(1869 – 1870) Teacher’s Guide 2015 Copyright © 2015 by Louis Riel Institute 103-150 Henry Ave Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 0J7 All Rights Reserved ISBN 978-1-927531-09-9 Every effort has been made to acknowledge original sources and to comply with copyright law. If cases are identified where this has not been done, please notify Louis Riel Institute. Errors or omissions will be corrected in a future edition. Acknowledgements Advisory Committee Members • Grant Anderson, Policy Analyst, Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern Affairs • Lawrie Barkwell, Coordinator of Metis Heritage and History Research, Louis Riel Institute • Linda Connor, Consultant, Manitoba Education and Advanced Learning • Shirley Delorme Russell, Curriculum Development Specialist, Louis Riel Institute • Renée Gillis, Conseillère pédagogique en sciences humaines, Bureau de l’éducation française • Jeff Legault, Policy Analyst, Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern Affairs • Georgina Liberty, Director, Manitoba Metis Federation Tripartite Self Government Negotiations • Sharon Parenteau, General Manager of the Louis Riel Institute • Greg Pruden, Consultant, Aboriginal Perspectives, Manitoba Education and Advanced Learning • Alison Rogan, Manager, Policy and and Strategic Initiatives, Manitoba Aboriginal and Northern Affairs Table of Contents About This Teacher’s Guide . 1 What is the Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia (LAA)?. 3 History of Red River & Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia. 6 Manitoba Curriculum Links ........................................ 10 Other Curriculum Links ............................................11 Suggested Questions for Class Discussion . 12 Part 1: Introduction ............................................... 13 1.1: Backpack / St. Boniface Museum / Hudson Bay Company Archives ......13 1.2: The Métis (Yesterday & Today). 14 1.3: Placemats Jigsaw. 17 1.4: Google Earth and the History of Red River by Streets .................19 Part 2: Welcome McDougall or Stop Him? ............................. 21 2.1: Dilemmas ....................................................21 2.2: Oral Histories .................................................22 2.3: Thomas Scott — WikiLeaks in 1870? ..............................23 Part 3: Restore Order, or Anarchy? Governance Choices. 25 3.1: Forms of Government . 25 3.2: Sessional Journal of the LAA .....................................26 3.3: Who Are the People in Your Neighbourhood? ......................27 Part 4: Establish a Representative Government? . 29 4.1: Contemporary Rights Issues .....................................29 4.2: Organizing Madness ............................................31 Part 5: Join Confederation? . 33 5.1: Rebellion, Revolution, or Resistance — Stereotypes about Canadians . 33 Resources ....................................................... 35 Library and Archives Canada - Corner of Portage Ave. and Main St. PA-051938 Library and Archives Canada - HBC, Fort Garry, Red River Settlement - C-105625 About This Teacher’s Guide The Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia (LAA) interactive teaching and learning project harnesses information and communications technologies to transform our collective understanding of both the pivotal role Métis people played in Manitoba’s history and of Canada’s political development. The graphic, bilingual, web-based resource, also usable on data storage devices, features a historical simulation activity and thematic modules to engage secondary school students on the accomplishments and significance of the Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia (1869–1870) in the context of Grade 11 History of Canada – A Foundation for Implementation. This resource also provides opportunities for students to put Historical Thinking Concepts into practice. Four-Phase Learning Process: The learning experiences offered in this guide follow a simple and trusted framework: The Four A’s. Each experience has an activating strategy to foster curiosity, an acquiring strategy to acquire content knowledge, and an applying strategy for the creation of new knowledge. An assessment determines whether or not the intended outcomes were achieved. Given this structure, educators may adapt and modify these experiences to suit their specific learners and learning communities. The simulation can be used as an activating, acquiring, applying, and/or assessment strategy in the context of a learning experience. The strategies and experiences rely on strategic points of the simulation. The jumping-off points are purposefully planned areas where learners are forced to make a decision based on a particular dilemma. They will use primary sources in an attempt to navigate their way carefully through contentious situations in the history of the Red