Primary Source EvidenceExamining the Oka Crisis, 1990

Primary Source Evidence• Record everything you did in the last 24

hours• Put a checkmark beside any item for which

there will be a trace.• How many of the traces were accidental? (A)

How many were purposeful? (P)• How many of these traces will likely be

preserved? Circle those.

Primary Source Evidence

DISCUSS:• How well do those final

traces represent your life?

• What do they say about you?

• What might be some of the challenges historians face?

TASK:

• As a group, generate a series of questions to ask as you read primary sources

"I left a trace" activity from The Big Six

Minds On: The Oka Crisis

What questions do you have about this picture?

What is going on in this picture?

Use your primary source questions.

Photo: Canadian Press, 1990, accessed at CBC Archives

Document 10 Stand-off Photo Sept. 1, 1990

Oka Crisis: BackgroundBackground InformationWikipedia contributors. "Oka Crisis." Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia.

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, 26 Feb. 2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2013.

The Oka Crisis was a land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec, Canada which began on July 11, 1990 and lasted until September 26, 1990. One person died as a result. The dispute was the first well-publicized violent conflict between First Nations and the Canadian government in the late 20th century.

The crisis developed from a local dispute between the town of Oka and the Mohawk community of Kanesatake. The town of Oka was developing plans to expand a golf course and residential development onto land which had traditionally been used by the Mohawk. It included pineland and a burial ground, marked by standing tombstones of their ancestors. The Mohawks had filed a land claim for the sacred grove and burial ground near Kanesatake, but their claim had been rejected in 1986.

Still from:Obomsawain, A. Khanesetake: 270 years of resistance, National Film Board, 1993.

Action: Examine the Evidence

Watch the videosDocument 1 - Mohawks Protest Golf Course Plans at Oka, CBC News Clip April 1, 1989

http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/politics/civil-unrest/the-oka-crisis-1/not-on-our-land.html

Document 3 - Tension Mounts at Oka roadblock - CBC News Clip July 11, 1990http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/politics/civil-unrest/the-oka-crisis-1/tempers-flare.html

Document 11 - Canadian Army Intervenes at Oka, CBC news clip September 1, 1990http://www.cbc.ca/archives/categories/politics/civil-unrest/the-oka-crisis-1/dramatic-showdown.html

Use the questions you just developed for examining primary sources to examine your assigned source

Consolidation: Share

Share your results with the class

Journal ReflectionWhich are the 2 most important questions to

ask? Why

Minds On:Ethical Dimensions

What do we owe the people of the past?

Ethical DimensionsAre we obligated to right injustices of the past?

Students in a classroom in Resolution NWT (Nathional Archives)

Ethical DimensionsAre we obligated to memorialize soldiers? Does this glorify war?

Ethical DimensionsWhat does it mean if we say yes, we are

obligated?

What does it mean if we say no, we are not obligated?

Who decides what history is considered important?

Action: 4 CornersWhat should we do today about the Oka crisis? Be prepared to explain why you chose that corner using

EVIDENCE

Offer them the land they are claiming or equivalent financial compensation.

Provide education programs on the issues of land rights and to counter stereotypes of aboriginal people.

Establish a memorial or a memorial day

Recognize the conflict but offer no concrete response.