Width	200
Position	Center
Number	6
Birth date	February 12, 1934
Birth place	Monroe, Louisiana
Debutyear	1956
Finalyear	1969
Draftyear	1956
Draftround	1
Draftpick	2
Draftteam	St. Louis Hawks
High school	McClymonds
College	San Francisco (1953–1956)
Years1	– |team1 Boston Celtics
Cyears1	– |cteam1 Boston Celtics
Cyears2	– |cteam2 Seattle SuperSonics
Cyears3	|cteam3 Sacramento Kings
Stat1label	Points
Stat1value	14,522
Stat2label	Rebounds
Stat2value	21,620
Stat3label	Assists
Stat3value	4,100
Letter	r
Bbr	russebi01
Highlights	11× NBA Champion (, –, –) 5× NBA Most Valuable Player (, –, ) 5× NBA rebounding champion (–, –) 12× NBA All-Star (–) 3× All-NBA First Team (, , ) 8× All-NBA Second Team (, –, , –) NBA All-Defensive First Team () NBA All-Star Game MVP () NBA's 50th Anniversary All-Time Team NBA 35th Anniversary Team NBA 25th Anniversary Team #6 Retired by Boston Celtics 2× NCAA Champion (1955–1956) NCAA MOP (1955)
Hof player	william-f-bill-russell
medaltemplates	}}

William Felton "Bill" Russell (born February 12, 1934) is a retired American professional basketball player who played center for the Boston Celtics of the National Basketball Association (NBA). A five-time winner of the NBA Most Valuable Player Award and a twelve-time All-Star, Russell was the centerpiece of the Celtics dynasty that won eleven NBA Championships during Russell's thirteen-year career. Along with Henri Richard of the National Hockey League's Montreal Canadiens, Russell holds the record for the most championships won by an athlete in a North American sports league. Before his professional career, Russell led the University of San Francisco to two consecutive NCAA championships (1955, 1956). He also won a gold medal at the 1956 Summer Olympics as captain of the U.S. national basketball team.

Russell is widely considered one of the best players in NBA history. Listed as between 6'9" (2.06 m) and 6'10" (2.08 m), Russell's shot-blocking and man-to-man defense were major reasons for the Celtics' success. He also inspired his teammates to elevate their own defensive play. Russell was equally notable for his rebounding abilities. He led the NBA in rebounds four times and tallied 21,620 total rebounds in his career. He is one of just two NBA players (the other being prominent rival Wilt Chamberlain) to have grabbed more than fifty rebounds in a game. Though never the focal point of the Celtics' offense, Russell also scored 14,522 career points and provided effective passing.

Playing in the wake of pioneers like Earl Lloyd, Chuck Cooper, and Sweetwater Clifton, Russell was the first African American player to achieve superstar status in the NBA. He also served a three-season (1966–69) stint as player-coach for the Celtics, becoming the first African American NBA coach. Frequent battles with racism left Russell with a long-standing contempt for fans and journalists. When he retired, Russell left Boston with a bitter attitude, although in recent years his relationship with the city has improved. For his accomplishments in the Civil Rights Movement on and off the court, Russell was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by Barack Obama in 2011.

Russell is a member of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He was selected into NBA 25th Anniversary Team in 1971, into NBA 35th Anniversary Team in 1980 and named as one of the 50 Greatest Players in NBA History in 1996, one of only four players that selected into all three teams. In 2007, he was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame. In 2009, the NBA announced that the NBA Finals MVP trophy would be named the Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award in honor of Russell.

Early years

Bill Russell was born to Charles and Katie Russell in West Monroe, Louisiana. West Monroe was strictly segregated, and the Russells often struggled with racism. Once, Russell's father was refused service at a gasoline station until the staff had taken care of all the white customers. When his father attempted to leave and find a different station, the attendant stuck a shotgun in his face, threatening to kill him unless he stayed and waited his turn. At another time, Russell's mother was walking outside in a fancy dress when a policeman accosted her. He told her to go home and remove the dress, which he described as "white woman’s clothing". Because large numbers of blacks were moving to Oakland, California during WWII to look for work there, Russell's father moved the family out of Louisiana when Russell was eight years old and settled them in Oakland. While there the family fell into poverty, and Russell spent his childhood living in a series of project homes.

Charlie Russell is described as a "stern, hard man" who was initially a janitor in a paper factory (a typical low paid, intellectually unchallenging "Negro Job", as sports journalist John Taylor commented), but later became a trucker when World War II broke out. Being closer to his mother Katie than to his father, Russell received a major emotional blow when she suddenly died when he was 12. His father gave up his trucking job and became a steel worker to be closer to his semi-orphaned children. Russell has stated that his father became his childhood hero, later followed up by Minneapolis Lakers superstar George “Mr. Basketball” Mikan, whom he met when he was in high school.

In his early years, Russell struggled to develop his skills as a basketball player. Although Russell was a good runner and jumper and had extremely large hands, he simply did not understand the game and was cut from the team in junior high school. As a sophomore at McClymonds High School, Russell was almost cut again. However, coach George Powles saw Russell's raw athletic potential and encouraged him to work on his fundamentals. Russell, who was used to racist abuse, was delighted by the warm words of his white coach. He worked hard and used the benefits of a growth spurt to become a decent basketball player, but it was not until his junior and senior years that he began to excel. Russell soon became noted for his unusual style of defense. He later recalled, "To play good defense... it was told back then that you had to stay flatfooted at all times to react quickly. When I started to jump to make defensive plays and to block shots, I was initially corrected, but I stuck with it, and it paid off."

One of Russell's high school teammates was future Baseball Hall-of-Famer Frank Robinson.

College career

Russell was ignored by college recruiters and did not receive a single letter of interest until Hal DeJulio from the University of San Francisco (USF) watched him in a high school game. DeJulio was not impressed by Russell's meager scoring and "atrocious fundamentals", but sensed that the young center had an extraordinary instinct for the game, especially in clutch situations. When DeJulio offered Russell a scholarship, the latter eagerly accepted. Sports journalist John Taylor described it as a watershed in Russell's life, because Russell realized that basketball was his one chance to escape poverty and racism; as a consequence, Russell swore to make the best of it.

At USF, Russell became the new starting center for coach Phil Woolpert. Woolpert emphasized defense and deliberate half-court play, concepts that favored defensive standout Russell. Woolpert was unaffected by issues of skin color. In 1954, he became the first coach of a major college basketball squad to start three African American players: Russell, K.C. Jones and Hal Perry. In his USF years, Russell used his relative lack of bulk to develop a unique style of defense: instead of purely guarding the opposing center, he used his quickness and speed to play help defense against opposing forwards and aggressively challenge their shots. Combining the stature and shot-blocking skills of a center with the foot speed of a guard, Russell became the centerpiece of a USF team that soon became a force in college basketball. After USF kept Holy Cross star Tom Heinsohn scoreless in an entire half, ''Sports Illustrated'' wrote, "If [Russell] ever learns to hit the basket, they're going to have to rewrite the rules."

However, the games were often difficult for the USF squad. Russell and his African American teammates became targets of racist jeers, particularly on the road. In one notable incident, hotels in Oklahoma City refused to admit Russell and his black teammates while they were in town for the 1954 All-College Tournament. In protest, the whole team decided to camp out in a closed college dorm, which was later called an important bonding experience for the group. Decades later, Russell explained that his experiences hardened him against abuse of all kinds. "I never permitted myself to be a victim," he said.

Racism also shaped his lifelong paradigm as a team player. "At that time," he has said, "it was never acceptable that a black player was the best. That did not happen...My junior year in college, I had what I thought was the one of the best college seasons ever. We won 28 out of 29 games. We won the National Championship. I was the MVP at the Final Four. I was first team All American. I averaged over 20 points and over 20 rebounds, and I was the only guy in college blocking shots. So after the season was over, they had a Northern California banquet, and they picked another center as Player of the Year in Northern California. Well, that let me know that if I were to accept these as the final judges of my career I would die a bitter old man." So he made a conscious decision, he said, to put the team first and foremost, and not worry about individual achievements.

On the hardwood, his experiences were far more pleasant. Russell led USF to NCAA championships in 1955 and 1956, including a string of 55 consecutive victories. He became known for his strong defense and shot-blocking skills, once denying 13 shots in a game. UCLA coach John Wooden called Russell "the greatest defensive man I've ever seen". During his college career, Russell averaged 20.7 points per game and 20.3 rebounds per game. Besides basketball, Russell represented USF in track and field events. He competed in the 440 yard (402 m) race, which he could complete in 49.6 seconds. He also participated in the high jump; ''Track & Field News'' ranked him as the seventh-best high jumper in the world in 1956. That year, Russell won high jump titles at the Central California AAU meet, the Pacific AAU meet, and the West Coast Relays. One of his highest jumps occurred at the West Coast Relays, where he achieved a mark of 6 feet 9¼ inches (2.06 m).

After his years at USF, the Harlem Globetrotters invited Russell to join their exhibition basketball squad. Russell, who was sensitive to any racial prejudice, was enraged by the fact that owner Abe Saperstein would only discuss the matter with Woolpert. While Saperstein spoke to Woolpert in a meeting, Globetrotters assistant coach Harry Hanna tried to entertain Russell with jokes. The USF center was livid after this snub and declined the offer: he reasoned that if Saperstein was too smart to speak with him, then he was too smart to play for Saperstein. Instead, Russell made himself eligible for the 1956 NBA Draft.

1956 NBA Draft

In the 1956 NBA Draft, Boston Celtics coach Red Auerbach had set his sights on Russell, thinking his defensive toughness and rebounding prowess were the missing pieces the Celtics needed. In perspective, Auerbach’s thoughts were unorthodox. In that period, centers and forwards were defined by their offensive output, and their ability to play defense was secondary. However, Boston's chances of getting Russell seemed slim. Because the Celtics had finished second in the previous season and the worst teams had the highest draft picks, the Celtics had slipped too low in the draft order to pick Russell. In addition, Auerbach had already used his territorial pick to acquire talented forward Tom Heinsohn. But Auerbach knew that the Rochester Royals, who owned the first draft pick, already had a skilled rebounder in Maurice Stokes, were looking for an outside shooting guard and were unwilling to pay Russell the $25,000 signing bonus he requested. The St. Louis Hawks, who owned the second pick, originally drafted Russell, but were vying for Celtics center Ed Macauley, a six-time All-Star who had roots in St. Louis. Auerbach agreed to trade Macauley, who had previously asked to be traded to St. Louis in order to be with his sick son, if the Hawks gave up Russell. However the owner of St Louis called Auerbach later and demanded more in the trade. Not only did he want Macauley, who was the Celtics premier player at the time, he wanted Cliff Hagan, who had been serving in the military for three years and had not yet played for the Celtics. After much debate, Auerbach agreed to give up Hagan, and the Hawks made the trade. During that same draft, Boston also claimed guard K.C. Jones, Russell's former USF teammate. Thus, in one night, the Celtics managed to draft three future Hall of Famers: Russell, K.C. Jones and Heinsohn. The Russell draft-day trade was later called one of the most important trades in the history of North American sports.

1956 Olympics

Before his NBA rookie year, Russell was the captain of the U.S. national basketball team that competed at the 1956 Olympic tournament. Avery Brundage, head of the International Olympic Committee, argued that Russell had already signed a professional contract and thus was no longer an amateur, but Russell prevailed. He had the option to skip the tournament and play a full season for the Celtics, but he was determined to play in the Olympics. He later commented that he would have participated in the high jump if he had been snubbed by the basketball team. Under coach Gerald Tucker, Russell helped the national team win the gold medal in Melbourne, defeating the Soviet Union 89–55 in the final game. The United States dominated the tournament, winning by an average of 53.5 points per game. Russell led the team in scoring, averaging 14.1 points per game for the competition. His Celtics teammate K.C. Jones joined him on the Olympic squad and contributed 10.9 points per game.

