Aboriginal Societies

What will you learn by completing this project?

General Outcome

Students will demonstrate an understanding and appreciation of the distinct roles of, and the relationships among, the Aboriginal, French and British peoples in forging the foundations of Canadian Confederation.

Specific Outcomes:

Students will:

Compare and contrast diverse social and economic structures within the societies of Aboriginal, French and British peoples in pre-Confederation Canada:

	What were the different ways in which Aboriginal societies were structured?
	How did the structures of Aboriginal societies affect decision making in each society?

Task:

Curators from the Glenbow Museum in Calgary have approached your historical research-consulting group (group of three) to design an exhibit for their museum. They are looking for a display that will teach visitors about one of Canada’s Aboriginal villages, as it would have been at a time before Confederation and the introduction of Europeans to North America.

Choose one of the following Aboriginal societies:

	Iroquois Confederacy (Haudenosaunee)
	Ojibwa (Anishinabe)
	Mi’kmaq

After completing a diagram/map of the proposed display, you will present your plan to the Museum Curator, explaining each of the following aspects of daily life for the Aboriginal people in the village you have chosen to portray:

	Way of Life – Method(s) of obtaining food and supplies, shelter, clothing (nomadic, hunter – gatherers, farmers, etc)
	World view/Values
	Unique customs and traditions
	System of Government
	Method of solving problems and decision making
	Role of men
	Role of women

Resources:

· TIPIS: North American Pre-contact housing http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/houses/tipi.html

· Native Pre-Contact Housing http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/houses/housingmap.html#top

· North American Pre-contact Native Culture Areas http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/cultmap.html

· Native Religions in Newfoundland and Labrador http://www.mun.ca/rels/native/

· The Virtual Keeping House – First Nations Gallery http://www.sicc.sk.ca/keepinghouse/tofc.html

Evaluation:

Your display diagram will be evaluated using this rubric.

Follow-up:

When all diagrams are completed, students are asked to complete the retrieval chart in order to record key information for each aboriginal society.

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©Prairie Land Regional Division #25. Permission granted to duplicate information found on this website for educational purposes only. This site updated March 2006.