Canada's Aboriginal Peoples: A Short Introduction fills a previously overlooked gap by providing the first comprehensive overview of Canada's First Nations people. Drawn from the highly successful Encyclopedia of Canada's Peoples it offers extensive coverage of Canada's aboriginal peoples, including the Algonquians/Eastern Woodlands, Algonquians/Plains, Algonquians/Subarctic, Inuit, Iroquoians, Ktunaxa, Metis, Na-Dene, Salish, Siouan, Tsimshian, and Wakashans, as well as the many nations within these larger groupings.

With a new preface by Paul Robert Magocsi and an introduction by well-known historian Jim Miller, the collection has papers on each main group written by such scholars as Janet Chute, Olive Dickason, Louis-Jacques Dorais, and Eldon Yellowhorn. Each essay covers economics, culture, language, education, politics, kinship, religion, social organization, identification, and history of each nation, among other topics, and ends with suggestions for further readings. Readable and suitable for the student, casual reader or expert, the book is an excellent introduction to Canada's aboriginal peoples.