Course:EDCP333/2012Groups/FirstNations

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Bridging the Gap: First Nations in the Social Studies Curriculum
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How can we use more than just 'token' First Nations culture in our classrooms?
Group Members
Jen, Hannah, Rachel, Susan and Nicole StP
EDCP 333: Contemporary Issues in Social Studies Education
"If we can persistently raise questions... and launch a serious search for answers to them, our time together promises to be profitable."


Bridging the Gap: First Nations in the Social Studies Classroom

By: Nicole StP, Rachel, Susan, Hannah and Jenn

Introduction

This wiki page is intended to be used by Social Studies Teachers at the high school level. Many of the sources could be adapted for an elementary or middle school social studies classroom, however, as we are Teacher Candidates at UBC in Social Studies we focused our wiki page on high school curriculum.

Critiques/Analysis

Curriculum Plans, IRPs, Textbooks

In general, there is an extreme lack of aboriginal content in the social studies curriculum for grade eight to twelve. Our Summary and Critique for Grade 8 highlights the lack of aboriginal content in both the IRP and textbook. We see few explicit opportunities for teachers to incorporate First Nations content in the curriculum, largely due to course themes and broad time period.

The Integrated Resource Packages, Summaries and Critiques for grades Nine, Ten and Eleven written by us locate a variety of opportunities for the inclusion of aboriginal perspectives in the curriculum. This is infrequently stated explicitly in the IRPs and is more often only implicitly seen in the themes of the packages. This arrangement relies on teacher initiative to provide a balanced view.

The History 12 IRP outlines a world history course; however it does not mention First Nations or Indigenous peoples anywhere in the IRP or textbook. This is disconcerting as there are quite a few opportunities to include Aboriginal perspectives in the course material, particularly with regards to the themes of Nationalism and Colonialism. We have also attached a summary of the Summary First Nations 12 IRP. This course is devoted to the exploration of First Nations history and culture.

Journal Articles

Here are our critiques on the following articles:

Classroom Tools

Exemplary Sample Lessons

The following lesson plans were made by the members of this group for use in various classes:


The following websites provide lesson plans for implementation in the classroom at the elementary, middle and/or high school levels:

  • Government of Canada: "Aboriginal Canada Portal" provides First Nations, Métis and Inuit online resources and government programs and services.
  • BC Union of Chiefs: "Our Homes are Bleeding" is a resource specifically for BC teachers. It provides a number of lesson plans, narratives and testimonies.
  • The McCord Museum: "EduWeb" provides resources, such as images, that teachers can use.

Unit Plans

Here are three examples of unit plans containing First Nations content:

  • Sample Social Studies 9 Unit Plan (First Nations). This unit plan was created by the contributors of this wiki page, who are all currently secondary school social studies teacher candidates at the University of British Columbia. This unit plan is part of the grade 9 curriculum, and seeks to assess whether there are aspects of First Nations culture within Canadian society.
  • Sample First Nations 12 Unit Plan. This unit plan was created by our very own, Ms. R. Thorne. She is currently a secondary school social studies teacher candidate at the University of British Columbia. This unit looks beyond stereotypes, and analyzes the portrayal of First Nations People in the media.
  • Sample English 12 First People Unit Plans. This unit plan was created by the First Nations Education Steering Committee, and provides an outline for the entire English 12 First People course (a course offered at some high schools in British Columbia).

Multiple Ability Tasks

  • The "EDCP333 Wiki Workshop Quotes Activity" uses a range of quotes regarding Aboriginals across Canada. This activity is meant for teachers to begin looking at sources and determining how they would incorporate these sources into the classroom.
  • "The Medicine Wheel Activity: Identity Imaging" is intended to be used after an introductory lesson on the universal indigenous recognition of the circle and the more localized interpretation of health through the medicine wheel (Ojibwe and other bands). While the Medicine Wheel may not be used in all tribes, the holistic conception of health is a universal characteristic of all First Nations.
  • "Coast Salish Crossword Review" This is intended to be used as an additional activity for students to complete in class if they finish the main activity early. The "Teacher Copy" provides the answers to the questions asked. This activity is best used after you have discussed the First Nations of the Northwest Coast (as described in Crossroads by Michael Cranny) as well as specifically teaching about the Coast Salish community. This activity corresponds nicely with Lesson #11 in our Grade 9 First Nations Unit Plan on the Coast Salish.
  • "Reading Activity" The teacher will conduct a pre-reading, reading and post-reading activity, asking the students to form different groups and pairings, this can be used for any class. During the pre-reading activity students are required to preview the text and discuss as a class what they think the chapter will be about. During the reading activity, students are told to read the text and summarize, in less and two sentences, what each section is about, if students are done early, they will be directed to answering the question, what is this chapter focusing on when it is discussing the Iroquois people? What is missing?
  • "Plains Cree Medicine Wheel Activity" This activity corresponds with a class on the Plains people of Canada. The activity asks students to divide into groups and to research the four quadrants of the Plains Cree medicine wheel: emotional, physical, spiritual and mental. Students will answer the following two questions on poster paper: Why do you think this quadrant was valued or important among the Plains Cree? How can people, both Plains Cree and non-Native, be more mindful of, or put to use, this quadrant in your everyday life?

Resources

Below you can find a wide variety of sources that can be incorporated into your classroom.

Television

"The 8th Fire": A 2012 CBC 4-part series about First Nations issues in Canada past, present and future. Website also provides other media related to the topics.

"Blackstone": An APTN (Aboriginal Peoples' Television Network) fictional television drama taking place on a fictional Canadian reservation with episodes covering a wide variety of topics and issues pertinent to the study of contemporary Aboriginal realities.

"Heritage Minutes" (First Nations): A series of educational 1-minute commercials produced by The Historica Dominion Institute in the 1990s.

Films

  • The film In Search of the Hamat'sa: A Tale of Headhunting traces the history of anthropological depictions of the dance and, through the return of archival materials to a First Nations community, presents some of the ways in which diverse attitudes toward this history inform current performances of the Hamat'sa. With a secondary focus on the filmmaker's fieldwork experience, the film also attends specifically to the ethics of ethnographic representation and to the renegotiation of relationships between anthropologists and their research partners. The material for this film was gathered and shot over the year between 2002 and 2003 during the course of research for Glass's dissertation in Socio-Cultural Anthropology. The research process consisted of extensive archival work - in which he traced the history of ethnographic representation of the Hamat'sa (in texts, film and photography, art gallery and museum display, and intercultural performance) - followed by an eight month period of residence in the Kwakwaka'wakw community of Alert Bay, BC. The film was edited in a documentary filmmaking course in the Program for Culture and Media at New York University. It is intended to communicate some of the complex issues involved in representing indigenous peoples and their expressive practices, especially as anthropological materials increasingly end up back in Native communities where they are used and debated as one kind of historical resource among many.
  • The film Teachings of the Tree People highlights Bruce Miller, who throughout this film becomes the bearer of the language, oral history, art, and spirituality of the tuwaduq (Twana) and Southern Coast Salish peoples. Miller illustrates throughout his narrative that the "the trees were our first teachers." This film documents Miller's race against time and ailing health to pass the knowledge of his ancestors on to those who would listen.
  • The Vancouver Island Interpretations on Pre-Confederation Treaties Conference which is also known as the Douglas treaties. The conference will be held at Vancouver Island University (VIU) on May 10 and 11, 2012, and is expected to attract a wide cross-section of participants from across Canada including representatives of First Nations.
  • In the Land of the War Canoes is a 1914 silent film fictionalizing the world of the Kwakwaka'wakw (Kwakiutl) peoples of the Queen Charlotte Strait region of the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada, written and directed by Edward Curtis and acted entirely by Kwakwaka'wakw natives. It was selected in 1999 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant. It was the first feature-length film whose cast was composed entirely of Native North Americans.
  • Huchoosedah: Traditions of the Heart chronicles the efforts of 77-year-old Washington state's Upper Skagit elder, historian and scholar Vi (Taqseblu) Hilbert as she works to preserve the ancient Lushootseed language as a living language. Interwoven with Hilbert's story are images of the land that is home to her tribe, along with archival photos capturing Skagit traditions and culture.
  • Voice of BC presents Aboriginal Youth in British Columbia a sixty minute look at the social issues behind the statistics that reflect the challenges faced by Aboriginal youth. The video features Chief Ed John and his journey to overcome the devastating effects of residential schools.

