The history of the First Nations is the prehistory and history of present-day Canada's peoples from the earliest times to the present day with a focus on the First Nations. The pre-history

settlement of the Americas The settlement of the Americas began when Paleolithic hunter-gatherers entered North America from the North Asian Mammoth steppe via the Beringia land bridge, which had formed between northeastern Siberia and western Alaska due to the lowering of ...

is a subject of ongoing debate because First Nations oral history, combined with new methodologies and technologies which are used by

archaeologists Archaeology or archeology is the scientific study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of artifacts, architecture, biofacts or ecofacts, sites, and cultural landscap ...

, linguists, and other researchers, produce—new and sometimes conflicting—evidence. The 1996 Report by the

Royal Commission on Aboriginal People The Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) was a Canadian royal commission established in 1991 with the aim of investigating the relationship between Indigenous peoples in Canada, the Government of Canada, and Canadian society as a whole. ...

described four stages in

Canadian history The history of Canada covers the period from the arrival of the Paleo-Indians to North America thousands of years ago to the present day. Prior to European colonization, the lands encompassing present-day Canada were inhabited for millennia by ...

that overlap and occur at different times in different regions: 1) Pre-contact – Different Worlds – Contact; 2) Early Colonies (1500–1763); 3) Displacement and Assimilation (1764–1969); and 4) Renewal to Constitutional Entrenchment (2018).

Pre-contact

50,000 BP

40,000 BP

30,000–20,000 BP

Paleo-Indians period

14,000 BP

12,000 BP

11,000 BP

10,500 BP

10,000 BP

9,700 BP

9,000 BP

8,500 BP

8,250 BP

8,000 BP

6,800 BP

6,000 BP

5,000 BP

4,500 BP

4,300 BP

4,000 BP

3,000 BP

2,400 BP

1000 BP

951 BP

950 BP - 450 BP

450 BP

1400s

Early Colonies (1500–1763)

Displacement and Assimilation (1764–1969)

Renewal to Constitutional Entrenchment (1969+)

, - , 2022, , 27 July , , During his July 24 to July 29, 2022 penitential pilgrimage,

Pope Francis Pope Francis ( la, Franciscus; it, Francesco; es, link=, Francisco; born Jorge Mario Bergoglio, 17 December 1936) is the head of the Catholic Church. He has been the bishop of Rome and sovereign of the Vatican City State since 13 March 2013. ...

apologized for the role

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

played in the

Canadian Indian residential school system In Canada, the Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. The network was funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by Christian churches. The school sy ...

Maskwacis Maskwacis (; cr, ᒪᐢᑿᒌᐢ, ), renamed in 2014 from Hobbema (), is an unincorporated community in central Alberta, Canada at intersection of Highway 2A and Highway 611, approximately south of the City of Edmonton. The community consists ...

the site of one of the largest residential schools in Canada

Ermineskin Residential School Ermineskin Cree Nation also known as the Ermineskin Tribe ( cr, ᓀᔮᐢᑵᔮᕽ, ), is a Cree First Nations band government in Alberta, Canada. A signatory to Treaty 6, Ermineskin is one of the Four Nations of Maskwacis, Alberta's largest ...