June is Indigenous history month and a good opportunity to learn more about this rich and varied land.

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Prime Minister Mackenzie King once stated, “If some countries have too much history, Canada has too much geography.”

In his typical Eurocentric way, he felt that Canada’s history began when the French and English claimed the land as their own. Before they arrived, it was declared “terra nullius,” or land that was unoccupied as defined by the Doctrine of Discovery.

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The Doctrine of Discovery was a papal bull that stated that as long as the original inhabitants weren’t Christian, they were fair game. Of course, Christianity was a European religion and they didn’t exist in the “New World.”

As it turned out Turtle Island was indeed occupied and had a rich history going back millenniums. June is Indigenous history month and a good opportunity to learn more about this rich and varied land.

In pre-Columbian times, Turtle Island had transportation routes, intertribal commerce, agriculture and nation-to-nation diplomacy.

The land was criss-crossed with canoe routes and trails that linked the communities........

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