-2000

This timeline is adapted from: Native North American Art by Ruth B Phillips, and Janet C. Berlo

• Recognizable aspects of Northwest Coast style begin to appear.

-1100-200

• Adena culture develops in Eastern Woodlands.

1300-1500

• Heightened ceremonial activity associated with medicine wheels on the northern and central Plains.

1497

• John Cabot’s voyages.

1534

• Mi?kmaq trade with Jacques Cartier, Gulf of St. Lawrence.

1616

• Huron welcome Champlain, leader of New France, as a guest in their villages; Huron-French trading partnership formed.

1763

• British victory over French at Quebec.

1774-1780

• Hudson Bay Company establishes trade posts across Northern Plains.

1778

• Captain James Cook sails along Northwest Coast; contact with Nuu-chah-nulth and Haida.

1784-1785

• Joseph Brant leads group of Iroquois to Grand River Territory.

1862

• Smallpox epidemic at Haida Gwaii.

1885

• Potlatch and traditional rituals are outlawed by the Indian Act.

1927

• National Gallery of Canada presents Exhibition of Canadian West Coast Art: Native and Modern.

1938

• A Century of Canadian Art ((No.288), an exhibition organized by the National Gallery of Canada for the Tate Gallery, London, includes four model totem poles and two Chilkat blankets.

1951

• Indian Act is amended; compulsory enfranchisement and potlatch ban are dropped.

1961

• National Indian Council formed (National Indian Brotherhood, later to be called Assembly of First Nations).

1967

• Indians of Canada pavilion at Expo ’67, Montreal.
• The exhibition Three Hundred Years of Canadian Art, held at the National Gallery of Canada, includes work by Aboriginal artist Norval Morrisseau.

1969-1970

• Chefs-d'oeuvre des arts indiens et esquimaux du Canada / Masterpieces of Indian and Eskimo Art from Canada (Musée de l’Homme and National Gallery of Canada exhibition 1968-70); the first international exhibition of Aboriginal art from Canada.

1972

• Sarain Stump founds the Ind(ian) Art Project, Saskatchewan Indian Cultural College.
• Robert Houle (with Domingo Cisneros) helps to establish Manitou College, La Macaza, Quebec.

1976

• Saskatchewan Indian Federated College opens as first Native controlled college in Canada.
• Robert Houle hired as Curator of Contemporary Indian Art at the Museum of Man (now Canadian Museum of Civilization).

1983

• Society of Canadian Artists of Native Ancestry (SCANA) is established with a mandate to open the public, provincial, municipal and federal galleries to the concerns regarding the exclusion of Aboriginal art.

1988

• The Spirit Sings exhibition, Glenbow Museum is held during the winter Olympics in Calgary.

1990

• Elijah Harper, Meech Lake Accord; Oka, Quebec.

1992

• Quincentenary of Columbus's landing in North America.
• Land, Spirit, Power exhibition at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.
• Indigena exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Hull, Quebec.

Photo: Patricia Deadman
Ayum-ee-aawach Oomama-mowan: Speaking to Their Mother, Rebecca Belmore 27 July 1991.

2003

• Installation of Aboriginal art in the Canadian galleries of the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa.