The descendants of the first inhabitants of North

America, including all Indians, Inuit, and Métis people.

“First peoples” sometimes replaces aboriginal in common usage.

Indigenous is the global term used to name groups native to an area that has now been colonized.

Aboriginal/indigenous

When writing to announce his “discovery” in 1493, Columbus referred four times to the people of the New World as “Indians”.

Through common use by colonizers, “Indian” became a legal term in Canada and remains part of the Constitution.

Sometimes refers only to card-carrying status Indians.

Often considered derogatory in common usage.

Indians

“First Nations” has replaced “Indian” in common

usage since the 1970s or 1980s.

The term has no legal definition, and refers to both status and non-status Indians.

A First Nation refers to an Indian band.

Métis and Inuit are not First Nations.

First Nations

People of mixed First Nation and European ancestry

who identify themselves as Métis as distinct from First Nations, Inuit, or non-indigenous people.

A cultural designation based on Scottish, French, Cree and Ojibway heritage.

Métis

Iroquois/Haudenosaunee

Compare the accounts:

Canada: A People’s History

When the World Began…

- A Continent of Nations

- War

America’s First Nations

0:40-6:40

10:00-16:00

23:00-

41:00-end

“The Constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy”. Modern History Sourcebook. Fordham University, 1997. Web. 14 Sep. 2014.

Prepared by Arthur C. Parker in 1915.

9. All the business of the Five Nations Confederate Council shall be conducted by the two combined bodies of Confederate Lords. First the question shall be passed upon by the Mohawk and Seneca Lords, then it shall be discussed and passed by the Oneida and Cayuga Lords. Their decisions shall then be referred to the Onondaga Lords, (Fire Keepers) for final judgement. The same process shall obtain when a question is brought before the council by an individual or a War Chief.

10. In all cases the procedure must be as follows: when the Mohawk and Seneca Lords have unanimously agreed upon a question, they shall report their decision to the Cayuga and Oneida Lords who shall deliberate upon the question and report a unanimous decision to the Mohawk Lords. The Mohawk Lords will then report the standing of the case to the Firekeepers, who shall render a decision as they see fit in case of a disagreement by the two bodies, or confirm the decisions of the two bodies if they are identical. The Fire Keepers shall then report their decision to the Mohawk Lords who shall announce it to the open council.

11. If through any misunderstanding or obstinacy on the part of the Fire Keepers, they render a decision at variance with that of the Two Sides, the Two Sides shall reconsider the matter and if their decisions are jointly the same as before they shall report to the Fire Keepers who are then compelled to confirm their joint decision.

19. If at any time it shall be manifest that a Confederate Lord has not in mind the welfare of the people or disobeys the rules of this Great Law, the men or women of the Confederacy, or both jointly, shall come to the Council and upbraid the erring Lord through his War Chief. If the complaint of the people through the War Chief is not heeded the first time it shall be uttered again and then if no attention is given a third complaint and warning shall be given. If the Lord is contumacious the matter shall go to the council of War Chiefs. The War Chiefs shall then divest the erring Lord of his title by order of the women in whom the titleship is vested. When the Lord is deposed the women shall notify the Confederate Lords through their War Chief, and the Confederate Lords shall sanction the act. The women will then select another of their sons as a candidate and the Lords shall elect him.

75. When a member of an alien nation comes to the territory of the Five Nations and seeks refuge and permanent residence, the Lords of the Nation to which he comes shall extend hospitality and make him a member of the nation. Then shall he be accorded equal rights and privileges in all matters except as after mentioned.

99. The rites and festivals of each nation shall remain undisturbed and shall continue as before because they were given by the people of old times as useful and necessary for the good of men.

Work together to produce a summary of “The Constitution of the Iroquois Confederacy.”

Paraphrase

An excellent paraphrase will be in your own voice, using different sentence structures and different wording than the original.

An excellent paraphrase will not leave out any ideas. Go through the document point by point to produce a paraphrase.

Summarize

An excellent summary will begin by introducing the source. Consider what it is, who created it, when it was created, and WHY it was created.

An excellent summary will connect ideas into one story and include specific statements, not just vague ideas.

To Discuss:

Based on the videos and documents, how might studying history based on primary sources differ from studying history based on secondary sources?

Contact

Jacques Cartier story Listen to the story of Jacques Cartier and take notes

(story in textbook, p 55-56).

To discuss:

Why is this story important? Use all 3 of the criteria of historical significance:

the direct and indirect consequences of the event the trends or big ideas it demonstrates the feelings at the time/perspective of the people involved.

