The relationship between Aboriginal peoples and Europeans was initially harmonious and mutually advantageous during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. At first, Aboriginal peoples served as partners in exploration and trading. Later, as the English and the French became locked in an imperialistic struggle for control over the North American continent, the relationship with the Aboriginal peoples evolved into a military alliance.

The movement westward by Europeans in the later eighteenth and nineteenth centuries caused increasing displacement and conflict for the Aboriginal peoples who lived on the land that the newcomers wanted for agriculture and homesteads.

Washisca and family, Calgary, Alberta. Photographer: Dept. of Mines, National Archives of Canada, Neg no.C1320.