"Indians have been cursed above all other people in history. Indians have anthropologists." (Vine Deloria, Jr., from Custer Died for Your Sins)

  MAIN LANGUAGE GROUPS

There are 609 registered Native bands in Canada. Approximately 500 in the United States

ALGONKIAN - Cree (Northern Quebec-Rockies), Ojibwa (Southern Ontario-Saskatchewan), Mi'kmaq and Maliseet, Passamaquoddy (Maritimes), Plains such as Blackfoot (Alberta), Ottawa (north shore of Georgian Bay, Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island) and Potawatomi (lower Lake Michigan). Ojibwa, Ottawa and Algonkin have been classified as a single language with numerous dialects.

ATHAPASKAN - Northern Athapaskan is spoken from interior Alaska to Hudson Bay. There are also some speakers in the Plateau and Plains. Athapaskan languages include: Kutchin, Hare, Dogrib, Han, Tutchone, Chipewyan, Slavey, Beaver, Kaska, Sekani, Tahitan, Carrier, Chilcotin, Sarcee.

CREE: Single language with different dialects: Plains Cree (plains and western woodlands); Woods Cree (woodlands of central Saskatchewan and Manitoba); West and East Swampy Cree (lowlands to the west of Hudson and James Bay); Moose Cree (south of James Bay); East Cree (subarctic Quebec east of James Bay); Attikamek or Tete de Boule (upper Saint-Maurice River region of Quebec); Naskapi and Montagnais (eastern Quebec and Labrador*)

*Although Naskapi and Montagnais (better known as Innu (means ‘person’) languages have been classed as Cree, they maintain a distinct and separate identity.

HAUDENOSAUNEE (IROQUOIAN): Languages such as Huron and Neutral are now extinct.  All languages spoken are from the Six Nations that make up the Haudenosaunee League of Nations: Oneida, Mohawk, Cayuga, Onandaga, Seneca, Tuscarora).  Mohawk is the dominant language among Canadian Haudenosaunee.

INUKTITUT: Inuktitut is the single spoken language across the Canadian Arctic and Greenland.

DAKOTA*: Consists of a single language, Dakota (Lakhota), spoken in the southern portions of the three prairie provinces (and the Plains of the United States).

**The commonly used word, SIOUX is, in fact an insult and comes from a French version of an Ojibwa word meaning ‘snakes’, or metaphorically, ‘enemies’. Dakota means (‘Allies’).

PLATEAU: Four Salish languages (see Salishan below); Kutenai; Plateau Athapaskan; Nichola (extinct); Chilcotin and Southern Carrier.

WAKASHAN: (Preferred description: Kwakwaka'wakw) in the central mainland of British Columbia. In the northern part there are the Haisla and Heiltsuk.

SALISHAN: Southern coastal British Columbia, both on mainland and eastern Vancouver Island. Also includes Nuxalt (Bella Coola), Comox, Sechelt, Squamish, Halkomelem, Straits, Lilloet, Thompson, Shuswap, Nuu-cha-nulth (formerly known as Nootka - wrong!), Okanagan. 

TSIMSHIAN: Northern British Columbia. There are Coast and Southern Tsimshian languages (Sm'algyax). As wellm the Nisga'a and Gitksan peoples speak dialects of the Tsimshian language.  There is also another moreorless modern Tsimshian dialect called: Shim-al-gyak.

HAIDA: Occupy Haida G'Wai (Queen Charlotte Islands), British Columbia.

TLINGIT: Southeastern Alaska, off the northern coast of British Columbia, also the southern Yukon. 

KUTENAI: Almost extinct. Southeastern British Columbia

MAIN CULTURAL GROUPINGS

ATLANTIC PROVINCES
Algonquin Family of Languages 
Mi'Kmaq, Maliseet, Ottawa, Beothuk (extinct), Passamaquoddy

METÍS (MIXED BLOOD)
Mix race offspring of First Nations and fur traders/early European settlers of the North West Territories and the Prairies, and their descendants. Originally the term referred specifically to children born to Woodland Cree women, Ojibwa, Saulteaux sired by, at first French, and then English/Scottish fur traders. It has since been expanded to include unions between a person from any Native tribe and a non-Native person. The term continually undergoes debates to broaden the definition. Métis (means "mixed blood") do not have Indian status under the Indian Act but are recognized in the Constitution as a distinct group. 

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