"So, Where are you from?"

--Description taken from " So, Where are you From?"-- Literature studying urban Indians before 1970 concentrated on developing theories about acculturation and economic integration. As better data became available, statistical studies appeared. The texts rarely included a historical understanding of the people they studied. In the period, 1800 to 1972, at least three urban Indian communities associated themselves with Ottawa and Gatineau. The communities overlapped, but each had a separate history. They originated for different reasons; organized themselves to suit specific interests; and each had a distinct reason to associate with the cities. Ottawa's status as capital city often played an important role. The communities are complex, because Indians are a multi-national group, and the communities had an itinerant quality, meaning their community history unfolded both inside and outside city borders.