<P> The Interior of British Columbia was home to the Salishan language groups such as the Shuswap (Secwepemc), Okanagan and southern Athabaskan language groups, primarily the Dakelh (Carrier) and the Tsilhqot'in . The inlets and valleys of the British Columbia Coast sheltered large, distinctive populations, such as the Haida, Kwakwaka'wakw and Nuu - chah - nulth, sustained by the region's abundant salmon and shellfish . These peoples developed complex cultures dependent on the western red cedar that included wooden houses, seagoing whaling and war canoes and elaborately carved potlatch items and totem poles . </P> <P> In the Arctic archipelago, the distinctive Paleo - Eskimos known as Dorset peoples, whose culture has been traced back to around 500 BCE, were replaced by the ancestors of today's Inuit by 1500 CE . This transition is supported by archaeological records and Inuit mythology that tells of having driven off the Tuniit or' first inhabitants' . Inuit traditional laws are anthropologically different from Western law . Customary law was non-existent in Inuit society before the introduction of the Canadian legal system . </P> <P> There are reports of contact made before the 1492 voyages of Christopher Columbus and the age of discovery between First Nations, Inuit and those from other continents . The Norse, who had settled Greenland and Iceland, arrived around the year 1000 and built a small settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows at the northernmost tip of Newfoundland (carbon dating estimate 990--1050 CE) L'Anse aux Meadows is also notable for its connection with the attempted colony of Vinland established by Leif Erikson around the same period or, more broadly, with Norse exploration of the Americas . </P> <P> Under letters patent from King Henry VII of England, the Italian John Cabot became the first European known to have landed in Canada after the time of the Vikings . Records indicate that on 24 June 1497 he sighted land at a northern location believed to be somewhere in the Atlantic provinces . Official tradition deemed the first landing site to be at Cape Bonavista, Newfoundland, although other locations are possible . After 1497 Cabot and his son Sebastian Cabot continued to make other voyages to find the Northwest Passage, and other explorers continued to sail out of England to the New World, although the details of these voyages are not well recorded . </P>

When did european settlers first come to canada