The history of the First Nations in Canada is the prehistory and history of present-day Canada's Indigenous peoples from the earliest times to the present day. The prehistory settlement of the Americas is a subject of ongoing debate. First Nation's oral histories and traditional knowledge, combined with new methodologies and technologiesused by archaeologists, linguists, and other researchersproduce new—and sometimes conflicting—evidence.

Many First Nations myths refer to the habitation of North America from time immemorial. There are a number of myths about the world in general and the place of First Nations within that history.

Pre-contact The 1996 Report by the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People described four stages in Canadian history that overlap and occur at different times in different regions: 1) Pre-contact – Different Worlds – Contact; 2) Early Colonies (1500–1763); 3) Displacement and Assimilation (1764–1969); and 4) Renewal to Constitutional Entrenchment (2018).

40,900 to 40,000 BP 40,000 BP The earliest record of Rangifer tarandus caribou (which includes five subspecies:boreal woodland caribou, barren-ground caribou) in North America

30,000 to 20,000 BP

There may have been human habitation in the Americas prior to the Clovis culture, according to some archaeologists. Carbon dating of charcoal from the Topper Site near Allendale County, South Carolina, was said to have been an example of this theory, according to Albert Goodyear of the South Carolina Institute of Archaeology and Anthropology. However, these deposits may have been made by forest fires. Not all archaeologists agree on dating for the Old Crow and Topper digs. Ice-free corridor running north and south through modern-day Alberta and the continental glacier called Laurentide Ice Sheet. In the 1950s, stone tools were found in the Grimshaw, Bow River and in Lethbridge Alberta, under glacial sand and gravel; they are believed to be pre-glacial and may indicate nomadic humans occupied the area. Fragments from a child's skull were found in 1961 near Taber, Alberta; some believe the discovery of the skull was evidence of the existence of one of the oldest inhabitants in what is now Alberta. However, Wilson and Harvey revised the carbon dating of the skull to the Holocene not the Pleistocene age.Reference details unavailable. Conclusions reached in Alberta on dates have not been accepted by the entire archaeology community. Mammoth bones, believed to have been chipped by humans, are found at the Yukon's Bluefish Caves controversially suggested that human occupation radiocarbon dates to 24,000 years Before Present (BP) based on radiocarbon dating of animal remains, but these dates are contested due to the uncertain stratigraphic context of the archaeological remains relative to the dated animal remains. There are three small caves in the area.Heather Pringle (MARCH 8, 2017), What Happens When an Archaeologist Challenges Mainstream Scientific Thinking? -- The story of Jacques Cinq-Mars and the Bluefish Caves shows how toxic atmosphere can poison scientific progress. Hakai Magazine, SMITHSONIAN.COM

Paleo-Indians period 20,000 BP Radiocarbon dating of a caribou bone flesher found by Irving and Harington in the Old Crow River Basin placed it at late Holocene period. Arctic archaeologist William N. Irving (1927–1987), working closely with local Old Crow residents, focused his research on Crow basin and the Bluefish caves in the surrounding mountains (1966–1983). Old Crow Flats and Bluefish Caves are some of the earliest known sites of human habitation in Canada. The Old Crow Flats and basin was one of the areas in Canada untouched by glaciations during the Pleistocene Ice ages, thus it served as a pathway and refuge for ice age plants and animals.

14,900 to 14,000 BP 14,000 BP The Central Coast of British Columbia's Heiltsuk Nation's oral history included the description of land on the coast that provided a refuge for early inhabitants during the ice age. Archaeologists unearthed what appears to be that settlement on Triquet Island in a 2016 dig supported by the Hakai Institute. In November 2016, tests results showed that the hearth was approximately 14,000 years old, making it "one of the oldest human settlements" unearthed in North America. University of Victoria's Brigit Katz who was a PhD student and a Hakai Institute associate listed some of the findings"fish hooks, a hand drill for igniting fires, a wooden device for launching projectiles and a cache of stone tools near the hearth". Katz presented the teams' findings at the April 2017 meeting of the Society for American Archeology.

12,900 to 12, 000 BP 12,000 BP According to R. Cole Harris, prehistoric trade routes map show that Knife River silica was traded in all directions including the route north to what is now Canada. 12,000-11,000 BP According to internationally renowned archaeologist George Carr Frison Bison occidentalis and Bison antiquus, an extinct sub-species of the smaller present-day bison, survived the Late Pleistocene period, between about 12,000 and 11,000 years ago, dominated by glaciation (the Wisconsin glaciation in North America), when many other megafauna became extinct. Plains and Rocky Mountain First Nations depended on these bison as their major food source. Frison noted that the "oldest, well-documented bison kills by pedestrian human hunters in North America date to about 11,000 years ago."