Professional career

1956–59

Russell could not join the Celtics for the 1956–57 season until December, due to his Olympic commitment. After rejoining the Celtics, Russell played 48 games, averaging 14.7 points per game and a league-high 19.6 rebounds per game. During this season, the Celtics featured six future Hall-of-Famers: center Russell, forwards Heinsohn and Jim Loscutoff, guards Bill Sharman and Bob Cousy, and forward Frank Ramsey, who came off the bench. (K.C. Jones did not play for the Celtics until 1958 because of military service.)

Russell's first Celtics game came on December 22, 1956 against the St. Louis Hawks, led by star forward Bob Pettit, who held several all-time scoring records. Auerbach assigned Russell to shut down St. Louis's main scorer, and the rookie impressed the Boston crowd with his man-to-man defense and shot-blocking. In previous years, the Celtics had been a high-scoring team, but lacked the defensive presence needed to close out tight games. However, with the added defensive presence of Russell, the Celtics had laid the foundation for a dynasty. The team utilized a strong defensive approach to the game, forcing opposing teams to commit many turnovers, which led to many easy fast break points. Russell was an elite help defender who allowed the Celtics to play the so-called "Hey, Bill" defense: whenever a Celtic requested additional defensive help, he would shout "Hey, Bill!" Russell was so quick that he could run over for a quick double team and make it back in time if the opponents tried to find the open man. He also became famous for his shot-blocking skills: pundits called his blocks "Wilsonburgers", referring to the Wilson NBA basketballs he "shoved back into the faces of opposing shooters". This skill also allowed the other Celtics to play their men aggressively: if they were beaten, they knew that Russell was guarding the basket. This approach allowed the Celtics to finish with a 44–28 regular season record, the team's second-best record since beginning play in the 1946–47 season, and guaranteed a post-season appearance.

However, Russell also received negative attention. Constantly provoked by New York Knicks center Ray Felix during a game, he complained to coach Auerbach. The latter told him to take matters into his own hands, so after the next provocation, Russell punched Felix unconscious, paid a 25-dollar fine and was no longer a target of cheap fouls. With his teammates, Russell had a cordial relationship, with the notable exception of fellow rookie and old rival Heinsohn. Heinsohn felt that Russell resented him because the former was named the 1957 NBA Rookie of the Year: many people thought that Russell was more important, but Russell also had only played half the season. Russell also ignored Heinsohn's plea to give his cousin an autograph, and openly said to Heinsohn that he deserved half of his 300-dollar Rookie of the Year check. The relationship between the two rookies remained reserved. On the other hand, despite their different ethnic backgrounds and lack of common off-court interests, his relationship with Celtics point guard and fan favorite Bob Cousy was amicable.

In Game 1 of the Eastern Division Finals, the Celtics met the Syracuse Nationals, who were led by Dolph Schayes. In Russell's first NBA playoff game, he finished with 16 points and 31 rebounds, along with a reported 7 blocks. (At the time, blocks were not yet an officially registered statistic.) After the Celtics' 108–89 victory, Schayes quipped, “How much does that guy make a year? It would be to our advantage if we paid him off for five years to get away from us in the rest of this series.” The Celtics swept the Nationals in three games to earn the franchise's first appearance in the NBA Finals.

In the NBA Finals, the Celtics met the St. Louis Hawks, who were again led by Bob Pettit, as well as former Celtic Ed Macauley. The teams split the first six games, and the tension was so high that, in Game 3, Celtics coach Auerbach punched his colleague Ben Kerner and received a $300 fine. In the highly competitive Game 7, Russell tried his best to slow down Pettit, but it was Heinsohn who scored 37 points and kept the Celtics alive. However, Russell contributed by completing the famous “Coleman Play”. Here, Russell ran down Hawks guard Jack Coleman, who had received an outlet pass at midcourt, and blocked his shot despite the fact that Russell had been standing at his own baseline when the ball was thrown to Coleman. The block preserved Boston's slim 103–102 lead with 40-odd seconds left to play in regulation, saving the game for the Celtics. In the second overtime, both teams were in serious foul trouble: Heinsohn had fouled out, and the Hawks were so depleted that they had only 7 players left. With the Celtics leading 125–123 with one second left, the Hawks had the ball at their own baseline. Reserve guard Alex Hannum threw a long alley oop pass to Pettit, and Pettit's tip-in rolled indecisively on the rim for several seconds before rolling out again. The Celtics won, earning their first NBA Championship.

In the 1957–58 season, Russell averaged 16.6 points per game and a league-record average of 22.7 rebounds per game. An interesting phenomenon began that year: Russell was voted the NBA Most Valuable Player, but only named to the All-NBA Second Team. This would occur repeatedly throughout his career. The NBA reasoned that other centers were better all-round players than Russell, but no player was more valuable to his team. The Celtics won 49 games and easily made the first berth in the 1958 NBA Playoffs, and made the 1958 NBA Finals against their familiar rivals, the St. Louis Hawks. The teams split the first two games, but then Russell went down with a foot injury in Game 3 and could no longer participate in the playoffs. The Celtics surprisingly won Game 4, but the Hawks prevailed in Games 5 and 6, with Pettit scoring 50 points in the deciding Game 6.

In the following 1958–59 season, Russell continued his strong play, averaging 16.7 points per game and 23.0 rebounds per game in the regular season. The Celtics broke a league record by winning 52 games, and Russell's strong performance once again helped lead the Celtics through the post-season, as they returned to the NBA Finals. In the 1959 NBA Finals, the Celtics recaptured the NBA title, sweeping the Minneapolis Lakers 4–0. Lakers head coach John Kundla praised Russell, stating, “We don’t fear the Celtics without Bill Russell. Take him out and we can beat them... He’s the guy who whipped us psychologically.”

1959–66

In the 1959–60 season, the NBA witnessed the debut of legendary 7 ft 1 in (2.16 m) Philadelphia Warriors center Wilt Chamberlain, who averaged an unprecedented 37.6 points per game in his rookie year. On November 7, 1959, Russell's Celtics hosted Chamberlain's Warriors, and pundits called the matchup between the best offensive and best defensive center "The Big Collision" and "Battle of the Titans". Both men awed onlookers with "nakedly awesome athleticism", and while Chamberlain outscored Russell 30 to 22, the Celtics won 115–106, and the match was called a "new beginning of basketball". The matchup between Russell and Chamberlain became one of basketball's greatest rivalries. In that season, Russell's Celtics won a record 59 regular season games (including a then-record tying 17 game win streak) and met Chamberlain's Warriors in the Eastern Division Finals. Chamberlain outscored Russell by 81 points in the series, but the Celtics walked off with a 4–2 series win. In the 1960 Finals, the Celtics outlasted the Hawks 4–3 and won their third championship in four years. Russell grabbed an NBA Finals-record 40 rebounds in Game 2, and added 22 points and 35 rebounds in the deciding Game 7, a 122–103 victory for Boston.

In the 1960–61 season, Russell averaged 16.9 points and 23.9 rebounds per game, leading his team to a regular season mark of 57–22. The Celtics earned another post-season appearance, where they defeated the Syracuse Nationals 4–1 in the Eastern Division Finals. The Celtics made good use of the fact that the Los Angeles Lakers had exhausted St. Louis in a long seven-game Western Conference Finals, and the Celtics convincingly won in five games.

The following season, Russell scored a career-high 18.9 points per game, accompanied by 23.6 rebounds per game. While his rival Chamberlain had a record-breaking season of 50.4 points per game and a 100-point game, the Celtics became the first team to win 60 games in a season, and Russell was voted as the NBA's Most Valuable Player. In the post-season, the Celtics met the Philadelphia Warriors of Chamberlain, and Russell did his best to slow down the 50-points-per-game scoring Warriors center. In Game 7, the game was tied with two seconds left when Sam Jones sank a clutch shot that won the Celtics the series. In the 1962 NBA Finals, the Celtics met the Los Angeles Lakers of star forward Elgin Baylor and star guard Jerry West. The teams split the first six games, and Game 7 was tied one second before the end of regular time when Lakers guard Rod Hundley faked a shot and instead passed out to Frank Selvy, who missed an open eight-foot last-second shot that would have won L.A. the title. Though the game was tied, Russell had the daunting task of defending against Baylor with little frontline help, as the three best Celtics forwards, Loscutoff, Heinsohn and Tom Sanders, had fouled out. In overtime, Baylor fouled out the fourth forward, Frank Ramsey, so Russell was completely robbed of his usual four-men wing rotation. But Russell and little-used fifth forward Gene Guarilia successfully pressured Baylor into missed shots. Russell finished with a clutch performance, scoring 30 points and tying his own NBA Finals record with 40 rebounds in a 110–107 overtime win.

The Celtics lost playmaker Bob Cousy to retirement after the 1962–63 season, but they drafted John Havlicek. Once again, the Celtics were powered by Russell, who averaged 16.8 points and 23.6 rebounds per game, won his fourth regular-season MVP title, and earned MVP honors at the 1963 NBA All-Star Game following his 19 point, 24 rebound performance for the East. The Celtics reached the 1963 NBA Finals, where they again defeated the Los Angeles Lakers, this time in six games.

In the following 1963–64 season, the Celtics posted a league-best 58–22 record in the regular season. Russell scored 15.0 ppg and grabbed a career-high 24.7 rebounds per game, leading the NBA in rebounds for the first time since Chamberlain entered the league. Boston defeated the Cincinnati Royals 4–1 to earn another NBA Finals appearance, and then won against Chamberlain's newly-relocated San Francisco Warriors 4–1. It was their sixth consecutive and seventh title in Russell's eighth year, a streak unreached in any U.S. professional sports league. Russell later called the Celtics' defense the best of all time.

Russell again excelled during the 1964–65 season. The Celtics won a league-record 62 games, and Russell averaged 14.1 points and 24.1 rebounds per game, winning his second consecutive rebounding title and his fifth MVP award. In the 1965 NBA Playoffs, the Celtics played the Eastern Division Finals against the Philadelphia 76ers, who had recently traded for Wilt Chamberlain. Russell held Chamberlain to a pair of field goals in the first three quarters of Game 3. In Game 5, Russell contributed 28 rebounds, 10 blocks, seven assists and six steals. However, that playoff series ended in a dramatic Game 7. Five seconds before the end, the Sixers were trailing 110–109, but Russell turned over the ball. However, when the Sixers’ Hall-of-Fame guard Hal Greer inbounded, John Havlicek stole the ball, causing Celtics commentator Johnny Most to scream: “Havlicek stole the ball! It's all over! Johnny Havlicek stole the ball!” After the Division Finals, the Celtics had an easier time in the NBA Finals, winning 4–1 against the Los Angeles Lakers of Jerry West and Elgin Baylor. thumb|Russell defending Wilt Chamberlain of the Philadelphia 76ers In the following 1965–66 season, the Celtics won their eighth consecutive title. Russell’s team again beat Chamberlain’s Philadelphia 76ers 4 games to 1 in the Division Finals, proceeding to win the NBA Finals in a tight seven-game showdown against the Los Angeles Lakers. During the season, Russell contributed 12.9 points and 22.8 rebounds per game. This was the first time in seven years that he failed to average at least 23 rebounds a game.

1966–69

Before the 1966–67 season, Celtics coach Red Auerbach retired. Initially, he had wanted his old player Frank Ramsey as coach, but Ramsey was too occupied running his three lucrative nursing homes. His second choice Bob Cousy declined, stating he did not want to coach his former teammates, and the third choice Tom Heinsohn also said no, because he did not think he could handle the often surly Russell. However, Heinsohn proposed Russell himself as a player-coach, and when Auerbach asked his center, he said yes. Russell thus became the first African American head coach in NBA history, and commented to journalists: "I wasn't offered the job because I am a Negro, I was offered it because Red figured I could do it." The Celtics’ championship streak ended that season at eight, however, as Wilt Chamberlain's Philadelphia 76ers won a record-breaking 68 regular season games and overcame the Celtics 4–1 in the Eastern Finals. The Sixers simply outpaced the Celtics, shredding the famous Boston defense by scoring 140 points in the clinching Game 5 win. Russell acknowledged his first real loss in his career (he had been injured in 1958 when the Celtics lost the NBA Finals) by visiting Chamberlain in the locker room, shaking his hand and saying, "Great". However, the game still ended on a high note for Russell. After the loss, he led his grandfather through the Celtics locker rooms, and the two saw white Celtics player John Havlicek taking a shower next to his black teammate Sam Jones and discussing the game. Suddenly, Russell Sr. broke down crying. Asked by his grandson what was wrong, his grandfather replied how proud he was of him, being coach of an organization in which blacks and whites coexisted in harmony.

