"There was no one here"

Teachers have to be highly aware of the messages they send with what they say (and what they don't say).  During my school and community experiences I witnessed several social studies lessons, one of which was a discussion of global populations.  I was struck by what the teacher said when speaking about the population in eastern Canada several hundred years ago when European settlers were establishing colonies.  When pointing at Quebec he said "there was no one here before", referring to the time before New France was established.

Of course, he was not denying the existence of aboriginal peoples before the arrival of Europeans.  However his choice of words suggests his bias towards focusing on a European perspective of history.  He chose the arrival of settlers as the starting point at which to begin discussing population growth.  I recognize that it is easy to criticize him in this case, but I'm not entirely sure what I would have said instead.