Criteria: Strong answers will use details (not just vague ideas), and will connect the ideas into a continuous defense. /10

As a class: • Identify the main thesis. • Identify the four arguments. • Rewatch the video to gather evidence for each of

the four arguments.

Watch Crash Course: Columbian Exchange

Refers to the biological and cultural exchange

between the “Old World” and the Americas in the 15th and 16th century, following Columbus’ 1492 voyage.

Columbian Exchange

Control by one country over another area and its people, especially through establishing colonies or exploiting resources.

Marked by an unequal relationship between colonizer and local people.

While this has happened throughout history, European colonization was on a new scale. By the 1930s, colonies and ex-colonies of Europe covered 84.6% of the land surface of the earth.

Colonialism

A Latin term meaning “nobody’s land”.

Used in international law to describe land that has never been under the sovereignty of a nation state.

The Papal Bull of 1095 suggested that non-Christian lands were “terra nullius” and could be claimed by Christians.

Canada could claim its land because it was treated as empty upon discovery.

Terra Nullius

A Land of Many Nations First Nations Diversity

To Discuss:

Why do you think we often talk about first peoples as one group when there are so many distinct nations?

Three Guiding Statements

First Nations are a group of many different nations.

Each of these nations has it’s own complicated history, with allies & enemies, good times and bad times.

First Nations passed on their histories orally instead of through written records, which means their histories are often overlooked, and are even now sometimes

difficult to research.

Iroquois longhouse

Mi’kmaq wigwam

Sioux tipi

Haida Village

Inuit Igloo

Notebook 2: First Nations Diversity

Examine our three guiding statements and your completed chart.

a) What did you learn that surprised you?

b) Create your own thesis using the evidence gathered in your chart. List at least three facts that support it. /5 Be specific. Avoid vague words.

Be creative. Don’t just make the most obvious claim.

Alliances Identifying Trends in 200 Years of Contact

Draw conclusions from the evidence. Record the following questions and as many answers as possible in your own notes.

What does the “Alliances” chart tell us about the period from 1608-1812?

French & Iroquois Wars 17th century

Iroquois Confederacy with help from British & Dutch

vs

French and Huron

Queen Anne’s War 1702-1713

British settlers, Iroquois Acadians and Mi’kmaq, Maliseet, etc. (Wabanaki Confederacy)

Father Rale’s War, Father LeLoutre’s War 1722-25, 1749-55

New England, Mohawk Wabanaki Confederacy and New France

Seven Year’s War 1754-1763

Britain, Iroquois Confederacy, Cherokee, smaller First Nations

New France, Huron, Wabanaki Confederacy, Shawnee, Ojibwa, smaller First Nations

Pontiac’s Resistance 1763

British colonists, military Shawnee, Ojibway, Potawatomi, Miami, Delaware, other First Nations

American War of Independence 1775-1783

Britain, Onondaga, Cayuga, Seneca, Mohawk, Cherokee, smaller First Nations

American rebels, Oneida, Tuscarora, smaller First Nations

War of 1812 1812-1814

Britain, Tecumseh’s Confederacy, Iroquois, Huron, Shawnee, Ojibway, Ottawa, many other First Nations

United States, a few Cherokee and Choctaw

Draw conclusions from the evidence. Record the following questions and as many answers as possible in your own notes.

Based on the “Alliances” chart, how does the period from 1608-1821 differ from

Canada’s history since 1821?

Pemmican Wars 1816

Hudson’s Bay Company, Cree & Ojibwe allies

vs

North West Company, Metis allies

Lower & Upper Canada Rebellions 1837-1838

Britain, Lower & Upper Canada

Patriotes (Lower Canada),

Reform Group (Upper Canada)

Fenian Raids 1866-1871

Britain, Canada Irish Fenian Brotherhood

Red River Rebellion 1869-1870

Canada Provisional Government of Manitoba

– Métis, some First Nations

Northwest Rebellion 1885

Canada Provisional Government of

Saskatchewan – Métis, Cree, Assiniboine

World War I

World War II

Fur Trade

“The evil that is in the world almost always comes from ignorance, and good intentions may do as

much harm as malevolence if they lack understanding.”

-Albert Camus

Canada in the Fur Trade

1. When did the fur trade begin?

2. Why did Europe want furs?

3. What did First Nations people receive in exchange for furs?

4. Who was all involved in the fur trade?

5. Where did the trading take place?

6. When and why did the fur trade end?

7. What are the direct consequences of the fur trade for First Nations people?

8. What are the indirect consequences of the fur trade for First Nations?

To Discuss:

Based on the what you learned about the fur trade and its consequences, do you think the intentions of the historical actors matter when we study history?

