Course:EDCP333/firstnations

Names: Brendan Perry, Vincent Choo, Beau Tanner

Rethinking First Nations Studies in British Columbia High Schools

First Nations peoples are not victims of history; rather, they are agents of it

Impending Nisga'a Deal. Last Stand. Chump Change by Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun

Within the scope of teaching about First Nations peoples, it is important to remember the conception of agency. Our understanding of the current teaching of First Nations in British Columbia illustrates a notion of helplessness, passivity, and victimization. Our goal is to present and identify the often overlooked historical perspective, whereby aboriginals are empowered actors within the grand narrative of history. Therefore, we will present evidence that challenges the status quo.

Using First Nations' Culture as a Medium for Teaching

Approaching First Nations' curricula in this manner encourages students to think beyond the official government prescribed learning outcomes. In order to accomplish this, however, students must be aware of the complex vernacular histories of individual First Nations groups. This can be problematic because of the reliance on oral history, cultural sensitivity, and the potential lack of community support.

Challenges We Face as Educators

Aboriginal Land Claims in BC

There are common misconceptions and preconditions that often stigmatize First Nations' history and culture. We want to deconstruct the terminology of "First Nations" to show the multitude of cultures and aboriginal groups indigenous to British Columbia specifically.

This picture below identifies the diversity of the British Columbian demographical landscape with respect to First Nations. For an educator, it is important to recognize and be sympathetic to the variety of cultures that may exist in your classroom. This is also something to bear in mind when teaching First Nations and non-First Nations students alike.

The Goulet article, Two teachers of Aboriginal Students, gives a rather unique perspective and provides significant insight into how to deal with potential problematic scenarios. One of the scenarios described depicted a non-aboriginal teacher teaching aboriginal teachers. This situation has the potential to be troublesome, but it is the creativity and strategies used by the teacher that makes this situation more bearable and even successful. In this article briefly discussed below, there are a number of challenges that each teacher faces in the classroom, and it is an extremely useful piece of reading for a prospective educator.

In our presentation, we outlined key historical and contemporary issues that envelop First Nations' history. When First Nations' history is depicted in the media, there are oftentimes very different views that are conveyed, and in many ways, these views are not indicative of the 'true' history. In one instance, we examined a CBC Video from 1955 that depicts a traditional residential school of the era. It is obvious to many that this short two-minute clip is not particularly accurate of a traditional residential school, but it is important to contextualize the information. Some of the questions that one might ask to this type of depiction of First Nations could be the following: Who made this video? Who might be the target audience? Why was this video made? These questions help to understand some of the possible underlying themes that lay hidden beneath the surface.

Another video we showed was a clip from the Disney movie Pocahontas. This clip exemplifies the notion that many contemporary depictions of aboriginal history are in many respects romanticized. To compare between this video and the CBC video brings to mind a rather contentious question: Is one representation of First Nations better than the other? Both examples are flawed insofar as the messages in either video do not properly represent First Nations history. Historical and contemporary media has distorted the image of the aboriginal, and it is important for educators to be mindful of these messages. Students will bring with them a mental image or idea of what First Nations or aboriginal means to them. Perhaps much of what students know about aboriginals has been drawn from forms of media; therefore, teachers might need to deconstruct or rework some of the preconceived notions throughout their teaching.

Avoiding Stereotypes

The following are some fundamental guidelines to keep in mind when discussing Aboriginal issues in the classroom.

As teachers, we must tie discussion of Aboriginal peoples into the present as much as possible. There is often a sense that Aboriginal issues belong to the past, and there is a danger that we can strengthen this incorrect perception if we are not clear that these issues are ongoing. Much of the poverty, substance abuse, and other issues that plague Aboriginal groups, can be directly connected to the disruption that has been visited on their peoples.

There is a tendency to use “First Nations” as a catch-all term for specific groups in Canada. If we are speaking about a specific group, we should be sure to use the name of their particular nation in the discussion. If we do not do this, we risk losing perspective on the diversity that exists among the indigenous peoples of Canada.

Avoid the assumption that Aboriginal students are well acquainted with their roots. They are likely to have only as much historical knowledge of their heritage as any other student. We must not make the mistake of assuming that they have this knowledge, or even if they do, that they will want to share it.

Problems with Social Studies Curricula

One of the major critiques of Social Studies Curricula in BC high-schools today—in terms of First Nations perspectives—is that it is far too Euro-centric. From Socials 8 until Socials 11—the last mandatory social studies course for most students—First Nation groups in Canada are given a tertiary role. Moreover, their position in Canadian history has always been seen as either subjugated—they are victims of European expansion—or conflict—Louis Riel and the Red River Rebellion. Consequently, little attention has been given to First Nations groups as a subject unto themselves. First Nations Studies 12, a ministry created credit course, was seemingly created to address this imbalance.