Audio

The following songs can be used for analysis in class, to spark discussions among the youth of today, who identify strongly with music, or to expose students to the continued use and relevance of Native languages in Canada today.

“Don’t Call Me Eskimo” by Northerners With Attitude (Student-Made, Rap, Music Video)

“Last Great Men” by CerAmony (Cree, Traditional, Rap) Full English Translation

  • Note: CerAmony is a highly influential, socially active Cree band with many more songs that could prove useful in your classroom investigations on their self-titled album "CerAmony".

Books

The West Beyond the West: A History of British Columbia by Jean Barman is an excellent, comprehensive resource for history and social studies teachers to use as the basis for history in the BC classroom. It is a history of British Columbia which includes alternating European and Aboriginal perspectives within the overarching British Columbian narrative. It is an excellent resource to comb particularly for examples of Aboriginal/European interactions through local events in history.


For Creation stories, see the book Green Grass Running Water by Thomas King. This book links First Nation's creation histories with Eurocentric stories, such as the Bible, Lone Ranger, and Robinson Crusoe. Each story explains, in their own way, why there is so much water.


For books set in British Columbia, the following are excellent resources that depict First Nations life in various locations.

  • Be of Good Mind: Essays on the Coast Salish edited by Bruce Granville Miller. This is a compilation of essays written by Native Americans and others on the Coast Salish, who live in British Columbia and Washington, USA.
  • Sai'k'uz Ts'eke: Stoney Creek Woman, the Story of Mary John by Bridget Moran. This book is a biography of Mary John, leader of the Carrier people in central British Columbia throughout the latter half of the twentieth century. An excellent, often gritty picture of life on the reserve, set in Stoney Creek, British Columbia.
  • On January 22, 1979, an eleven-year-old Native girl died of a ruptured appendix in an Alert Bay, B.C. hospital. The events that followed are chronicled in An Error in Judgement: The Politics of Medical Care in an Indian/White Community by Dara Culhane Speck whose is a member by marriage of the Nimpkish Indian Band in Alert Bay. She relied mainly on interviews, anecdotes and public records to describe how this small, isolated Native community took on the local hospital, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, provincial and federal ministries of health and national media, because their private tragedy held implications that reached far beyond one child, one physician, one town and even one century. This book is set in Alert Bay, British Columbia.
  • Indians on the North Pacific Coast, edited by Tom McFeat. This book offers an examination of the cultures of the Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Bella Coola, Kwakwaka'wakw, Nootka, and Coast Salish. Although this book features articles written by different authors, McFeat weaves the articles into one coherent narrative depicting the different aspects of how First Nations societies live and function.
  • Symbolic Immortality by Sergei Kan is a book that details the first comprehensive analysis of the mortuary practices of the Tlingit Indians of Southeastern Alaska. Kan is an American anthropologist known for his research with and writings on the Tlingit people of southeast Alaska.


For books on Residential Schools and schooling see the following:

  • Porcupines and China Dolls by Robert Arthur Alexie. The book follows the lives of James and Jake, two First Nations students who were forced into Residential schools in their childhood. The story follows these two friends as the struggle to overcome the impact of the Residential school system.
  • “Metis memories of Residential Schools: A Testament to the Strength of the Metis” by The Metis Nation of Alberta. This is a great resource, however, you will need to find the book in a library or a bookstore, as it is not available online.


