Coast to Coast to Coast
Canadian geography in 24 lessons, with Nora Beaulieu
Module 5 · People · Lecture 14

Indigenous peoples, treaties and the map of the North

First Nations, Métis and Inuit by the numbers, the four regions of Inuit Nunangat, and the historic, Numbered and modern treaties, in the official wording of Statistics Canada and Crown-Indigenous Relations. Map skill: population pyramids.

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Test yourself

1. According to the twenty twenty-one Census, what share of Canada's population is Indigenous?
The census counted about one point eight million Indigenous people, five per cent of the population.
2. Which three groups does the census count as Indigenous peoples?
Statistics Canada counts First Nations, Métis and Inuit, the three groups named in the census.
3. In what year did Nunavut become a territory?
The Nunavut Act made Nunavut a territory on the first of April, nineteen ninety-nine.
4. On the lettered map of Inuit Nunangat, which letter marks Nunavik, the region in northern Quebec?
C is Nunavik, the northern third of Quebec east of Hudson Bay; A is Inuvialuit, B is Nunavut and D is Nunatsiavut in Labrador.
5. How many Numbered Treaties were signed between eighteen seventy-one and nineteen twenty-one?
There are eleven Numbered Treaties, Treaty One to Treaty Eleven, among the seventy historic treaties Canada recognizes.
Transcript

Iqaluit, the steps of the Legislative Assembly of Nunavut, the ninth of July, Nunavut Day, still bright at ten at night. Leah Kilabuk is twenty-four, Inuk, born here, a law clerk at the assembly. Her cousin has flown up from Ottawa and asks which part of Inuit Nunangat they are standing in. Nunavut, she says: one of four regions, and the only one that is also a territory.

So here's the question. Who are the Indigenous peoples of Canada by the numbers, where is Inuit Nunangat, and what do the treaties, historic, Numbered and modern, actually cover on the map?

Statistics Canada's 2021 Census counted 1,807,250 Indigenous people, 5.0% of the population, in three groups: First Nations, 1,048,405; Métis, 624,220; Inuit, 70,545. The Indigenous population grew 9.4% in five years, against 5.3% for everyone else. Average age: 33.6, against 41.8.

Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada says there are over 630 First Nations communities, representing more than 50 Nations and 50 Indigenous languages. The census counted over 70 Indigenous languages; Cree had 86,480 speakers and Inuktitut 39,620. In Nunavut, 85.8% of people are Indigenous; in the Northwest Territories, 49.6%; in Yukon, 22.3%.

Find it on the map. The map now shows Inuit Nunangat, drawn from the department's description: four regions, Inuvialuit in the western Arctic, Nunavut, Nunavik in northern Quebec, and Nunatsiavut in Labrador, about 40% of Canada's land. Beside it, two population pyramids from the census: bars by age, men left, women right. The Indigenous pyramid is wide at the bottom, young; the other bulges in the middle. Find the widest bar in each.

Now the treaties. Canada recognizes 70 historic treaties, signed between 1701 and 1923. Among them, the 11 Numbered Treaties of 1871 to 1921 cover the land from Lake of the Woods to the Rockies and north to the Beaufort Sea. Since the 1970s come the modern treaties, more than two dozen, starting with the James Bay agreement of 1975, together covering well over a third of Canada's land.

Let's change one fact. The Nunavut Act, which made Nunavut a territory on 1 April 1999, draws its southern boundary along a line of latitude: north of the sixtieth parallel. Slide that line five degrees south. Churchill and the top of Manitoba would find themselves in Nunavut, and the census tables and the 85.8% figure would have to be redrawn. Here, geography is written into law.

The mistake people make is picturing reserves as the North. 40.6% of Status First Nations people made their homes on reserve in 2021, in communities found across the country. Inuit are different: Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, the national Inuit organization, says most Inuit make their homes in 51 Arctic communities, and the census found 69.0% of Inuit inside Inuit Nunangat. Different peoples, different maps.

Here's the rule, in one breath. Three peoples counted by the census, First Nations, Métis and Inuit; four Inuit regions on 40% of the land; 70 historic treaties, eleven of them Numbered, and the modern ones since 1975.

This week, open the treaty map on the Crown-Indigenous Relations website, find the treaty area or modern agreement your own community sits in, and write down its official name. If you are in Nunavut, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut or the Inuvialuit region, you are already inside a modern one.

Next time, energy: what is under the ground and behind the dams, province by province, from the Canada Energy Regulator.

← Lecture 13: Newcomers, languages and the two official onesLecture 15: Energy: what's under the ground and behind the dams →
Free, independent course. Not an official resource of Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada or of any Ministry of Education. Facts are from Statistics Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Environment and Climate Change Canada and other government sources, as dated in each lecture; figures change, so check the source for the latest. Maps are drawn from Natural Earth (public domain); photographs are from Wikimedia Commons under open licences, credited on the maps and photos page. Nora Beaulieu is an AI-generated presenter with a synthetic voice. Course content © 2026.