Attempts at Redress

The BC Ministry of Education has stipulated 4 overarching goals for First Nations 12. They are: Land and Resources, Contact, Colonialism, and Resistance, Cultural Expressions, and Leadership and Self-Determination.

Land and Resources locations of BC First Nations the relationship of First Nations peoples and the natural world education in traditional BC First Nations societies interactions among BC First Nations (pre-contact and post-contact, up to the present) cultural relationships between BC First Nations and other societies (especially European)

Contact, Colonialism, and Resistance the history of the Metis people in western Canada economic, political, social, and cultural impacts of contact with Europeans on BC First Nations - in the maritime fur trade period - during the land-based fur trade and up to Confederation - since Confederation (especially with reference to Canadian government policy and jurisdictional arrangements evolving responses of BC First Nations to contact and colonialism

Cultural Expressions the function and significance of the oral tradition (including story-telling, drama, song, dance) BC First Nations creation, origin, and trickster/transformer stories literature by contemporary Aboriginal authors the significance of traditional and contemporary BC First Nations art objects the issues of repatriation and cultural appropriation

Leadership and Self-Determination 20th century issues that galvanized leadership within BC First Nations key leaders and accomplishments traditional and contemporary models of governance for Aboriginal peoples contemporary legislation, policies, and events affecting self-determination of Aboriginal peoples (with particular reference to BC First Nations)

Monitoring Bias

As teachers of history, we make every effort to be as historically accurate as possible. This means that we cannot shy away from a less-than-rosy picture of Canada's treatment of others. By the same token, we cannot gloss over certain aspects of Aboriginal history either. For example, in the 1973 New York Times article, “Indians Claim Italy by 'Right of Discovery'”, Adam Fortunate Eagle Nordwall of Ojibwe background, landed in Italy and claimed it for all indigenous peoples of North America. His motives were symbolic of course. His explained that the difference between his actions and those of European explorers, was that they “came to conquer a country by force where a peaceful people were living, while I am on a mission of peace and goodwill.” While his intended irony is not lost, this statement unintentionally feeds into the concept of the “noble savage”.

This is the idea that creates an idealized picture of indigenous peoples that ultimately feeds into disingenuous stereotypes. To paint the indigenous peoples of North America as “peaceful” is simply misleading. While there were undoubtedly peaceful individuals, movements and values shared among North American Aboriginals, as societies they were prone to all of the same characteristics, good and bad, as the rest of humanity. For example, human sacrifice was prevalent among several Aboriginal groups, sometimes with tens of thousands of victims in a single event. Warfare, slavery and torture were also widespread across the continent before the arrival of the Columbus.

To acknowledge the brutality of the European conquests is necessary, but to emphasize it by misrepresenting the past does us no favours when trying to instill in students an analytical approach to history.

Journal Articles

Two Teachers of Aboriginal Students: Effective Practice in Sociohistorical Realities by Linda Goulet

This article draws attention to the often-times looked over role of the community in First Nations learning. In this article, Goulet describes two teachers and their individual approaches to teaching First Nations students. She notes that both teachers were successful because they recognized the importance of community-based learning in First Nations education. Roxanne—the first teacher identified in Goulet’s article—is a fluent speaker of the Dene language. As a result, her students felt more comfortable speaking with her than the rest of the English-only speaking staff. Even more importantly, Roxanne was able to bridge the gap between formal education—as understood as a predominantly European construction—and vernacular history—a method often used to transmit First Nations history. Although the second teacher, Janet, is not a native speaker of a First Nations language, she recognizes the importance of her students’ traditional First Nations heritage. Janet attempts to bring as much of their diverse history in the classroom as possible by inviting elders to speak about artifacts of First Nations history.

The Color of Social Studies: A Post-Social Studies Reality Check by Frances V. Rains

This article addresses the issue of race in the social studies curriculum. More broadly, Rains addresses the issue of agency and how selective omissions within the current social studies curriculum make evident the fact of a pro-European bias on world historical events. Rains identifies a dichotomy between how the word race is interpreted by both European and First Nations groups. He notes that contemporary social studies curricula attempts to neutralize racial bias by not attributing any particular value judgments on racist violations in history. The discovery of the New World by Christopher Columbus, for example, was “sanitized” so that the Columbus simply “encountered” native peoples, rather than describe their consequential subjugation. Rains goes on to suggest that the effects of racism are present even in this modern “progressively minded” society. Residential schooling—which attempted to destroy First Nation identity and culture and force European conformism—is largely identified as one of the most pervasive forms of 20th century racism. To this end, however, Rain does suggest both First Nations and “Europeans” come to a mutual agreement which respects First Nations identity and culture within the social studies curriculum.