For books by First Nations authors, see:


“Distance Education in Remote Aboriginal Communities; Barriers, Learning Styles and Best Practices” by McMullen, Bill & Rohrbach, Andreas is a great resource, however, you will need to find the book in a library or a bookstore, as it is not available online.


The novel A Fair Country: Telling Truths About Canada by Canadian author and essayist John Ralston Saul is an excellent political expose which asserts that contrary to popular opinion, Canada is not a country of European creation, but a Métis civilization built on the successful blending and collaboration of Aboriginal and European cultures. In fact, he argues that Aboriginal culture has historically formed the basis for our Canadian society and needs to be recognized once more.

Websites

Education

The following resources are intended for the purpose of public education about aboriginal knowledge and content. Many include a wide variety of resources specific to teachers:

  • "Enfranchisement of Canada's Aboriginal People" is a virtual exhibition from the Diefenbaker Canada Centre in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. This website provides audio, visual and written resource from John Diefenbaker's time as Prime Minister of Canada (June 21, 1957, to April 22, 1963).
  • First Nations of Canada (Native Knowledge Network) is a website sponsored by the Alaska Native Knowledge Network (ANKN) from the University of Alaska Fairbanks. This site provides many different resources, such as, publications and academic programs, that can be useful when creating lesson plans/unit plans. The curriculum resources page is intended to help teachers and students make the connection between the knowledge, skills and ways of knowing used to maintain a livelihood in the villages, and the knowledge, skills and cultural standards for teaching and learning reflected in the school curriculum.
  • First Nations in British Columbia provides an overview of the First Nations groups in British Columbia. The website is divided into eight different sections: Our People, Our Cultures, Leadership and Governance, Economic Development, Natural Resources, Community Development, Spotlights on Communities, and Tools and Resources. Please note, this website does not offer distinct information for the different tribal groups of British Columbia.
  • Museum of Anthropology teacher's resources are extremely useful for organizing a trip to the Museum (located at the University of British Columbia). The site provides a teacher notes for the different programs the Museum offers, along with online-curricula resources.
  • The First Nations by Region Map is a useful tool in dividing up the area of British Columbia into regions. Each regional area includes the names of all First Nations in that area. Linked to this website, is information about each of the First Nations groups in the region.
  • Promising Practices in Aboriginal Education provides a list of resources, including lesson activities, articles, and talking dictionaries. The site is sponsored by the Martin Aboriginal Education Initiative (MAEI). MAEI’s guiding vision is to empower Aboriginal students with the knowledge and confidence they need to complete secondary school and to continue their education.
  • Aboriginal Perspectives: National Film Board of Canada is an excellent resources as it provides a space for Aboriginal perspective and an Aboriginal voice to shine through. This site includes Lesson Plans, Films, History, and much more that are extremely useful to teachers!
  • The Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation website is sponsored by the Province of British Columbia, and provides information specific to First Nations groups in BC. This site includes information such as Aboriginal Relations and Reconciliation, Treaties, Economic Development and much more.
  • The First Nations Schools Association in Canada is dedicated to serving the approximately 130 First Nations community schools in British Columbia. It is an independent, non-profit society and charity directed by representatives of those schools. This website provides resources and curriculum specific ideas that are invaluable to teachers. In addition, the site provides information about the First Nations School Association, such as their vision for the association. The association has many different schools located across British Columbia.
  • The First Nations Education Steering Committee is is committed to improving education for all First Nations students in BC. Their website provides a range of information on First Nations topics. The resource section provides helpful resources, such as lesson plans, from both the FNESA (First Nations Education Steering Committee and the First Nations Schools Association. The resources provided are for teachers K-12.
Interactive

The following websites contain interactive material for individual student or classroom use:

  • Canadian Museum of Civilization: “Gateway to Aboriginal Heritage” is a great online resource as it provides material from the Museum's artifacts and archival collections. The historical and contemporary objects, images, and documents vividly express the cultural diversity as well as the creativity, resourcefulness, and endurance of this country's First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. This website also has a "kids and teachers" section which contains interactive games and review activities.
  • Department of Canadian Heritage: "Four Directions Teachings" is a vividly stunning audio narrated resource for learning about Indigenous knowledge and philosophy from five diverse First Nations groups (Blackfoot, Cree, Ojibwe, Mohawk, and M'ikmaq) in Canada. In addition to the audio-visual narrations, the site also provides teachers with a list of resources for further research.
  • Canada's First People, a Cultural Appreciation is a great interactive resource for teachers. The website provides a list of classroom activities, gateway tools and links to additional online resources. In addition, the website provides a media gallery that can be useful for multi-modal lessons. Please note that this website is linked to the Alberta Curriculum, however, there are many overlaps to BC's curriculum.

Annotated Resources

  • Shared Learnings: Integrating BC Aboriginal Content K-10 by the BC Ministry of Education has been developed for use in all BC schools. It is organized by grade level and subject area, with each section containing shared learning, instructional strategies, and resource components.
  • Aboriginal Resources in Canada: A Teacher's Resource Guide by Curriculum Services Canada serves to encourage the teaching of Aboriginal literature in English high school curricula across the country. The authors Renate Eigenbrod, Georgina Kakegamic and Josias Fiddler believe that Aboriginal students deserve to be taught texts they can relate to. In addition, the authors believe non-Aboriginal students should be educated about Aboriginal culture, history and contemporary life through the richness of Aboriginal writing with its innovative uses of the English language.
  • “An Anthology of Canadian Native Literature in English” Ed. Daniel David Moses and Terry Goldie is a wide-ranging survey of writing in English by Canadian Native authors. Beginning with traditional songs and works by early Native writers such as Joseph Brant and John Brant-Sero, George Copway and Pauline Johnson, the anthology turns to a selection of short stories, plays, poems, and essays by contemporary writers drawn from a wide range of peoples and nations across Canada. The editors have also attempted to showcase a diversity of opinions, voices, and styles.

Other: government publications, images, and more

  • The Book of Wisdom for Eskimo (1947 Government Publication) is a book that provides advice to the people of the Arctic. It is written in both English and in a Native language.
  • Oh Canada! we fought for you (source unknown) is a wonderful image that illustrates the different battles that members of First Nations communities fought in.
  • Canadians everywhere can tell the story of Louis Riel and the Red River Rebellion of 1869. To some Louis Riel was one of the founding fathers of a new nation. To others he was a murderer who nearly tore a country apart. Louis Riel: A Comic-Strip Biography by Chester Brown is another alternative resource, displaying Louis Riel's life through this cartoon form.
  • Aboriginal Rights and Title by the Office of the Treaty Commissioner in Canada provides a brief overview of what rights and titles Aboriginals hold. This short paper also illustrates the philosophical understanding of Aboriginal rights as well as its evolution through the courts.

Links to Additional Resources

Additional BC Resources

  • Aboriginal Nations Educational Resources through the Greater Victoria School District provides over 3,400 books and videos on Aboriginal people. The site also provides a list of educational resources that would be useful for teachers.
  • The Museum of Anthropology located at the University of British Columbia (in Vancouver, BC) offers a range of school programs, K-12. The Museum provides opportunities to explore various cultural traditions through a series of unique school programs.

Resources Specific to Other Provinces/Countries

  • The Ipperwash Inquiry was established by the Government of Ontario under the Public Inquiries Act. Its mandate was to inquire and report on events surrounding the death of Dudley George, who was shot in 1995 during a protest by First Nations representatives at Ipperwash Provincial Park and later died. This website provides resources regarding the Ipperwash Inquiry.
  • American Indian History: A Documentary Reader Edited by: Camilla Townsend is a collection First Nations primary sources. This anthology includes samples of native languages just above the full translations of particular texts, as well as decoded Maya inscription, letters written during the French and Indian War on the distribution of small pox blankets, and a diatribe by General George Armstrong Custer shortly before he was killed at the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
  • Indian Reading Series: Northwest Regional Education Library is a website that provides teacher's manuals, cultural stories and lesson plans. The material the site contains is American.
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