Presentation by Betsy Arntzen, Canadian-American Center, University of Maine Amy Sotherden, Center for the Study of Canada, SUNY Plattsburgh

1. Teaching Canada Workshop – November 30, 2016
Betsy Arntzen, Canadian-American Center, University of Maine &
Amy Sotherden, Center for the Study of Canada, SUNY Plattsburgh

2. 1. Canada’s Three Indigenous
Groups

3. Métis -
descendants of
First Nations and
Europeans
(452,000)
32% of Indigenous
population
First Nations –
600 recognized
nations/bands
(851,500)
60% of
Indigenous
population
Inuit – people who live in
Arctic regions (59,500)
4% of Indigenous population

5. Provinces and territories Aboriginal identity population Percent distribution
Aboriginal identity population as a
percentage of the total population
Canada 1,400,685 100.0 4.3
Newfoundland and
Labrador
35,800 2.6 7.1
Prince Edward Island 2,230 0.2 1.6
Nova Scotia 33,845 2.4 3.7
New Brunswick 22,615 1.6 3.1
Quebec 141,915 10.1 1.8
Ontario 301,425 21.5 2.4
Manitoba 195,900 14.0 16.7
Saskatchewan 157,740 11.3 15.6
Alberta 220,695 15.8 6.2
British Columbia 232,290 16.6 5.4
Yukon 7,705 0.6 23.1
Northwest Territories 21,160 1.5 51.9
Nunavut 27,360 2.0 86.3
Source: Statistics Canada, National Household Survey, 2011.
Number and distribution of the population reporting an Aboriginal identity and
percentage of Aboriginal people in the population, Canada, provinces and
territories, 2011

6. Table 1 Proportion of Aboriginal identity population, First Nations people, Métis and Inuit for selected Aboriginal language indicators, Canada, 2011Table summaryThis table displays the results of table 1 proportion of aboriginal identity population. The information is grouped by selected aboriginal language indicators (appearing as row headers),
proportion (%) of population, calculated using total aboriginal identity population, first nations single identity, métis single identity and inuit single identity units of measure (appearing as column headers).
Selected Aboriginal
language indicators
Total Aboriginal
identity population
First Nations single
identity Métis single identity Inuit single identity
Proportion (%) of population
Ability to conduct a
conversation in an
Aboriginal language
17.2 22.4 2.5 63.7
Aboriginal language as
mother tongue
14.5 18.7 1.8 58.7
Aboriginal language
spoken at least
regularly at home
14.0 18.0 1.6 59.5
Aboriginal language
spoken most often at
home
8.5 10.3 0.7 45.9
Aboriginal language
spoken regularly at
home
5.5 7.7 0.9 13.6
Source: Statistics Canada, National Household Survey, 2011.
Proportion of Aboriginal identity population, First
Nations people, Métis and Inuit for selected
Aboriginal language indicators, Canada, 2011

8. 2. Old World met Old World

9. First Nations people know they have lived in North America
since before the beginning.
Archaeologic records indicate 40,000 years ago

10. Inuit know they have been in North America for
about 5,000 years
1960s carving by Ennutsiak,
showing an Inuit migration
scene.

11. Métis - “mixed”
Routes of Europeans who traversed the interior

12. 2. Old World met Old World
1000 Vikings
1492 Columbus
1534 Jacques Cartier
1530s Basque whalers
1603 French
North American Languages, pre-contact
European countries, circa 1000AD

13. Conditions at the time of contact:
1491: New Revelations
of the Americas Before
Columbus
(Charles C. Mann, 2006)
• From beginning to 1491:
population 100 million in healthy,
flourishing advanced societies in North,
Central and South America
• 1492 for 200+ years:
90%+ decimation of population from
diseases, slavery, wars

14. Diagram of a trade network

15. Our name means “us, the people”
"Naming is an exercise in power. Whether you're
naming places or naming peoples, you are therefore
asserting a power of sort of establishing what is
reality and what is not.“
Doug Herman, senior geographer at the
Smithsonian National Museum of the
American Indian
Apache - Enemy (Zuni Word)
Delaware - From Lord De La Warr
Erie - Log Tail Or Cat People (Iroquois Word)
Huron - Head Of A Boar (French Word describing their hair cut)
Mohawk - Possessors Of The Flint, Flesh, Man Eater (Abenaki Words)
Sioux - French for "Cut-Throats“
Navajo - Cultivated Field In An Arroyo (Tewa Word)

16. 3. Cultures and Ecosystems

17. Native Peoples at European Contact

18. 3. Cultures and Ecosystems

19. Ecological Regions:
Northern Forests, the Taiga and the Tundra
Taiga (royal blue)
Tundra (purple)
Northern Boreal Forest (light blue)

