Sweat lodge
Indingenous Peoples
Band
Indigenous Rights
Sixties Swoop
First Nations
The Red Road
Residential Schools
Smudge
A common purification rite performed in Ontario that involves burning one or more sacred medicines, such as sweetgrass, sage, cedar and tobacco. There are many variations on how a smudge is done. Smudging may sometimes be required at unpredictable times – for example, at a time of death in a hospital, or a moment of crisis during the school or work day.
A modern, English-language concept of the right path of life, as inspired by some of the beliefs found in a variety of Native American spiritual teachings. The term is used mostly in the Pan-Indian and New Age communities, and rarely among traditional Indigenous people,who have terms in their own languages for their spiritual ways. Native Americans' spiritual teachings are diverse.
A low profile hut, typically dome-shaped or oblong, and made with natural materials. The structure is the lodge, and the ceremony done within the structure may be called a purification ceremony or simply a sweat.
Government-sponsored religious schools established to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture. These existed from 1880 until 1996.
The practice of taking ("scooping up") children of Indigenous peoples in Canada from their families for placing in foster homes or adoption beginning in the 1960s and continuing until the late 1980s.
Rights that some Aboriginal peoples of Canada hold as a result of their ancestors' long-standing use and occupancy of the land. The rights of certain Aboriginal peoples to hunt, trap and fish on ancestral lands are examples of Aboriginal rights. Aboriginal rights vary from group to group depending on the customs, practices and traditions that have formed part of their distinctive cultures.
The descendants of the original inhabitants of North America. The Canadian Constitution recognizes three groups of Indigenous people — Indians, Métis and Inuit. These are three separate peoples with unique heritages, languages, cultural practices and spiritual beliefs.
A group of native people for whose collective use and benefit lands have been set apart or money is held by the government, or declared to be a band for the purposes of the Indian Act. Each band has its own governing band council, usually consisting of one chief and several councillors. Community members choose the chief and councillors by election, or sometimes through custom. The members of a band generally share common values, traditions and practices rooted in their ancestral heritage. Today, many bands prefer to be known as First Nations.
A term that came into common usage in the 1970s to replace the word "Indian," which some people found offensive. Although the term First Nation is widely used, no legal definition of it exists. Among its uses, the term "First Nations peoples" refers to the Indian peoples in Canada, both Status and non-Status. Some Indian peoples have also adopted the term "First Nation" to replace the word "band" in the name of their community.