Social Studies Grade Five

Explorers: Gudrid, Sacajewea, Roberta Bondar

Think about and discuss:

• Humans have always had and still have a desire to learn about places, people and ideas beyond their own personal experience. We need to explore the unknown, and as we do, we change ourselves and our society.
• What does the word "explorer" mean?
• Who is an explorer? Is it a child riding her tricycle around the block for a first time, a person looking through a microscope, a traveller to new places, a student on a field trip, an astronaut?

They were expert sailors. They travelled in sailing ships that were large enough to hold 20 or 30 people along with supplies. The 20 or 30 people usually included men, women and children. The supplies often included cattle and certainly food. They used sundials to keep track of direction. They were skilled in 'reading' the environment (water colour, animal life, temperature, currents, etc.) to know where they were.

The Vikings were a nation of travellers, explorers, traders and warriors. They traded ivory walrus tusks and furs of arctic animals. They sometimes raided communities along the coasts for supplies or to establish their own communities. Sometimes they took people as hostages and sold them as slaves.

Some of the groups of Vikings travelled to Iceland where they settled. Some time later, some groups travelled to Greenlands to live. Then, about the year 1 000, their stories tell of going to a place called Vinland. Historians do not agree. Some say it is Nova Scotia. Some say it is the northeast United States. Many say it is Newfoundland.

Gudrid was a Viking. She was born in 980 in the west of Iceland. She and her husband Thorer were part of a group that travelled to Greenland to live. Her husband died during the first winter there. Gudrid stayed on in Greenland. Several years later she married Thornstein, a son of Erik the Red. She and Thornstein were part of group who left on a trip to Vinland but had to turn back because of stormy weather. Her husband, Thornstein, died.

In 1006, she married Karlsefni, a successful Viking trader. She and others persuaded him to organize a group of people to move to Vinland. About 160 people, including five women, left Greenland for Vinland. That first autumn in 1007, Gudrid had her first child and became the first mother in the colony.

During the third winter, the colony in Vinland had lots of problems. So in the spring, the people all left and returned to Greenland.

Gudrid lived with her husband in Greenland until his death. When her children were grown, she travelled to Rome, and then returned to Iceland. The sagas (stories) tell us that Gudrid was a beautiful woman, distinguished in everything she did, and a bold explorer.

Adapted with permission from the Saskatoon Women's Calendar Collective, Herstory, page 48, 1978.

Sacajawea was a Shoshone Indian, born in 1788 in the area that is now called Idaho. When she was 10 years old, she was kidnapped by a group of Hidatsa Indians when they raided the Shoshone village. For four years she lived with them in the area that is now the state of North Dakota. With them she had to learn a new language and new ways of doing things. She probably longed to be home with her own people.

White men, trappers and fur traders sometimes traded with the Hidatsa people. On one such visit, the men gambled. Sacajawea became the prize. Toussaint Charbonneau, a French Canadian trader, won her. She became his wife. Sacajawea learned to speak French. She found some of Charbonneau's ideas very strange. He and other white men spoke of buying and owning land. How could anyone own the land? When Sacajawea was 16, she had a baby boy who she named Baptiste.

In 1805, Charbonneau met with two men, Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. Charbonneau agreed to be their guide on a long, dangerous expedition across the Northwest United States to the Pacific Ocean. They agreed to take Sacajawea and her son with them as well. They believed it would be safer to travel with a woman and child. Anyone they met would know they were travelling in peace because women and children never went with war parties.

The Lewis and Clark expedition lasted for more than a year. The men made careful notes and drew many pictures of animals, plants and the landscape as they travelled west.

Sacajawea was a big help to the expedition. When they ran short of food supplies, she found wild vegetables and berries. When people were sick, she found the right plants to make medicines. She made buckskins and moccasins for the men. Once when they were caught in a storm their canoes overturned, dumping their supplies. Sacajawea rescued the records of the trip which were so important to Lewis and Clark.

What she was really happy about, was that they were going to pass through Shoshoni territory. She could hardly wait to see her family again. When they arrived, she met some of her old friends. They were very happy to see each other. But of her own family, only her brother who was now the chief, and her sister's son were alive. She adopted her sister's son.

The expedition needed horses to travel to the other side of the high mountains. The Shoshoni had the horses needed, but they didn't want to sell them. For days, Sacajawea tried to persuade her brother and the other men to provide them with the needed horses. Finally, they agreed and the expedition continued west.

In the late fall, they reached the beginning of the Columbia River. Here they left their horses with the Nez Percee and built dugout canoes. They reached the Pacific Ocean in November, 1805. They stayed for the winter months. In early spring, they headed back.

Charbonneau and Sacajawea did not complete the whole trip with Lewis and Clark. Sacajawea stayed with the Wood River Shoshoni in what is now the state of Wyoming. It is believed she lived until 1884.

Sacajawea was a brave explorer and is an American hero. In the United States, there are more monuments to her than to any other American woman. The best known monument is a statue in Washington Park in Portland, Oregon.

Why was she one of the top candidates? There are many reasons.

When she was in elementary and high school, she and her sister were active in church groups, Brownies, Girl Guides, and other community groups every night of the week. In school, they participated in every house league, sports event, club and activity they could. Her father taught them how to hunt and fish. He believed that you can learn as much outside of school as in school. Her mother insisted that you should always be the best that you can be, no matter what you are involved in.

When she went to university, she worked hard and received high marks. She earned several degrees, mainly in sciences and medicine. After she graduated, she became a teacher of medicine at a university. She continued to hike, fish and play tennis. She got her pilot's license.

She also has the right kind of personal characteristics. She is very confident. She never panics, is never flustered. If she is ever afraid, she doesn't show it and she certainly doesn't let it interfere with whatever she does. She could work long hours, day after day, and never seem to get tired.

When the six people were selected, they all went into training. Marc Garneau was the first Canadian astronaut to fly on a space mission. That was October 5 - 13, 1984.

In 1986, the Challenger spacecraft exploed shortly after takeoff. All seven astronauts were killed. Future space missions were delayed.

Finally, on January 22, 1992, the space shuttle that carried Roberta Bondar and other crew members. The mission lasted 9 days. During the mission she worked 14 hour days as a payload specialist. She completed 55 scientific experiments. She didn't let space sickness interfere with her work. She didn't have much time for sightseeing, but she talks about how very beautiful the earth is when viewed from space.

After the flight, she travelled across Canada several times speaking to school and church groups, Girl Guides, and others. She encourages girls and boys to study science and maths and think about careers in those areas. She recalls how she was teased and often rejected by her classmates because she was interested in different things than they were. Her advice, especially to girls, is to think for yourself and not to do things or be someone just to fit in with the crowd.

On that space mission, Roberta Bondar was a smart and bold explorer. Canadians everywhere were proud of their hero.

Questions for discussion:

• In what ways are the women in the three profiles all explorers?
• Use the Venn diagram on the following page to show the ways in which the women's experiences were similar and the ways in which they were different.
• What were some of the hardships and some of the successes each experienced?
• How might they have dealt with those hardships?
• In what ways might they all be considered heroes?
• In what ways were they ordinary people?
• What were their contributions?

Student Information Page:
Making comparisons using a Venn diagram

Student Information Page: Sample research organizer

My "thank you" list of resources:

1. Author/editor (Last name, first name)_______________________
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   Publisher______________Date___________Pages Used_______
   
2. Author/editor (Last name, first name)_______________________
   Title_________________________Type of resource__________
   Publisher______________Date___________Pages Used_______