Treaty material now available to schools

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Despite their historical importance in shaping our province and country, and their current significance to legal, governmental and social change, most Saskatchewan people know very little about the topic of treaties. A new initiative of the Office of the Treaty Commissioner (OTC) will seek to remedy that by providing the province's teachers with all the resources they need to teach treaty issues in the classroom.

Launched at the AWASIS education conference in April, the treaty kits will be available to all the province's secondary schools for the 2002/03 school year, and based on the response to date, the material is long overdue.

Since launching the kit, the OTC has received a number of requests for information about the teaching tool from teachers across the province, as well as from post-secondary institutions, Crown corporations, and even from provincial parks. At present, though, only Saskatchewan secondary schools will have access to the free kit.

Included in each kit are four books, three videos and a resource guide to help teachers incorporate the subject matter into the existing course material that is being taught. The kit is intended for students in grades 7 through 12. The youngest students are introduced to general treaty information and issues, with the depth of topic coverage increasing at each grade level. The overall message the material is designed to convey is that treaties have benefited all people.

The process of putting together the kits began three years ago with a request from the Elders at the treaty table. The OTC agreed that there was a need for better treaty education, and with the support and co-operation of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations (FSIN) and the provincial and federal governments, the OTC staff pulled together and sifted through piles of information to develop the finished product.

According to an Angus-Reid poll done a few years ago, about 80 per cent of those surveyed said they would have a more positive view of First Nations people if they had a greater knowledge of the treaties and the treaty process.

While up to now that type of information has been lacking in the province's schools, Saskatchewan's youth will soon be exposed to it, opening their eyes to a little known part of history that has as much relevance today as it did at the time the treaties were signed.