Module One - Saskatchewan's First Peoples

• history, First Peoples, oral tradition, diversity

Students will know that:

• First Nations peoples have inhabited this reqion for many thousands of years.
• past experiences of First Nations peoples have helped shape this province.
• First Nations peoples developed language, traditions and technologies appropriate for their lifestyles.

Students will:

• identify and describe past experiences, traditions, and technologies of Aboriginal peoples of Saskatchewan.
• use a variety of resources to access, organize, and present information.

Students will:

• empathize with the experiences of peoples in the past.
• value and appreciate the past experiences of Saskatchewan's Aboriginal peoples.

Students may:

• participate cooperatively in a variety of projects.

• Discuss with the students the different ways we learn about the past. Include books, artifacts, and stories.
• Discuss the different ways that various peoples have left records of their past experiences. Include stories, writing, art, music, and dance. Discuss the differences between peoples who developed a written language and those that depended on other means of communication. Guide students to understand the importance of oral history to both groups of people.
• Review the different reasons why people move and settle in different areas. Have groups of students locate places where different First Nations peoples chose to live. Using maps and other visuals showing landforms, natural vegetation, and animal life, have students discuss: Why did they live there? What resources were available for food, shelter and clothing?
• The teacher and students may choose to have groups of students research the past lifestyles of First Nations peoples who lived on the prairie*. Grouping may be done according to different nations or according to various topics (e.g., foods and medicines, homes, clothing, tools and utensils, art, transportation, lifestyles of children, beliefs and values, hunting and fishing practices ).
  
  
• Deal with the technologies developed by Indian peoples. Show how the technologies have significance today (e.g., snowshoes, cradle board).
• Learn about the games, art, music, languages, and dances of First Nations peoples.
• Have the students read the profile of Dr. Anne Anderson. The teacher may choose to use the suggestions provided for a guided discussion before and after reading the profile.
• Guide students to understand how the Aboriginal peoples practiced conservation, taking from nature what they needed to survive, and regarding humans, not as dominant creatures, but as an integral part of nature.
• The teacher may choose to deal with Aboriginal governance.

Module 1: Activity Guide

The survival and livelihood of the Indian peoples depended upon activities such as:

• hunting (buffalo, deer, and antelope in the south; moose, elk, caribou, and deer in the north; geese and ducks in both places);
• fishing (trout, whitefish, pike, and pickerel);
• trapping (beaver, rabbit, ground squirrels);
• gathering wild plants and berries (wild rice, saskatoons, chokecherries, blueberries); and
• trading (fox, marten, weasel, moose, deer, buffalo, beaver hides, skins, and pelts).

• tools and weapons for hunting, fishing;
• the dog sled or travois, hauling packs;
• tipis of hides & poles;
• saddles, equipment for riding horses;
• corrals made out of wooden poles, brush and animal hides used for holding horses and buffalo;
• clothing, snowshoes, goggles;
• canoes of birch bark;
• cooking and eating utensils made out of animal bone and skin;
• hammocks made out of animal hide;
• animal sinew for sewing; and
• smoking and ceremonial pipes of wood and stone.

• North - Anishinabe, Dene (previously called Chipewyan);
• Central - Cree;
• South - Dakota, Nakota, Nakoda (previously called Sioux);

• North - Shield region - mixed forest, many lakes, shallow soil, cold winters;
• Central - Parkland region - deciduous trees, rivers, hills;
• South - Plains region - fairly flat, grasslands, buffalo, dry.

Some pertinent information that may be incorporated in a study about First Nations peoples may include the following:

• Oral histories were used to record events.
• Oral histories reveal information about the Indian people's lifestyles, history, values, and beliefs.
• Theories regarding the origins of the Indian peoples include:
  • Indian peoples originated in the Americas.
  • Indian peoples descended from peoples who migrated across the Bering Strait from Siberia.
• Tens of thousands of years before European immigrants arrived in western Canada Indian peoples were the first peoples to `discover' the plains, hills, rivers, and lakes of Saskatchewan.
• Like other peoples whose lives are tied closely to the land, the Indian peoples of Saskatchewan knew that their survival depended on their ability to get along.
• Consensus reaching was used as a method for decision making.
• Like other land based peoples of the world, Indian peoples share a world view in which they regard people as stewards of the natural environment.
• Maintaining a balance in nature frequently emerges as a major theme in stories of the Indian peoples.
• Many Indian peoples call the earth `Mother Earth' and think very seriously about the effects their technology have upon it.
• In the past their technologies were designed to help them use the environment and its resources in ways that are least harmful to the environment.
• Natural resources included plant life, wildlife, water, and minerals.
• Different cultures evolved in different environments.
• Six Indian nations settled in various areas of Saskatchewan.
• Children had roles doing jobs, learning life skills, and perpetuating the culture.

