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 600 recognised First Nations governments or bands spread all across Canada, roughly half of which are in the provinces of Ontario and British Columbia. They are from a number of diverse ethnic groups like the West Coast Salish, Ojibwe and Haida, the centrally located Iroquois, Blackfoot and Wyandot (Huron), the Dene people in Northern Canada, the Innu, Mi'kmaq, Odawa and Algonquins in Eastern Canada. Under the Employment Equity Act, First Nations are a designated group along with women, visible minorities, and persons with disabilities. They are not a visible minority under the Act and in the view 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 ancestry called Métis. The singular, commonly used on culturally politicised reserves, is the awkward 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," "we're Kwantlens," in recognition of the distinctiveness of First Nations ethnicities. -------------------The Ojibwe (also Ojibwa or Ojibway) or Chippewa (also Chippeway) is the largest group of Native Americans-First Nations north of Mexico, including Métis. They are the third-largest in the United States, surpassed only by Cherokee and Navajo. They are equally divided between the United States and Canada. Because they were formerly located mainly around Sault Ste. Marie, at the outlet of Lake Superior, the French referred to them as Saulteurs. Ojibwe who subsequently moved to the prairie provinces of Canada have retained the name Saulteaux. Ojibwe who were originally located about the Mississagi River and made their way to southern Ontario are known as the Mississaugas.---- As a major component group of the Anishinaabe peoples—which includes the Algonquin, Nipissing, Oji-Cree, Odawa and the Potawatomi—the Ojibwe peoples number over 56,440 in the U.S., living in an area stretching across the north from Michigan to Montana. Another 77,940 of main-line Ojibwe, 76,760 Saulteaux and 8,770 Mississaugas, in 125 bands, live in Canada, stretching from western Quebec to eastern British Columbia. They are known for their birch bark canoes, sacred birch bark scrolls, the use of cowrie shells, wild rice, copper points, and for their use of gun technology from the British to defeat and push back the Dakota nation of the Sioux (1745). The Ojibwe Nation was the first to set the agenda for signing more detailed treaties with Canada's leaders before many settlers were allowed too far west. The Midewiwin Society is well respected as the keeper of detailed and complex scrolls of events, history, songs, maps, memories, stories, geometry, and mathematics.