In Russell's penultimate season, the 1967–68 season, his numbers slowly declined, but at age 34, he still tallied 12.5 points per game and 18.6 rebounds per game (the latter good for the third highest average in the league). In the Eastern Division Finals, the 76ers had the better record than the Celtics and were slightly favored. But then, national tragedy struck as Martin Luther King was assassinated on April 4, 1968. With eight of the ten starting players on Sixers and Celtics being African American, both teams were in deep shock, and there were calls to cancel the series. In a game called as "unreal" and "devoid of emotion", the Sixers lost 127–118 on April 5. In Game 2, Philadelphia evened the series with a 115–106 win, and in Games 3 and 4, the Sixers won, with Chamberlain suspiciously often defended by Celtics backup center Wayne Embry, causing the press to speculate Russell was worn down. Prior to Game 5, the Celtics seemed dead: no NBA team had ever come back from a 3–1 deficit. However, the Celtics rallied back, winning Game 5 122–104 and Game 6 114–106, powered by a spirited Havlicek and helped by a terrible Sixers shooting slump. In Game 7, 15,202 stunned Philadelphia fans witnessed a historic 100–96 defeat, making it the first time in NBA history a team lost a series after leading 3–1. Russell limited Chamberlain to only two shot attempts in the second half. Despite this, the Celtics were leading only 97–95 with 34 seconds left when Russell closed out the game with several consecutive clutch plays. He made a free throw, blocked a shot by Sixers player Chet Walker, grabbed a rebound off a miss by Sixers player Hal Greer, and finally passed the ball to teammate Sam Jones, who scored to clinch the win. Boston then beat the Los Angeles Lakers 4–2 in the NBA Finals, giving Russell his tenth title in 12 years. For his efforts Russell was named ''Sports Illustrated's'' Sportsman of the Year. After losing for the fifth straight time against Russell and his Celtics, Hall-of-Fame Lakers guard Jerry West stated, “If I had a choice of any basketball player in the league, my No.1 choice has to be Bill Russell. Bill Russell never ceases to amaze me.”

However, in the 1968–69 season, Russell seemed to reach a breaking point. Shocked by the murder of Robert F. Kennedy, disillusioned by the Vietnam War, and weary from his increasingly stale (and later divorced) marriage to his wife Rose, he was convinced that the U.S. was a corrupt nation and that he was wasting his time playing something as superficial as basketball. He was 15 pounds overweight, skipped mandatory NBA coach meetings and was generally lacking energy: after a New York Knicks game, he complained of intense pain and was diagnosed with acute exhaustion. Russell pulled himself together and put up 9.9 points and 19.3 rebounds per game, but the aging Celtics stumbled through the regular season. Their 48–34 record was the team's worst since 1955–56, and they entered the playoffs as only the fourth-seeded team in the East. In the playoffs, however, Russell and his Celtics achieved upsets over the Philadelphia 76ers and New York Knicks to earn a meeting with the Los Angeles Lakers in the NBA Finals. L.A. now featured new recruit Wilt Chamberlain next to perennial stars Baylor and West, and were heavily favored. In the first two games, Russell ordered not to double-team West, who used the freedom to score 53 and 41 points in the Game 1 and 2 Laker wins. Russell then ordered to double-team West, and Boston won Game 3. In Game 4, the Celtics were trailing by one point with seven seconds left and the Lakers having the ball, but then Baylor stepped out of bounds, and in the last play, Sam Jones used a triple screen by Bailey Howell, Larry Siegfried and Havlicek and hit a buzzer beater which equalized the series. The teams split the next two games, so it all came down to Game 7 in L.A., where Lakers owner Jack Kent Cooke angered and motivated the Celtics by putting "proceedings of Lakers victory ceremony" on the game leaflets. Russell used a copy as extra motivation and told his team to play a running game, because in that case, not the better, but the more determined team was going to win.

The Celtics were ahead by nine points with five minutes remaining; in addition, West was heavily limping after a Game 5 thigh injury and Chamberlain had left the game with an injured leg. West then hit one basket after the other and cut the lead to one, and Chamberlain asked to return to the game. However, Lakers coach Bill van Breda Kolff kept Chamberlain on the bench until the end of the game, saying later that he wanted to stay with the lineup responsible for the comeback. The Celtics held on for a 108–106 victory, and Russell claimed his eleventh championship in 13 years. At age 35, Russell contributed 21 rebounds in his last NBA game. After the game, Russell went over to the distraught West (who had scored 42 points and was named the only NBA Finals MVP in history from the losing team), clasped his hand and tried to soothe him. Days later, 30,000 enthusiastic Celtics fans cheered their returning heroes, but Russell was not there: the man who said he owed the public nothing ended his career and cut all ties to the Celtics. It came as so surprising that even Red Auerbach was blindsided, and as a consequence, he made the "mistake" of drafting guard Jo Jo White instead of a center. Although White became a standout Celtics player, the Celtics lacked an All-Star center, went just 34–48 in the next season and failed to make the playoffs for the first time since 1950. In Boston, both fans and journalists felt betrayed, because Russell left the Celtics without a coach and a center and sold his retirement story for $10,000 to ''Sports Illustrated''. Russell was accused of selling out the future of the franchise for a month of his salary.

Post-player career

Russell's No. 6 jersey was retired by the Celtics in 1972, and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 1975. Russell, who had a difficult relationship with the media, was not present at either event. After retiring as a player, Russell had stints as head coach of the Seattle SuperSonics (1973 to 1977) and Sacramento Kings (1987 to 1988). His time as a coach was lackluster; although he led the struggling SuperSonics into the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, Russell’s defensive, team-oriented Celtics mindset did not mesh well with the team, and he left in 1977 with a 162–166 record. Ironically, coach Lenny Wilkens later used a similar concept to help the SuperSonics win the title in 1979. Russell’s stint with the Kings was considerably worse, his last assignment ending when the Kings went 17–41 to begin the 1987–88 season.

In addition, Russell ran into financial trouble. He had invested $250,000 into a rubber plantation in Liberia, where he had wanted to spend his retirement, but it went bankrupt. The same fate awaited his Boston restaurant called "Slade's", after which he had to default on a $90,000 government loan to purchase the outlet. The IRS discovered that Russell owed $34,430 in tax money and put a lien on his house. He became a vegetarian, took up golf and worked as a color commentator, but he was uncomfortable as a broadcaster. He later said, "The most successful television is done in eight-second thoughts, and the things I know about basketball, motivation and people go deeper than that." On November 3, 1979, Russell hosted Saturday Night Live, in which he appeared in several sports-related sketches. Russell also wrote books, usually written as a joint project with a professional writer. These included 1979's ''Second Wind'' and 2001's ''Russell's Rules''. After spending several years living as a recluse on Mercer Island near Seattle, Russell rose to prominence again in January 2006, when he convinced Miami Heat superstar center Shaquille O'Neal to bury the hatchet with fellow NBA superstar and former Los Angeles Lakers teammate Kobe Bryant, with whom O'Neal had a bitter public feud. Later that year, on November 17, 2006, the two-time NCAA winner Russell was recognized for his impact on college basketball as a member of the founding class of the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame. He was one of five, along with John Wooden, Oscar Robertson, Dean Smith and Dr. James Naismith, selected to represent the inaugural class. On May 20, 2007, Russell was awarded an honorary doctorate by Suffolk University, where he served as its commencement speaker, and Russell received an honorary degree from Harvard University on June 7, 2007. Russell was also honored during 2009 NBA All-Star Weekend in Phoenix. On February 14, 2009, NBA Commissioner David Stern announced that the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award award would be re-named the "Bill Russell NBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award" in honor of the 11-time NBA champion. The following day, during halftime of the All-Star game, Celtics captains Paul Pierce, Kevin Garnett, and Ray Allen presented Russell a surprise birthday cake for his 75th birthday. Russell attended the final game of the Finals that year to present his newly christened namesake award to its winner, Kobe Bryant. Russell also won the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2011.

Coaching record

|- | align="left"|BOS | align="left"| |81||60||21||.671||align="center"|2nd in Eastern||9||4||5||.444 | align="center"|Lost in Div. Finals |- | align="left"|BOS | align="left"| |82||54||28||.659||align="center"|2nd in Eastern||19||12||7||.632 | align="center"|Won NBA Championship |- | align="left"|BOS | align="left"| |82||48||34||.585||align="center"|4th in Eastern||18||12||6||.667 | align="center"|Won NBA Championship |- | align="left"|SEA | align="left"| |82||36||46||.439||align="center"|3rd in Pacific||—||—||—||— | align="center"|Missed Playoffs |- | align="left"|SEA | align="left"| |82||43||39||.524||align="center"|2nd in Pacific||9||4||5||.444 | align="center"|Lost in Conf. Semifinals |- | align="left"|SEA | align="left"| |82||43||39||.524||align="center"|2nd in Pacific||6||2||4||.333 | align="center"|Lost in First Round |- | align="left"|SEA | align="left"| |82||40||42||.488||align="center"|4th in Pacific||—||—||—||— | align="center"|Missed Playoffs |- | align="left"|SAC | align="left"| |58||17||41||.293||align="center"|(released)||—||—||—||— | align="center"|— |-class="sortbottom" | align="left"|Career | ||631||341||290||.540|| ||61||34||27||.557

Accomplishments and legacy

:''Bill Russell was the cornerstone of the Boston Celtics' dynasty.'' ::— introductory line of Russell's nba.com/history summary.

Russell is one of the most successful and decorated athletes in North American sports history. His awards and achievements include eleven NBA championships as a player with the Boston Celtics in 13 seasons (including two NBA championships as player/head coach), and he is credited with having raised defensive play in the NBA to a new level. By winning the 1956 NCAA Championship with USF and the 1957 NBA title with the Celtics, Russell became the first of only four players in basketball history to win an NCAA championship and an NBA Championship back-to-back (the others being Henry Bibby, Magic Johnson, and Billy Thompson). In the interim, Russell collected an Olympic gold medal in 1956. His stint as coach of the Celtics was also of historical significance, as he became the first black head coach in major U.S. professional sports when he succeeded Red Auerbach.

In his first NBA full season (1957–58), Russell became the first player in NBA history to average more than 20 rebounds per game for an entire season, a feat he accomplished 10 times in his 13 seasons. Russell's 51 rebounds in a single game is the second highest performance ever, only trailing Chamberlain's all-time record of 55. He still holds the NBA record for rebounds in one half with 32 (vs. Philadelphia, on November 16, 1957). Career-wise, Russell ranks second only to Wilt Chamberlain in regular season total (21,620) and average (22.5) rebounds per game, and led the NBA in average rebounds per game four times. Russell is the all-time playoff leader in total (4,104) and average (24.9) rebounds per game, he grabbed 40 rebounds in three separate playoff games (twice in the NBA Finals), and he never failed to average at least 20 rebounds per game in any of his 13 post-season campaigns. Russell also had seven regular season games with 40 or more rebounds, the NBA Finals record for highest rebound per game average (29.5 rpg, 1959) and by a rookie (22.9 rpg, 1957). In addition, Russell holds the NBA Finals single-game record for most rebounds (40, March 29, 1960 vs. St. Louis and April 18, 1962 vs. Los Angeles), most rebounds in a quarter (19, April 18, 1962 vs. Los Angeles), and most consecutive games with 20 or more rebounds (15 from April 9, 1960 – April 16, 1963). He also had 51 in one game, 49 in two others, and twelve straight seasons of 1,000 or more rebounds. Russell was known as one of the most clutch players in the NBA. He played in 11 deciding games (10 times in Game 7s, once in a Game 5), and ended with a flawless 11–0 record. In these eleven games, Russell averaged 18 points and 29.45 rebounds.