Oral history has been an important means of transmitting information ever since the dawn of humanity. It has been and still is an important source of information about pre-historical and historical time periods. Because our current education system relies heavily on books for information, students need to be taught to value an oral tradition.

Information about the pre- contact (i.e., before contact with European peoples) lives of Aboriginal peoples comes primarily from archaelological findings (e.g., petroglyphs, fossils, artifacts) and oral history (e.g., stories, legends, and myths).

In general, the oral tradition included two different but integrated purposes, that can be seen as follows:

• The literary aspect of historical information included factual events of the past.
• Many stories were seasonal. For example, one would not tell a lively summer story during the winter when people were in a quiet, reflective mood. Many myths were fact-based with an element of fantasy.
• Storytellers presented the story as a "living thing". Children would listen to the voice of the storyteller and react to it as a living thing. The fantasy aspect was based on imaginary events and beings.
• After contact with Europeans, the Wampum Belt was often used as a form of "contract" between Indian peoples and the colonizing governments. The design showed two parallel rows of beads, indicating the need for parallel development and equality between the Indian nations and the European governments.
• The hide paintings often depicted historical events. Some of the figures on the hides had symbolic (historic, spiritual) significance. Also, the paintings had much merit when viewed as art .
• The governing function of the oral tradition could be quite formal. Selected children were taught the social organization of a nation. This could include cultural events and issues such as the proceedings of certain meetings. These children, as adult orators, provided a link with the past, therefore keeping the oral tradition consistent.

Use stories (e.g., from Keepers of Life or Keepers of the Earth) and other resources such as videos to explore origin theories stemming from the belief that Indian peoples originated in the Americas. Use creation stories representative of various Indian cultures. Compare creation stories looking for similarities. Explore art that depicts creation stories.

The teacher may choose to explore other theories, like the land bridge theory. Have students imagine a trip from Siberia to Saskatchewan and record possible experiences in their journals. Be sure students understand that this would not have been one trip, but rather a gradual migration over a period of many years.

• Using maps, compare Siberia and Saskatchewan.
• How far is it to travel?
• What different modes of travel would be used?
• What supplies would be needed to live and travel in the different places?
• What animals, plants or people did you encounter?
• What were the major challenges? the high points?
• In what places did you live in Saskatchewan and why did you choose them?

Learn about oral tradition. Use stories to learn about the Indian peoples. Have students tell stories that teach what they have learned.

Use stories to develop social studies objectives. What do the stories tell us about the Indian peoples' beliefs and values? What do the stories tell us about dress, hunting tools, social structure of the various peoples, the importance of animals, and so on. Do you recognize any names? Does the story teach a lesson? Does it record history? Have each student learn a story and tell it in the oral tradition. Tape the stories. Invite an oral historian or Elder into your classroom. Check on the protocol of inviting and hosting an Elder and make arrangements well ahead of time.

Observe pictures used to illustrate stories. Find examples of wampum belts and hide paintings. Draw or paint hides, paper cut to the shape of hides, or belts and explain in writing the meaning of the art work. Mount and display the drawings with the written description. List all of the signs of European influence that are shown in the picture. These signs might include items such as horses, iron utensils, woven cloth, and beads. In groups create a drama, dance, or ballad to depict a sequence of events.

Use story format to present information. Create a myth or legend, including art work. Present the story orally.

Language

Create a written language. This can be done in several ways including:

• Create 26 symbols - one symbol for each of the 26 letters of the alphabet (or one symbol for each sound). Students would write the message by replacing the letters with the symbols of their new language.
• Create symbols that stand for English language phrases. The rest of the class can "interpret" messages.
• Use symbols from language groups represented in the class. Students could bring "messages" from parents, grandparents, or other relatives in their first language. Discuss similarities and differences among various languages. Discuss the benefits and disadvantages of a language other than English to communicate.

• How is oral history similar to a "living" thing or "living" story?
• What are some of the advantages of relating events through oral history compared to written history? What are some of the disadvantages?
• How could a culture's oral history develop a gap? How could a written history develop a gap?
• What problems might an outsider encounter while attempting to interpret oral history? written history?
• Is it fair for an outsider to interpret oral history without first having a discussion with a representative of that culture?
• Is it fair to interpret written history without considering the era and perspectives within which it was written?

