Indigenous People in Canada Handout

Handout: Indigenous People in Canada

Answer True or False for the following questions:

1. Indigenous people in Canada do not pay taxes.
2. The terms “Aboriginal,” “Native,” “First Nations,” and “Indigenous” are interchangeable.
3. Indigenous people don’t have to pay anything for housing, education, or medical care.
4. More than 80% of Indigenous people in Canada live below the poverty line.
5. More than 100 Indigenous communities in Canada don’t have sanitary drinking water.
6. Most Indigenous people in Canada want to separate from Canada.
7. Indigenous people are opposed to economic development and/or participation in the mainstream economy.
8. Indigenous people comprise about 5% of Canada’s population and this percentage is expected to double in 20 years.
9. It is estimated that there were about 25 First Nations living in what is now Canada at the time of European colonization.
10. The term “Métis” refers to people of French and Indigenous ancestry who lived around the Red River Valley in what is now Manitoba.
11. Because their community was created “after” colonization, the Métis people don’t have any land claims or hunting or fishing rights.
12. Indigenous men make up more than 75% of the male prison population across Canada.
13. Indigenous women in Canada were granted the vote at the same time as white women.
14. The Indian Act is the only piece of current Canadian legislation that defines a group of people according to categories of race and ancestry.
15. The number of Indigenous youth that graduate from high school is about half that of the mainstream population.
16. The Conservative Federal Government under Stephen Harper supports the Kelowna Accord.