A number of states and polities formerly claimed colonies and territories in Canada prior to the evolution of the current provinces and territories under the federal system. North America prior to colonization was occupied by a variety of indigenous groups consisting of band societies typical of the sparsely populated North, to loose confederacies made up of numerous hunting bands from a variety of ethnic groups (Plains region), to more structured confederacies of sedentary farming villages (Great Lakes region), to stratified hereditary structures centred on a fishing economy (Plateau and Pacific Coast regions). The colonization of Canada by Europeans began in the 10th century, when Norsemen explored and, ultimately unsuccessfully, attempted to settle areas of the northeastern fringes of North America. Early permanent European settlements in what is now Canada included the late 16th and 17th century French colonies of Acadia and Canada (New France), the English colonies of Newfoundland (island) and Rupert's Land, the Scottish colonies of Nova Scotia and Port Royal. France lost nearly all of its colonies in North America in 1763 after the Seven Years' War to the British Empire. Britain's imperial government over a century later then ceded the land to Canadian control in 1867 after confederation. Since then, Canada's external borders have changed several times, and had grown from four initial provinces to ten provinces and three territories by 1999. Indigenous societies Indigenous peoples in what is now Canada did not form state societies and, in the absence of state structures, academics usually classify indigenous people by their traditional "lifeway" (or primary economic activity) and ecological/climatic region into "culture areas", or by their language families. The Mi'kmaq in today's Maritimes were governed as seven separate "districts" with their own district chiefs and councils coordinated by the Grand Council meeting yearly on Cape Breton Island. Following their first conflict with the British invaders (King Philip's War) in 1677, the Mi'kmaq joined the wider Wabanaki Confederacy, an alliance with four other Algonquian-language nations: the Abenaki, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, and Maliseet. To the west around the Great Lakes, the Council of Three Fires was formed in 796 CE between the Ojibwa, Odawa and the Potawatomi, according to oral history. The five (later six) tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy were united in 1142 CE, according to their oral traditions. There were also the four or possibly five tribes of the Huron Confederacy, both in the Great Lakes region. The Blackfoot