Use books that are written in both an Indian language alphabet and English (or French) alphabet. Compare the alphabets. Learn how the Indian language alphabet was developed. Learn about adapting computer keyboards to enable computer users to produce materials in an Indian language. Search out student materials published in Saskatchewan. For example, Byron Through the Seasons.

Preserving Language: Dr. Anne Anderson

Use the Student Information Page: Dr. Anne Anderson. To introduce the profile, discuss with the students how language is an important part of our identity.

• It is through language that we can create thoughts and opinions.
• It is through language that we learn new information and what other people do and think.
• Words in our language reflect our values and beliefs.
• Languages may be spoken and/or written.

• People would learn by listening.
• People would have to have very good listening skills and excellent memories.
• Parents would have to be sure to talk to their children a lot and tell them many stories so that they pass on all the information and knowledge that they have.
• People today are becoming more interested in learning about past experiences through stories that are told by people. Historians are recognizing oral history as being important and different from history that is written.

Learn how an event may be interpreted differently by different people. Working in groups of five or six, think about a school event.

• Each student in the group writes about the event.
• Compare notes with group members. Students should notice some discrepancies, as each student will interpret the event from an individual point of view.
• Summarize interpretations of the event so that the group has a common interpretation.
• Choose one person from the group to act as "oral historian". This person, speaking for the group, will tell the rest of the class about the event the group recorded.
• Debrief the activity by identifying reasons why interpretations of the same event may vary.

Teaching the students about ways the Indian peoples used the environment to meet their needs includes developing understandings about the Indian People's world view regarding their relationship to the environment. Indian peoples, like other Indigenous land based peoples, saw people as part of nature and as stewards of nature. Literature will help students develop understandings about the Indian peoples' world view.

View the filmstrip "The First People" included in the Saskatchewan Past and Present kit to compare the traditional ways of life of the northern Indian, the plains Indian and the woodland Indian peoples. Draw up a chart to show similarities and differences. For your chart, think of their homes, travel, sources of food, clothing, tools, and how they adapted to and utilized their environments.

Use stories as a format to organize and present information. Share stories with other students at different grade levels and with elderly people.

Using resources, particularly literature about the childhood experiences of Indian children, develop understandings about ways in which Indian peoples of Saskatchewan used resources in a sustainable way to develop technologies and meet their needs. Explore beliefs, values, resources, and technology. Use maps of Saskatchewan to make connections between the resources available in the environment and the technologies developed. Organize the information in webs using categories such as tools, weapons, clothing, food, shelter, recreation, transportation, and communication.

Have students research specific topics and organize and present information in various formats such as a diorama, role-play, tableau, drama, mural, model, interview, display, story (in the oral tradition), or book. Students might share their information with other classes or some senior citizens.

Using resources such as the filmstrip The Buffalo in the Saskatchewan Past and Present kit, learn how the Indian nations of the plains used the buffalo. Learn how Indian peoples used other animals such as caribou, moose, elk, and deer in much the same manner. Make a large sketch of a buffalo or other wild animal and label each part to show how it was used.

Use drama to depict the work and contributions of Indian women. What could we learn from the world view of the Indian peoples regarding the environment to help us in the present and future?

Explore animals from a fact and fiction point of view. Research an animal and prepare a short report placing it on one side of a sheet of paper. Make up a legend about the same animal basing the legend on one or more of the facts they have learned about the animal. Place the legend on the same sheet of paper as the report, on the opposite side. Compile a class set of legends and reports into one book called Animals: Fact and Fiction.

Create a Saskatchewan story for a specific season. The story could be "alive" like a season. Draw pictures to represent the story or the season. Arrange the stories on a "circle" calendar. Design appropriate clothing and technology for the season. Learn about the six seasons observed by some people whose lives are affected by the freezing and break up of lakes and rivers.

Governance

Explore governance in Indian cultures. Learn about consensus reaching, decision making, responsibility, and authority. People realize the importance of working together at the community level to address and solve problems. Discuss the importance of group cohesion in the family, classroom, school, and community. Use journal writing to reflect on the role of consensus reaching in today's society and use this reflective writing to assess attitudes. Use consensus reaching as one method of decision making in the classroom and school.

Technology

Explore technologies used by the Indian peoples at different times of the year. Display seasonal activities on a circle that has been divided into quadrants to represent the four seasons. Alternately, divide a circle into six sections to represent six seasons. For the people of the north the freezing of lakes and rivers in the fall and break-up in the spring have significant impact and they, therefore, may identify six seasons.