On the hardwood, he was considered the consummate defensive center, noted for his unmatched defensive intensity, his stellar basketball IQ and his sheer will to win. Russell excelled at playing man-to-man defense, blocking shots, and grabbing defensive and offensive rebounds. He also could score with putbacks and made mid-air outlet passes to point guard Bob Cousy for easy fast break points. He also was known as a fine passer and pick-setter, featured a decent left-handed hook shot and finished strong on alley oops. However, on offense, Russell's output was limited. His NBA career personal averages show him to be an average scorer (15.1 points career average), a poor free throw shooter (56.1%), and average overall shooter from the field (44%, not exceptional for a center). In his 13 years, he averaged a relatively low 13.4 field goals attempted (normally, top scorers average 20 and more), illustrating that he was never the focal point of the Celtics offense, instead focusing on his tremendous defense.

In his career, Russell won five regular season MVP awards (1959, 1961–63, 1965)—tied with Michael Jordan for second all-time behind Kareem Abdul Jabbar's six awards. He was selected three times to the All-NBA First Teams (1959, 1963, 1965) and eight Second Teams (1958, 1960–62, 1964, 1966–68), and was a twelve-time NBA All-Star (1958–1969). Russell was elected to one NBA All-Defensive First Team. This took place during his last season (1969), and was the first season the NBA All-Defensive Teams were selected. In 1970, ''The Sporting News'' named Russell the "Athlete of the Decade". Russell is universally seen as one of the best NBA players ever, and was declared "Greatest Player in the History of the NBA" by the Professional Basketball Writers Association of America in 1980. For his achievements, Russell was named "Sportsman of the Year" by ''Sports Illustrated'' in 1968. He also made all three NBA Anniversary Teams: the NBA 25th Anniversary All-Time Team (1970), the NBA 35th Anniversary All-Time Team (1980) and the NBA 50th Anniversary All-Time Team (1996). Russell ranked #18 on ''ESPN's 50 Greatest Athletes of the 20th Century'' in 1999. In 2009, ''SLAM Magazine'' named Russell the #3 player of all time behind Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. On Saturday February 14, 2009, during the 2009 NBA All-Star Weekend in Phoenix, NBA Commissioner David Stern announced that the NBA Finals MVP Award would be named after Bill Russell.

Russell was named as a 2010 recipient of the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Personal life

Russell was married to his college sweetheart Rose Swisher from 1956 to 1973. They had three children, namely daughter Karen Russell, the television pundit and lawyer, and sons William Jr. and Jacob. However, the couple grew emotionally distant and divorced. In 1977, he married Dorothy Anstett, Miss USA of 1968, but they divorced in 1980. In 1996, Russell married his third wife Marilyn Nault, and their marriage lasted until her death in January 2009. His older brother is the noted playwright Charlie L. Russell.

During his career, Russell was one of the first big earners in NBA basketball. His rookie contract was worth $24,000, only fractionally smaller than the $25,000 of top earner Bob Cousy. In contrast to other Celtics, who had to work in the offseason to maintain their standard of living (Heinsohn sold insurance, Gene Guarilia was a professional guitar player, Cousy ran a basketball camp, and Auerbach invested in plastics and a Chinese restaurant), Russell never had to work part-time. When Wilt Chamberlain became the first NBA player to earn $100,000 in salary in 1965, Russell went to Auerbach and demanded a $100,001 salary, which he promptly received.

Personality

Russell was driven by "a neurotic need to win", as his teammate Heinsohn observed. He was so tense before every game that he regularly threw up in the locker rooms; it happened so frequently that his fellow Celtics were more worried when it did ''not'' happen. He was also known for his natural authority. When he became player-coach in 1967, Russell bluntly said to his teammates that "he intended to cut all personal ties to other players", and seamlessly made the transition from their peer to their superior.

To teammates and friends, Russell was open and amicable, but was extremely distrusting and cold towards anyone else. Journalists were often treated to the "Russell Glower", described as an "icily contemptuous stare accompanied by a long silence". Russell was also notorious for his refusal to give autographs or even acknowledge the Celtics fans, so far that he was called "the most selfish, surly and uncooperative athlete" by one pundit.

Russell-Chamberlain rivalry

For most of his career, Russell was close friends with his perennial opponent Wilt Chamberlain. Chamberlain often invited Russell over for Thanksgiving, and at Russell's place, conversation mostly concerned Russell's electric trains. However, the relationship deteriorated into intense loathing after Game 7 of the 1969 NBA Finals, where Chamberlain took himself out of a close game with six minutes left and never returned. Russell accused Chamberlain of being a malingerer and of "copping out" of the game when it seemed that the Lakers would lose; in retaliation, Chamberlain (whose knee was so bad that he could not play the entire offseason and ruptured it in the next season) was livid at Russell and saw him as a backstabber. The two men did not talk to each other for over 20 years until Russell attempted to patch things up, although he never uttered a genuine apology. When Chamberlain died in 1999, Chamberlain's nephew stated that Russell was the second person he was ordered to break the news to. At the eulogy, Russell stated that he never considered Chamberlain his rival and disliked the term, instead pointing out that they rarely talked about basketball.

Racist abuse, controversy and reconciliation

Russell's life was marked by an uphill battle against racism and controversial actions and statements in response to perceived racism. As a child, the young Russell witnessed how his parents were victims of racial abuse, and eventually moved into housing projects to escape the daily torrent of bigotry. When he later became a standout amateur basketball player at USF, Russell recalled how he and his few fellow African American colleagues were jeered by white students. Even after he became a star on the Boston Celtics, Russell was the victim of racial abuse. When the NBA All-Stars toured the U.S. in the 1958 offseason, white hotel owners in segregated North Carolina denied rooms to Russell and his black teammates, causing him to later write in his memoir ''Go Up for Glory'', "It stood out, a wall which understanding cannot penetrate. You are a Negro. You are less. It covered every area. A living, smarting, hurting, smelling, greasy substance which covered you. A morass to fight from." Before the 1961–62 season, Russell refused to play in an exhibition game in Lexington, Kentucky when he and his black teammates were refused service at a local restaurant.

As a consequence, Russell was extremely sensitive to all racial prejudice: according to Taylor, he often perceived insults even if others did not. He was active in the Black Power movement and supported Muhammad Ali's decision to refuse to be drafted. He was often called "Felton X," a mockery of the Nation of Islam's tradition of replacing a European slave name with an "X," and even purchased land in Liberia. Russell's public statements became increasingly militant, so far that he was quoted in a 1963 ''Sports Illustrated'' interview with the words: "I dislike most white people because they are people... I like most blacks because I am black", expressing that "human" was a negative trait and "black" was a positive trait which were mutually exclusive. However, when his white Celtics teammate Frank Ramsey asked whether he hated him, Russell claimed to be misquoted, but few believed it. Also, Taylor remarks that Russell overlooked that his career was only made possible by the white people who were proven anti-racists, namely his white high school coach George Powles (the person who encouraged him to play basketball), his white college coach Phil Woolpert (who integrated USF basketball), white Celtics coach Red Auerbach (who is universally regarded as an anti-racist pioneer and made him the first black NBA coach), and white Celtics owner Walter A. Brown, who gave him a high $24,000 rookie contract, just $1,000 shy of the top earning veteran Bob Cousy.

Nevertheless, as a result of repeated racial bigotry, Russell refused to respond to fan acclaim or friendship from his neighbors, thinking it was insincere and hypocritical. He decided that the world had given him nothing, so in return, he could give the world nothing. This attitude contributed to his legendary bad rapport with fans and journalists. He alienated the Boston Celtics fans by saying, "You owe the public the same it owes you, nothing! I refuse to smile and be nice to the kiddies." This supported the opinion that Russell (who was the highest paid Celtic) was egotistical, paranoid and hypocritical, and even the FBI described Russell in his file as "an arrogant Negro who won't sign autographs for white children". The already hostile atmosphere between Russell and Boston hit its nadir when vandals broke into his house, covered the walls with racist graffiti, damaged his trophies and defecated into the beds. In response, Russell described Boston as a "flea market of racism". After his retirement, he described the Boston press as corrupt and racist; in response, Boston sports journalist Larry Claflin claimed that Russell himself was the real racist. Despite his refusal to sign autographs, he accepted a $250,000 contract to sign 5,000 pieces of memorabilia.

Russell, who invariably saw himself as a victim of the media, was present neither when his Number 6 jersey was retired in 1972, nor when he was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1975, shunning the limelight both times. While Russell still has sore feelings towards the city, there has been something of a reconciliation; and he has even visited the city on a regular basis in recent years, something he never did in the years immediately after his retirement. When Russell originally retired, he demanded that his jersey be retired in an empty Boston Garden. In 1995, the Celtics left Boston Garden and entered the FleetCenter, now the TD Garden, and as the main festive act, the Boston organization wanted to re-retire Russell's jersey in front of a sellout audience. Perennially wary of the "racist" city of Boston, Russell decided to make amends and gave his approval. On May 6, 1999 the Celtics re-retired Russell's jersey in a ceremony attended by Russell's on-court rival Chamberlain, along with Celtics legend Larry Bird and Hall of Famer Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The crowd gave Russell a prolonged standing ovation, which brought tears to his eyes. Russell was visibly shaken at this outpour of adoration. He thanked Chamberlain for taking him to the limit and "making [him] a better player" and the crowd for "allowing [him] to be a part of their lives."

On December 2, 2008, Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and The Mayor's Office of New Bostonians awarded Russell the 2008 We Are Boston Leadership Awards. Russell, who according to the mayor flew a "red-eye flight" to be there, attended the annual event with his daughter. He was visibly grateful and shared anecdotes of racial bigotry when he first came to Boston as a player and bought a home in Reading, Massachusetts. Russell congratulated the mayor on wanting to be a "mayor for all of Boston" and commented that it was a city that truly changed.

See also

List of National Basketball Association career rebounding leaders

List of National Basketball Association career playoff rebounding leaders

List of National Basketball Association career playoff assists leaders

List of National Basketball Association season rebounding leaders

List of National Basketball Association players with most rebounds in a game

List of NCAA Division I men's basketball career rebounding leaders

Books

Further reading

Goudsouzian, Aram (2010). ''King of the Court: Bill Russell and the Basketball Revolution.'' Berkeley: University of California Press.

Kornheiser, Tony (1999). "Bill Russell: Nothing but a Man". In ''ESPN SportsCentury''. Michael MacCambridge, Editor. New York: Hyperion-ESPN Books. pp. 178–89.

