E1. Social, Economic, and Political Context
Specific Expectations
E1.1
analyse the impact of the Indian Act on First Nations communities and individuals during this period (e.g., with reference to the status of “Indians” as wards of the state; the role of Indian agents in regulating the lives of people on reserves; the outlawing of ceremonies, including the potlatch and powwows; the expropriation of land from reserves for public works, roads, and railways; lack of voting rights; mandatory attendance at residential schools; the requirement for government approval before land claims could be made against the federal government; provisions related to status Indian women who married men who were not status Indians)
- What attitudes towards First Nations were reflected in the original Indian Act? What are some ways in which the act attempted to restrict traditional practices of First Nations peoples? How did amendments to this act throughout this period reflect the paternalistic attitude of the federal government towards First Nations peoples?
- What was the impact on Inuit of not being entitled to register as status Indians under the Indian Act?
E1.2
describe some key economic trends and developments that affected Indigenous peoples in Canada during this period, and analyse the impact on their lives (e.g., with reference to the Industrial Revolution, the Klondike gold rush, Métis farmstead projects in Alberta, railway and road expansion in the West and Northwest, displacement of communities for resource development, the power of the Indian Act and Indian agents to regulate the economic affairs of status Indians, the fox fur trade in the Arctic, the registration of traplines in British Columbia and the Far North)
- What economic forces opened the North and the Northwest Coast for development? How did these forces affect the First Nations, Métis, and/or Inuit communities and individuals in these regions? What similarities do you see between economic development in the North and/or on the Northwest Coast during this period and earlier development in eastern and central Canada, with respect to the impact on the lives of Indigenous individuals and communities?
- How did industrialization threaten traditional Indigenous values and lifestyles?
- What examples can you find of business innovation and entrepreneurism in First Nations, Métis, and Inuit communities during this period?
E1.3
analyse some key government policies and practices affecting Indigenous peoples during this period, and explain their significance for Indigenous peoples and non-Indigenous Canadians (e.g., with reference to the Indian Act and its amendments; the establishment of a provisional government by Louis Riel in 1885; the institution of the pass system in western territories; the creation of new provinces in the West and campaigns to recruit European immigrants to settle this region; the enforcement of the Criminal Code and game laws in the North; the Métis Population Betterment Act, 1938; the Ewing Commission, 1934–36; forced relocation of Inuit to the High Arctic in the 1950s; the Hawthorn Report, 1966–67; Indian education policy; the extension of the franchise in 1960; the “Sixties Scoop”)
- What issues prompted the Alberta government to establish an inquiry into the lives of the Métis in the 1930s? Why is it significant that the report of this inquiry (the Ewing Commission) did not refer to the Métis as ‘half-breeds’? What impact did the Ewing Commission have on the perceptions of some Canadians regarding the Métis?
- How did amendments to the Indian Act regarding enfranchisement affect the treaty rights of former status Indians and their descendants? What was the purpose of the federal government’s policy regarding the enfranchisement of status Indians?
- What attitudes underpinned the federal government’s residential school policy? How did these attitudes and this policy affect the lives of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit individuals and communities during this period?
- What motivated the federal government to relocate Inuit families to the High Arctic in the 1950s? What were the consequences of relocation for Inuit communities?
E1.4
analyse how some key social, cultural, economic, and political events, issues, and developments affected Inuit communities during this period (e.g., the Klondike gold rush; expansion of northern trading posts in the early twentieth century; the expansion of Christian missions in the North; the federal policy of numbered identity discs; the movement of Inuit to permanent settlements; resource development in the Far North; new technologies such as the snowmobile; the increasing popularity of Inuit print making and sculpture; the enforcement of provincial game laws; the Cold War and the DEW [Distant Early Warning] Line; the introduction of telecommunications in communities in the Far North; the introduction of government-run hospitals and sanatoriums to treat tuberculosis and for other health interventions)
- What impact did the 1939 Supreme Court ruling that Inuit were under federal jurisdiction have on the lives of Inuit?
- Why were Inuit sled dogs slaughtered on a mass scale in the Far North during this period? What were the consequences of this development for the lives of Inuit?
- What impact did the introduction of community radio stations have on Inuit communities?
