Those British and French fighting again...

Since Canada is not a visible as, for example the USA, we sometimes tend to forget that it has a history too, and, surprise surprise, it is also a post-colonial one.

The first European contacts to be reported are previous to the Spanish discovery of America. The first attempts to colonize what is now called Canada were made by the Norse people, and they actually wrote about it, The Icelandic Sagas, if you liked Beowulf, you just can't go wrong with this one. This all was just an attempt, the poor Norsemen couldn't stand the weather and the harassment of the native people.

Later on and thanks to the Treaty of Tordesillas, Portugal obtained some right over the Canadian land, but it didn't last because around the second half of the 16^th century they decided to focus on Brazil.

But the land didn't stay 'inhabited' long, in 1534, the first French settlers arrived and in 1608 geographer Samuel de Champlain founded what today is Quebec city, first permanent settlement of New France.

Now, English and French can't be apart, and in 1583, the English claimed St. Jonh's,

Newfoundland as the first North American colony. Then in 1622 the first group of Scotish people was sent to Canada to start a new settlement, but this didn't succeed, and Nova Scotia settlements were not permanent after the Anglo-French War (1627 – 1629). Unfortunately for the English in 1631 these territories went back to French control. During this period the inhabitants of New France were rather busy trying to create an empire.

By 1700, the French were well established, but... hold on, the empire strikes back. Well, not the empire, the English, almost the same. French settlers stopped coming to Canada, resulting in their outnumber by English and Scottish.

All these tensions ended with the French and Indian Wars, and later on with some wars with the English. Not surprising, its genetics, if they have a chance to start a war between them, they will.

In 1710 the British conquered Acadia and after the Treaty of Utrech, France had to cede what they had gotten in the Battle of Hudson's Bay. But don't think they just stood there, France then founded the powerful Fortress of Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island.

But the drama did not stop there, even after the treaty there was war and in 1755 the British ordered the expulsion of the Acadians to other French colonies (still, a big number of them went to Louisiana where they created the Cajun culture, remember The Awakening?).

By 1760 both Quebec and Montreal were under British control. After the Seven Years War and the Treaty of Paris (1763) ceded almost all its territory in North America and took instead the Caribbean colony of Guadeloupe. Britain took over, but protected the religious, social and political rights as well as the culture of the French inhabitants. Something very clever if you ask me, I can totally understand that they wanted to preserve “poutine”, such a delicious thing.

Slightly off-topic, but here's a poutine picture. Typical food from Montreal,.

I think this is quite enough for an introduction, but now you get an idea of where the Canadian identity (or rather its European origins) comes from.

Now, you might have noticed that we have been talking about Canada as an empty land (definition that later on would be given to Australia), but that was not the case, there were plenty of people, people who didn't care about “poutine” at all.

Canada was a vastly populated land, with people going from the Artic to the actual US border (another interesting topic, since some of these nations are divided by a demarcation that they don't recognize, but we'll leave for another time maybe).

Nowadays the word aborigine is the one used since 1980, and according to the Constitution there are all of these nations: Abenaki, Akaitcho, Algonquin, Anishinaabe, Athapaskan, Atikamekwa, Blackfoot, Cayuse, Chippewa, Colville, Cowichan, Cree, Deh cho, Ditidaht, Dogrib, Dunneza, Gitksan, Gwich’in, Haida, Haisla, Heitsuk, Hurón-wendat, Iroquois (Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Oneida, Tuscarona and Mohawk) , Kaska, Katzie, Ktunaxa, Kutchin, Kwantlen, Kwakiutl, Lubicon cree, Malecita, Micmac, Montagnais, Musqueam, Naskapi, Na-cho nyak dun, Nakoda, Nicola, Nisga’a, Nuxálk, Odawa, Ojibway-chippewa, Okanagan, Oneida, Palus, Potawatomi, Shatu, Sinixt, St’at’imc, Tahltan, Tanana, Tasltine, Tlingit, Tsimshian, Tsuu t’ina, Walastakwewinowok, Wasco, Wishram, Yakima and Yupik. Plus Métis and Inuits.

And all of us thinking it was just those British and French fighting again....

Here it is a map of the native lands and tribes at the time of the European contacts taken from http://www.canadahistoryproject.ca/1500/ a very useful page if you want to know more about Canadian history.

Regarding native people, and I know it is stating the obvious, they had their own languages and cultures, as well as a literary tradition. This tradition was oral, but thanks to works such as The Rez Sisters or authors like Jeannette Armstrong (who actually created the term “orature” as a reference to the new native literary tradition, that is, a mixture of oral and written tradition) among many others, they have survived until now, so we can enjoy them.

All of these cultural references and traditions, in addition to language will be found in the works of Native authors.

Ok everybody, I think this is it for today! Do you think natives and native culture are survivors?