Timeline

• 10,000 ancient Siksika culture developing on the plains
• 982-1014: Norsemen set up outpost in North America and encounter Inuit, Beothuks, and Mi’kmaqs
• 1450: Iroquois League of Five Nations is formed uniting the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca tribes
• 1497: John Cabot arrives off the East coast of Canada at what is now Newfoundland (subsequently claims this land for England)
• 1534 to 1541: Jacques Cartier explores the east coast of Canada and the St. Lawrence River and makes contact with Algonkian and Iroquoian speaking tribes. Reaches the present day towns of Quebec City and Montreal
• 1540: horse brought to North America by the Spanish
• 1607: Samuel de Champlain establishes Québec City
• 1609: Champlain fires a gun on the Iroquois during a war party. This is the first time they have seen a fire arm. Subsequently, the Iroquois turn on the French for decades
• 1611: The first Jesuit missionaries arrive at Port Royal in what is now Nova Scotia
• 1670: The Hudson’s Bay Company is established and fur trading begins
• 1690: Historians believe Métis history can be traced back to this time
• 1730s: the horse and gun come to the Siksika on the northern plains
• 1738: smallpox strikes Aboriginal people in the west
• 1754: Anthony Henday is the first European to reach the Rocky Mountains
• 1781: smallpox epidemic kills one third of the Siksika population
• 1784: North West Trading company is established
• 1794: Jay’s Treaty defines the border between the United States and Canada. Aboriginal people were able to move freely across the border.
• 1816: Battle of Seven Oaks in Manitoba. Métis kill Red River governor, Robert Semple and 20 setters. Only one Métis is killed. This is the first time that the Métis flag is flown (blue background with white infinity or lazy 8 symbol)
• 1820: Métis people have marked permanent residence at Red River
• 1821: Merger between Hudson’s Bay Company and the North West Company
• 1825: the last of the Beothuk Nation dies
• 1830’s: end of peak fur trading period
• 1835: the York boat is developed by Métis, William Sinclair
• 1837: smallpox kills 2/3rds of Siksika people and large numbers of Assiniboine
• 1840s: alcohol starts to take its toll on Aboriginal people on the Plains and the area becomes very unsettled
• 1867: Dominion of Canada established
• 1869: small pox strikes Siksika, Piikani, and Kainai tribes
• Hudson’s Bay Company sells Rupert’s Land to the government of Canada which promptly causes Métis to launch the Red River Rebellion
• Whiskey trade period at its peak until 1875
• 1870: Manitoba Act promises 1,400,000 acres of land to Métis in settlement of their Indian title
• last full scale battle with the Siksika against the Cree and the Stoney-Assiniboine
• 1871: beginning of the signing of the Numbered Treaties
• 1873: Cypress Hills Massacre
• 1874: North West Mounted Police formed and dispatched to the Plains to control whiskey trade; Fort Macleod is built
• 1875: Fort Calgary built
• 1876: Indian Act is passed
• serious depletion of the buffalo begins
• 1877: Treaty 7 signed by the government of Canada, Siksika Confederation, T’suu T’ina (Sarcee), and Stoney Nations
• 1879: buffalo in Siksika hunting grounds are driven south forcing many to move to Montana to follow the buffalo
• The Dominion Lands Act (1879) recognizes Métis claims to Aboriginal title, however nothing really comes out of the Act to please Métis people