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.
Sewing Class at Shubenacadie Indian Residential School
Mi’kmaq girls are in a sewing class at Shubenacadie Indian Residential School in Nova Scotia in 1929.
Students at Fort Simpson Residential School
Students at the Fort Simpson School in the Northwest Territories in 1922 hold up letters that spell “Goodbye.”
Sun Dance Ceremony
The annual Sun Dance ceremony at the Blood Indian Reserve, near Cardston, Alberta.
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Residential school survivor Joe George of the Tselei-Waututh First Nation (right) and elder Marie George embrace at a proceeding of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada in 2013.
KahnawĂ :ke Pow Wow
The Mohawk nation of KahnawĂ :ke holds an annual pow wow on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec each July. Pow wows are open to all and celebrate the traditional dances, songs, and crafts of Indigenous cultures.
MĂ©tis Dancer
MĂ©tis dancer Jeanette Kotowich from the Cree Metis nation during a performance from the Coastal First Nations Dance Festival at the Museum of Anthropology in Vancouver.
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.
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.