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FREE First Peoples Land Use Unit Study
This unit is correlated with the BC Standards for Grade 5. However, homeschooling is flexible so feel free to use each unit as you see fit.
I would say this unit likely has a range of grades 4-8 depending on your child.
Unit Study Teacher Zone
Unit Study Teacher Zone
This unit study is different from the typical HyperDoc studies found throughout the website.
I didn't see the value in recreating so many of the resources already available out there. Many of these resources were already created by a variety of First Peoples who are telling their story, truth, and experience.
Be sure to make use of the collection of resources at the very end including a variety of videos, links to lesson plans, and more.
If you know of a resource that would make a great addition to this unit and amplify the voices of Indigenous Peoples, please let me know.
What is a Treaty?
What is a Treaty?
Treaty promises were made to last as long as “the sun shines, the grass grows, and rivers flow.”
Treaty promises were made to last as long as “the sun shines, the grass grows, and rivers flow.”
First Peoples had many treaties among the various First Peoples tribes. These were spoken agreements and sometimes made use of wampum belts to symbolize the agreement. Europeans made treaties with contracts and signing of documents.
How easy or hard do you think it would be to negotiate a treaty when different languages or cultures are involved?The First Peoples did not believe that anyone owned the land. They used the land, took care of the land, and in their treaties agreed to share the land with the Europeans.
Europeans believed in a system (like we live today) where land is owned by someone. This land is owned, bought, and sold.
If you remember from the human rights unit, the Doukhobours had struggles with the Canadian government about owning their land as a community and sharing it amongst each other.They specifically agreed to share the land "to the depth of a plough".
What do you think that means? Can you think of an example that would break that treaty agreement?
Wampum Belts
Wampum Belts
Canada's Treaties
Canada's Treaties
Look at the maps below showing the various treaties created throughout Canada's history.
What do you notice about these maps?
What areas of Canada are not included in these treaties?
What was promised?
In exchange for giving land to the British Crown or Canadian government (depending on if the treaties were before or after Canada became a country), the First Nations people received reserve land, a one-time payment, and a yearly payment. Each treaty varied but most of them gave the First Nations the right to hunt and fish on the land (until the government needed to use it) and some of them received other things like ammunition, livestock, and government-run schools.
The First Nations people did not believe in owning the land. There are often disagreements about the treaties and whether promises were broken. Many First Nations people, and others, believe that they did not know they were giving their land away by signing the treaties. Instead, they thought they were agreeing to share the land. Another example of a disagreement around broken promises is the right to hunt and fish being controlled or taken away by the Canadian government.
Unceded Territory
Unceded Territory
Where do you live? Do you live on unceded land? Who does the land belong to? Use the map below to discover more.
What about the parts of Canada without a treaty?
Remember the treaty map above? All the white areas of Canada never had a treaty established with the Canadian government, but all of those regions are still part of Canada. The British Crown and Canadian government wanted the treaties to be able to gain the land from the First Nations to use for the settlers coming to Canada, as well as harvest resources from the land. In their minds, by the First Nations signing the treaties, they were handing over the land to Europe.
The land that was not under treaties got swallowed up by Canada as settlements grew outwards across Canada. Another way of looking at it is that the land was stolen (unceded).
Many First Nations, and other Canadians, argue that all of Canada is technically unceded (stolen) because they viewed the treaties as sharing the land and not handing it over.
Indian Act
Indian Act
Why did the government pass the Indian Act?
The Indian Act was a collection of laws from the Canadian government meant to try to control the First Peoples. The goal was to try to assimilate (merge / force) them into Canadian culture. It became a law in 1876.
Some of these rules were:
First Peoples were not allowed to express themselves through their culture
Banned from celebrating their culture in gatherings (including the potlatch, a gift-giving feast)
Banned all traditional festivals or ceremonies (including powwows)
In 1914, dancing off of their reserve land was banned, and in 1925 dancing was entirely banned
Not allowed to hire lawyers
Not allowed to make a claim for land to the government without the government agreeing to it
Children were required to attend residential schools to learn how to be Canadian and not First Nations
Not allowed to be considered First Nations (in the government's eyes) if they graduated university, married a non-First Nations person, or became a doctor or lawyer
Is the Indian Act still law today?