20. First Nations of the Northern Forests,
the Hudson Plains, and the Taiga
Taiga
Hudson Plains
Northern Boreal Forest

21. Inuit of Canada’s Arctic:
NWT, Nunavut, Nunavik, Nunatsiavut

22. InuktitukCree

23. 4. Nations and Colonization

24. 4. Nations and Colonization
“It’s like we woke up one day, and there was a new sheriff in town”
- Inuit elder, in Qallunaat! Why White People Are Funny
Peace, Order and Good
Government
Constitution Act, 1867
aka
British North America Act
Enfranchisement
Indian Act, 1867
Gradual Civilization Act plus
Gradual Enfranchisement Act
Charter of Rights and
Freedoms
Constitution Act, 1982
aka
Bill of Rights

25. Treaties are
Nation to Nation agreements
Agreements covering Indigenous people’s rights
to Canadian land
or
Agreements covering Canada’s rights to
Indigenous people’s land

27. Differences in treatment of Indigenous peoples:
• Canada
– Canada’s indigenous populations
still a majority, higher rates of
heritage language fluency
– Ongoing efforts to affirm
sovereignty within political
process and constitutional
reform.
• United States
– directed more intense violence
towards Natives
– treaties verify tribes’ status as
independent nations
Treatment of Indigenous peoples – both Canada and U.S.:
• Undermine and diminish tribal communities as sovereign
nations
• Seek to assimilate the indigenous populations; reservations,
residential schools

28. 5. Self-Determination:
Comprehensive Land Claims and
Self-Government Agreements

29. 5. Self-Determination: Comprehensive Land
Claims and Self-Government Agreements

30. 6. Canada & U.N. Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples

31. 6. Canada & U.N. Declaration on the
Rights of Indigenous Peoples

32. 7. Truth and Reconciliation

33. 7.

34. 8. National Inquiry into Missing and
Murdered Indigenous Women and
Girls

35. 8.

36. 9. Indigenous people’s gifts

37. 9. Indigenous people’s gifts
• WORDS Over 2000 originally aboriginal
words now in English vocabulary
• MEDICINE North American indigenous people
have medicinal uses for 2,564 plant species;
uses include contraceptives, and anesthesia
for surgeries.
• DEMOCRACY The Iroquois Six Nations
Confederacy developed federated
representative democracy. The U.S.
government is based on their system of
power distributed between a central
authority (the federal government) and
smaller political units (the states).
Obsidian knives – currently
used in surgery as they stay
sharper than steel or
aluminum
Lacrosse players

38. 10. Education

39. 10. Education
• Indians were
written out of
history
• We are all treaty
people
• Reconciliation is
for all North
Americans

40. http://kairosblanketexercise.org/

41. Trick or Treaty?
National Film Board, www.nfb.ca
filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin
(Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance)
This feature documentary by acclaimed
profiles Indigenous leaders in their quest
for justice as they seek to establish
dialogue with the Canadian government.

42. Picture book about missing
and murdered Indigenous
women from the point of
view of a Cree girl
First Nations girl’s
(author’s grandmother)
experience in 1928
residential school
First Nations boy’s toy canoe connects him with
home during time in residential school
Read aloud by author:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=9b4XkO3xTis
Curriculum: www.adl.org/assets/pdf/education-
outreach/book-of-the-month-shin-chi-s-
canoe.pdf
Kookum woman tells about
her childhood experiences at
residential school
A reconciliation reading list for young
readers
www.cbc.ca

43. Cree girl’s experience in
residential school
Two Métis girls are placed
in different foster homes,
then seek to reunite.
Nipishish boy, kicked out of
residential school, goes home
to rez, then lives with a white
family while reconciling his
roots and heritage
Graphic novel of Cross
Lake Cree girl’s experience
in residential school
Tsartlip children’s
experience in residential
school; fictional based on
author’s life
Arctic girl’s experience
in residential school
Nlakapamux girl’s
experience in 1958
residential school
Khaii Luk Tshik girl’s
experience growing up
on the Mackenzie
river, NWT

44. http://godslake.nfb.ca/
Winnipeg artist Kevin Lee Burton is repositioning the reserve narrative.
He invites us to see “reserve reality” as he knows it, by showing us his friends and
family. His images compels us to question our own assumptions about reserve life.
National Film Board
short film God’s Lake

45. Read

46. www.idlenomore.ca
"Idle No More calls on all
people to join in a
peaceful revolution, to
honour Indigenous
sovereignty, and to
protect the land and
water"
“I am no longer accepting the things I can not change.
I am changing the things I can not accept.”

47. Thank you
November 30, 2016
Betsy Arntzen, Education Outreach Coordinator
Canadian-American Center, University of Maine
arntzen@maine.edu
Amy Sotherden, Assistant Director
Center for the Study of Canada/Institute on Québec Studies
State University of New York College at Plattsburgh
sotheral@plattsburgh.edu