We know next to nothing of the earliest inhabitants of the land of Canaan. There were the Rephaim (a race of giants), the Anakim or sons of Anak (also giants, "long necked ones"), and the Avim or Avites (dwellers in ruins) who lost their land to the Philistines.
The descendants of Noah’s grandson Canaan took possession of this land, except for Philistia. Canaan himself had 11 sons and each bore a tribe. 6 of them dwelt in Syria and Phoenicia, and the remaining 5 in Canaan. The Lord mentioned 7 nations by name who inhabited the land of Canaan in the time of Abraham unto the time of Joshua.
The Canaanites, Amorites, Hittites, Jebusites, Hivites, Perizzites, and Girgashites.
God swore that the Israelites would possess this land and that if they had not done the land would "vomit them out."
Their religion, like the nations that surrounded them, was idolatrous. They made their sons and their daughters to pass through the fire to Moloch, and they worshipped Baal and Ashtaroth, which included temple prostitution.