References

External links

Bill Russell career stats

NBA.com: Bill Russell

Bill Russell: Hall of Fame

FIBA Hall of Fame on Russell

Category:1934 births Category:Living people Category:African American basketball coaches Category:African American basketball players Category:Basketball players from California Category:Basketball players from Louisiana Category:Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame inductees Category:FIBA Hall of Fame inductees Category:Boston Celtics head coaches Category:Boston Celtics players Category:National Basketball Association head coaches Category:National Basketball Association players with retired numbers Category:National Basketball Association broadcasters Category:National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame inductees Category:Sportspeople from Oakland, California Category:United States men's national basketball team members Category:Olympic basketball players of the United States Category:Olympic gold medalists for the United States Category:People from Monroe, Louisiana Category:Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients Category:Sacramento Kings head coaches Category:University of San Francisco alumni Category:San Francisco Dons men's basketball players Category:Seattle SuperSonics head coaches Category:St. Louis Hawks draft picks Category:Player-coaches Category:Basketball players at the 1956 Summer Olympics Category:Centers (basketball) Category:Olympic medalists in basketball

bs:Bill Russell ca:Bill Russell de:Bill Russell et:Bill Russell es:Bill Russell fa:بیل راسل fr:Bill Russell gl:Bill Russell hr:Bill Russell id:Bill Russell it:Bill Russell he:ביל ראסל lv:Bils Rasels lt:Bill Russell mk:Бил Расел nl:Bill Russell ja:ビル・ラッセル no:Bill Russell pl:Bill Russell pt:Bill Russell ru:Расселл, Билл simple:Bill Russell sr:Бил Расел fi:Bill Russell sv:Bill Russell th:บิล รัสเซล tr:Bill Russell zh:比尔·拉塞尔

Group	First Nations
Population	698,025
Languages	Aboriginal languages Canadian English Canadian French
Religions	Christian Anglican traditional beliefs traditional mythology}}

First Nations is a term of ethnicity that refers to the Aboriginal peoples in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis. There are currently over 630 recognized First Nations governments or bands spread across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. The total population is nearly 700,000 people. Under the Employment Equity Act, First Nations are a "designated group", along with women, visible minorities, and persons with physical or mental disabilities. They are not defined as a visible minority under the Act or by the criteria of Statistics Canada.

The term ''First Nations'' (most often used in the plural) has come into general use for the indigenous peoples of the Americas located in what is now Canada, except for the Arctic-situated Inuit, and peoples of mixed European-First Nations ancestry called Métis. The singular, commonly used on culturally politicised reserves, is the term ''First Nations person'' (when gender-specific, ''First Nations man'' or ''First Nations woman''). A more recent trend is for members of various nations to refer to themselves by their tribal or national identity only, e.g., "I'm Haida," or "We're Kwantlens," in recognition of the distinctiveness of First Nations ethnicities.

North American indigenous peoples have cultures spanning thousands of years. Some of their oral traditions accurately describe historical events, such as the Cascadia Earthquake of 1700. Written records began with the arrival of European explorers and colonists during the Age of Discovery, beginning in the late 15th century. European accounts by trappers, traders, explorers, and missionaries give important evidence of early contact culture. In addition, archeological and anthropological research, as well as linguistics, have helped scholars piece together understanding of ancient cultures and historic peoples.

Although not without conflict or slavery, Euro-Canadians' early interactions with First Nations and Inuit populations were relatively noncombative compared to the often violent battles between colonists and native peoples in the United States. Combined with later economic development, this relatively noncombative history has allowed First Nations peoples to have a strong influence on the national culture, while preserving their own identities.

Terminology

Collectively, ''First Nations'', ''Inuit'', and ''Métis'' peoples constitute ''Aboriginal peoples in Canada'', Indigenous peoples of the Americas or ''first peoples''. "First Nations"' is a legally defined term that came into common usage in the 1980s to replace the term "Indian band". Elder Sol Sanderson says that he coined the term in the early 1980s. A band is a legally recognized "body of Indians for whose collective use and benefit lands have been set apart or money is held by the Canadian Crown, or declared to be a band for the purposes of the Indian Act."

As individuals, First Nations people are officially recognized by the Government of Canada by the terms "registered Indians" or "status Indians" only if they are listed on the Indian Register and are thus entitled to benefits under the Indian Act. They are considered "non-status Indian" if they are not so listed and thus not entitled to benefits, according to the Canadian state. Administration of the Indian Act and Indian Register is carried out by the federal government's Department of Indian and Northern Affairs.

While the word "Indian" is still a legal term, its use is erratic and in decline in Canada. Some First Nations people consider the term offensive, while others prefer it to "Aboriginal person/persons/people". According to the 2006 Census, today more Canadians identify as being of East Indian ethnicity than there are members of First Nations, reflecting demographic changes due to increased 20th-century immigration. The use of the term "Native Americans", which the United States government and others have adopted in that nation, is not common in Canada. It refers more specifically to the Aboriginal peoples residing within the boundaries of the United States. The parallel term "Native Canadian" is not commonly used, but "Natives"' and ''autochthones'' (from Canadian French) are. Under the Royal Proclamation of 1763, also known as the "Indian ''Magna Carta''", the Crown referred to indigenous peoples in British territory as tribes or nations. The term "First Nations" is capitalised, unlike alternative terms. Bands and nations may have slightly different meanings.

History

:''For pre-history, see: Paleo-Indians and Archaic periods (Canada)'' According to archaeological and indigenous genetic evidence, North and South America were the last continents in the world to be inhabited by humans. During the Wisconsin glaciation, 50,00017,000 years ago, falling sea levels allowed people (Paleo-Indians) to move across the Bering land bridge that joined Siberia to northwest North America (present-day Alaska). Alaska was ice-free due to low snowfall, allowing a small population to exist. The Laurentide ice sheet covered the majority of Canada, blocking nomadic inhabitants and confining them to Alaska (East Beringia) for thousands of years.

Post-Archaic period

Among the First Nations peoples, there are eight unique stories of creation and their adaptations. These are the earth diver, world parent, emergence, conflict, robbery, rebirth of corpse, two creators and their contests, and the brother myth. Canadian Aboriginal civilizations established characteristics and hallmarks which included permanent or urban settlements, agriculture, civic and monumental architecture, and complex societal hierarchies. Some of these civilisations had long faded by the time of the first permanent European arrivals (c. late 15th–early 16th centuries), and are discovered through archaeological investigations. Others were contemporary with this period recorded in historical accounts of the time. When the Europeans arrived, natives of North America were semi-nomadic tribes of hunter-gatherers; others were sedentary and agricultural civilisations. New tribes or confederations formed in response to European colonisation.

thumb|upright|Hopewell Interaction AreaThe Old Copper Complex ancient societies dates from 3000 BCE to 500 BCE (5,000 – 2,500 years ago) and is a manifestation of the Woodland Culture, but is pre-pottery in nature. Found in the northern Great Lakes regions, they extracted copper from local glacial deposits and used it in its natural form to manufacture tools and implements. The Woodland Cultural period dates from 1000 BCE – 1000 CE and is associated with Ontario, Quebec, and the Maritime regions. The introduction of pottery distinguishes the Woodland culture from the Archaic stage humans. Laurentian people of southern Ontario manufactured the oldest pottery excavated in Canada. They created pointed-bottom beakers they decorated by a cord marking technique that involved impressing tooth implements into wet clay. Woodland technology includes items such as beaver incisor knives, bangles, and chisels. Sedentary agricultural lifeways resulted in a population increase engendered by a diet of squash, corn, and bean crops.

The Norton tradition is an archaeological culture that developed in the Western Arctic along the Alaskan shore of the Bering Strait from 1000 BCE and lasted through about 900 CE. The Norton people used flake-stone tools like their predecessors, the Arctic small tool tradition, but they were more marine-oriented and brought new technologies such as oil-burning lamps and clay vessels into use. They hunted caribou and smaller mammals as well as salmon and larger marine mammals. Village sites that contained substantial dwellings showed permanent settlement. The Hopewell tradition is the term used to describe common aspects of the Aboriginal culture that flourished along rivers in the Northeastern and Midwestern United States from 300 BCE to 500 CE. The Hopewell tradition was not a single culture or society, but a dispersed set of related populations connected by a common network of trade routes, known as the Hopewell Exchange System. At its greatest extent, the ''Hopewell exchange system'' ran from the Southeastern United States into the southeastern Canadian shores of Lake Ontario. Local expression of the Hopewellian peoples in Canada include the Point Peninsula Complex, Saugeen Complex, and Laurel Complex.

Nationhood

:''First Nations by linguistic-cultural area: List of First Nations peoples'' First Nations had settled across Canada by 500 BCE – 1000 CE. Hundreds of tribes had developed, each with its own culture, customs, legends, and character. In the northwest were the Athapaskan speaking peoples, Slavey, Tli Cho, Tutchone speaking peoples and Tlingit. Along the Pacific coast were the Haida, Salish, Kwakiutl, Nuu-chah-nulth, Nisga'a and Gitxsan. In the plains were the Blackfoot, Kainai, Sarcee and Northern Peigan. In the northern woodlands were the Cree and Chipewyan. Around the Great Lakes were the Anishinaabe, Algonquin, Iroquois and Wyandot. Along the Atlantic coast were the Beothuk, Maliseet, Innu, Abenaki and Mi'kmaq.

The Blackfoot Indians – also known as the Blackfeet Indians – reside in the Great Plains of Montana and the Canadian provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan. The name 'Blackfoot' came from the colour of the peoples' leather footwear, known as moccasins. They had dyed or painted the bottoms of their moccasins black, but one story claimed that the Blackfoot Indians walked through the ashes of prairie fires, which in turn coloured the bottoms of their moccasins black. They had not originally come from the Great Plains of the Midwest North America, but rather from the upper Northeastern area. The Blackfoot started as woodland Indians but as they made their way over to the Plains, they adapted to new ways of life and became accustomed to the land. They learned the new lands that they travelled to very well and established themselves as Plains Indians in the late 18th century, earning themselves the name "The Lords of the Plains." The Sḵwxwú7mesh history is a series of past events, both passed on through oral tradition and recent history, of the ''Sḵwxwú7mesh'' indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. Prior to colonisation, they recorded their history through oral tradition as a way to transmit stories, law, and knowledge across generations. The writing system established in the 1970s used the Latin alphabet as a base. It was a respectable responsibility of knowledgeable elders to pass historical knowledge to the next generation. People lived and prospered for thousands of years until the Great Flood. In another story, after the Flood, they would repopulate from the villages of Schenks and Chekwelp, located at Gibsons. When the water lines receded, the first Sḵwxwú7mesh came to be. The first man, named Tsekánchten, built his longhouse in the village, and later on another man named Xelálten, appeared on his longhouse roof and sent by the Creator, or in the Sḵwxwú7mesh language ''keke7nex siyam''. He called this man his brother. It was from these two men that the population began to rise and the Sḵwxwú7mesh spread back through their territory. The Iroquois influence extended from northern New York into what are now southern Ontario and the Montreal area of modern Quebec. The Iroquois Confederacy is, from oral tradition, formed circa 1142. Adept at the Three Sisters (maize/beans/squash), the Iroquois were able to spread at the expense of the Algonquians until they too adopted agricultural practises enabling larger populations to be sustained.

The Assiniboine were close allies and trading partners of the Cree, engaging in wars against the Gros Ventres alongside them, and later fighting the Blackfeet. A Plains people, they went no further north than the North Saskatchewan River and purchased a great deal of European trade goods through Cree middlemen from the Hudson's Bay Company. The life style of this group was semi-nomadic, and they would follow the herds of bison during the warmer months. They traded with European traders, and worked with the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara tribes, and that factor is attached to their life style.

In the earliest oral history, the Algonquins were from the Atlantic coast. Together with other Anicinàpek, they arrived at the "First Stopping Place" near Montreal. While the other Anicinàpe peoples continued their journey up the Saint Lawrence River, the Algonquins settled along the ''Kitcisìpi'' (Ottawa River), an important highway for commerce, cultural exchange, and transportation from time immemorial. A distinct Algonquin identity, though, was not realised until after the dividing of the Anicinàpek at the "Third Stopping Place", estimated at about 2,000 years ago near present day Detroit. According to their tradition, and from recordings in ''wiigwaasabak'' (birch bark scrolls), Ojibwe came from the eastern areas of North America, or Turtle Island, and from along the east coast. They traded widely across the continent for thousands of years and knew of the canoe routes west and a land route to the west coast. According to the oral history, seven great ''miigis'' (radiant/iridescent) beings appeared to the peoples in the ''Waabanakiing'' to teach the peoples of the ''mide'' way of life. One of the seven great ''miigis'' beings was too spiritually powerful and killed the peoples in the ''Waabanakiing'' when the people were in its presence. The six great ''miigis'' beings remained to teach while the one returned into the ocean. The six great ''miigis'' beings then established ''doodem'' (clans) for the peoples in the east. Of these ''doodem'', the five original Anishinaabe ''doodem'' were the ''Wawaazisii'' (Bullhead), ''Baswenaazhi'' (Echo-maker, i.e., Crane), ''Aan'aawenh'' (Pintail Duck), ''Nooke'' (Tender, i.e., Bear) and ''Moozoonsii'' (Little Moose), then these six ''miigis'' beings returned into the ocean as well. If the seventh ''miigis'' being stayed, it would have established the Thunderbird ''doodem''. The Nuu-chah-nulth are one of the Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast. The term 'Nuu-chah-nulth' is used to describe fifteen separate but related First Nations, such as the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations, Ehattesaht First Nation and Hesquiaht First Nation whose traditional home is in the Pacific Northwest on the west coast of Vancouver Island. In pre-contact and early post-contact times, the number of nations was much greater, but smallpox and other consequences of contact resulted in the disappearance of groups, and the absorption of others into neighbouring groups. The Nuu-chah-nulth are relations of the Kwakwaka'wakw, the Haisla, and the Ditidaht. The Nuu-chah-nulth language is part of the Wakashan language group.

