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This map shows the distribution of the North American Indian
population. The term First Nation is increasingly popular in Canada
and has sometimes replaced the terms band and Indian; however here
we will be using the vocabulary used in the census.
The symbols are located at the centre of the 2356 census subdivisions
(CSDs) containing
a population of more than 10 North American Indians. Each point
symbol increases in size with the size of the population, and the
shade of the symbol is accentuated to facilitate reading of the
map. An attempt has been made to group the population into five
classes representing roughly one-fifth of North American Indians.
The figures on North American Indians are underestimated because
some reserves have not been enumerated. A reserve is a piece of
land that has been set aside by the Crown for the use and benefit
of an Indian band. Reserves are one of the types
of census subdivisions (CSDs).
According to the 1996 Census, approximately 225 000 Indians live
on reserves and other Indian settlements, while 60% of Indians live
elsewhere. This figure does not include incompletely enumerated
Indian reserves. Statistics Canada estimates the population of these
reserves at 44 000. However, the maps use a black point to represent
the 77 incompletely enumerated reserves.
Two-thirds of the people who answered the question on Aboriginal
identity in the 1996 Census in the affirmative are North American
Indians. The largest number of North American Indians live in Ontario
(118 830); they make up 80% of the total Aboriginal population of
that province. They are distributed in the large agglomerations
of the south, but also in the north and west of the province. In
British Columbia, 77% of Aboriginal people are Indians (113 315).
These two provinces account for 42% of the Indian population in
Canada.
The three Prairie Provinces are home to another 42% of the North
American Indian population. Yet these Indians only represent 65%
of the Aboriginal people in the Prairie Provinces since the Prairies
have a large Métis population too. The Prairies also have
the most cities containing a large number of Indians: Winnipeg,
Edmonton, Saskatoon and Regina together have more than 50 000 Indians.
The most populous Indian reserve enumerated in 1996 has 4300 Indians:
this is the Blood Reserve in southern Alberta. However nearly half
the Indian population is found in CSD's
which have fewer than 500 Indians apiece.
A zoom-in provides the reader with the toponyms of a selection
of CSDs with more
than 1500 Indians. The seven CSDs
containing more than 5000 North American Indians are all cities
located from Thunder Bay, Ontario, westward. Among populous reserves,
the Blood, Norway House (Manitoba), Chisasibi (Cree village, Québec),
Island Lake (Manitoba) and Siksika (Alberta) reserves all contain
more than 2500 Indians.
At the 1:7 500 000 scale (zoom level 2), a map layer also illustrates
in green the 1000 or so reserves and other inhabited Indian settlements
of Canada.
At the 1:2 000 000 scale, some 400 toponyms have been chosen to
show certain of the CSDs
containing more than 100 Aboriginal persons. The road network and
Indian reserves are also displayed at this scale.
You can use the cartographic tool's "Get statistics"
function to obtain the breakdown of data for each census subdivision
containing the Aboriginal population of Canada. You can also access
Statistics Canada's Profile of Canadian Communities, which provides
supplemental data on the CSDs,
including figures on education, income, work, families and dwellings. |
