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There is a long history of Treaties between North American Indians and the Government
of Canada dating back to the period of colonisation. Aboriginal Canadians covered by Treaties
can register under the Indian Act (the most recent revision being in 1985), which provides certain
advantages, rights and protections that apply to registered Indians. 83 per cent of North
American Indians were registered in 2001. The Inuit and Metis groups, however, are not
recognized as Indian under the Act and thus do not benefit from its statutes.
Of the 1,066,500 Aboriginals mentioned above, 352,000 lived on reserves, around a third
of the total. The vast majority of the Aboriginals living on reserve were North American Indians:
341,300 or 97 per cent. Equally, this means that just about half (47.9 per cent) of North
American Indians lived on reserves in 2001 (Statistics Canada, 2005a).
In 1996, the total Aboriginal population stood at 904,300, which represented 3.1 per cent
of the total population. By 2001, it had grown 17.9 per cent to reach 1066.5 thousands persons.
Considering the total Canadian population grew by only 4.8 per cent over the same period, this
means that Aboriginal Canadians were responsible for 11.5 per cent of the total Canadian
population growth. Consequently, the share of the total population accounted by the Aboriginal
population increased from 3.1 per cent in 1996 to 3.4 in 2001 (Table 1).
Chart 5: Relative Importance of Aboriginal Population by Provinces
and Territories, 2001
Source: Table 2
The North American Indian population was 648,000 in 1996 and experienced 10.0 per
cent growth over the 1996-2001 period to reach 713,000 in 2001. The Metis community was
estimated to have a population of 214,200 in 1996 rising to 305,800 in 2001, 42.8 per cent
growth over the five years. Historic rights of Metis have been increasingly recognized, which