Paper short abstract:

This paper examines increasing birthrates for recently-sedentized Cree residents of James Bay and suggests why northern Indigenous people are essential for Canada.

Paper long abstract:

Cree residents of the West Coast of James Bay in Northern Ontario, Canada have been in contact with Europeans since at least 1673 when the Hudson’s Bay Company built the Moose Factory trading post at the bottom of James Bay. To examine the demographic effects of sedentization on previously semi-nomadic people, we analyzed as much historic population data as possible for two west coast James Bay communities. Our main source of historic population data was Oblate RC Church records we accessed with full permission and treated with strict confidentiality to protect everyone’s privacy. So far, our analysis confirms birthrate increases following sedentization. Increased birth rates after sedentization have routinely been the case elsewhere, including for American First Nations people, Bedouins, Australian First Nations people, and ancestors of Europeans in the Fertile Crescent of the Middle East. The next step is to explain this normal population dynamic to government officials so funding for housing and other necessities for previously semi-nomadic and nomadic First Nations Canadians can be brought into line with their normal population increases after sedentization.