Topic #2 The
First Canadians
Time: 1-4 period(s)
Objectives:
- Students will gain an appreciation of the
importance of Canada's Native peoples in the
cultural mosaic.
- Students will learn to value the diverse,
dynamic, and changing cultures of Canada's Native
peoples, the Europeans, and subsequent
immigrants, which have shaped the Canadian
identity.
- Student will draw maps, sketches, graphs, and
charts from large and complex maps and databases.
- Students will become comfortable with
interpreting and using information from the World
Wide Web.
Resources:
- Digital Collections:
Luxton Museum of the Plains Indian (http://www.schoolnet.ca/collections/luxton/),
Cape Dorset Inuit and Inuit Cultural Perspectives
( http://www.schoolnet.ca/collections/cape_dorset/
),
Five Ancient Cultures of the Northern Peninsula
( http://www.schoolnet.ca/collections/ancient/
),
Old Crow: Land of the Vunut Gwich'in ( http://www.schoolnet.ca/collections/old_crow
),
Virtual Keeping House: A First Nations Gallery (
http://www.lights.com/sicc2/keepinghouse/
),
Stones Unturned (
http://www.schoolnet.ca/collections/stones ),
Bone Snow Knives and Tin Oil Lamps ( http://xist.com/ROM-MCQ/
).
- Canadian Atlas
- Canadian Geography text book
Purpose: To encourage students to recognize
that Canada was culturally diverse before European
settlement. To look at the different native cultures
present in Canada and the contributions they make to
Canadian society.
Ideas:
- It is important to stress the proper use of names
for Canada's Native people. Encourage students to
use terms like Native People, Indigenous People,
First Canadians, Aboriginal People and Inuit.
Discourage names like Indians and Eskimos.
- Using an atlas, have students create a map of the
different Native groups in Canada by their
language. Stress to the students that there are
11 different languages families and there are 53
spoken, distinct indigenous languages used by the
different Native Peoples in Canada. That means a
lot of diversity among Native People in Canada.
- Stones Unturned ( http://www.schoolnet.ca/collections/stones/
) divides Canada's Native groups in seven major
cultural areas: Arctic, Mackenzie River,
Algonkian, Iroquoian, Plains, Plateau, and
Pacific Coast. These cultural groups resulted
because the Native way of life was so closely
based on the natural environment, different
groups who lived in the same area tended to
develop similar cultures. The class can be broken
into seven groups and each group has to prepare a
presentation on one of the seven native cultures.
Students should discuss the environment in which
the group lives, the tribal groups in the
cultural area, the social organization,
dwellings, transportation, food, food gathering,
tools/technology, and clothing. Students should
provide visual material with their presentation
such as drawings of shelter, methods of
transportation, clothing and a map of where they
were located in Canada. Students should try a
find a site on the Internet that discusses one of
the tribal groups in their cultural area. For
example: Luxton Museum of the Plains Indian
( http://www.schoolnet.ca/collections/luxton/
), Cape Dorset Inuit and Inuit Cultural
Perspectives ( http://www.schoolnet.ca/collections/cape_dorset/
), Five Ancient Cultures of the Northern
Peninsula ( http://www.schoolnet.ca/collections/ancient/
), Old Crow: Land of the Vunut Gwich'in ( http://www.schoolnet.ca/collections/old_crow
), Virtual Keeping House: A First Nations
Gallery
( http://www.lights.com/sicc2/keepinghouse/
),Bone Snow Knives and Tin Oil Lamps
( http://xist.com/ROM-MCQ/
). Have the groups prepare a 1-2 page handout for
the rest of the class so that everyone ends up
with the same material.
- Activity based on Internet site: Stones
Unturned (See Appendix)
- Have students read the relevant section of their
textbook that discusses the arrival of the
Europeans. Discuss as a group the changes that
took place for the aboriginal people. Ask the
students to pretend that they are a Native person
meeting a European explorer for the first time.
Have them write a short description of the
meeting and how they felt about these strangers.
Evaluation:
- Mark Map.
- Evaluate the presentation, have students mark the
presentations, have students evaluate themselves
and other members in the group, evaluate the
handout. See Appendix for example evaluation
sheets.
- Mark Activity answers.
- Mark creative writing exercise.
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