A grandmother teaching fishtrap building by actually building one while telling a story provides a model and criteria for success in teaching Nlakapamux children, the most important criterion being the presence of cultural experts--grandmothers. Role-modeling, storytelling, and hands-on experience combine theory and practice and provide a mnemonic…

This book provides an overview of the history of Native residential schools in Canada as one facet of the more general history of relations between that country's indigenous and immigrant peoples. It surveys the origins and evolution of residential schooling from the first forays in early 17th-century New France, through the colonial period, to…

Traditional Ojibway education is currently being delivered by eight First Nations communities on Manitoulin Island and the north shore of Lake Huron, in Ontario. Integration into the formal school system, with the exception of language programs, is not formally established. Elders and traditional teachers are only invited by individual teachers.…

Emma Minde (nee Memnook)was born in 1907 in Saddle Lake, Alberta. In 1927 she was given by her father in an arranged marriage to Joe Minde, who lived in Hobbema, Alberta. In this recorded autobiography taped in 1988 when she was 81 years old, little is said about her parents and her life as a child other than that she spent 7 years at a…

The Naskapi language is unique in northern Quebec because of the Naskapi people's late contact with Europeans, their geographic isolation, and the high proportion of Naskapi speakers in their territory. For the last two decades, a language development strategy has been emerging in the community as outside language specialists have been invited to…

The Western paradigm of education regards schools as the essential institutionalized cultural settings in which formal learning can take place and as the only socially valid settings in which learners can get a formal education. Knowledge is commodified and may be exchanged for currency in the form of jobs or licenses. Learning that occurs outside…

Euro-Western schooling imposed on Canada Natives was meant to destroy their culture and caused great alienation. This qualitative study of Onyota'a:ka (Oneida) Indians indicates that bilingual, bicultural education is needed to restore a strong Native identity. Education must validate traditional knowledge, values, and skills for Onyota'a:ka…

This paper examines communications and information technologies and the ways in which they have been used in both the formal and the nonformal education of Canada's native people (four groups: status Indians, non-status Indians, Metis, and Inuits). It is noted that generalizations about the use of technology in native schools is difficult because…

Saskatchewan's Meadow Lake Special Area is predominantly north of the Fifty-fourth parallel on the west side of northern Saskatchewan. An agreement between the Department of Regional Economic Expansion and the province provide for manpower training necessitated by industrial and economic expansion. At first a large vocational school was intended…

This book documents and comments on what is known about the Indian residential school era in Canada. The aftermath of this era has exacted a huge toll, both in the human suffering of First Nations and on Canadian society in general, but understanding the impact of residential schools can aid the healing process. Chapters are: (1) "Examining…

A qualitative field study employing participant observation revealed that the Nisga'a, a Native people of northwest British Columbia, Canada, believe that education is a total way of life, with teaching and learning being a lifelong process. Traditionally, education was conducted by one's parents; extended family, especially maternal aunts and…

A new model of learning communities based on lifelong learning is emerging. The approach integrates nonformal and formal learning so that all learning is recognized. The expertise and learning resources that exist in every community are mobilized so that community purposes are achieved. Examples are given of learning communities in rural British…

Summarizes elements of bush-oriented Algonquin technology and ideology with regard to relationships of learning to material culture, games, child rearing practices, and legends. Discusses influences of "traditional" educational methods on Native informal learning structures, using aspects of Bandura's social cognitive theory. Contains 22…

This book is an appeal to First Nations leaders in Canada to promote educational integration--a mixing of ideas in which non-Aboriginal people are taught those elements of Native culture and philosophy that support a reverence for the Earth and all living things. The benefits of such an undertaking cannot be overemphasized since the very existence…

This paper examines current usage, educational initiatives, and future prospects for survival of three Canadian Aboriginal languages--Odawa (frequently called Ojibwe), Mohawk, and Inuktitut. The presentation centers around the direct insider stories of Mohawk and Odawa coauthors, with comparative commentary by an outsider with long-term experience…