A 1999 discovery of the body of Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi has provided archaeologists with significant information on indigenous tribal life prior to extensive European contact. Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi (meaning ''Long Ago Person Found'' in Southern Tutchone), or ''Canadian Ice Man'', is a naturally mummified body found in Tatshenshini-Alsek Provincial Park in British Columbia, by a group of hunters. Radiocarbon dating of artifacts found with the body placed the age of the find between 1450 AD and 1700 AD. Genetic testing has shown he was a member of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations. Local clans are considering a memorial potlatch to honour Kwäday Dän Ts’ìnchi.

European contact

Aboriginal people in Canada interacted with Europeans as far back as 1000 AD, but prolonged contact came only after Europeans established permanent settlements in the 17th and 18th centuries. European written accounts noted friendliness on the part of the First Nations, who profited in trade with Europeans. Such trade strengthened the more organised political entities such as the Iroquois Confederation. The Aboriginal population is estimated to have been between 200,000 and two million in the late 15th century. Repeated outbreaks of European infectious diseases such as influenza, measles and smallpox (to which they had no natural immunity), combined with other effects of European contact, resulted in a forty to eighty percent aboriginal population decrease post-contact. For example, during the late 1630s, smallpox killed over half of the Huron, who controlled most of the early fur trade in what became Canada. Reduced to fewer than 10,000 people, the Huron were attacked by the Iroquois, their traditional enemies.

There are reports of contact made before Christopher Columbus between the first peoples and those from other continents. Even in Columbus' time there was much speculation that other Europeans had made the trip in ancient or contemporary times; Gonzalo Fernández de Oviedo y Valdés records accounts of these in his ''General y natural historia de las Indias'' of 1526, which includes biographical information on Columbus. Aboriginal first contact period is not well defined. The earliest accounts of contact occurred in the late 10th century, between the Beothuk and Norseman. According to the Sagas of Icelanders, the first European to see what is now Canada was Bjarni Herjólfsson, who was blown off course en route from Iceland to Greenland in the summer of 985 or 986 CE. The first settler of what is now Canada relied on First Nations, for resources and trade to sustain a living. First written accounts of interaction is predominantly Old world bias. Although not without conflict, European/Canadian early interactions with First Nations and Inuit populations were relatively peaceful, compared to the experience of native peoples in the United States. National Aboriginal Day recognises the cultures and contributions of Aboriginal peoples of Canada. There are currently over 600 recognized First Nations governments or bands encompassing 1,172,790 ²⁰⁰⁶ people spread across Canada with distinctive Aboriginal cultures, languages, art, and music.

16th–18th centuries

The Portuguese Crown claimed it had territorial rights in the area visited by Cabot. In 1493, the Pope – assuming international jurisdiction – had divided lands discovered in America between Spain and Portugal. The next year, in the Treaty of Tordesillas, these two kingdoms decided that the dividing line would be drawn north–south, 370 leagues (from approximately depending on league used) west of the Cape Verde Islands. Land to the west would be Spanish, to the east Portuguese. Given the uncertain geography of the day, this seemed to give the "new founde isle" to Portugal. On the 1502 Cantino map, Newfoundland appears on the Portuguese side of the line (as does Brazil). An expedition captured about 60 Aboriginal people as slaves who were said to "resemble gypsies in colour, features, stature and aspect; are clothed in the skins of various animals ...They are very shy and gentle, but well formed in arms and legs and shoulders beyond description ...." Only the captives, sent by Gaspar Corte-Real, reached Portugal. The others drowned, with Gaspar, on the return voyage. Gaspar's brother, Miguel Corte-Real, went to look for him in 1502, but also failed to return. Scholars believe that Miguel Corte-Real carved inscriptions on the controversial Dighton Rock.

In 1604, Pierre Dugua, Sieur de Mons received the fur trade monopoly. Dugua led his first colonisation expedition to an island located near to the mouth of the St. Croix River. Samuel de Champlain, his geographer, promptly carried out a major exploration of the northeastern coastline of what is now the United States. Under Samuel de Champlain, the Saint Croix settlement was moved to Port Royal (today's Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia), a new site across the Bay of Fundy, on the shore of the Annapolis Basin, an inlet in western Nova Scotia. Acadia was France's most successful colony to date. The cancellation of Dugua's fur monopoly in 1607 ended the Port Royal settlement. Champlain was able to persuade First Nations to allow him to settle along the Saint Lawrence, where in 1608 he would found France's first permanent colony in Canada at Quebec City. The colony of Acadia grew slowly, reaching a population of about 5,000 by 1713. New France had cod fishery coastal communities and farm economies supported communities along Saint Lawrence River. French ''voyageurs'' travelled deep into the hinterlands (of what is today Quebec, Ontario, and Manitoba, as well as what is now the American Midwest and the Mississippi Valley) trading with First Nations as they went – guns, gunpowder, cloth, knives, and kettles for beaver furs. The fur trade kept the interest in Frances overseas colonies alive, yet only encouraged a small population as minimal labour was required, and also discouraged the development of agriculture, the surest foundation of a colony in the New World.

The Métis

The Métis (from French ''métis'' – "mixed") are descended of marriages of Cree, Ojibway, Algonquin, Saulteaux, Menominee, Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, and other First Nations in the late 18th and 19th century to Europeans, mainly French. According to Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, the Métis were historically the children of French fur traders and Nehiyaw women or, from unions of English or Scottish traders and Northern Dene women (Anglo-Métis). The Métis spoke or still speak either Métis French or a mixed language called Michif. ''Michif'', ''Mechif'' or ''Métchif'' is a phonetic spelling of the Métis pronunciation of ''Métif'', a variant of ''Métis''. The Métis today predominantly speak English, with French a strong second language, as well as numerous Aboriginal tongues. Métis French is best preserved in Canada, Michif in the United States, notably in the Turtle Mountain Indian Reservation of North Dakota, where Michif is the official language of the Métis that reside on this Chippewa reservation. The encouragement and use of Métis French and Michif is growing due to outreach within the provincial Métis councils after at least a generation of steep decline. Canada's Indian and Northern Affairs define Métis to be those persons of mixed First Nation and European ancestry.

French and Indian War

French and Indian War or referred as part of the larger conflict known as the Seven Years' War (1756–1763). The name ''French and Indian War'' refers to the two main enemies of the British: the royal French forces and the various Native American forces allied with them. The conflict, the fourth such colonial war between the nations of France and Great Britain, resulted in the British conquest of Canada. In British America etymology, the sitting British monarch became the war's namesake, such as King William's War or Queen Anne's War. Because there had already been a King George's War in the 1740s, British colonists named the second war in King George's reign after their opponents so it became the ''French and Indian War''.

The Franco-Indian alliance was an alliance between American and Canadian First Nations and the French, centred on the Great Lakes and the Illinois Country. The alliance involved French settlers on the one side, and on the other side were the Abenaki, Odawa, Menominee, Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), Mississaugas, Illiniwek, Huron-Petun, Potawatomi etc. It allowed the French and the Indians to form a haven in the middle-Ohio valley before the open conflict between the European powers erupted.

Slavery

First Nations routinely captured slaves from neighbouring tribes. The conditions under which such slaves lived were much more humane than the conditions endured by African peoples forcibly brought as chattel by Europeans to the Americas. Slave-owning tribes of the fishing societies, such as the Yurok and Haida lived along the coast from what is now Alaska to California. Fierce warrior indigenous slave-traders of the Pacific Northwest Coast raided as far as California. Slavery was hereditary, the slaves being prisoners of war and their descendants. Among Pacific Northwest tribes about a quarter of the population were slaves.

The citizens of New France received slaves as gifts from their allies among First Nations peoples. Slaves were prisoners taken in raids against the villages of the Fox nation, a tribe that was an ancient rival of the Miami people and their Algonquian allies. Native (or "pani", a corruption of Pawnee) slaves were much easier to obtain and thus more numerous than African slaves in New France, but were less valued. The average native slave died at 18, and the average African slave died at 25 (the average European could expect to live until the age of 35). 1790, the abolition movement was gaining credence in Canada and the ill intent of slavery was evidenced by an incident involving a slave woman being violently abused by her slave owner on her way to being sold in the United States. The Act Against Slavery of 1793 legislated the gradual abolition of slavery: no slaves could be imported; slaves already in the province would remain enslaved until death, no new slaves could be brought into Upper Canada, and children born to female slaves would be slaves but must be freed at age 25. The Act remained in force until 1833 when the British Parliament's Slavery Abolition Act finally abolished slavery in all parts of the British Empire. Historian Marcel Trudel has documented 4,092 recorded slaves throughout Canadian history, of which 2,692 were Aboriginal people, owned by the French, and 1,400 blacks owned by the British, together owned by approximately 1,400 masters. Trudel also noted 31 marriages took place between French colonists and Aboriginal slaves.

1775–1815

British agents worked to make the first nations into military allies of the British, providing supplies, weapons, and encouragement. During the American Revolutionary War most of the tribes supported the British. In 1779, the Americans launched a campaign to burn the villages of the Iroquois in New York State. The refugees fled to Fort Niagara and other British posts, and remained permanently in Canada. Although the British ceded the Old Northwest to the United States in the Treaty of Paris in 1783, it kept fortifications and trading posts in the region until 1795. The British then evacuated American territory, but operated trading posts in British territory, providing weapons and encouragement to tribes that were resisting American expansion into such areas as Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Illinois and Wisconsin. Officially, the British agents discouraged any warlike activities or raids on American settlements, but the Americans were increasingly angered, and this became one of the causes of the War of 1812.

In the war, the great majority of First Nations supported the British, and many fought under the aegis of Tecumseh. But Tecumseh was killed in 1813 in battle, and the Indian coalition collapsed. The British have long wished to create a neutral Indian state in the American Old Northwest, and made this demand as late as 1814 at the peace negotiations at Ghent. The Americans rejected the idea, the British dropped it, and Britain's Indian allies lost British support. In addition, the Indians were no longer able to gather furs and American territory. Abandoned by their powerful sponsor, Great Lakes-area natives ultimately assumilated into American society, migrated to the west or to Canada, or were relocated onto reservations in Michigan and Wisconsin. Historians have unanimously agreed that the Indians were the major losers in the War of 1812.

