One of the interesting things in studying history, is that not everyone agrees to what exactly happened in the past.

Talk to the students about the idea that different people tell stories different ways. Relate this idea to the students and times in their life when they've recognized two people telling the same story differently.

Explain to the students that history, is a collection of stories gathered from different sources. Ask the children for ideas on where historical information is gathered from... a few possible answers include:

	oral history,
	newspaper articles,
	diaries,
	books,
	graveyards,
	treaties, government papers, etc.

Each of the sources that we gather historical information from has its own problems with it. Oral histories are good sources of information, but people might not remember everything exact, and they all have their own prejudices. Newspaper articles are written by people who have their own opinions about things. (Imagine if you were a newspaper editor and someone you hated did something good? Would it be easy to write a story about that... or perhaps would you try to make the story sound not-quite-as-important?)

Explain to the children how one of the stories about Victoria Settlement is the story of a  Cree chief. Remind the children that you're just going to tell one version of the story, and not everyone might agree that this version is true. This is just one version.

This Cree chief had two names. One of his names was James Seenum. The other name was Pakan, which means "Hard nut". Ask the kids why he might have had two names.

Pakan signed one of the Indian Treaties with the government in 1876. According to the treaty, the native people "sell" their land in exchange for small reserves of land, and for food, supplies and farm equipment. Why might the native people agreed to sign this treaty? The buffalo were getting scarce, so hunting for food was getting harder. Also, the Cree knew that the new immigrants were coming to farm the land, and they wanted to make sure that they would at least get something - not just be kicked off the land by the new immigrants.

Pakan signed the treaty and asked for an amount of land between two creeks. But he wasn't given the amount of land that he had thought they'd get, so he refused to stay on it. In the winter of 1883 - 84 his people were hungry, because they didn't get much food, and the government wouldn't give them any help because they weren't staying on the land assigned to them.

In 1885 a messenger came to Whitefish Lake, where Chief Pakan and his people were. The messenger told the people Big Bear - another chief - was part of a revolt against the government. The messenger tried to convince Pakan's people that they should join Big Bear and go to war with the government! Talk about why this might have been a temptation for Chief Pakan, and his people, but also why they might not have wanted to join the rebellion.

We have several different stories of exactly what happened at that meeting with Pakan, the people, and the messenger from Big Bear. Ask the children to guess how we might be able to get information about that meeting. (We can get it from the stories of those who were there, and from the newspaper articles!) Read or paraphrase to the students the following stories:

	Peter Erasmus' version of the story
	The Saskatchewan Herald Report
	Sam Bull's version of the story

Ask the kids why the stories might differ. Was it Peter Shirt or Chief Pakan who prevented the natives from joining the rebellion?

 

Return to the Teachers Resources Menu
or back to the Smoky Lake History Archive