River Settlement during 1869 to 1870. Educators can use the strategies provided and also have students respond to the historical dilemmas via the simulation. Activating: Activating strategies are generally designed to foster the curiosity of the learners by exciting them, identifying with their experience, or affecting them emotionally. Activation motivates and stimulates learners to ask “why?” by altering their understanding of the world. The role of the activating strategy is also to make learning purposeful and about the real world. Learners are motivated when their thinking and their work has an impact on the outside world. Your role as an educator is to make that connection between the learning community and the real world. Acquiring: The acquiring stage is more than the teacher simply presenting information to the learners. At this stage, we ask students to remember and understand knowledge. These strategies may include asking experts, doing research, going to archives, by holding group discussions, reading a variety of texts, attending lectures, and so on. Processing and analyzing knowledge is just as important as collecting information. Learning experiences are constructed to assess the validity of sources and to understand their significance. Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia Teacher’s Guide - 1 Applying: Applying is essentially the experimentation and playing that occurs once students have amassed a certain foundation of knowledge. Learners are asked to analyze, to synthesize, to evaluate, to apply critical thinking, and finally, to create. This is where learners can ask significant questions concerning the world and their role in it and think about choices available to them. Assessment: Assessment strategies allow educators to determine if the student has achieved the desired learning experiences in Grade 9 Social Studies learning outcomes and Grade 11 Enduring Understandings. It is critical that we set clear objectives during the planning process and that we continually return to those objectives throughout the lessons. Assessment strategies should include assessment as learning, assessment for learning, and assessment of learning. Assessment Links Manitoba Education and Advanced Learning, Grade 11 History of Canada: Foundation for Implementation document: “Assessment and the Stages of Learning” http://www.edu.gov.mb.ca/k12/cur/socstud/history_ gr11/section2.pdf Dylan Wiliams on Assessment (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3HRvFsZHoo) (video) 2 What is the Legislative Assembly of Assiniboia (LAA) Over the summer, autumn and winter of 1869, fears grew within Red River Settlement that lives might be disrupted by self-styled “friends of Canada” — a.k.a. the “Canadian Party” — who were willing to install a “new order” by force. People feared that a foreign administration might not give the original settlers a say in how their settlement would be run, or a place in their region’s future. In the autumn of 1869, a governance vacuum had threatened the settlement. The land transfer deal — from the Hudson’s Bay Company [HBC], to the Crown of England, and then to Canada — was in a state of suspension. The Lieutenant Governor designated by Canada, William McDougall, had been blocked from entering Assiniboia by one group of Red River settlers on the grounds that as a foreign country that had taken no steps to inform inhabitants of Rupert’s Land of its intentions, Canada ought to declare those intentions and consult with people of the settlement before presuming the right to rule. This was a critical issue for some settlers because from what they had heard from the Canadian Party and had gleaned from Canadian newspapers, it was possible that Canada’s intentions were hostile when it came to ‘Halfbreeds’ — particularly those who might be classified as having French and Catholic leanings or allegiances. These settlers were particularly alarmed by reports that Governor McDougall was transporting 350 rifles, with ammunition in his baggage with which he intended to arm a Canadian Party Volunteer Militia. The Volunteers were suspected of having been brought into the country under the guise of road building and survey crews when in reality they were meant to serve as an occupying force. Canada had declined to forward the £300,000 purchase price owed to the HBC until a guarantee of peaceful possession could be guaranteed. During this time, HBC Governor William Mactavish was seriously ill. Although his appointed Council of Assiniboia was competent to carry on normal duties, it was not capable of dealing with extraordinary circumstances — the Company having no force, other than settlers, on which it could rely to keep the peace in the settlement and ensure that the decrees of the Council and courts of law, and the actions of their constables, would be respected. By December 1869,