Encourage students to empathize with past experiences of people by using focused imaging. For example, have students imagine what it would be like to be riding on a sled pulled by a team of strong dogs.

Trade

There is evidence that Indian nations traded with other nations separated by long distances.

Speculate on what items may have been used for trade among the various Indian nations. How did they travel and communicate with other groups? Substantiate speculations through research.

Cultural diversity

In having students research, strive to include materials to represent the several unique cultures of Saskatchewan's First Nations which are: Cree, Nakota, Dene, Anishinabe, Dakota, and Métis peoples.

The variety of landscapes found in Saskatchewan means that we live in a province with natural diversity. Saskatchewan has also always been a place of cultural diversity. This is part of our heritage. There have been different nations of Indian peoples in Saskatchewan for thousands of years. Because the culture varied from nation-to- nation, Saskatchewan has always been a multicultural land. When explorers, fur traders, and immigrants arrived, Saskatchewan became more culturally diverse. Capture these understandings in a song.

Guide students to understand relevant aspects of stereotype, assumptions, bias, point of view, and prejudice. Use resources that present different perspectives. Have students identify and think about the perspective being presented in each case. Develop skills and attitudes necessary to counter bias when accessing information about historic experience.

View the filmstrip The First People included in the Saskatchewan Past and Present Kit to compare the traditional ways of life of the northern Indians, the plains Indians, and the woodland Indians. Make a list or a chart comparing similarities and differences. Think about homes, travel, sources of food, clothing and tools, the size of groups, dress, and how they adapted to the environment.

Suggested Resources
(listed in other bibliographies and catalogues)

Dances of the Northern Plains (Videotape) (Arts Ed)
Discovering American Indian Music (MHP, V3589)
The Indian Art Calendar J.E. Smith (Arts Ed)
Indian Artists Calendar (Arts Ed)
Indian Musical Instruments in North America (Arts Ed)
Inuit, Métis, and Indian Art (Kit) (Arts Ed)
North American Indian Charts (Poster) (Arts Ed)
Plains Ojibwa Singers: Long Plain Reserve Manitoba (Audiocassette) (Arts Ed)
The Red Bull Singers (Audiocassette) (Arts Ed)
Songs From the Battleford Pow- Wow (Audiocassette) (Arts Ed)
Songs of the Dakota (Audiocassette) (Arts Ed)
The Tipi (poster) (Arts Ed)
Two Forms of Art Sarain Stump (Arts Ed)
Whitefish Bay Singers Volume II (Audiocassette) (El Arts Ed)
The Saskatchewan Past and Present Kit was placed in all schools with grade four in 1984.

Gaia: Atlas of First Peoples
Keepers of the Earth (Sci)
Chapters 6, 20, 21
People of the Buffalo (MHP,V3276)

Student Information Page: Dr. Anne Anderson

"My heritage is a Cree Indian mother and my father had a French mother and Scottish father. It makes me a true Métis."

That is how Dr. Anderson introduced herself in a speech she gave recently. In her speech, she went on to describe parts of her life and her work with the Cree language.

She was born on a farm near St. Albert, Alberta, in 1906. She was so tiny that her mother made a bed for her in a shoe box lined with rabbit fur. Her parents were afraid she would not live. They called Noel, the medicine man. He said, "This baby will grow to be a strong woman. She will make you proud." His predictions came true.

In 1968, Dr. Anderson began to write the Cree language. Cree is a very old language. People probably began speaking it in North America about the same time that Europeans began speaking Latin and Greek. Cree has a strong oral tradition. Although the Cree peoples used many written symbols to communicate, their main communication was through spoken language. During the thousands of years that people spoke Cree, the language changed and developed in different ways in different parts of the continent. There are now 4 distinct Cree dialects.

With every student in Canada learning to speak, read and write French or English, some of the Aboriginal languages are in danger of being forgotten and lost. Dr. Anderson did not want this to happen to her mother's language. For 23 years she worked at making her Cree dialect a written language. Although her mother and father did not live to see the job done, they would have been truly proud of their daughter, Dr. Anne Anderson!

Adapted with permission from Native Woman Inc., Vol. I, Issue 2, October 1992.

• Think about the English alphabet. What other alphabets do you know? How are they similar or different from the English alphabet?
• Imagine that English was never written. Make up an alphabet of your own. You may choose to use more or fewer than 26 symbols. Some symbols may represent different sounds of one letter, or symbols for sounds like th, sh. Write some sentences using your symbols.
• Learn some sentences in a language that uses symbols quite different from those used in English or French. Post the sentences in the classroom.