The Inuit were one the first groups to live in Canada. Other native groups migrated to the area thousands of years ago. Some Native Canadians lived in villages along the Pacific Coast and settlements in the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Lowlands. The people living in these permanent settlements took advantage of the abundant natural resources. The forests, bays, rivers, and rich soil allowed these groups to stay in one place, grow their own food, hunt, fish, and have access to water.

Other groups in Canada were nomadic. They traveled from place to place gathering food and hunting animals. In the very north part of Canada around the Arctic Ocean, walruses and seals provided food, clothing, fat, and other materials for the hunting societies. Those groups would then move south to the Canadian Shield and hunt moose and caribou. In the Plains areas, nomadic groups hunted buffalo. Click on each picture below to learn more about Native Canadians.

All of the native groups were devastated by the European colonization of Canada beginning in the 1600s. Today only about 1.5% of the Canadian population is ethnically Native Canadian.