11,900 to 11,000 BP 11,200 to 10,500 BP Archaeological evidence, fluted spear points used for hunting bison and caribou found across Canada 11,000 BP The Crowsnest Pass is the richest archaeological zone in the Canadian Rocky Mountains. The oldest relics are stone tools found on a rock ridge outside Frank, Alberta, from the Clovis culture, 11,000 years before present. Other sites include chert quarries on the Livingstone ridge dating back to 1000 BC.Meyer, Daniel A. and Jason Roe Excavations at the Upper Lovett Campsite, Alberta volume 49, number 2 11,000 BP Archaeological evidence of different cultural campsites on Asian and North American sides of Beringia. 11,000 BP The Folsom tradition, also known as Folsom culture, or Lindenmeier culture, replaced previous Clovis ways of life.1998 Manitoba Archaeological Society. Web Development: Brian Schwimmer, University of Manitoba. Text and Graphics: Brian Schwimmer, Virginia Petch, Linda Larcombe Folsom Traditions 11,000 BP - 6,000 BP The Plano cultures existed in modern-day Canada during the Paleo-Indian or Archaic period between 11,000 BP and 6,000 BP. The Plano cultures originated in the plains, but extended far beyond, from the Atlantic coast to British Columbia and as far north as the Northwest Territories. "Early Plano culture occurs south of the North Saskatchewan River in Saskatchewan and in the foothills of the Rocky Mountains north to the Peace River Valley of Alberta and adjacent British Columbia. At this time, most of Manitoba was still covered by Glacial Lake Agassiz and associated glacial ice." The Plano cultures are characterised by a range of unfluted projectile point tools collectively called Plano points and like the Folsom people generally hunted bison antiquus, but made even greater use of techniques to force stampedes off of a cliff or into a constructed corral. Their diets also included pronghorn, elk, deer, raccoon and coyote. To better manage their food supply, they preserved meat in berries and animal fat and stored it in containers made of hides. Bison herds were attracted to the grasslands and parklands in the western region. Around 9,000 BP as retreating glaciers created newly released lake regions, the expansion of plant and animal communities expanded north and east, and tundra caribou and boreal woodland caribou replaced bison as the major prey animal. 11,000 BP Charlie Lake Cave Archaeological site report HbRf-39 states: "...the importance of this site lies in its exceptionally long and continuous cultural, sedimentary and faunal sequence, which seems to have accumulated steadily without erosional episodes for at least 11,000 years." The lowest (earliest) level containing stone artifacts, including a fluted point, six retouched flakes and a small stone bead has been dated to 10,770±120 years BP. With an average age of about 10,500, component 1 at Charlie Lake cave Nenan Dane_Zaa Deh Zona Children & Family Services (Nenan) near Fort St. John is the oldest dated evidence of man in the province, and one of the oldest in Canada. The Dane-zaa First Nation (Beaver) are the descendants of these early people. See also Northwest Coast Researchers List (Sitka) authored by Treaty 8 First Nations (T8FNs) Community Assessment Team and the Firelight Group Research Cooperative. Driver wrote in 2005 that, "Charlie Lake Cave is situated right in the middle of the ice-free corridor region. However, evidence from the site suggests that people may not have moved from north to south down the corridor, but instead may have moved from south to north, following herds of bison. This is suggested from DNA analysis of the bison remains, which indicates that some of the bison found at Charlie Lake originated in the southern regions of the North American continent. In addition, the fluted point found at Charlie Lake Cave is similar to points found at the Indian Creek and Mill Iron sites in Montana. These sites were occupied before Charlie Lake Cave, which suggests that perhaps the tool technology was developed in the south, and brought to Charlie Lake Cave at a later time when the tool makers and their descendants moved north."

11,000 BP Salmon-based Northwest Coast culture established. 11,000 BP Prehistoric trade routes map show that Batza Tena obsidian was at the center of trade routes by 11000 BP. Obsidian was valued for it cutting edge and its beauty. Archaeological sites revealed obsidian was traded far from its place of origin. 11,000 BP "Archaeological records confirm that there were Aboriginal campsites in New Brunswick dating back approximately 11,000 years." 11,000 BP Paleo-indians "reached Maine by over 11,000 years ago and Debert, Nova Scotia not many years later." The Debert Palaeo-Indian Site was designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1974.

10,900 to 10,000 BP 10,800 to ca. 9,000 BP Early human occupation of the Vermilion Lakes, Alberta area has been dated from 10,800 to ca. 9,000 BP. 10,500 - 7,750 BP The Early Precontact PeriodMeyer, Daniel A. and Jason Roe. 2007. Excavations at the Upper Lovett Campsite, Alberta volume 49, number 2 (10,500–7,750 years ago) 10,500 BP Prehistoric trade routes map show that Wyoming obsidian was at the center of trade routes from 10500 BP to AD 500 including the route north to what is now Canada. Dane-zaa The Dane-zaa (ᑕᓀᖚ, also spelled Dunneza, or Tsattine, and historically often referred to as the Beaver tribe by Europeans) are a First Nation of the large Athapaskan language group; their traditional territory is around the Peace River of the provinces of Alberta and British Columbia, Canada. Recent archaeological evidence establishes that the area of Charlie Lake north of Fort St John has been continuously occupied for 10,500 years by varying cultures of indigenous peoples. "Other sites in the province from this time period include the Charlie Lake Cave site near Fort St. John, dating to 10,500 BP."

10,000 BP 10,000 BP In a study published in Nature in 2016, scientists argued that by 10,000 years ago, the ice-free corridor in what is now Alberta and B.C. "was gradually taken over by a boreal forest dominated by spruce and pine trees" and that "Clovis people likely came from the south, not the north, perhaps following wild animals such as bison."