Pontiac & Tecumseh

Pontiac

Tecumseh

Read speeches.

To Discuss:

Both Pontiac and Tecumseh allied with Europeans in trade and in wars. Based on their speeches to the various First Nations groups, how have those alliances changed between 1763 and 1812?

Trade on the Plains

Middle Ground and Bias in History

In 1870, an American Indian Agent named Henry M. Rice visited Red River. He remarked:

“It is a difficult matter to tell at all times exactly where the half breed ends and the white man or

Indian begins; correspondingly difficult is it to tell where the buffalo terminates and the pemmican

begins.”

Red River in 1800

• According to the British Empire, this land is part of the HBC’s Rupert’s Land.

• Both the HBC and the NWC have extensive trade posts on the plains.

• Cree, Blackfoot and other FN competed to provision the HBC. This led to increased conflict and overhunting bison.

• The Metis, as neither “Indian” or European, had moved West in the 1700s and carved out a niche for themselves on the plains as bison hunters and provisioners for the NWC.

• The NWC and HBC traders survive primarily on pemmican, which is being produced at the forts in large quantities.

Selkirk Settlers

• The HBC sell a portion of land to Lord Selkirk to re-settle starving Scottish peasants.

• Settlers begin to arrive in 1812, and survive only with the help of Saulteaux and Cree First Nations.

• The settlers are still starving. The Governor of the settlement, Miles MacDonell, issues a ban on pemmican trade, prohibiting food from leaving the colony.

• The Pemmican Proclamation essentially makes NWC provisioning illegal. The Metis and NWC fight for their livelihood. A series of violent encounters culminates in the incident at Seven Oaks.

Seven Oaks Incident

Prior to the union of the North West Co and the Hudson's Bay Co in 1821, the endemic struggles between the 2 fur-trading rivals were capped by a violent incident 19 June 1816 at Seven Oaks, a few km from the HBC's Fort Douglas in the Red River Settlement. The so-called massacre of Seven Oaks provoked retaliation and led to a merger of the 2 companies. The colony at the vital junction of the Red and Assiniboine rivers, established by Thomas Douglas, fifth earl of Selkirk, was perceived by the Nor'Westers as the base from which the HBC was preparing to launch its penetration of the Athabaska country. It posed a threat, as well, to the annual brigades of the Montréal-based company, lying athwart their main communication route.

In the spring of 1816, the HBC officers and men seized and destroyed the Nor'Westers' Fort Gibraltar at the forks, thus exposing the latter's canoe brigades, just as the pemmican supplies were being moved down the Assiniboine to meet the Nor'Westers returning from the annual council at Fort William. The HBC's Fort Douglas thus dominated the Red and denied passage both to the Nor'Westers and the provision boats of their Métis allies.

From The Canadian Encyclopedia

Brandon House, a HBC post on the upper Assiniboine, was captured by the Métis on 1 June 1816 under Cuthbert GRANT, who then organized an escort to secure the pemmican supplies. Leaving the Assiniboine near Portage la Prairie, Grant and his men struck northeast across the plain to intercept the Nor'Westers on the Red. But they were, in fact, themselves intercepted by the HBC's local governor, Robert SEMPLE, who with a score of his men, had unwisely ventured out of Fort Douglas. Although the clash was not premeditated, the Métis quickly enveloped Semple's party and he and 20 of his men were killed. The Métis suffered only one casualty.

In retaliation, Selkirk captured the Nor'Westers' primary base at Fort William and reoccupied Fort Douglas. Law suits and countersuits ensued. Only Selkirk's death in 1820 cleared the way for an end to the rivalry. As for the Métis, they came to see Red River as a place of settlement and for several decades were a permanent element in the colony.

Seven Oaks Massacre, (1816), destruction of the Hudson’s Bay Red River Settlement in what is now Manitoba, Canada, by agents of the rival North West Company.

On June 19, 1816, a party of about 60 Metis under Cuthbert Grant, a North West Company employee, set out to run provisions for North West Company canoes past the Red River colony; they plundered some outlying posts on the Assiniboine River and then stopped at a place called Seven Oaks, near the Hudson’s Bay Company’s post at Fort Douglas. Robert Semple, the governor of the colony and governor in chief of the Hudson’s Bay Company’s territories in North America, led a group of about 25 soldiers and settlers to parley with the Metis. A fight broke out in which Semple and 20 of his men were killed; Grant lost only one man. The Métis gave no quarter to their wounded opponents, and in the following days they forced the remaining settlers to leave under the threat of massacre. The destruction of the Red River colony, however, was only temporary; it was restored the following year.

