Essay assignment

All the material is in the textbook choose the topic you want
1. Select one of the topics listed below (only one topic per student) and tell your professor what your topic is and sign beside it on the class topic list. If you wish to change your topic notify your professor in case someone else wants it.
2. Find at least six books or scholarly articles on the topic. Try to use at least three actual books. It is a good idea to read an encyclopaedia article first to get a general idea of it and to find books listed after the article. It is also a very good idea to read your textbook on the topic. Use the data bases on the Okanagan College library site to find scholarly articles. Do not use Wikipedia as a scholarly source. Do not use your lecture notes as a source. Three actual books are needed.
3. Write an outline for your essay. Do not restrict yourself the classic five-paragraph format taught in English 12. Your essay is to be 1500 to 2000 words in length (6-8 pages) and will need more than five paragraphs. Make sure that you have a thesis statement!
4. Read the books or at least those parts relevant to your essay topic and outline.
5. Make notes as you read! You may make the notes on a computer, on note cards, or in a notebook. Put quotation marks around exact quotes. Record the book and the page numbers. This will make it easy to do your footnotes. Use your history textbook as an example of how to do footnotes.
6. Sort out or highlight your notes and write your rough copy. Do this a week before the essay is due! Double space your rough draft. Have someone else (not your professor) read your draft to find errors and to ask questions about things that are not clear. The Learning Centre can give you some help here.
7. Print out your revised copy double spaced with page numbers, footnotes or endnotes, and a bibliography. Hand this in to TURNITIN on the course Moodle page. Have a cover page with the title of your essay, your name and student number, your course code, your professor’s name, and the date you handed in your essay. Put the footnote numbers after your periods at the ends of your sentences.
Suggested Essay Topics:
2. If you have Native or Métis heritage you may wish to explore this in an essay.
3. The experience of the Beothuk with first contact and their extinction.
4. The experience of the Innu (Montagnais) with first contact and where they are today.
5. The experience of the Mi’kmaq with first contact and where they are today.
6. The experience of the Huron with first contact and where they are today.
7. The experience of the Mohawk with first contact and where they are today.
8. The Iroquois experience with first contact and where they are today.
9. As above for one of the following tribes: Odawa, Ojibwa, Algonquin, James Bay Cree, Plains Cree, Blackfoot, Blood, Peigan, Kutenai (Kootenay), Okanagan (Osoyoos Band), (Penticton Band), (West Bank Band), (Lake Country Band), (Vernon or Head of the Lake Band), The Okanagan First Nation as a whole, Shuswap (Salmon Arm Band) or the Shuswap First Nation as a whole, Thompson, Lillooet, Coastal Salish (as a group or choose a band), Nuu’chah’nuth, Bella Coola, Haida, Chilcotin, Nisga’a, or Dene.
10. Inuit, as a whole or in separate groups.
11. Choose a First Nation not on this list and write an essay on it.
12. Métis in Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
13. The history of the creation of the Nunavut Territory in 1999.
14. The rise of the Assembly of First Nations.
15. Look at the life of an Aboriginal leader in this time and analyze what they achieved.
16. Examine the First Nations warrior tradition and participation in both world wars.
17. Examine First Nations NWMP/RCMP relations.
18. Examine the First Nations experience with the prison system.
19. Examine the revival and spread of the Powwow.
20. Examine the Sun Dance, past and present.
21. Examine the Potlatch, past and present.
22. Examine an entrepreneurial First Nations Band or individual.
23. Examine the Residential Schools and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
24. Using evidence and examples, discuss the importance of epidemic diseases in understanding early relationships between the First Nations and Europeans.
25. Discuss the significance of trade among the First Nations.
26. How did contact with Europeans affect the native peoples of Eastern North America in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries? Did contact produce cultural conflict or attempts to achieve mutual co-existence?
27. Did the arrival of the French trigger warfare among First Nations in the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence region?
28. Why did the Huron Confederacy collapse?
29. Were Iroquois captives adoptees or slaves?
30. How powerful were Clan Mothers within the Five Nations?
31. Was early New France dependent on the First Nations?
32. What was the impact of the missionary presence among Native people in the Northeast?
33. To what extent did the First Nations control their interaction with missionaries?
34. What factors contributed to the conversion of Aboriginal people to Christianity? To what extent was conversion voluntary, coerced, or a ‘dialogue’?
35. What was the effect of the fur trade on the First Nations? Choose a specific first nation or geographic area (Northeastern Woodlands, Subarctic, Plains, West Coast) as your focus.
36. Were the First Nations victims or partners in the fur trade prior to 1700? Did the French or English fur trades result in the exploitation of Native people?
