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.
Building the Indian Residential Schools System
One of the most important historians of the residential schools, James R. Miller, estimates that a great number of indigenous students were, in fact, educated in day schools, although the residential schools left the most painful, long-lasting marks on indigenous communities.
“Until There Is Not a Single Indian in Canada”
Over the 150-year span of the Indian Residential Schools system, Canada saw close to 150 schools and 150,000 pupils.
Words Matter (en español)
Reflect on the power of the words that we attach to people through an Anishinaabe woman’s memory of being called an “Indian” while growing up in Canada. This resource is in Spanish.
Who Are The Indigenous Peoples of Canada?
Introduce yourself to the important historical events and issues that are explored throughout the rest of the book Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools.
First Nations
The term First Nations, as of 2013, refers to some 617 different communities, traditionally composed of groups of 400 or so who lived in America long before European contact.
The Inuit
The term Inuit refers broadly to the Arctic indigenous population of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Today, the Inuit communities of Canada live in the Inuit Nunangat—loosely defined as “Inuit homeland”—which is divided into four regions.
Métis
The term Métis describes descendants of both Europeans and First Nations people (the Canadian government did not formally recognize the term until the Constitution Act of 1982).
The Invention of the “Indian”
One of the first acts of the European colonization of the Americas was an act of naming or, more accurately, misnaming.
Colonization
When the European powers set their sights on North America, some three hundred years after the so-called discovery of the continent (which for them was the “New World”), it became a location for French and British settlements.
Colonial Power Struggle
War and political changes also contributed to the destruction of indigenous ways, livelihoods, and physical existence.
Stolen Lives: The Charge of Genocide and the Residential Schools
Various scholars, indigenous and non-indigenous, discuss the charge of genocide regarding the Residential School system in Canada and its effects. This video is a part of the resource Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and The Indian Residential Schools.