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Get Outside!

Voyageur Life

Class Description:

In this human culture and history class, students will be assigned roles and become characters in an imaginary North West Company brigade in the year 1793. They will portage and paddle along Wolf Lake and set up an encampment. There they will learn some of the skills of the colorful voyageur, such as making gallette (fry bread) and tea, flint and steel fires, shaving a paddle and practicing voyageur games. Upon returning, they will learn their own futures, along with the role of the fur trade in the exploration and settlement of Minnesota.

The Voyageur canoe can be paddled by groups as an evening activity.

Outcomes

Upon completion of the Voyageur Life class, students will be able to:

Describe the role of voyageurs, gentlemen, and Native Americans during the fur trade era.
Demonstrate paddling and portaging, singing and joking, feasting and fighting.
Demonstrate fire starting technique using flint and steel.
Use a drawknife to fashion wood into a tent stake.
Evaluate and choose aspects of a voyageur’s life to incorporate into their own lives.

Minnesota Graduation Standards

Wolf Ridge has aligned the Center's entire curriculum to Minnesota Department of Education Academic Standards. As the primary student audience at Wolf Ridge is from 4th-12th grade, the matrices address these grade levels. Teachers may request that their students focus upon a specific benchmark while attending Wolf Ridge. The Wolf Ridge Curriculum Standards Matrix addresses benchmarks in