-a First Nations’ Challenge Today’s Aboriginals -a First Nations’ Challenge

Indigenous People of Canada Inuit - indigenous people of Canada’s Arctic regions Métis – descendents of the children of aboriginal and French Canadian/ English settlers First Nations -group of aboriginal people who share the same culture, history and heritage.

First Nation Communities in Canada Where do we see the greatest concentration of First Nation Peoples? Western BC Western and Central On

POPULATION Population reporting Aboriginal ancestry (origin), Canada, 1901-2001

POPULATION So what do we notice about this graph? Large increase in aboriginal population over the last 100 years -in actual fact there’s been a 10 fold increase compared to a 6 fold increase in non-aboriginal population Why? Improved health Increased life expectancy The Aboriginal birth rate is 1.5 times that of non-Aboriginal birth rate What is a reserve? A piece of land, owned by the government, for the use and benefit of a band According to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, of the total Status Indian population: 62 percent live on-reserve (471,900). 38 percent reside off-reserve (284,800) in urban, rural, special access and remote areas. The on-reserve Status Indian population is growing at a rate of 2.3 percent per year, nearly three times the overall Canadian rate. It is expected to increase by 49 percent between 2005 and 2021, compared with 11 percent for the Canadian population as a whole.

AGE Average Age of the population reporting a North American Indian identity and non-Aboriginal population, Canada, provinces and territories, 2001   Median age (years) North American Indian Non-Aboriginal Canada 23.5 37.7 Newfoundland and Labrador 26.7 38.5 Prince Edward Island 23.8 37.4 Nova Scotia 24.0 38.7 New Brunswick 25.7 Quebec 27.4 Ontario 27.0 37.1 Manitoba 20.4 Saskatchewan 18.4 38.8 Alberta 21.2 35.4 British Columbia 25.9 Yukon Territory 27.9 Northwest Territories 24.8 34.5 Nunavut 24.9 35.2 (1) Median age is the point at which exactly half of the population is older and half is younger

Create a double line graph showing the median ages for both Canadian Aboriginal and Non-Aboriginal Populations. The x-axis will list the provinces and territories and the y-axis will be median age Average Age of the population reporting a North American Indian identity and non-Aboriginal population, Canada, provinces and territories, 2001

Some more information about Aboriginals: A First Nations man will die 7.4 years earlier than a non-Aboriginal Canadian. A First Nations woman will die 5.2 years earlier than her non-Aboriginal counterpart (life expectancy for First Nations citizens is estimated at 68.9 years for males and 76.6 years for females) In 2001, a total of 198,595 Aboriginal people reported having an Aboriginal mother tongue, down 3.5% from 205,800 in 1996. As was the case for knowledge, there were declines in the number of persons with Cree, Ojibway and Blackfoot as mother tongues. About 65% of Aboriginal children living on reserves lived with two parents. This compares with only 50% in census metropolitan areas. In contrast, almost 83% of non-Aboriginal children lived with two parents. George et al. (1994) found that, in 1990, the employment rate of Canadians of non-Aboriginal origins was 70.4%, or 11.7% higher than the employment rate of Aboriginals which was at only 58.7%. Canada dropped from first to eighth as the best country in the world to live primarily due to housing and health conditions in First Nations communities. The First Nations suicide rate is more than twice the Canadian rate. Suicide is now among the leading causes of death among First Nations between the ages of 10 and 24, with the rate estimated to be five to six times higher than that of non-Aboriginal youth.

About 70% of First Nations students on-reserve will never complete high school. Graduation rates for the on-reserve population range from 28.9%-32.1% annually There has been literally no progress over the last four years in closing the gap in high school graduation rates between First Nations and other Canadians. At the current rate, it will take 28 years for First Nations to catch-up to the non-Aboriginal population Unemployment rates for all Aboriginal groups continue to be at least double the rate of the non-Aboriginal population. Registered Indians have the highest unemployment rate of any Aboriginal group, at 27% Health Canada states that as of May 2003, 12% of First Nations communities had to boil their drinking water and approximately ¼ of water treatment systems on-reserve pose a high risk to human health

Treaties Iroquois Chiefs from the Six Nations Reserve reading Wampum belts. Numbered Treaty One with the First Nations of Manitoba Crowd assembled for treaty payment, Fort Rae, Northwest Territories

What is a Treaty? Treaty: An agreement or arrangement made by negotiation. For example, a contract in writing between two or more political authorities or parties, formally signed by their representatives and duly recognized as binding.

Copy of a treaty document map and signatures

Short clip on the Dene Natives: This tribe of Northern Saskatchewan natives (also known as Chipewyan) occupy territory from Lake Athabasca to Wollaston