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Voyageur |  |
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Voyageur | |
The Wolf Ridge Voyageur Life class provides many extension possiblilites for the classroom. Tie-ins can be made to a variety of topics including human cultures and history, the interactions between people and their environment, traditional skills, teamwork, and more. Visit this page periodically as we will add new activities and links suggested by Wolf Ridge visiting school teachers, and eventually our own interactive on-line activities.
1. "The Youngest Voyageur"
Read and discuss, The Youngest Voyageur by Duane Lund (ISBN 0-934860-41-6). This 93 page book is a fictional account of Pierre, a 15 year old boy who tells the story of voyage and adventure.
Graduation Standards:
4-5th People and Cultures: Historical Events (2)
4-5th Read, Listen, View: Literal Comprehension (1)
2. "The Voyageur" Video
View the video "The Voyageur," produced by the National Film Board of Canada.
Graduation Standards:
4-5th People and Cultures: Historical Events (2)
4-5th Read, Listen, View: Literal Comprehension (1)
3. Voyageur Songs
Teach your students traditional canoeing songs they can sing while paddling the voyageur canoe across Wolf Lake. Two familiar songs are given in the Voyageur Life lesson plan, “Alouette” and “Vive la Compagnie." The Minnesota Historical Society offers tapes and CD’s of voyageur songs.
Graduation Standards:
4-5th The Arts: Artistic creativity, performance, and expression (C)
1. Portage Anyone?
This lesson is based on the North Canoe which is 25 feet long and holds 3780 pounds of trade goods plus 8 voyageurs. The canoe itself weighs 300 pounds and requires 3 people to portage it. The portage is the nine mile Grand Portage on Lake Superior to the chain of lakes along Minnesota’s northern border. The voyageurs would carry two 90 pound packs. Every third of a mile the canoe and goods would be set down for a rest. Voyageurs would transport all of the goods to this spot before they would move on. Voyageurs were highly competitive and loved to race. Based on this information, imagine yourselves as a group of 8 voyageurs.
Answer the following questions: How many packs would you need to carry 3780 pounds? How many rest stops or poses would there be in the nine mile portage? How many trips would you need to make to get all of the goods to the first pose? How many trips between poses would you need to make to get to the end point? How many miles would you have walked?
Answer Key:
How many packs? 3780/90=42 packs
How many poses? 3 x 9 = 27 poses
How many trips to the first pose? 3 trips
(trip #1= canoe + 10 packs, trip #2= 16 packs, trip #3= 16 packs)
How many trips to the end point? 3 x 27 = 81 trips
How many miles walked? Trips (3 loaded, 2 returns)= 5 miles x 9 = 45 miles walked
Graduation standards:
4-5th Math: Number Sense (2, 3)
6-8th Math: Number Sense (2)
2. Do You Know the Way to Lake Athabasca?
Using a large map of Canada, plot a number of different routes from Montreal to Grand Portage and Grand Portage to Lake Athabasca. If the map is laminated, use water color markers. Evaluate each of the (dozens of?) routes to see which would have the shortest portages between rivers. Use a string or map wheel to calculate distances. Use metric and English systems of measure.
Graduation Standards:
4-5th People and Cultures: Geography and Citizenship, (2, 3a)
6-8th People and Culture: Geography and Culture (5)
6-8th Math: Shape, Space, Measurement, (1)
3. Alexander Mackenzie
Study the life of Alexander Mackenzie, a daring and controversial partner of the North West Fur Company. A chapter in the book Caesers of the Wilderness, by Peter Newman (ISBN 0-14-008630-7) entitled “Big Mack” would make excellent reading for 9-12 graders. Discussion questions could revolve around his leadership abilities, business ethics, and contributions to Canadian history. Have students make a presentation to another audience based on their research.
Graduation Standards:
H.S. People and Cultures: Human Geography (A)
H.S. Read, Listen, View: Reading complex information (A-E)
Under construction.
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.
Total time: 3 hours (2 1/2 hours outdoors)
Audience: 6-20 students, 4th grade through adult
Activity level: strenuous
Travel: 1 1/2 mile
Total uphill travel: 250 feet
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
The Voyageur Life class will provide students with guided practice, in an authentic setting, to support the following Graduations Standards. We have chosen one to three “major focus” standards per grade level. Due to the holistic nature of environmental education, several other standards, not listed here, are addressed as well.
Task Management Skills: Perseverance, Teamwork, Resource Management, Safety.
• H.S. Inquiry: History Through Culture (A, B)
• H.S. People and Cultures: Human Geography (A, C, E)• 6-8th People and Cultures: Geography and Culture (1 - 5)
• 6-8th People and Cultures: History and Citizenship (1, 2)• 4-5th People and Cultures: Historical Events (3)
• 4-5th People and Cultures: Geography and Citizenship, (3c)
Wolf Ridge Curriculum Concepts