Aboriginal Terminology
Aboriginal peoples have occupied the territory now called Canada
for thousands of years. When the first Europeans arrived in North
America, they called the people they encountered "Indians"
because they thought they were in India. Today, the terms to describe
Aboriginal peoples are continually evolving. 2
The maps in this study have been created based on Statistics Canada's
1996 Census. Hence the expressions used to refer to Aboriginal peoples
are the ones used in the Census questionnaire. These terms are similar
to those used in the Constitution Act, 1982: Aboriginal, Indian,
Métis and Inuit. Statistics Canada has specified "North
American" Indian so as to avoid any confusion with Indians
originally from India.
The other terms used in the census include First Nations, Indian
Band, Treaty Indian and Registered Indian.
- The term First Nation came into common usage in Canada
in the 1970s, and has sometimes replaced the terms band
and Indian.
- Registered Indians (Status Indians) are people who are
entitled to have their names included on the Indian Register,
an official list maintained by the federal government.
- Treaty Indians are Indians who are registered pursuant
to the Indian Act and who can demonstrate that they are descended
from a band that signed a treaty. Status Indians and Treaty Indians
enjoy certain rights and privileges under the Indian Act.
- Not Registered Indians (Non-Status Indians) are people
who consider themselves Indians or members of a First Nation
but whom the Government of Canada does not recognize as Indians
under the Indian Act, either because they are unable to prove
their status or because they have lost their status rights.
- A band is a community of Indians for whom lands have
been set apart, and for whom money is held by the Crown under
the Indian Act.
- An Indian reserve is land that is set aside by the Crown
for the use and benefit of an Indian band. Generally speaking,
it is Status Indians and Treaty Indians who live on reserves.
For a more complete definition of these terms, as well as of Métis
and Inuit, consult the glossary.
Note on Cartography
These Atlas of Canada maps have been created from the data on
Aboriginal identity drawn from question 18 of the 1996 Census: "Is
this person an Aboriginal person, that is, a North American Indian,
Métis or Inuit (Eskimo)?" which was asked in the detailed
questionnaire distributed to 20% of the population. Persons who
answered in the question on Aboriginal identity in the affirmative
were also required to answer these two questions: "Is this
person a member of an Indian Band/First Nation? (question 20) and "Is
this person a Treaty Indian or a Registered Indian as defined by
the Indian Act of Canada?" (question 21). The figures on the
questions about membership in an Indian band and Treaty Indians
were added to the total Aboriginal population when persons answered "no" to
the question on identity but "yes" to the question on
membership in an Indian band, or indicated that they are Registered
Indians. In this census, 19 215 persons responded that they were
members of an Indian band or Registered Indians even though they
indicated that they were not Aboriginal persons in question 18.
There were 6415 multiple Aboriginal responses containing a combination
of the Indian, Métis and/or Inuit responses. These numbers
were not mapped here, however they are included separately in the
database which is accessible from the Get Statistics function of
the mapping tool.
It should be noted that certain Indian reserves and Indian settlements
were only partially enumerated during the 1996 Census. Statistics
Canada has issued the following note on data quality: "For
the 1996 Census, on some Indian reserves and Indian settlements,
enumeration was not permitted, or was interrupted before it could
be completed. Moreover, for other Indian reserves and Indian settlements,
the quality of the collected data was considered inadequate. These
geographic areas (a total of 77) are called incompletely enumerated
Indian reserves and Indian settlements." However, on the
Atlas maps, we have indicated these incompletely enumerated Indian
reserves with a symbol (·). Statistics Canada estimates
the population of these reserves at 44 0001.
The Northwest Territories included Nunavut at the time of the
1996 Census. Nunavut became a territory in 1999. However, we have
produced a map that displays the three territories by separating
the data for Nunavut communities from those for the Northwest Territories.
The census divisions and subdivisions boundaries have not been
modified.
The province of Newfoundland became Newfoundland and Labrador
in December 2001, and this change has been made on the map.
Many municipalities have been amalgamated in recent years, but
the names of the census divisions and census subdivisions remain
as they were in 1996. However the toponyms of inhabited places
have been updated on the maps.
