by Elecia Chrunik
THE SASQUATCH
March/April 2010
(Vol II No. 2)

Sept. 15, 2008 marked the 134th anniversary of the Treaty 4 signing that saw First Nations cede most of southern Saskatchewan to British settlers. To recognize the event and mark the start of a new provincial educational initiative, all 880 schools in the province received a set of resource materials that introduce treaty education. Starting in kindergarten and continuing through to Grade 12, students now have the opportunity to understand what the treaties were meant to do and how their impacts are still felt today. A year and a half after its initiation, the program seems to have raised awareness about treaties in schools, but some say there’s room for improvement.

The program started with the acknowledgment that there was a lack of awareness about treaties and their role in the province’s history, said Brian Mckee, assistant deputy minister in the department of education. “There was recognition that in this province, we perhaps didn’t have the same opportunity to learn about [treaty signings] and their contribution to the growth and development of Saskatchewan as a province,” he said.

Treaties shaped the direction of Saskatchewan and its people, said Sue Deranger, co-author of some of the materials for older students. “It’s a binding agreement between all of us and so we are all treaty people and we need to learn what’s in those treaties so we can adhere to them.”

From a First Nations perspective, the spirit and intent of treaties was to forge relations between peoples. As Deranger explains, “our understanding as indigenous people was that this was a nation-to-nation agreement and it was for a peacekeeping in the name of brotherhood.”

Racism, especially toward aboriginal people, is prevalent in Saskatchewan. In a 2007 survey, the Saskatchewan Anti-Racism Network found that almost two out of every five aboriginal people had experienced racial discrimination – more than any other ethnic group in the province and higher than anywhere else in the country. Deranger sees the program as a step toward abolishing some of the misconceptions that cause racism.

“It’s important that people understand [treaties], especially kids,” Deranger said. “As you teach treaties, you teach about First Nations people and the awareness grows. And as people become aware, racism slips away.”

The program is the first of its kind in Canada and, according to Mckee, “there has been significant interest from other jurisdictions in the country who are wanting know how we manage this and what it looks like.”

While the program is a step towards understanding the history of Saskatchewan and overcoming conflict in the province between First Nations and non-First Nations, Deranger would like to see the program go further. “It should be obligatory, the same goes for native studies. It shouldn’t be optional,” she said. “And teachers should be told you have to teach about treaties.” Deranger would also like to see native studies be a requirement for students to graduate high school.

Currently, it is mandatory for students to have access to the program and teachers are required to teach the materials provided by the Ministry of Education. But, said T.J. Hoogsten, a teacher at La Loche Community School, “nobody tells us you have to teach it at this time or you have to teach it this much.”

The information is mostly new to him and the resources come in a form that he feels is too advanced for his Grade 2 students. “The resources aren’t level appropriate; I have to adapt them,” he said. However, when Hoogsten integrates the program into art lessons for his students, who are all First Nations, he said, “it’s probably their favorite thing to do.”

A 2008 study by the Ministry of Education showed an increased awareness among Grade 7 students of what treaties are and how they affect the province. However, there is no tracking system to ensure that the material is being taught.

The material, provided by the Office of the Treaty Commissioner, comes in two separate packages: one for kindergarten to Grade 6 called Treaty Essential Learnings: We are all Treaty People and a separate one for Grades 7 to 12 called Teaching Treaties in the Classroom, Treaty Resource Kit. The Office of the Treaty Commissioner also has an interactive website to support teachers in implementing the new curriculum. On the website, they can share lesson plans and ideas for incorporating the material into the classroom, as well as attend online forums and workshops.

“[Teachers] have such a gem on their hands,” Deranger said. “It can be integrated into social studies, health, anything – and it’s the most wonderful, user-friendly, hands-on program.”

Hoogsten also sees the value in teaching students about the history of treaties. “A lot of students don’t have an understanding or knowledge of [them] at all,” he said. And, as a northern community, “it’s very important for them to know.”

The lessons communicate the fact that there were two parties that signed the treaties in the late 1800s and so everyone who lives in the province is directly affected by the promises made. “Lots of times people say ‘abolish the treaties.’ But what they don’t understand is that if they abolish the treaties, non-Natives don’t have any rights either,” Deranger said.

Mckee said treaty education helps to ensure that steps are being made to bring aboriginal and non-aboriginal people in the province closer to understanding each other. “Our minister, in his statements to this, has really recognized the need for education about the treaties to provide a bit of a bridge and understanding of its contribution to the province,” Mckee said.

Deranger hopes that the program will have a domino effect for aboriginals in the province. “The benefit to First Nations is a better understanding towards First Nations people by the teachers, by the school system, by the students,” she said. And she is certain that “it will bring pride back to indigenous students so they can say, ‘we have something to be proud of.’”

Treaties: a brief overview

The numbered treaties in Saskatchewan were negotiated in the 1800s between representatives of the British Crown and the Assiniboine, Dene, Cree and Saulteaux First Nations: Treaties 2, 4, 5, 6, 8 and 10. The purpose of the treaties, from the Canadian government’s standpoint, was to expropriate land from the Aboriginals for European settlement and agricultural and industrial development. They dictated that the First Nations “cede, release, surrender and yield … forever, all their rights, titles and privileges whatsoever, to the lands.”

Many First Nations in Saskatchewan had come from further east where settlement was already taking place and where they saw a rapid decline in buffalo and a spike in deadly foreign illnesses. Many were skeptical of dealing with the new federal government but, with their livelihood and culture at risk, had little choice but to seek protection in treaties that would ensure they maintained a portion of land and have their basic needs met.

In exchange for the rights to the land, First Nations were given 600 square metres of land per family of five (except in those that signed Treaty 4 who were give 2.5 acres per family) – that collectively have become modern-day reserves. Other items that First Nations received were yearly cash allotments, clothing for the men, medicine chests, agricultural tools and state-run schools if First Nations requested.

Resume browsing