Schooled For Inequality: The Education of British Columbia Aboriginal Children by Jean Barman

In Schooled for Inequality, Jean Barman brings attention to a different view of residential schools in Canadian history, and its legacy seen today. He argues the reasons for the failure of the residential schools as a vehicle for aboriginal assimilation, "had to do less with the actions of individual teachers or administrators than with a federal policy that legitimized and even compelled children to be schooled, not for assimilation but for inequality." Essentially, the residential school system was designed to fail the First Nation students. An issue that was particularly interesting was Barman's discussion on time in the classroom. It is apparent that the aboriginal children would spend merely two to four hours per day in the classroom, compared to the five or more hours per day for students in a mainstream school. The rest of the day was set aside for chores such as sweeping, cleaning the washrooms, and other rudimentary chores. Barman asserts that the idea was for these students to gain some of the basic principles of a Canadian education like learning English, combined with practical skills needed in the working world. However, as he suggests, these skills that might be useful in mainstream society, are only useful "at its very lowest rungs." Similar examples are discussed throughout the article, to exemplify how the residential schools have had much more lasting effects on First Nations people than initially thought. It is necessary for teachers to read this article, to get a grasp of the legacies that are so intertwined with the residential school system.

Further Discussion on Residential Schools

Teachers can take several things from this article for use in the classroom. Firstly, we can avoid some of the obvious mistakes made by the schools themselves that Barman pointed out – for example by avoiding a percepction of the 'sameness' of Canadian Aboriginals. Often times, when a group with which we identify (in this case, “Canadian”) has committed some kind of shameful act, we often tend to feel a sense of guilt, or otherwise responsible in some way. We can draw on discussions of the schools to explore this tendency, and present open ended questions for the students to consider. An effort to understand these schools acknowledges the cause and effect underlying many of the social issues today that are associated with First Nations communities. They can be brought into a global context by looking at other similar institutions, comparing them to say, Australian, Latin American, or South African examples. For a legal dimension, students may discuss how the policy of residential schools compares to the definition of genocide under the 1948 Geneva Convention:

"Article II: In the present Convention, genocide means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:

(a) Killing members of the group;

(b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;

(c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;

(d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;

(e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

For a futher exploration of residential schools, a video called Unrepentant: Kevin Annett and Canada's Genocide. It is one of the most recent examples of the fallout from residential schools, highlighting the dismissal of Rev. Kevin Annett from the United Church, after he began to probe the church's role in the residential schools. While it is a controversial film, and it is difficult to find any balancing points of view, the testimonials alone are worth a look. The video can be found here

Sample Lesson Plans

• Nunavut Lesson Plan This is a lesson plan that exemplifies the spirited debate surrounding Canadian land claims and territorial changes:

• Aboriginal Issues Lesson Plan This lesson plan is intended to be an introduction on First Nations issues in Canada. It focuses on the Oka land claim debate in Northern Quebec.

• Lesson Plan - BC Legislature Mural Debate A discussion of the indigenous peoples of the Americas inevitably leads to mention of disease as a major factor in the suffering caused by European contact. However, the discussion usually ends without any explanation of why few or no diseases were contracted by Europeans in return. This lesson explains the mechanism that explains the one-way nature of this transmission. The topic is interdisciplinary, and is a useful one for illustrating ideas of cause and effect, linking seemingly unrelated factors to ones that have had major impact our societies today.

• Lesson Plan - How Disease Shaped History This lesson gives students a chance to broach a controversial issue, take a position, and become more familiar with the argumentative process. It discusses the controversy which surrounded several murals located in the British Columbia Legislature, that raised complaints from a number of First Nations groups. It was ultimately decided that the murals were to be covered over, but there is much room left to debate the issues surrounding this, such as identity, historical accuracy, cultural sensitivity, etc. The hope, however, is that this will help students understand the usefulness of debate, not as a method to win an argument, but rather a means to explore an issue.

Community Resources

Many British Columbian residents are unaware that the much of the land in the province has not been ceded to the government of Canada through a formal treaty. This means that much of the land we consider to be public, is actually the property of a sovereign First Nation, usually under a form of lease. Until a formal treaty is agreed to, this land is, legally speaking, not part of Canada.

Negotiations are currently underway, which means that many of the historical events we discuss in our classes can be directly tied to current issues. This provides teachers with an excellent opportunity to explore several tiers of understanding in politics, history, and First Nations issues. The material that is being dealt with is applicable to many of the prescribed learning outcomes across the grade levels for Social Studies, First Nations 12 as well as Law 12.

The Britsh Columbia Treaty Comission (BCTC) is the body that is facilitating the negotiations. It does not take part in the negotiations itself, but is a neutral body that manages the treaty process between the three parties involved for each case – representatives from a particular First Nation, and those from the Canadian and BC governments. At present, there are sixty nations taking part in negotiations. The BCTC website is an excellent resource, with links to lesson plans. Of particular interest might be the video entitled “What's the Deal with Treaties?” (2008, 21 mins) is designed for secondary students, and gives a complete overview of the matter. As well, there is a request form for a guest speaker under “Contact Us” on the site.

