The Assignment
Write it as an essay.
Have an opening paragraph.
Do each “question” as a
separate section with evidence and conclusions.
The word “think” is in there
for a reason.
If you “think” and you
decide on something (i.e. you come to a conclusion), explain the logic behind
that.
If you come to a conclusion
because of something you read, give the author credit.
If you’ve got facts from
another person – a book or article – give that author credit.
If you read a book or
article and you agree or disagree with its conclusions, say why, using a
logical argument. This is A-level academia.
But this is a very short assignment.
You are asked to read something over and out some thought into various aspects
of the work.
This is far different than just going through
an article and looking for facts.
The exercise will serve you
well, not only in university but also in life, especially as “consumers” of
media and political spin.
You might want to answer the
questions first – hopefully you have by now – then craft an opening paragraph
that sums up a lot of what you’ve had to say.
Your
concluding paragraph will likely be somewhat similar to your opening paragraph
The story so far:
Canada is a big place, and
there are many “Canadas” to the diverse group of people we call Canadians.
The populated regions of
Canada are separated from each other by geographic barriers.
Atlantic Canada is separated
from the rest of the country (and the provinces are separated from each other)
by water and the Appalacian Mountains.
The populated areas along
the St. Lawrence River and the Great Lakes are separated by 200 kilometres of
Canadian Shied and near-empty farmland.
They’re also separated by
language and culture.
The Prairies – Manitoba,
Saskatchewan and Alberta – are separated from the populated area of southern
Ontario by the nearly-empty Canadian Shield
The Shield was extremely
important to the First Nations for meat and furs. It is now the country’s main
source of minerals and diamonds.
It takes at least 24 hours
to drive from the Toronto area to the closest part of the Prairies.
The Shield was extremely
important to the First Nations for meat and furs. It is now the country’s main
source of minerals and diamonds.
It takes at least 24 hours
to drive from the Toronto area to the closest part of the Prairies.
This was the same before
European settlement as it is now.
People adapted to the
landscape around them, harvesting whatever food
was available, developing farms and towns in areas that could support
them, and trading for what they didn’t have.
All of this was disrupted by
the arrival of European traders.
Technologically, much of the
Native tool kit and crafts were replaced by pre-made European goods of metal
and sometimes glass.
Europeans, caught up in
their own religious wars, brought missionaries.
This was especially true of
the French.
The missionaries undermined
Native medicine and religion.
They also sought political
control over entire First Nations, hoping that this would make it easier to
convert many more people.
This caused massive social
and political upheaval. Some people were eager converts, others liked things
the way they had been and did not want to change.
This split was particularly
disastrous for the Hurons.
The Europeans also
inadvertently brought diseases to killed very large numbers of the very young
and the very old.
The diseases came from
humans and from livestock.
Wherever the Europeans went,
social disruption and disease followed.
As well, the shattered First
Nations reacted by war, not against the Europeans but against each other.
In the East, the Iroquois
Confederacy became dominant as the survivors of the epidemics in Huronia split
apart over religion.
The Huron simply could not
defend themselves. Many became completely dependent on the French and settled
near Quebec City.
The more traditional Huron
voluntarily joined the Iroquois or fled to the far end of the Great Lakes.
In the next few years, the
Iroquois destroyed all the farming peoples around the Great Lakes. They even
attacked the Pawnee and the Sioux on the prairies.
The strength of the Iroquois
bought the Five (later Six) Nations time. The Confederacy was effectively
shattered as a self-governing entity in the American Revolution, when the
Iroquois nations split over whether to support Independence or the British.
The lesson here is that:
Contact bred massive change,
much of it for the worst.
Invariably, the stories of
the First Nations end with submission and dependency, a trend that has only
begin to reverse in the past 50 years.
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