Editing New France (section)

===Indigenous peoples===

The French and [[Algonquin people|Algonquins]] first encountered one another in 1603 after [[Samuel de Champlain]] established France's first permanent North American settlement along the [[St. Lawrence River]]. In 1610, the Algonquins continued to solidify their relations with the French by guiding [[Étienne Brûlé]] into the interiors of Canada.

The relationship between the [[Iroquois]] and the French first began in 1609, when [[Samuel de Champlain|Samuel De Champlain]] engaged in battle against the Iroquois. Champlain travelled from the [[St. Lawrence River|St. Lawrence Valley]], accompanied by his [[Algonquin people|Algonquin]], [[Innu|Montagnais]], and [[Huron-Wendat Nation|Huron]] allies, and managed to kill three Iroquoian chiefs on [[Lake Champlain]] with the first shots of his [[arquebus]]. Subsequently, the two factions (Iroquois and French) were constantly at war with one another until the [[Great Peace of Montreal|Great Peace of Montréal]] in 1701.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=La Rochelle, 1641 {{!}} Virtual Museum of New France |url=https://www.historymuseum.ca/virtual-museum-of-new-france/archives/cmc/explore/virtual-museum-of-new-france-4/headlines/la-rochelle-1641/ |access-date=2022-11-09}}</ref>

[[File:Beaver wars map.jpg|thumb|upright=1.25|Map showing the approximate location of major [[Indigenous peoples of the Americas|Native American]] tribes and settlements<ref>{{cite book |last=Jennings |first=Francis |title=The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire |year=1984 |isbn=978-0-393-01719-9 |publisher=W. W. Norton |pages=15, 26 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jfxdH5pslt4C}}</ref>]]

The [[French people|French]] were interested in exploiting the land through the fur trade as well as the timber trade later on. Despite having tools and guns, the French settlers were dependent on Indigenous people to survive in the difficult climate in this part of North America. Many settlers did not know how to survive through the winter; the Indigenous people showed them how to survive in the New World. They showed the settlers how to hunt for food and to use the furs for clothing that would protect them during the winter months.<ref>{{cite book |last=Friders |first=James S. |title=Native Peoples in Canada: Contemporary Conflicts |location=Scarborough: Ontario |publisher=Prentice-Hall Canada |date=1993 |isbn=978-0-1301-2204-9}}</ref> Modern historians have highlighted that despite largely functional relations with indigenous peoples, administrators in France viewed co-operation as a wholly irritating task.<ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Crouch |first=Christian Ayne |title=Nobility Lost: French and Canadian Martial Cultures, Indians, and the End of New France |publisher=Cornell University Press |year=2014 |location=New York |pages=164 |language=en}}</ref> Geographically removed from the colonies, Parisian courtiers viewed indigenous peoples as '''sauvages''<nowiki/>', often criticising New French officials for even interacting with nations.<ref name=":3" />

As the fur trade became the dominant economy in the New World, French voyageurs, trappers and hunters often married or formed relationships with Indigenous women. This allowed the French to develop relations with their wives' Indigenous nations, which in turn provided protection and access to their hunting and trapping grounds.

One specific Indigenous group borne of these relationships are the [[Métis]] people, who are descendants of marriages between French men and Indigenous women. Their name originates from an old French term for “person of mixed parentage.”<ref>{{Cite web |title=metis {{!}} Etymology, origin and meaning of metis |url=https://www.etymonline.com/word/metis |access-date=2022-11-09 |website=Online Etymology Dictionary |language=en}}</ref> At the beginning of the fur trade, these relationships were encouraged by the French as a way to encourage the First Nations to adopt French culture and solidify alliances, but as the Métis began to emerge as an independent culture around the 1700s, it began to be discouraged by the French.<ref>Government of Alberta. "[https://www.learnalberta.ca/content/aswt/worldviews/documents/metis_people.pdf Walking Together: First Nations, Métis and Inuit Perspectives in Curriculum. FNMI Worldviews: The Métis People.]" . Accessed November 9, 2022.</ref> Many Métis families moved to western Canada in response to this, as well as for other reasons, such as fur trading opportunities. One major settlement at this time was in the [[Red River Valley]], strategically placed in a significant area for the fur trade. This was the origin of the modern Métis nation, which was legally recognized by modern Canada as a protected Indigenous group in the [[Constitution Act, 1982]]. Its prior legal history has its roots in acts such as the [[Manitoba Act, 1870]], which began to recognize the Métis nation as a separate group with various rights and protections, but was not supported by the vast majority of Métis as it removed many from land that was rightfully theirs.

The fur trade benefited Indigenous people as well. They traded furs for metal tools and other European-made items that made their lives easier. Tools such as knives, pots and kettles, nets, firearms and hatchets improved the general welfare of indigenous peoples. At the same time, while everyday life became easier, some traditional ways of doing things were abandoned or altered, and while Indigenous people embraced many of these implements and tools, they also were exposed to less vital trade goods, such as alcohol and sugar, sometimes with deleterious effects.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Carlos |first1=Ann M. |last2=Lewis |first2=Frank D. |title=Commerce by Frozen Sea: Native Americans and the European Fur Trade |location=Philadelphia |publisher=University of Pennsylvania Press |year=2010 |isbn=978-0812204827 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=wjc34n1z8pYC&pg=PP1}}</ref> The [[Iroquois]], like most tribes, began to rely on the importation of European goods, like firearms, which contributed significantly to a decrease in the beaver population of the [[Hudson Valley]]. This decline resulted in the fur trade moving further north, along the [[St. Lawrence River]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Iroquois Confederacy - The Iroquois Confederacy's role in the French-British rivalry {{!}} Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Iroquois-Confederacy/The-Iroquois-Confederacys-role-in-the-French-British-rivalry |access-date=2022-11-10 |website=www.britannica.com |language=en}}</ref>