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The First Nations people of Canada are made up of four main groups, excluding the Inuit in the North and Métis. The collective term for all three aboriginal groups is First Peoples. Each of these main groups contained many tribes, each of which had adapted to their environments which were all slightly different. The four main groups were subdivided by the following geographic areas:

• The Pacific coast and mountains.
• The Plains.
• The St. Lawrence valley.
• The North-East Woodlands (broad region, encompassing the woods near the Atlantic/maritimes to the tree-line in the Arctic).

The term is also used to designate bands of aboriginal people for whom reserves have been provided under the Canadian Indian Act. A representative body for Canadian First Nations is the Assembly of First Nations.

The use of the word "Indian" in day-to-day language is erratic in Canada, with some seeing the term as offensive while some aboriginal people prefer it to alternate terminology such as "aboriginal."

1 Pacific Coast Peoples

Among the largest tribes were the Haida, Nootka, and Salish . These people ate fish, primarily salmonThis article is about the fish. For the color, see salmon (color). Salmon is the common name for several species of fish of the Salmonidae family. Several other fishes in the family are called trout. Salmon live in both the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. from the ocean, as well as fish from lakes and rivers, and roots and berries. They made use of the forests of the Pacific to build dug-out canoeA canoe is a relatively small human-powered boat. It is propelled by one or more people (depending on the size of canoe), using single-bladed paddles. The paddlers face in the direction of travel, either in a seated position or kneeling on the bottom of ts, and houses made of evenly-split planks of wood. They used tools made of stone and wood. The native peoples of the pacific coast also made glorious totem poles, a trait often attributed to other tribes as well.

2 Plains Indians

The plains included primarily the Sioux, BlackfootBlackfoot is a name applied to a few Native American groups in the northwestern plains. These include the Blackfeet tribe or Piegan (Pikani) band of Montana (Amsskaapipikani), and the Kainah (Blood, or Many Leaders), Siksiki (Northern Blackfoot), and Nort, the Plains-Cree, and the Plains-Ojibwa. These people used tipis as their home, covered with skins. Their main sustenance was the buffalo, which they used as food, and for all their garments. Tribal leaders often wore large headdresses made of feathers, something which is wrongfully attributed to all first nations peoples.

3 First Nations of the St. Lawrence

The largest group near the St. Lawrence waterway was the IroquoisThe Iroquois Confederacy is a group of First Nations/ Native Americans. Based in upstate New York at the time of the arrival of the Europeans, they now occupy territory in Ontario, Quebec, and New York. The spiritual union of the nations began before Euro. They included the Huron peoples of central Ontario and the League of Five Nations who lived in the United States, south of Lake Ontario.