Buffalo Spirit

First Nations make the largest Aboriginal group in Canada consisting of around 700,000 people, of the one million Canadian Aboriginal population. The title ‘First Nations’ refers to the first people who lived in Canada and their lineage, who are neither Métis nor Inuit. The word First Nations was adopted to replace terms like Indian, Tribe, Native, Band that are still used commonly by some people. Elder Sol Sanderson claims that the term was coined by him in the 1980s.

The First Nations have treasured an oral tradition of each group’s origin, history and legacy. According to them, there are eight unique genesis of their creation. Earth diver, emergence, robbery, two creators and their contests, world parent, two creators, brother myth and rebirth of corpse are the eight legends. Although all these stories vary with each group; all of them, maintain that their life evolved in North America continent itself. But, archeological studies show that the First Nations are the descendants of the nomadic inhabitants.

The culture of First Nations developed according to the areas in which they settled. The physical and ecological environment played a major role in shaping up the way of living of the First Nations. The shelters, the food and the clothing all depended on the area they resided and the weather they had to face.

‘Tipi’ was the best shelter for the people living in the plains as it kept warm in the winter and gave protection against strong winds.

The First Nations have a rich legacy of languages. The languages have bound and connected the people of each community since thousands of years. But, today those languages are losing their position to the popular languages, English and French. Only some surviving elders speak the native languages as their first language. According to UNESCO, almost all the First Nation languages, save a few, are on the verge of extinction and many are already extinct.