The Indian Act is still a thing today but with many changes. No longer is there a ban on gatherings, hiring lawyers, or being forced to go to residential schools, etc.
When the Canadian Bill of Rights became law in the 1960s, it gave the First Nations people the right to vote
In 1985, anyone who had lost their First Nations status (from graduating, marrying a non-First Nation, etc) was allowed to be considered First Nations again in the government's eyes
Residential Schools
Residential Schools
What were residential schools?
Tens of thousands of indigenous children were removed from their homes and sent to residential schools. Some parents sent their children there, but most often they were taken and forced to go. Some of the kids were as young as 2-4 years old.
The goal was to remove the children from their indigenous culture so that they could learn to be more like the white Canadians. They didn't want them to practice their traditions, wear their indigenous clothes, speak their languages, etc.
The government knew the best way to succeed at this goal was to have them live at these schools from September through to June so that they didn't go home and learn about their culture. It also prevented the parents from knowing about what was happening in the schools.
The residential schools were not loving environments and thousands of children suffered from malnutrition, poor medical care, disease, and more.
Map of residential schools across Canada
Two Cree girls in their beds in the girls' dormitory at All Saints Indian Residential School, Lac La Ronge, Saskatchewan, March 1945. Photo: Bud Glunz / National Film Board of Canada. Photothèque / Library and Archives Canada / PA-166582
In 1920, the Indian Act was adjusted to make it mandatory that all First Nations children had to attend residential schools until they reached 15 years old.
Duncan Campbell Scott worked in the Department of Indian Affairs. This was a section of the Canadian government that focused on all things related to the Indigenous Peoples.
In 1920 he said:
“I want to get rid of the Indian problem. I do not think as a matter of fact, that the country ought to continuously protect a class of people who are able to stand alone . . . Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question, and no Indian Department, that is the whole object of this Bill.”
Some of that may be hard to follow or understand, but let's break out a couple of key parts.
“I want to get rid of the Indian problem."
"Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic"
According to Duncan Scott, what was the purpose of the residential schools?
What was Duncan Scott's goals and vision for Canada?
What would you do if you were sent to one of these schools? How would you feel?
Many of the children tried to run away to get back home to their families. The RCMP would locate them and then force them back to the school. Eventually, so many kids were trying to run away that the government passed a law that parents no longer were in charge of their children while they were in residential schools. That meant that only the government could decide what the children could or couldn't do.
Finally, in 1951, the Canadian government started the process of shutting down the schools. It took over 40 years before the last school was finally closed in 1996!
Traditional Land Use
Traditional Land Use
The Importance of the Buffalo to Indigenous Peoples
The Indigenous Peoples who lived in the prairies of Canada relied on the buffalo to survive. They hunted the buffalo for its meat, used the hides for clothing and shelter, and used the bones for tools and weapons. As you can see by the brown colour on the map, the buffalo roamed all over North America. The tribes who relied on the buffalo would follow the buffalo when they moved to different areas. This is called nomadic and their houses were never permanent structures.
Many experts believe that there were over 40 million buffalo who roamed the area. As more and more settlers were arriving, they needed land to establish their homes and farmland. Eventually, a railway was built across Canada (and multiple in the United States) as well. The buffalo were in the way of all of this development.
The decline of the buffalo population was so drastic that they became nearly extinct by 1889 (see the orange sections on the map).
What Happened to the Buffalo?
The buffalo were hunted by the Canadian and American governments to make way for their railroads, farmland, and settlers.
The hides of the buffalo became valuable (similar to how the beaver almost became extinct). Non-indigenous hunters would kill the buffalo only for the hide and leave all of the meat to rot.
Many tribes were fighting against the loss of the land and the development of the railways. Governments ordered that mass amounts of buffalo be hunted to both clear way for development but also force the tribes to move elsewhere to look for food because they relied on the buffalo to survive.
More and more Indigenous Peoples gained access to horses and rifles for hunting which made their hunting trips much more successful.
Additional Resources
Additional Resources
Resource Links
Resource Links
Project / Extension Ideas
Project / Extension Ideas
Have students design or build a wampum belt that represents an important event in their life (graph paper, beads, Lego, etc)
Create a classroom / household treaty
Research a numbered treaty near where you live. What were the promises? When and with who was it created? Have the promises been upheld?
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