to ‘civilize' Indigenous peoples.

In some cases colonizing powers signed agreements or treaties, where Indigenous Peoples gave up use of certain lands in exchange for reserves, payments or other rights (e.g., hunting, fishing).  However, many of the terms and promises of land established in treaties have not historically been met.   In many cases Indigenous Peoples were forced off their homelands. For these groups, control and uses of traditional lands remains an important and unresolved issue.  

The Royal Proclamation of 1763 recognized the land rights of some Aboriginal peoples in Canada and "established that the rights could only be purchased by the Crown...The Proclamation, however, does not state the exact western extent of these reserved lands, nor does it refer explicitly to the Maritime provinces."   In the 19th centuries, as pressures mounted on Aboriginal communities in North America (this also occurred in New Zealand), some signed agreements or treaties, with the Crown (Britain and then Canada). They gave up their traditional lands in exchange for reserves, payments or other rights. Other Aboriginal groups, especially the West Coast Aboriginals, and the Inuit never entered into such treaties. The absence of treaties as well as unmet or disputed terms of these agreements continue to be a source of conflict and frustration today.

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