Resource Library
Find compelling classroom resources, learn new teaching methods, meet standards, and make a difference in the lives of your students.
We are grateful to The Hammer Family Foundation for supporting the development of our on-demand learning and teaching resources.
Introducing Our US History Curriculum Collection
Draw from this flexible curriculum collection as you plan any middle or high school US history course. Featuring units, C3-style inquiries, and case studies, the collection will help you explore themes of democracy and freedom with your students throughout the year.
Using Facing History's "Stolen Lives" in the Classroom
Hear from a former teacher and a residential school survivor on how our "Stolen Lives" book and professional development workshops equip educators to teach and contextualize the topic of Indian Residential Schools in Canada.
What Is Reconciliation?
Senator Murray Sinclair, chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, discusses what it means to work toward reconciliation in Canada. This video is a part of the resource Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and The Indian Residential Schools.
Feathers of Hope
Read excerpts from a plan created by Indigenous youth activists to address the legacy of colonialism and residential schools in their communities.
The Indian Act
Historian, and researcher-curator at the Canadian Museum for Human Rights in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Dr. Karine Duhamel, details the Indian Act of Canada. This video is a part of the resource Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and The Indian Residential Schools.
White Paper, Red Paper
Learn how activists rejected the White Paper policy and led a campaign to get the Canadian government to honour its past agreements with the Indigenous nations.
Aggressive Assimilation
Facing the resilience of indigenous traditional education in Canada, Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, who was also Minister of Indian Affairs, commissioned Nicholas Flood Davin, a journalist, lawyer, and politician, to go to Washington, DC, in 1879 to study how the United States tackled the same issue.
Historical Background: The Indian Act and the Indian Residential Schools
Go deeper into the history of the Indian Act and the founding of the Residential Schools system.
Introduction: Stolen Lives
Read a foreword by Theodore Fontaine and other introductory material that will help you begin exploring this book.
Dispossession, Destruction, and the Reserves
Reserves existed in Africa, in the British American colonies, and in Canada, where the colonizers had to address the people they dispossessed— people who seemingly stood in the way of the political and economic plans of European settlers.
Defining the Indian
Two main pieces of legislation laid the foundation for what was to be the new Dominion’s policy regarding relations with First Nations: the Gradual Civilization Act of 1857 and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869.
Banning Indigenous Culture
The ultimate goal of the Indian Act has always been the assimilation of the Indigenous Peoples as separate nations into mainstream Canada.