The First Nation Peoples had established their particular trading, and political systems through out Canada, long before Europeans even knew of their existance. The Vikings reached the east coast about 500 years before Columbus. The Viking ruins at L'Anse aux Meadows bear testimony to this fact; but there is no real evidence they made contact with First Nation Peoples, other than in legends. John Cabot in 1497, and Jacques Cartier in 1534 were the first recorded contacts with the First Nation Peoples. See Map Detail

The lure of the Atlantic Cod and the establishment of the French Fur Trade were the catalysts for change. Etienne Brule was the first white man to come in this area in 1615, and led the European charge that would eventually cost the First Nation Peoples their land, dignity and culture. That loss of Identity of a People needs to corrected as we enter the new millenium .

Its not that the First Nation Peoples did not War among themselves; the Iroquois Confederacy was dominant; but it was the First Nations belief in their being one with Mother Earth, that was in great contrast to the exploit everything to extinction, chop down anything in your way approach, of Europeans that was different. The Europeans also brought guns and disease over which the Natives had no defense.