19th century

Living conditions for Indigenous people in the prairie regions deteriorated quickly. Between 1875 and 1885, settlers and hunters of European descent contributed to hunting the North American Bison almost to extinction; the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway brought large numbers of European settlers west who encroached on former Indigenous territory. European Canadians established governments, police forces, and courts of law with different foundations than indigenous practices. Various epidemics continued to devastate Indigenous communities. All of these factors had a profound effect on Indigenous people, particularly those from the plains who had relied heavily on bison for food and clothing. Most of those nations that agreed to treaties had negotiated for a guarantee of food and help to begin farming. Just as the bison disappeared (the last Canadian hunt was in 1879), Lieutenant-Governor Edgar Dewdney cut rations to indigenous people in an attempt to reduce government costs. Between 1880 and 1885, approximately 3,000 Indigenous people starved to death in the North-Western Territory/Northwest Territories. Offended by the concepts of the treaties, Cree chiefs resisted them. Big Bear refused to sign Treaty 6 until starvation among his people forced his hand in 1882. His attempts to unite Indigenous nations made progress. In 1884 the Métis (including the Anglo-Métis) asked Louis Riel to return from the United States, where he had fled after the Red River Rebellion, to appeal to the government on their behalf. The government gave a vague response. In March 1885, Riel, Gabriel Dumont, Honoré Jackson (a.k.a. Will Jackson), Crowfoot, Chief of the Blackfoot First Nation and Chief Poundmaker, who after the 1876 negotiations of Treaty 6 split off to form his band. Together, they set up the Provisional Government of Saskatchewan, believing that they could influence the federal government in the same way as they had in 1869. The North-West Rebellion of 1885 was a brief and unsuccessful uprising by the Métis people of the District of Saskatchewan under Louis Riel against the Dominion of Canada, which they believed had failed to address their concerns for the survival of their people. In 1884, 2,000 Cree from reserves met near Battleford to organise into a large, cohesive resistance. Discouraged by the lack of government response but encouraged by the efforts of the Métis at armed rebellion, Wandering Spirit and other young militant Cree attacked the small town of Frog Lake, killing Thomas Quinn, the hated Indian Agent and eight others. Although Big Bear actively opposed the attacks, he was charged and tried for treason and sentenced to three years in prison. After the Red River Rebellion of 1869–1870, Métis moved from Manitoba to the District of Saskatchewan, where they founded a settlement at Batoche on the South Saskatchewan River. In Manitoba settlers from Ontario began to arrive. They pushed for land to be allotted in the square concession system of English Canada, rather than the seigneurial system of strips reaching back from a river which the Métis were familiar with in their French-Canadian culture. The buffalo were being hunted to extinction by the Hudson's Bay Company and other hunters, as for generations the Métis had depended on them as a chief source of food.

Integration

From the late 18th century, European Canadians encouraged First Nations to assimilate into their own culture, referred to as "Canadian culture". The assumption was that it was the correct one because the Canadians of European descent saw themselves as dominant, and technologically, politically and culturally more advanced. These attempts reached a climax in the late 19th and early 20th centuries

Founded in the 19th century, the Canadian Indian residential school system was intended to force the assimilation of Canadian Aboriginal and First Nations people into European-Canadian society. The purpose of the schools, which separated children from their families, has been described by commentators as "killing the Indian in the child."

Funded under the Indian Act by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, a branch of the federal government, the schools were run by churches of various denominations – about 60% by Roman Catholics, and 30% by the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada, along with its pre-1925 predecessors, Presbyterian, Congregationalist and Methodist churches.

The attempt to force assimilation involved punishing children for speaking their own languages or practicing their own faiths, leading to allegations in the 20th century of cultural genocide and ethnocide. There was widespread physical and sexual abuse. Overcrowding, poor sanitation, and a lack of medical care led to high rates of tuberculosis, and death rates of up to 69%. Details of the mistreatment of students had been published numerous times throughout the 20th century, but following the closure of the schools in the 1960s, the work of indigenous activists and historians led to a change in the public perception of the residential school system, as well as official government apologies, and a (controversial) legal settlement.

20th century

As Canadian ideas of progress evolved at the turn of the century, the federal Indian policy was directed at removing Indigenous people from their communal lands and encouraging assimilation. Amendments to the Indian Act in 1905 and 1911 made it easier for the government to expropriate reserve lands from First Nations. The government sold nearly half of the Blackfoot reserve in Alberta to settlers.

When the Kainai (Blood) Nation refused to accept the sale of their lands in 1916 and 1917, the Department of Indian Affairs held back funding necessary for farming until they relented. In British Columbia, the McKenna-McBride Royal Commission was created in 1912 to settle disputes over reserve lands in the province. The claims of Indigenous people were ignored, and the commission allocated new, less valuable lands (reserves) for First Nations.

Those nations who managed to maintain their ownership of good lands often farmed successfully. Indigenous people living near the Cowichan and Fraser rivers, and those from Saskatchewan managed to produce good harvests. Since 1881, those First Nations people living in the prairie provinces required permits from Indian Agents to sell any of their produce. Later the government created a pass system in the old Northwest Territories that required indigenous people to seek written permission from an Indian Agent before leaving their reserves for any length of time. Indigenous people regularly defied those laws, as well as bans on Sun Dances and potlatches, in an attempt to practice their culture.

The 1930 Constitution Act or Natural Resources Transfer Acts was part of a shift acknowledging indigenous rights. It enabled provincial control of Crown land and allowed Provincial laws regulating game to apply to Indians, but it also ensured that "Indians shall have the right ... of hunting, trapping and fishing game and fish for food at all seasons of the year on all unoccupied Crown lands and on any other lands to which the said Indians may have a right of access."

First and Second World Wars

More than 6,000 Canadian First Nations, Inuit and Métis served with British forces during First World War and Second World War. A generation of young native Canadian men fought on the battlefields of Europe during the Great War and approximately 300 of them died there. When Canada declared war on Germany on September 10, 1939, the native community quickly responded to volunteer. Four years later, in May 1943, the government declared that, as British subjects, all able Indian men of military age could be called up for training and service in Canada or overseas.

Late 20th century

Following the end of the Second World War, laws concerning First Nations in Canada began to change, albeit slowly. The federal prohibition of potlatch and Sun Dance ceremonies ended in 1951. Provincial governments began to accept the right of Indigenous people to vote. In June 1956, section 9 of the Citizenship Act was amended to grant formal citizenship to Status Indians and Inuit, retroactively as of January 1947.

In 1960, First Nations people received the right to vote in federal elections without forfeiting their Indian status. By comparison, Native Americans in the United States had been allowed to vote since the 1920s.

1969 White Paper

In his 1969 White Paper, then-Minister of Indian Affairs, Jean Chrétien, proposed the abolition of the Indian Act of Canada, the rejection of Aboriginal land claims, and the assimilation of First Nations people into the Canadian population with the status of "other ethnic minorities" rather than as a distinct group.

Harold Cardinal and the Indian Chiefs of Alberta responded with a document entitled "Citizens Plus" but commonly known as the "Red Paper". In it, they explained Status Indians' widespread opposition to Chrétien's proposal. Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau and the Liberals began to back away from the 1969 White Paper, particularly after the Calder case decision in 1973.

Health Transfer Policy

In 1970, severe mercury poisoning, called Ontario Minamata disease, was discovered among Asubpeeschoseewagong First Nation and Wabaseemoong Independent Nations people, who lived near Dryden, Ontario. There was extensive mercury pollution caused by Dryden Chemicals Company's waste water effluent in the Wabigoon-English River system. Because local fish were no longer safe to eat, the Ontario provincial government closed the commercial fisheries run by the First Nation people and ordered them to stop eating local fish. Previously it had made up the majority of their diet. In addition to the acute mercury poisoning in northwestern Ontario, Aamjiwnaang First Nation people near Sarnia, Ontario experienced a wide range of chemical effects, including severe mercury poisoning. They suffered low birth rates, skewed birth-gender ratio, and health effects among the population. This led to legislation and eventually the Indian Health Transfer Policy that provided a framework for the assumption of control of health services by First Nations people, and set forth a developmental approach to transfer centred on the concept of self-determination in health. Through this process, the decision to enter into transfer discussions with Health Canada rests with each community. Once involved in transfer, communities are able to take control of health programme responsibilities at a pace determined by their individual circumstances and health management capabilities.

Elijah Harper and the Meech Lake Accord

In 1981, Elijah Harper, a Cree from Red Sucker Lake, Manitoba, became the first "Treaty Indian" in Manitoba to be elected as a member of the Legislative Assembly of Manitoba. In 1990, Harper achieved national fame by holding an eagle feather as he refused to accept the Meech Lake Accord, a constitutional amendment package negotiated to gain Quebec's acceptance of the Constitution Act, 1982, but also one that did not address any First Nations grievances. The accord was negotiated in 1987 without the input of Canada's Aboriginal peoples. The third, final constitutional conference on Aboriginal peoples was also unsuccessful. The Manitoba assembly was required to unanimously consent to a motion allowing it to hold a vote on the accord, because of a procedural rule. Twelve days before the ratification deadline for the Accord, Harper began a filibuster that prevented the assembly from ratifying the accord. Because Meech Lake failed in Manitoba, the proposed constitutional amendment failed. Harper also opposed the Charlottetown Accord in 1992, even though Assembly of First Nations Chief Ovide Mercredi supported it.

Women's status and Bill C-31

According to the Indian Act, indigenous women who married white men lost their treaty status, and their children would not get status. In the reverse situation (indigenous men married to white women), men could keep their status, and their children would get treaty status. In the 1970s, the ''Indian Rights for Indian Women'' and Native Women's Association of Canada groups campaigned against this policy because it discriminated against women and failed to fulfill treaty promises. They successfully convinced the federal government to change the section of the act with the adoption of Bill C-31 on June 28, 1985. Women who had lost their status and children who had been excluded were then able to register and gain official Indian status. Despite these changes, First Nations women who married white men could only pass their status on one generation, their children would gain status, but (without a marriage to a full status Indian) their grandchildren would not. A First Nations male who married a white woman retained status as did his children, but his wife did not gain status, nor did his grandchildren.

Bill C-31 also gave elected bands the power to regulate who was allowed to reside on their reserves and to control development on their reserves. It abolished the concept of "enfranchisement" by which First Nations people could gain certain rights by renouncing their Indian status.

Erasmus-Dussault commission

In 1991, Prime Minister Brian Mulroney created the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples chaired by René Dussault and Georges Erasmus. Their 1996 report proposed the creation of a government for (and by) the First Nations that would be responsible within its own jurisdiction, and with which the federal government would speak on a "Nation-to-Nation" basis. This proposal offered a far different way of doing politics than the traditional policy of assigning First Nations matters under the jurisdiction of the Indian and Northern Affairs, managed by one minister of the federal cabinet. The report also recommended providing the governments of the First Nations with up to $2 billion every year until 2010, in order to reduce the economic gap between the First Nations and the rest of the Canadian citizenry. The money would represent an increase of at least 50% to the budget of Indian and Northern Affairs. The report engaged First Nations leaders to think of ways to cope with the challenging issues their people were facing, so the First Nations could take their destiny into their own hands.

The federal government, then headed by Jean Chrétien, responded to the report a year later by officially presenting its apologies for the forced acculturation the federal government had imposed on the First Nations, and by offering an "initial" provision of $350 million.

In the spirit of the Eramus-Dussault commission, tripartite (federal, provincial, and First Nations) accords have been signed since the report was issued. Several political crises between different provincial governments and different bands of the First Nations also occurred in the late 20th century, notably the Oka Crisis, Ipperwash Crisis, Burnt Church Crisis, and the Gustafsen Lake Standoff.

Early 21st century

In 2001, the Quebec government, the federal government, and the Cree Nation signed "La Paix des Braves" (''The Peace of the Braves'', a reference to the 1701 peace treaty between the French and the Iroquois League). The agreement allowed Hydro-Québec to exploit the province's hydroelectric resources in exchange for an allocation of $3.5 billion to be given to the government of the Cree Nation. Later, the Inuit of northern Quebec (Nunavik) joined in the agreement. In 2005, the leaders of the First Nations, various provincial governments, and the federal government produced an agreement called the Kelowna Accord, which would have yielded $5 billion over 10 years, but the new federal government of Stephen Harper (2006) did not follow through on the working paper.

First Nations, along with the Métis and the Inuit, have claimed to receive inadequate funding for education, and allege their rights have been overlooked. James Bartleman, Lieutenant Governor of Ontario, listed the encouragement of indigenous young people as one of his key priorities. During his term that began in 2002, he has launched initiatives to promote literacy and bridge building. Bartleman himself is the first Aboriginal person to hold the Lieutenant Governor's position in Ontario.

