Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

1. The Ojibway people are one of the Indigenous tribes that inhabited lands in North America. An important part of the Ojibway culture is the preservation of both the language as well as the traditions and way of life of the people. Use scholarly resources to learn about the Ojibway people and how the preservation of their way of life has been affected in contemporary society.

Teaching Suggestion: This question centers on supporting students’ discovery of the Ojibway culture and history. Students might be unfamiliar with this particular group; they can use the links below and their own outside research in answering the question.

• This article from The Canadian Encyclopedia provides an overview of the Ojibway people.
• This article from ShareAmerica is an opinion piece on steps toward preserving Indigenous culture and language.

2. “Re-education” systems were widely used by white colonial powers in order to assimilate Indigenous children on the North American continent into European ideals in the 19th and 20th centuries. More often than not, these “re-education” schools forced children to forget their heritage, culture, and languages, often through religious guilt, assault, and punitive measures.