Your bus can let students off in front of the main entrance and then park in the parking lot across the street from the Museum.
You will be met at the main entrance to the museum. Your program will take place in the Centennial Gallery.
You are welcome to bring lunch to the site. Your class can eat on the grassed area outside the Museum. In case of inclement weather, you will be directed to an indoor location.
A concession is available from May through August. Toilet facilities are available.
Grade 4/5 Program
In this program we will be playing 2 games:
• The Queen's Hat and
• Hunt for Change Scavenger Hunt
To prepare your students for their program at the museum, we recommend the following:
• Discuss with students how life changed for First Nations people after the arrival of Europeans in Western Canada.
• Define pre and post-contact:
- • Pre-contact: Before the contact of First Nations people with Europeans.
• Post-contact: After the contact of First Nations people with Europeans.
• Describe the role of the North West Mounted Police, the Missionaries, Residential Schools and Traders in the settlement of Western Canada. Sources that can assist you in describing these roles are included in the attached reading list. Some of the main points are:
- • Before Europeans and other people came to Western Canada, the First Nations people relied on the buffalo to provide all of their needs including food, shelter, and clothing. They lived a nomadic life, following and hunting the buffalo.
• Some of the first people to arrive were traders. First Nations
people traded furs for food and other necessities of life.
• With the arrival of the Europeans and other people, buffalo nearly disappeared as a result of over-hunting and disease.
• Europeans and other newcomers wanted the land that had been used by the First Nations people for hunting and gathering. Treaties were signed between First Nations people and the newcomers and First Nations people were moved to reserves. The newcomers believed that people could own the land, but First Nations people did not believe this and could not understand why they could no longer follow the buffalo and other game as they had in the past.
• The treaties promised that, in return for their land, First Nations people would receive food, shelter and all other necessities of life. Indian Agents were assigned by the government to issue provisions.
• Missionaries came to Western Canada believing that First Nations people needed to be taught to believe in God. They did not understand nor respect the religion of the First Nations people. Missionaries also ran Residential Schools. First Nations children were taken away from their families and sent to live and learn the ways of the newcomers at these schools. This was often a difficult experience.
• The North West Mounted Police came to Western Canada to maintain peace and order.
• Because there were so many new people, there were often misunderstandings and difficult situations sometimes arose.
• Life changed for the First Nations people after the European and other people came to Western Canada and it would never again be the same.
• Explain to them that they will be asked to participate in a series of skits. Each group will have an opportunity to participate. Some students will be given specific roles such as Indian Agent, NWMP and missionary, the others will be First Nations families. Those assigned specific parts will be provided costume elements or props to let everyone know who they are. Each will be given directions related to actions of the other students. Students will be given laminated cards that tell them what to do and where to go.
• To demonstrate how this will work, have one small group of students act out the following scene and then discuss what has happened with the remainder of the class. Tell the students that all of them will participate in similar skits at the Museum.
Action: You are leaving the reserve to visit your relatives. As a group, walk slowly away from where you are now. You can talk about where you're going and who you are going to see.
Reaction by NWMP: As they begin walking, shout, "Where is your traveling permit?" Arrest the group for leaving the reserve without a permit.
Stop the action and discuss with everyone what happened.
Main points:
• Before moving to the reserve, the people were able to go anywhere they wanted and they had done so all their lives. They didn't need a permit as they did on the reserve.
• The people who signed the treaties did not always communicate what the new rules were, so people had to find out the hard way.
In the Hunt for Change Scavenger Hunt, students will be asked to look around the museum to find objects representing change. Students will again be in their pre-assigned break-out groups. Each group will be assigned a category of artifacts. Students are asked to find one artifact from the pre-contact era and another in the same category from the post-contact era. They will be asked to bring back one advantage and one disadvantage of each artifact to share with the entire group. Each break-out group will take the entire group to show them their artifacts and describe advantages and disadvantages.
To prepare your students for the Hunt for Change Scavenger Hunt:
• Explain to students what an artifact is: Anything that is made or altered by man.
• Discuss changes in the following categories of objects pre and post-contact.
1. Headgear
2. Footwear
3. Transportation
4. Weapons
5. Clothing
6. Dwellings
A worksheet is included to assist you in demonstrating these changes.
• You may also wish to do an observation exercise to encourage students to learn to look more carefully at objects. Careful drawings are one way to achieve this but there are a variety of other approaches you can use that encourage students to develop observation skills. You might ask pupils to describe an object, focusing on its shape size, or colour. Or they could measure its length and height, or estimate its volume and weight. You could bring a "mystery object" to class and ask the students to first describe it in detail and then to determine its function.
We look forward to your participation in The Fort Museum's
Changing Ways Program!
Reading List for Changing Ways Education Program
Lowie, Robert H. Indians of the Plains. Doubleday & Co., Inc. New York, 1985.Changing Ways Program!
Reading List for Changing Ways Education Program
Although the language is dated, there is still some excellent information for teachers in this book.
Macfarlan, Allan and Paulette. Handbook of American Indian Games. Dover Publications, Inc. New York, 1958.
This is a good resource for teachers, particularly to use in developing introductory or follow-up activities complementary to the school program.
Morris, Alexander. The Treaties of Canada with the Indians. Belfords, Clarke & Co., Toronto, originally published in 1862, reprinted 1979.
Chapter 10 of this book provides a historic perspective for teachers of Treaty #7.
Morrison, R. Bruce and Wilson, C. Roderick. Native Peoples: The Canadian Experience. McLelland & Stewart, Inc. 1986.
Chapter 20 of this book, entitled The Ethnographic Blackfoot by Hugh Dempsey, is an excellent summary for teachers of the history of the Blackfoot people in Western Canada.
Quilty, Joyce, Fox, Leo, and Eaglechild, Ruby, et al. The Land of the Bloods. Plains Publishing Inc., Edmonton, 1986.
A basic resource for students about the Blood peoples, from both a historic and current perspective. This resource should be used in collaboration with other materials.
Ross, David and May, Robin. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Osprey Publishing, London, UK, 1988.
This is an excellent basic history of the NWMP and RCMP for teachers and students alike.
Sarcee Culture Program. Tsu T'ina and the Buffalo. Calgary, 1979.
This is an excellent basic resource for young students about the Tsu T'ina people and their history.
Schemenauer, Elma. Native Canadians: Today and Long Ago. Nelson Canada, Scarborough, 1985.
This is a good basic resource for students that introduces information on the roles of storytelling, the circle and hunting in plains aboriginal cultures.
Schreiber, June, et al. Alberta's Metis: People of the Western Prairie. Reidmore Books. Edmonton, 1991.
This is an excellent resource for students and teachers about the Metis people and their involvement in the fur trade. It includes questions, games and activities for students.
Stocken, Canon H.W. Gibbon. Among the Blackfoot and Sarcee. Glenbow Alberta Institute, Calgary, 1976.
This book provides a historic perspective for teachers from a missionary's point of view.
