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.
![A group of high school students sit at desks in conversation.](/sites/default/files/styles/scale_480/public/2023-10/AdobeStock_254378868.jpg?itok=f6YAphey)
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.
Prime Minister Harper's Apology
As part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission was established. Before its work got under way, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a public apology on June 11, 2008, on behalf of the Canadian government. The apology is part of the process arranged by the government and the First Nations as parties to the agreement, part of an overall attempt to address the government’s role in the history of the Indian Residential Schools.
![Graphic from cover of "Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools."](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/SL_graphic5.png?h=bc3345c8&itok=_uc8CaVR)
Truth and Reconciliation
Since the beginning of its work in 2010, the commission has been collecting information about what was done to survivors in the residential schools and has worked to make this information public. From this process, the survivors receive public, communal acknowledgement and support for years of injustice and suffering.
![Graphic from cover of "Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools."](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/SL_graphic5.png?h=bc3345c8&itok=_uc8CaVR)
The Charge of Genocide
In the 1990s, residential schools scholars and many indigenous leaders began to argue that the efforts of the Canadian government to assimilate the Indigenous Peoples in the residential schools embodied the principle of cultural genocide: assimilation was intended to destroy the Indigenous Peoples as culturally distinct group.
![Graphic from cover of "Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools."](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/SL_graphic5.png?h=bc3345c8&itok=_uc8CaVR)
Prime Minister Harper’s Apology
The apology is part of the process arranged by the government and the First Nations as parties to the agreement, part of an overall attempt to address the government’s role in the history of the Indian Residential Schools.
![Graphic from cover of "Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools."](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/SL_graphic5.png?h=bc3345c8&itok=_uc8CaVR)
Indigenous Canadian Woman on a Reserve
A portrait of an indigenous Canadian woman on a reserve, 1930.
![A woman stands in front of a small, run down wooden house.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-06/Culture%26Identity_2015_Canadianwomanonreserve_FH24273.jpg?h=31c0c765&itok=QKtuMsIw)
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.
![Children in a classroom with a sewing machine on a table. A nun stands in the back of the classroom. Taken circa 1929.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Culture%26HumanRights_1929_Mi%27kmaqGirls_FH24277.png?h=844b9453&itok=krOusKdJ)
Students at Fort Simpson Residential School
Students at the Fort Simpson School in the Northwest Territories in 1922 hold up letters that spell “Goodbye.”
![Young boys in top hats and girls in dresses are standing in a line, each holding up a letter.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/Culture_2022_FortSimpsonResidentialSchool_FH24276.png?h=89357a44&itok=wOAtV0Wg)
Sun Dance Ceremony
The annual Sun Dance ceremony at the Blood Indian Reserve, near Cardston, Alberta.
![Two men wearing feathered and beaded headwear and clothing celebrate the sundance.](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-07/1953_SunDanceCeremony_FH24267.png?h=1efa62dd&itok=EEYQ5zCt)
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.
![Graphic from cover of "Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools."](/sites/default/files/styles/dynamic_stack_296_1x/public/2022-05/SL_graphic5.png?h=bc3345c8&itok=_uc8CaVR)