Before the Crosses and Flags: Indigenous Nations and the Politics of a Continent Long before Jacques Cartier planted his cross, before Champlain peered across the St. Lawrence, before the English, French, and Spanish mapped out claims on lands they had never seen, the continent of North America was alive with political nuance, military rivalries, and…
The Collision of Worlds: Indigenous Challenges and Commercial Realities in the Wake of European Contact They did not come as conquerors, at least not at first. The European explorers who paddled into the inlets and along the wide rivers of what is now Canada came in birchbark canoes borrowed from Indigenous design, carrying trinkets, iron…
The First Nations History website, sponsored by the Canada History Society, is committed to delivering accurate, well-researched, and academically grounded accounts of the rich and diverse histories of First Nations peoples in Canada. Our mission is to provide a comprehensive and fact-based exploration of their origins, pre-history, cultures, and traditions, as well as their interactions…
Brothers at War: The Huron and the Iroquois They were kin—of a kind. The Wendat, whom the French called the Huron, and the Iroquois, or Haudenosaunee, who would form one of the most famous Indigenous confederacies in history, sprang from the same linguistic and cultural root. Both spoke dialects of the Iroquoian language family. Both…