From the Encyclopedia Britannica

To Discuss:

How do the British and Canadian Encyclopedia entries differ?

Why might they be so different?

Read Mariah Grant’s story.

Notebook 4:

A. Compare your historical perspective to Mariah Grant’s. Based on position in life, daily experiences, and values, how might you think differently than Ms. Grant?

B. Why is Mariah Grant historically significant? (In other words, why did Ms. Thiessen get you to read this story?) Consider the 3 ways we measure significance, and consider “historiography” (the way we tell the story of history).

Treaty History The Story of First Nations Land

Pre-Confederation Treaties

Trade “treaties” and contracts

Great Peace of 1701

Peace & Friendship Treaties in Nova Scotia – 1700s

Selkirk Settlers and Chief Peguis - 1817

Pre-Confederation Legislation

Royal Proclamation (1763) and Quebec Act (1774)

Pemmican Proclamation (1816)

Gradual Civilization Act (1857)

In general, a treaty is any agreement or contract

between two or more parties.

Typically refers to trade or peace agreements between two or more states or governing bodies.

In Canada’s history, treaties have been made between various First Peoples and European groups in order to trade peacefully or make peaceful shared use of the land traditionally occupied by indigenous people.

Treaties

A law or set of laws that hold authority because they

are put forward by a state or other recognized governing body.

In order for legislation to hold power, there must be some way of enforcing the laws stated.

Legislation (n)

1867

Post-Confederation – Setting the Stage

1. Why did Canada need treaties after Confederation?

2. Why did the First Nations need treaties after Confederation?

1873

The Numbered Treaties 1871-1921

3. Who was included in the Treaties?

4. How were they negotiated?

• Treaty 1 example

5. What did the Canadian government promise?

6. What did the First Nations people promise?

Numbered Treaties

The Treaty Legacy

7. Do these Treaties still hold today?

APTN video

8. Why did the Treaties fail to create a good relationship between First Nations and the Canadian government?

The Indian Act

9. What is the Indian Act and how does it relate to the Treaties?

10. What’s all included in the Indian Act? (handout)

11. How did the Indian Act change the relationship between First Nations and European settlers?

Piapot’s Story

Read the story of Piapot, a Plains Cree leader who lived through the dramatic changes of the 19th century.

1. Describe some of the major changes he lived through. How did his lifestyle change from his childhood to his old age?

2. How did the Treaties impact Piapot and his people? Did he support them?

3. How did the Indian Act impact Piapot and his people?

Residential Schools

Saskatchewan, 1874

Yukon, 1921

Cross Lake MB, 1940

BC, 1960

The Practice of Potlatch

Read the article on the potlatch ban. Consider the following.

1. What is a potlatch and why did West Coast First Nations practice potlatch?

2. Why did the Canadian government oppose the potlatch and make it illegal?

3. How did the FN people respond?

4. Do people practice potlatch now? How do you think it differs from before?

To consider:

How did the British/Canadians justify the restrictions they imposed upon the First Peoples?

What kinds of attitudes allowed for the Indian Act?

British Perspectives – Late 1800s

• The Victorian era fostered a belief in humanitarian progress and the importance of “civilizing” all cultures, opposing things like child labour and poverty.

• Neoliberal economics suggested that economic behaviour that did not result in surplus was irrational. Indigenous societies were seen as “indolent” (lazy) and inefficient.

• In the mid-1800s, the new science of anthropology was being used to argue that physical, but also intellectual and moral, traits were determined by race.

The process by which a minority group (or

individual) is absorbed into a majority group, taking on the practices, language, and economics of the dominant culture.

Assimilation

The policy or practice of governing a group of people

by providing for their needs without giving them any rights, as a father might deal with his child.

Limiting a person’s or group’s autonomy for what is presumed to be their own good.

Paternalism

Thinking about history, culture, economics, etc. from

a European perspective, with Europe and Europeans at the centre.

The assumption that European tradition, culture, economics, and religion are superior to others, or that they define what is normal.

Eurocentrism

The power to govern oneself as an individual or

community, and having the full rights and responsibilities that come with self-government.

First Nations in Canada have enjoyed sovereignty for most of their history, and many are struggling to re-establish their sovereignty.

Sovereignty