What were the conditions of aboriginal people in Canada before and after colonization?

According to archaeological research and genetic analysis, human activity was present in northern Yukon at least 24,500 years ago, and human activity in Southern Ontario dates back to 7,500 B.C.

The Yukon Territory, one of Canada's 10 provinces and three territories, is located in the northwest of Canada and is named after the Yukon River, which flows through the territory. Yukon means "big river" in the Coventry language. Ontario is now located in the eastern part of Canada and covers an area of about 1 million square kilometers.

Archaeological data indicate that humans came from Siberia across the frozen Bering Strait to what is now Alaska as early as 12,000-20,000 years ago. DNA evidence discovered in recent years also verifies the existence of a strong link between the Mongolian race and the indigenous inhabitants of North America. The freezing of the Bering Strait has since melted, but the distance of only 50 miles between them did not stop the migration of the original Asian inhabitants to North America. As the glacial period came to an end, the settlers gradually dispersed throughout what is today Canada and became the main inhabitants of the country before the arrival of Europeans. These early settlers thrived on Canadian soil and became pioneers in pioneering the Canadian wilderness.

The remains of Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Cave are the oldest sites of human habitation in Canada. Canadian Aboriginal societies were characterized by permanent settlements, agricultural farming, complex social hierarchies, and trade networks. Some of these Aboriginal civilizations disintegrated before the arrival of European colonists in Canada, and today only archaeological excavations can be used to study those that have passed away.

Before the arrival of Europeans in North America at the end of the 15th century, Canada's Aboriginal peoples were dispersed, living from the Atlantic to the Pacific coasts and from the Great Lakes to the Arctic. The sparseness of the population in Canada's vast expanse and the natural environment that prevented them from communicating with each other led to a great diversity of languages among Canada's First Nations. According to statistics, there are more than 12 language families in Canada, with 53 different languages, including Athabaskan, Iroquois, and Algonquin.

At the time the first European settlers settled in Canada, the total population of Aboriginal people was estimated to be between 200,000 and 2 million.

Due to a lack of immunity to foreign viruses, Canada's Aboriginal people were infected with influenza, measles, smallpox, and other infectious diseases brought by the colonists, and the Aboriginal population died in large numbers, declining by roughly 40% to 80%.

The First Nations people living in Canada today are the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis. First Nations refers to Indians, and Saul Saunders coined the term First Nations in the 1980s to avoid discriminatory designations.

The Métis are the mixed descendants of First Nations and French Canadians, so the only pure Canadian First Nations are First Nations (Indians) and Inuit.

The Inuit were small in number and played a minimal role in the development of Canada's early history. The First Nations (Indians) were the majority and played a more important role in the development of Canada's early history.

Compared to other First Nations, the Inuit had less interaction with European colonists and survived in a more primitive state.

The Inuit are found around the Arctic Circle, including Greenland and Alaska, and in Canada's Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon, and Quebec, and speak the Inuit language. The Inuit belong to a group of Eskimos (the rest are Yupik and related to Aleuts), but they do not call themselves Eskimos, because "Eskimo" is the name given to them by other native tribes in North America, meaning "raw meat eaters ", which is pejorative.

Therefore, they call themselves Inuit, which means "people" in Inuktitut, so the outside world is gradually changing to this name to respect their cultural spirit. The Inuit of Greenland is also known as Greenlanders.

As of the 2016 Census, there were 1,673,785 Aboriginal people in Canada, accounting for 4.9% of the country's population, including 977,230 First Nations (Indians), 587,545 Métis, and 65,025 Inuit. 7.7% of the Canadian population under the age of 14 in the 2016 Census was of Aboriginal descent.