How have Aboriginals helped the formation of Canada?

author

Aboriginal people in Canada are Peoples recognized in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, sections 25 and 35, respectively as Indians, Métis, and Inuit. It also refers to self-identification of Aboriginal People who live within Canada, but who have not chosen to accept the extinction of their rights of Sovereignty or Aboriginal Title of their lands. These Indigenous Peoples who assert that their Sovereign rights have not been extinguished point to the Royal Proclamation of 1763 which is mentioned in the Canadian Constitution Act, 1982, Section 25, as well as to the British North America Act and the 1969 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties to which Canada and Great Britain are signatories, in support of this claim. The terms "First Peoples" and "First Nations" has also been used synonymously, and is occasionally used as a descriptive term by U.S. Native Americans in solidarity with their Canadian relatives. As of the 2006 Canadian Census there are over 1,172,790 Aboriginal people in Canada, 3.8% of the country's total population. This comprises 698,025 people of First Nations descent, 389,785 Métis, and 50,485 Inuit. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aboriginal_peoples_in_Canada Mar 05 08, 7:22 PM

randomguy55

Aboriginals figured more prominently in Canada's past, having been very valuable and indispensable fur traders, voyageurs (coureur de bois), frontiersmen, pioneers, and middlemen who communicated between the First Nations peoples and the European settlers and colonialists. Well known for their tracking, guiding, and interpretive skills, were often employed by the Northwest Mounted Police, as they are today by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Their large early contribution to Canada's evolution and formation as a nation has often been underestimated or downplayed by historians. Additionally, they also contributed to the overall survival skills for the first settlers of Canada. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%A9tis_people_%28Canada%29 Mar 05 08, 7:33 PM

McGruff

This sounds more like a discussion question than trivia. Please repost it in the forums or chatboards. Mar 05 08, 9:12 PM