The following is a sampling of facts about the BCTC:

The Treaty Commission

...The Treaty Commission's primary role is to oversee the negotiation process to make sure that the parties are being effective and making progress in negotiations. In carrying out the recommendations of the BC Claims Task Force, the Treaty Commission has three roles-facilitation, funding and public information and education.

Status Report

There are now 60 First nations participating in the BC treaty process. Because some First Nations negotiate together, there are 49 sets of negotiations. There is one First Nation in Stage 6,  seven First Nations in Stage 5 negotiations and 43 First Nations in Stage 4, agreement-in-principle negotiations. First Nations in the treaty process represent about two-thirds of all aboriginal people in BC. The treaty process is voluntary and open to all First Nations in BC.

Economic Studies

Several studies have concluded that the benefits that treaties will bring to our province far outweigh the costs of treaty making. In 1990, Price Waterhouse calculated the cost to British Columbia of not settling treaties to be $1 billion in lost investment and 1,500 jobs a year in the mining and forestry sectors alone. Independent consultant Grant Thornton estimated that completing treaties will bring a net financial benefit of between $3.8 billion and $4.7 billion and between 7000 and 17,000 jobs in British Columbia over the next 40 years. The federal government is responsible for 72 per cent of the total cost of treaties and the provincial government is responsible for 28 per cent. The BC government's share of the overall cost is estimated at $2 billion, or $50 million annually over 40 years, plus rural Crown land with a notional value of $2.8 billion to $3.5 billion. BC's annual portion is equal to about 25 cents of every $100 in the current provincial budget.

The Museum of Anthropology

The Museum of Anthropology at UBC provides several ways to enhance a student's learning experience. The museum itself features many artifacts, large and small from various First Nations groups around BC. As well, the grounds feature an outdoor exhibit of Haida Bighouses and several totem poles. The exhibits will lend themselves well to any topic of artistic expression or religion. As well, there are several artifacts from indigenous peoples from other parts of the Pacific. These can help tie British Columbian First Nations into a broader, global perspective, and can be used to help identify broader patterns across this vast region. Group bookings are offered, and can accomodate groups of up to thirty five individuals for sessions of 75 or 90 minutes. Cost is $7.84 per student, supervising adults are free. Beyond this, much of the museum's collection is displayed on its website, which may be of use in the classroom.

K-12 school programs: 604.822.3825, bookings@moa.ubc.ca

Also available for rent are outreach kits for use at school, and may be of help to anyone teaching Social Studies or First Nations 12 . These include the following:

My Ancestors are Still Dancing Kit

Grades K-12 This kit teaches students about Tsimshian history and traditions, including Chilkat weaving. As a weaver, William White offers his perspective on the process and cultural value of his works. Included are touchable samples of the materials and stages of Chilkat weaving, large-scale exhibit photos, a teacher's guide and sourcebook, and the VHS video Gwishalaayt (50 min).

Residential School Kit

Grades 10-12 Developed in conjunction with the Residential School Survivor Society, the Legacy of Hope Foundation, and the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, the resources in this kit help students develop research and presentation skills while learning about the history and legacies of Aboriginal residential schools. Students finish the unit with a small research project. The kit includes a teacher's guide and sourcebook.

Online Resources

Aboriginal Canada

Aboriginal Canada is an official Government of Canada repository of Lesson Plans and Resources for teachers in Canada. It contains links to resources throughout the web suitable for both Secondary and Elementary students.

Aboriginal Perspectives

Aboriginal Perspectives is a website created by the National Film Board of Canada. It provides official government films regarding First Nations videos. The resource can be used by teachers or by students.

Aboriginal Resources and Services

Aboriginal Resources and Services is an index provided by the Government of Canada. It provides treaty and census data for Aboriginal issues in Canada.

CBC Archives

Collection of video and audio resources that could be used in the Social Studies classroom. There is a Native Issues link that deals specifically with recent and historic First Nations stories.

Resources

1. Hare, J. (2003). Aboriginal families and Aboriginal education: Coming full circle. In J. Barman & M. Gleason (Eds.), Children, teachers and schools in the history of British Columbia (2nd ed, pp. 411-430). Calgary: Detselig Enterprises.
2. Barman, J. (2003) Schooled for inequality: The education of British Columbia Aboriginal children. In J. Barman & M. Gleason (Eds.), Children, teachers, and schools in the history of British Columbia (2nd ed., pp. 55-79). Calgary: Detselig Enterprises.
3. Goulet, L. (2001). Two teachers of Aboriginal students: Effective practice in sociohistorical realities. Canadian Journal of Native Education, 25(1). 68-82.