TheаâFur Trade Challenge âis a twohour program which guides students through the reconstructed Fort Edmonton of 1846.ааThis program includes a one ...
Fur Trade Challenge Program Information The Fur Trade Challenge is a twohour program which guides students through the reconstructed Fort Edmonton of 1846. This program includes a one hour tour and an hour of two hands on activities. You may chose two activities out of the following choices: bannock making, beading, fur press demonstration, tipi or travois building, pen and ink writing, First Nations games and a scavenger hunt. Please let your interpreter know which activities you have chosen. The tour may include a visit to the Trade Store, Rowand House, Married Men’s Quarters, and the Cree Encampment. The tour can also include one or more of the following: fur press, meat house, chapel, bake oven, clerk’s kitchen, ice house, boatbuilding area, carpenter’s quarters, blacksmith shop, York Boat.
Program Objectives Students will learn about Fur Trade Society in Edmonton with emphasis on the following concepts: ● First Nations people lived here centuries before the arrival of the Fur Trade in Western Canada. These First Peoples brought skills, knowledge, furs, and food to the Hudson’s Bay Company and contributed to the survival of both the Company and the Fur Trade. ● The Fur Trade was the reason for European presence and establishment of Forts in Western Canada. Native tribes traded furs for luxury and utilitarian European goods such as beads or metal goods. Trade meant exchange, not for money, but for Made Beaver or European goods. While prices were standardized, prices on furs and goods could be negotiated within reason. ● In 1846 the Hudson’s Bay Company controlled the area we now call Western Canada. ● Fur Trade society was highly stratified and divided people into classes based on skills and literacy. For example, the hierarchy was from Chief Factor through clerks, tradesmen, married men, laborers and trip men, down to women and children. ● The participation of these people in Fur Trade Society and their role in its success.
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Program Activities You may chose two activities out of the following choices: ● bannock making, ● beading, ● tipi/travois building, ● pen and ink writing, ● snowshoeing (dependent on season), ● First Nations games and scavenger hunt. Depending on the size of your group and the time of year some activities may be more successful than others. Please discuss the activities you would like to choose with your interpreter when they call you a few days before your visit.
Curriculum Links The Fur Trade Challenge supplements the following topics in the Social Studies Curriculum: Grade 2 2.2: A Community in the Past Grade 4 4.2: The Stories, Histories and People of Alberta Grade 5 5.2: Histories and Stories of ways of life in Canada
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