The largest of the First Nations groups is the Cree, which includes about 120,000 people. In Canada, the word Indian has a legal definition contained in the Indian Act of 1876.People legally defined as Indians are known as status Indians. A person is considered to live in a low-income situation if they are part of a household whose total income (after taxes) is less than half of the national median household income, adjusted for household size. During the first two decades of the 19th century, HBC and the Northwest Company advanced even further along the North and South Saskatchewan, Assiniboine and Athabasca rivers (among others) in a race to reach First Nations hunters and their fur reserves.
Fifthly, as part of the new fiscal relationship, the department is working with the First Nations Assembly and the First Nations Information Governance Center to jointly develop and collaborate with First Nations on a results-based national framework to better measure and report on the closing of socio-economic gaps between First Nations and non-indigenous Canadians. First Nations did not oppose this process and, in many cases, pressured Canada to sign treaties in areas where it was not prepared to do so. The inclusion of this element in the Act is a deliberate recognition of the essential role that services play in the lives of indigenous peoples, as well as of the role played by decision-making on the design, development and delivery of services in providing indigenous communities with the capacity to promote self-determination. Even Indians without social status, whose national rate of knowledge of indigenous languages is less than two percent, have a rate close to 10% in Saskatchewan.
In addition to these three distinct social orders, the First Nations of the Pacific Coast had a well-defined aristocratic class that was considered superior by birth. Faced with a sharp drop in fur stocks, HBC governors in London responded by adopting the tactics of their rivals and abandoning the use of First Nations intermediaries. The Indian Act was based on the premise that it was the responsibility of the Crown to care for and protect the interests of the First Nations. As Corwn-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada works to promote a nation-to-nation relationship, from Inuit to crown, from government to government, based on rights and respect, Indigenous Services Canada will strengthen these efforts by working with indigenous peoples to support their agency in designing and delivering services essential to the well-being of their communities and fundamental to their self-determination.
These projects included initiatives to address long-term warnings about drinking water, building and renovating housing to help ensure that First Nations have access to safe spaces in which to live (a total of 1,561 new homes and 3,169 renovated homes), and building, renovating or upgrading schools to create quality learning environments and promote better educational outcomes for First Nations students living on reserves (a total of 18 new schools and 58 renovated schools or improved). Specifically, the two Robinson treaties ceded the lands and rights of the First Nations to the Crown in exchange for reserves, annuities, and the continued right of the First Nations to hunt and fish on the unoccupied lands of the Crown. The Government of Canada is committed to achieving reconciliation with First Nations, the Mestizos and the Inuit by renewing relations between nations, between the government and the Inuit Crown based on the affirmation and application of rights, respect, cooperation and partnership, the promotion of respect for the rights of indigenous peoples recognized and affirmed in article 35 of the Constitutional Act of 1982 and the implementation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples;. Legislation became increasingly restrictive and imposed ever greater controls on the lives of First Nations.
Therefore, in order to study the traditional cultures of the First Nations, historians have tended to group the First Nations of Canada according to the six main geographical areas of the country as it exists today. This work is a key step in addressing disparities and inequities in socioeconomic conditions between First Nations and other Canadians. . .