As of 2006, over 75 First Nations communities exist in boil-water advisory conditions. In late 2005, the drinking water crisis of the Kashechewan First Nation received national media attention when ''E. coli'' was discovered in their water supply system, following two years of living under a boil-water advisory. The drinking water was supplied by a new treatment plant built in March 1998. The cause of the tainted water was a plugged chlorine injector that was not discovered by local operators, who were not qualified to be running the treatment plant. When officials arrived and fixed the problem, chlorine levels were around 1.7 mg/l, which was blamed for skin disorders such as impetigo and scabies. An investigation led by Health Canada revealed that the skin disorders were likely due to living in squalor. The evacuation of Kashechewan is largely viewed by Canadians as a cry for help for other underlying social and economic issues which Aboriginal people in Canada face.

On June 29, 2007, Canadian Aboriginal groups held countrywide protests aimed at ending First Nations poverty, dubbed the Aboriginal Day of Action. The demonstrations were largely peaceful, although groups disrupted transportation with blockades or bonfires; a stretch of the Highway 401 was shut down, as was the Canadian National Railway's line between Toronto and Montreal.

Canadian Crown and First Nations relations

The relationship between ''the Canadian Crown and the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis'' peoples of Canada stretches back to the first interactions between European colonialists and North American indigenous people. Over centuries of interaction, treaties were established, and Canada's First Nations have, like the Māori and the Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand, come to generally view these agreements as being between them and the Crown of Canada, and not the ever-changing governments.

The associations exist between the Aboriginal peoples of Canada and the reigning monarch of Canada; as was stated in the proposed ''First Nations Federal Crown Political Accord'': "cooperation will be a cornerstone for partnership between Canada and First Nations, wherein ''Canada'' is the short-form reference to ''Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada''. These relations are governed by the established treaties; the Supreme Court stated that treaties "served to reconcile pre-existing Aboriginal sovereignty with assumed Crown sovereignty, and to define Aboriginal rights," and the First Nations saw these agreements as meant to last "as long as the sun shines, grass grows and rivers flow."

Political organisation

At contact, First Nations organisations ranged in size from band societies of a few people to multi-nation confederacies like the Iroquois. First Nations leaders from across the country formed the Assembly of First Nations, which began as the National Indian Brotherhood in 1968.

Today's political organisations are largely the by-product of interaction with European-style methods of government. First Nations political organisations throughout Canada vary in political standing, viewpoints, and reasons for forming. First Nations political organisations arise to have a united voice and express their opinions. First Nations negotiate with the Canadian Government through Indian and Northern Affairs Canada in affairs concerning land, entitlement, and rights. Independent First Nation groups do not belong to these groups.

Assembly of First Nations / National Indian Brotherhood

The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) is a body of First Nations leaders in Canada. The aims of the organisation are to protect the rights, treaty obligations, ceremonies, and claims of citizens of the First Nations in Canada.

After the failures of the ''League of Indians in Canada'' in the Interwar period and the ''North American Indian Brotherhood'' in two decades following the Second World War, the Aboriginal peoples of Canada organised themselves once again in the early 1960s. The ''National Indian Council'' was created in 1961 to represent Indigenous people, including Treaty/Status Indians, non-status people, the Métis people, though not the Inuit. This organisation also collapsed in 1968 as the three groups failed to act as one, so the non-status and Métis groups formed the ''Native Council of Canada'' and Treaty/Status groups formed the National Indian Brotherhood (NIB), an umbrella group for provincial and territorial First Nations organisations.

Culture

Languages

:''Main articles: First Nations Aboriginal languages'' Today, there are over thirty different languages spoken by indigenous people, most of which are spoken only in Canada and are in decline. Among those with the most speakers include Anishinaabe and Cree, together totalling up to 150,000 speakers; Inuktitut, with about 29,000 speakers in the Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik (Northern Quebec), and Nunatsiavut (Northern Labrador); and Mi'kmaq, with around 8,500 speakers, mostly in Eastern Canada. Aboriginal peoples have lost their native languages and often all but surviving elders, speak English or French as their first language.

Two of Canada's territories give official status to native languages. In Nunavut, Inuktitut and Inuinnaqtun are official languages alongside English and French, and Inuktitut is a common vehicular language in government. In the Northwest Territories, the ''Official Languages Act'' declares that there are eleven different languages: Chipewyan, Cree, English, French, Gwich’in, Inuinnaqtun, Inuktitut, Inuvialuktun, North Slavey, South Slavey and Tłįchǫ. Besides English and French, these languages are not vehicular in government; official status entitles citizens to receive services in them on request and to deal with the government in them.

Art

One thing that distinguishes Indigenous art from European traditions is a focus on art that tends to be portable and made for the body rather than for architecture, although even this is only a general tendency and not an absolute rule. Indigenous visual art is also often made to be used in conjunction with other arts, for example the shaman's masks and rattles play an important role in ceremonialism that also involves dance, storytelling and music.

Artworks preserved in museum collections date from the period after European contact and show evidence of the creative adoption and adaptation of European trade goods such as metal and glass beads. The distinct Métis cultures from inter-cultural relationships with Europeans contribute new culturally hybrid art forms. During the 19th and the first half of the 20th century the Canadian government pursued an active policy of assimilation, both forced and cultural, toward indigenous peoples and one of the instruments of this policy was the Indian Act, which banned manifestations of traditional religion and governance, such as the Sun Dance and the Potlatch, including the works of art associated with them. While First Nations illegally continued their practices in secret, their art was continuously confiscated, stolen, and sold to museums. Ironically, there was an overwhelming demand from Northwest Coast art at this time in Europe and other non-aboriginal markets. This awkward double standard was common. First Nations people had no political rights or freedoms, but their heritage of totem pole sculptures were used to symbolise British Columbia on tourism brochures. The authorities allowed souvenirs of totem poles to be sold in gift shops and use the "exoticism" of aboriginal culture for their own capitalist gain but the actual practice of First Nations art remained against the law.

In another case in 1924, during the height of potlatch ban enforcement, BC luminaries held a mock "Royal Tyee Potlatch" to celebrate the visit of the British Royal Navy. This just three years after the police disbanded Dan Cranmer’s potlatch on Village Island, with 45 attendees arrested, with 22 given suspended sentences.

When the potlatch ban disappeared from the revised Indian Act in 1951, the whole culture was able to come to life once more. As Doreen Jensen writes, "For our painting and sculpture, our performance, oratory and song are our history, law political and philosophical discourse, sacred ceremony and land registry." Art was and continues to be deeply embedded in the sense of aboriginal identity.

It was not until the 1950s and 1960s that indigenous artists such as Mungo Martin, Bill Reid and Norval Morrisseau began to publicly renew and re-invent indigenous art traditions. Currently there are indigenous artists practicing in media across Canada and two indigenous artists, Edward Poitras and Rebecca Belmore, who have represented Canada at the prestigious Venice Biennale in 1995 and 2005 respectively.

Music

The First Nations peoples of Canada comprise diverse ethnic groups, each with their own musical traditions. There are general similarities in the music, but is usually social (public) or ceremonial (private). Public, social music may be dance music accompanied by rattles and drums. Private, ceremonial music includes vocal songs with accompaniment on percussion, used to mark occasions like Midewiwin ceremonies and Sun Dances.

Traditionally, Aboriginal peoples used the materials at hand to make their instruments for centuries before Europeans immigrated to Canada. First Nations people made gourds and animal horns into rattles, which were elaborately carved and beautifully painted. In woodland areas, they made horns of birch bark and drumsticks of carved antlers and wood. Traditional percussion instruments such as drums were generally made of carved wood and animal hides. These musical instruments provide the background for songs, and songs are the background for dances. Traditional First Nations people consider song and dance to be sacred. For years after Europeans came to Canada, First Nations people were forbidden to practice their ceremonies.

Demographics

In the 20th century, the First Nations population of Canada increased tenfold. Between 1900 and 1950 the population grew only by 29% but after the 1960s the infant mortality level on reserves dropped and the population grew by 161%. Since the 1980s, the number of First Nations babies more than doubled and currently almost half of the First Nations population is under the age of 25. As a result, the First Nations population of Canada is expected to increase in the coming decades.

The 2006 census counted a total Aboriginal population of 1,172,790 (3.75%) which includes 698,025 North American Indians (2.23%). There are distinct First Nations in Canada, originating across the country. Indian reserves, established in Canadian law by treaties such as Treaty 7, are the very limited contemporary lands of First Nations recognized by the non-indigenous governments. Reserves exist within cities, such as the Opawikoscikan Reserve in Prince Albert, Wendake in Quebec City or Stony Plain 135 in the Edmonton Capital Region. There are more reserves in Canada than there are First Nations, as First Nations were ceded multiple reserves by treaty.

First Nations can be grouped into cultural areas based on their ancestors' primary lifeway, or occupation, at the time of European contact. These culture areas correspond closely with physical and ecological regions of Canada.

Ethnographers commonly classify indigenous peoples of the Americas in the United States and Canada into ten geographical regions with shared cultural traits (called ''cultural areas''). The following list groups peoples by their region of origin, followed by the current location. See the individual article on each tribe, band society or First Nation for a history of their movements. See the Federally recognized tribes for the United States' official list of recognized Native American tribes. The Canadian (in whole or in part) regions are Arctic, Subarctic, Northeast Woodlands, Plains, and Plateau.

The Indigenous peoples of the Pacific Northwest Coast communities centred around ocean and river fishing; in the interior of British Columbia, hunting and gathering and river fishing. In both of these areas, salmon was of chief importance. For the people of the plains, bison hunting was the primary activity. In the subarctic forest, other species such as the moose were more important. For peoples near the Great Lakes and Saint Lawrence river, shifting agriculture was practised, including the raising of maize, beans, and squash.

Today, Aboriginal people work in a variety of occupations and live outside their ancestral homes. The traditional cultures of their ancestors, shaped by nature, still exert a strong influence on their culture, from spirituality to political attitudes.

Issues

First Nations peoples face a number of problems to a greater degree than Canadians overall. They have higher unemployment, rates of crime and incarceration, substance abuse, health problems, fetal alcohol syndrome, lower levels of education and higher levels of poverty. Suicide rates are more than twice the sex-specific rate and also three times the age-specific rates of non-Aboriginal Canadians.

Life expectancy at birth is significantly lower for First Nations babies than for babies in the Canadian population as a whole. , Indian and Northern Affairs Canada estimates First Nations life expectancy to be 8.1 years shorter for males and 5.5 years shorter for females.

Self-government has given chiefs and their councils powers which combine those of a province, school board, health board and municipality. Councils are also largely self-regulating regarding utilities, environmental protection, natural resources, building codes, etc. There is concern that this wide-ranging authority, concentrated in a single council, might be a cause of the dysfunctional governments experienced by many First Nations.

Gangs consisting of Aboriginals are becoming an increasing problem, across Canada, due to the poor living conditions. Most are found in Winnipeg, Manitoba.

See also

References

Further reading

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External links

Aboriginal Canada Portal

Aboriginal Perspectives A National Film Board of Canada website with documentaries on Canada's Aboriginal Peoples, including films by Aboriginal filmmakers.

Aboriginal Virtual Exhibits from Canadian Museums

Assembly of First Nations

The Canadian Museum of Civilisation – First Peoples Section

CBC Digital Archives – The Battle for Aboriginal Treaty Rights

First Nations Seeker

First Nation Profiles from the Government of Canada's Department of Indian and Northern Affairs

First Nations News Wire Service

A History of Aboriginal Treaties and Relations in Canada

Category:Articles with inconsistent citation formats * Category:History of Canada Category:Ethnic groups in Canada Category:Indigenous peoples of North America Category:History of indigenous peoples of North America Category:Hunter-gatherers Category:Aboriginal peoples in Canada

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