37. Why did the Five Nations negotiate the Grand Settlement of 1701?
38. What was the role of women in native society during the fur trade era? Did the status of First Nations and / or Metis women increase or decline as a result of fur trade relationships?
39. What was the nature of the peace and friendship treaties signed by the Mi’kmaq?
40. Why did the Mi’kmaq convert to Catholicism? How did their conversion affect international relations in the Maritime region?
41. How did the Royal Proclamation of 1763 change the lives of Natives in the eighteenth century? What is its continuing influence today?
42. Discuss the significance of the Royal Proclamation of 1763 in modern land claims cases.
43. Was Molly Brant Great Britain’s most important ‘Indian Agent’ during the American Revolution?
44. Was Joseph Brant a British collaborator who betrayed Mohawk interests?
45. Describe the changes in Canadian Indian Policy after the War of 1812. Why did these changes occur?
46. Was the Reverend Peter Jones an agent of resistance or assimilation at Credit River?
47. Can the term ‘nation’ be used to describe the Metis? If so, at what point?
48. Was Metis rebellion justified in either 1869 or 1885?
49. Was Louis Riel one of the Fathers of Confederation?
50. Should Louis Riel have been executed for treason?
51. Why were the Robinson treaties negotiated? How did they affect subsequent treaty negotiations?
52. Was the Canadian government’s treatment of the Plains First Nations just, honorable, and forward-looking?
53. Was Governor James Douglas of British Columbia far-sighted and fair-minded in his treaty and reserve policies?
54. Why did the federal government implement the Indian Act? Did it achieve its purposes?
55. Were the numbered treaties of the 1870s just and fair?
56. How did the near annihilation of the prairie buffalo herds affect native lives and actions in the late nineteenth century?
57. What were the roles of the NWMP with respect to native peoples? Were they agents of repression and assimilation or keepers of the peace?
58. How successful were federal policies to train First Nations Farmers? Why?
59. What was the impact of residential schooling? Discuss the federal government’s aims, the response of First Nations people, and assess the results.
60. Why did First Nations men choose to become soldiers during World War I? Discuss their treatment as soldiers and veterans.
61. How did Corporal Pegahmagabow’s First World War experience contribute to his work as a First Nations activist and organizer?
62. Superintendent of Indian Affairs Duncan Campbell Scott has been described as possessing a ‘narrow vision.’ Is this an accurate portrayal of Scott?
63. In what way was Lt. Fred Loft’s meeting with King George V on 29 February 1918 in London a turning point in First Nations history?
64. Explain the emergence of native political protest in British Columbia in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Account for the successes and failures of political action.
65. Why were the Metis in Alberta granted reserves?
66. Why were First Nations protest organizations ineffective prior to World War II?
67. Discuss the high arctic relocation of the Inuit in the 1950s. Why were the Inuit relocated?
68. Examine the origins and significance of the Hawthorn Report (1966).
69. How did Expo 67 affect native political consciousness?
70. Discuss the cultural and political significance of the federal ‘White Paper’ (1969) for Canadian First Nations.
71. How has resource development (mining, pipelines, etc.) affected native lives and living standards in the post-World War II era? Or discuss the impact of northern resource development on native land claims in the post-WWII era.
72. Choose a land claim area (Lubicon Cree, Sahtu Dene, Nisga’a, or Gitxsan). How has the First Nation in question pursued their claim? Has their strategy been successful?
73. What are the purposes of Tribal Councils? Where have they emerged and what have they accomplished?
74. Why did the 1990 Oka blockade occur and how was it handled by the provincial and federal governments?
75. What led to the shooting of Dudley George at Ipperwash, Ontario? Why has George’s death remained an important political issue?
76. Was the Gustafsen Lake standoff a legitimate stand on behalf of native rights? How might we ascertain legitimacy?
77. Was the Sechelt agreement a necessary partial step toward full self-government or an irreversible compromise?
78. Choose a landmark legal decision (Delgamuukw, Marshall, Sparrow, Lavell/Lovelace are possibilities) and analyze its importance.
79. How has the criminal law historically impinged on the lives of First Nations people?
80. Discuss the long-term implications of the Penner and Nielson Reports.
81. Does the Nisga’a Final Agreement represent a satisfactory resolution of historic Nisga’a grievances?
82. Discuss a self-government agreement which has been in operation for a few years (Sechelt, James Bay, Nisga’a, etc.). How successful has the agreement been? How might success be evaluated?
83. Write a biography of a First Nations or Metis leader (Crowfoot, Big Bear, Gabriel Dumont, Lt. Fred Loft, George Manuel and Harold Cardinal are among the possibilities). If you choose to do a biography, remember that your paper must still make an argument.
84. A topic of your own choosing, with the consent of the professor. My primary concern is that there is sufficient source material, so bring along a bibliography to convince me that there is enough literature.