The Aboriginal population maps are designed to illustrate the
distribution of these populations within the territory of Canada.
Two types of maps serve to illustrate this theme. The first type
is a choropleth map that uses colours to present the percentage of
Aboriginal population by province and by census division (CD).
The CDs are intermediate
regions between provinces and municipalities; there are 288 of
them across Canada. The choropleth cartography technique is less
useful for indicating data covering the large northern regions
and rural regions, where the populations are small and hence over-represented.
For this reason, a second type of map is used to complement the
first. These maps show the absolute number of the Aboriginal
population by census subdivision (CSD)
by means of point symbols that increase in size with the population.
A CSD is a geographic
division determined by Statistics Canada or by the provinces, and
is the equivalent of a municipality; in 1996, there were 5982 of
them, classified into 43 types, covering all of Canada. Four separate
maps illustrate the total population of Aboriginal people, North
American Indians, Métis and Inuit.
If one wishes to compare the maps, it is important to remember
that each map is based on a specific data set. The class intervals
used have been generated to represent the specific information
on each map. Therefore it is not possible to directly compare one
map with another. The best sources for comparing content remain
the individual maps combined with the explanatory texts accompanying
each of them.
These maps are available in four scales, namely the initial view
at 1:40 000 000, a provincial view at 1:15 000 000, and regional
scales of 1:7 500 000 and 1:2 000 000. Simply use the tool bar
at the top of the map and click on the area of interest to obtain
a close-up of the region or to move from one place to another on
the map. Each zoom level allows one to see more detail on the map:
more place names, main roads, Indian reserves, etc. The cartographic
tool also makes it possible to view the demographic statistics
used to create the maps.
The demographic databases include the following fields:
- Name of census division (CD),
an intermediate region between provinces and municipalities,
established by the provinces or by Statistics Canada.
- Name and type of census subdivision (CSD),
a region corresponding to a municipality. The name is followed
by a letter or group of letters indicating the type of CSD.
The letters R, S-E, IGD, TR, VC and VK represent all lands reserved
for Indians. See types
of census subdivisions in the glossary for definitions of
the 43 types of CSDs.
- Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal population corresponds
to the total population of the CD responding
to question 18 on Aboriginal identity. (This total differs slightly
from the CD population
due mainly to rounding)
- Aboriginal population represents the total Aboriginal
identity population, that is, North American Indians, Métis,
Inuit, other responses and combined multiple responses.
- Inuit population represents the population that checked "Inuit" only
(single responses to question 18).
- Métis population represents the population that
checked "Métis" only (single responses to question
18).
- North American Indian population represents the population
that checked "North American Indian" only (single responses
to question 18).
- Multiple Aboriginal responses represents any combination
of at least two of the following responses: North American Indian,
Métis and/or Inuit.
- Other Aboriginal responses includes the responses of
persons indicating in question 18 that they are not Aboriginal
persons but indicating that they are Registered Indians as defined
by the Indian Act (question 21) or members of an Indian band
(question 20) who are not Registered Indians.
- Non-Aboriginal population includes the entire population
answering "no" to question 18.
- CD population,
1996: total population of the Census Division.
- Aboriginal population (% by CD):
Aboriginal population x 100 / Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal population.
- Profile of Canadian Communities, hyperlinks to the Statistics
Canada site. The Profiles provide other 1996 Census data, notably
on education, income and work, families and dwellings, for each
census subdivision.
For definitions of the census terminology and concepts used in
the texts, see the Glossary.
Aboriginal Population in Canada: an
Overview
In the 1996 Census nearly 800 000 persons, i.e. about 3% of the
Canadian population, reported that they were North American Indian,
Métis or Inuit. Over two-thirds of Aboriginal persons identified
themselves as North American Indians, one-quarter as Métis
and one-twentieth as Inuit.
The map below gives an overview of the proportion of the Aboriginal
population by province and territory. The data are taken from the
question on identity in the 1996 Census. The question "Is
this person an Aboriginal person, that is, a North American Indian,
Métis or Inuit (Eskimo)?" was used to produce the following
map. It depicts the Aboriginal population as a percentage of the
total population of each province.
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