Contact Us: admin@canadianmysteries.ca
Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History:
News for Educators
|
|
Flour mill and grain elevator at Verigin, Saskatchewan 1911. Alexandra Korcini/ Doukhobor Discovery Centre, Castlegar, BC. From Peter Verigin Mystery. It’s spring – finally! Welcome to the latest edition of the GUMICH Gazette, a thrice-yearly newsletter to help keep educators up to date on news and tips for teaching with historical mysteries. We now offer thirteen mystery websites, along with many learning materials for teaching Canadian history! Don’t miss the award-winning Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History (GUMICH) project, based at the University of Victoria, and follow us on social media. 
Klatsassin & Chilcotin War: PM Pardon and Website UpdatesOn March 26, 2018, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced in the House of Commons that the federal government was officially exonerating six Tsilhqot'in men who were hung in 1864. They were convicted of killing fourteen road crew builders, in an uprising during what is now known as the Chilcotin War. Trudeau’s exoneration recognized the long-held belief of the Tsilhqot'in Nation that their warriors were not criminals, but defenders of their land and traditions. 
Homathco River Before the Defile. Sketched by Edward Whymper a few days before the attack on the road crew. Back in 2003, the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History Project created a website about the Chilcotin War. There have been many developments since then, including the 2014 Declaration of Tsilhqot'in Title by the Supreme Court of Canada, the Government of British Columbia's exoneration of the Tsilhqot'in War Chiefs and much new research. Earlier this year we began to revise and augment the website to document these developments, in order to promote a fuller understanding of the events and better reflect the Tsilhqot'in point of view. 
Tsilqhot’in Chief Ervin Charleyboy leading a song at the Lhatsassin [Klatsassin] Memorial Day Celebration, October 26, 2017. Every year the Tsilhqot’in National Government declares a national holiday on the anniversary of the hanging of their chiefs in 1864 and convenes a community event at one of the sites from the Chilcotin War. In 2017 they gathered at the Puntzi Lake site where the Tsilhqot’in killed William Manning. Several new documents have been added to the site. Be sure to check back as additional material is posted:
Tsilhqhot’in horsemen and women at the Lhatassin [Klatsassin] Memorial Day event at Puntzi Lake, October 26, 2017. Franklin Expedition: Death of Inuit Historian Louie KamookakIt’s with great sadness that we share the news that the acclaimed Inuit historian and educator Louie Kamookak passed away in March 2018, at the age of 58. The Globe and Mail referred to him as the ‘last great Franklin explorer.’ Louie Kamookak was passionate about discovering what happened to explorer Sir John Franklin and his ships in the Arctic. Louie’s research and gathering of Inuit oral testimony about the fate of the Franklin Expedition played a significant role in the discoveries of the wrecks of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror by Parks Canada and other partners. Louis Kamookak was a contributor to the development of our website The Franklin Mystery: Life and Death in the Arctic and learning materials about the famous expedition. He spoke at the official launch of the project in Ottawa on June 4, 2015. 
Louie Kamookak (Jake Wright). Our website includes a video interview with Louie Kamookak about his knowledge and interpretations of the missing last expedition of Sir John Franklin. Franklin Website – New ImagesAfter the wrecks of the HMS Erebus and HMS Terror were discovered in the Arctic, we were eager to add images of these famous ships to our website! Fortunately, we have an ongoing partnership with Parks Canada, the agency responsible for research and underwater archaeology of the vessels. Thanks to Parks Canada, we have now added seventy new images and five videos for your you and your students to explore. Be sure to have a look in our Archives for The Franklin Mystery. 
Parks Canada diver cleaning kelp on wreck of HMS Erebus (Parks Canada). New Teaching Guide – Umiaqtalik: Inuit Knowledge and the Franklin Expedition
"First Communication with the Natives of Prince Regents Bay" as Drawn by John Sackheouse and Presented to Captain Ross. We are thrilled to announce that educators can now download a new teaching guide from our website. Just sign up here if you have not already registered to get free access to our teaching materials. Umiaqtalik: Inuit Knowledge and the Franklin Expedition is a new teaching guide developed by the Dept. of Education, Government of Nunavut, in collaboration with the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History Project. The Government of Nunavut was one of the partners in the development of the website The Franklin Mystery: Life and Death in the Arctic. 
Paul Quasar, formerly Minister of Education for Nunavut and now premier, speaking at the launch of The Franklin Mystery website in June 2015. (Jake Wright) The guide, available in Inuktitut and English, was designed for grade 8 students in Nunavut. There are notes throughout the document about how to adapt the unit for use in other contexts. Featured Source from Jerome: The Mystery Man of Baie Sainte-MarieHow was mental illness dealt with in the 19th century? Our website Jerome: The Mystery Man of Baie Sainte-Marie provides an opportunity to explore this topic. The body of a stranger washed up on the beach of Sandy Cove in Nova Scotia on September 8th, 1863. You can discover more about this history mystery on the website, and study historic documents related to his story and the treatment of mental illness. 
Collage re Jerome (Nora Robicheau) The following excerpt is from the court testimony of Kate Cameron of Cape Breton, who served as an attendant in the Nova Scotia Hospital for the Insane from 1874 until the 3rd December 1877. Source: Testimony of Kate Cameron, given at the Inquiry on the Management of the Nova Scotia Hospital for the Insane, 1879, Supplementary evidence as to the management of the Nova Scotia Hospital for the Insane, Mount Hope, Dartmouth, 1879. “That I have known patients to have been inhumanly treated and sadly neglected. The first act of cruelty which I remember was to an inoffensive women named Elise Turpel, from Granville, who was in the habit of tearing her clothes. She was stripped naked, her hands and feet tied, her hands behind her back, in a room, on a cold December night, in old F ward, in 1874, without a bed. Next morning she was found dead, coiled up in the corner. I was called in to unbind her hands and feet. She had not been visited by the Superintendent or Assistant Physician until she was dead. There was no inquest; the Doctor said she died of cramps ...” You can read more of the testimony of Kate Cameron in the Archives for the Jerome Mystery. To use this testimony and other related primary documents in your classroom, check out MysteryQuest 27: Was Jerome Mistreated?. This is a critical thinking challenge for students ages 16-18, and focuses on the treatment of the mentally ill. 
Headline from The Daily Echo, following death of “Jerome” in 1912. Featured Image from the Redpath Mansion MysteryOne of the websites developed by our project is the Redpath Mansion Mystery. Two members of one of Canada’s wealthiest families died from gunshot wounds on June 13, 1901. Ada Maria Mills Redpath, the 59-year old widow of industrialist John James Redpath, and her 24-year old son Jocelyn Clifford Redpath (“Cliff”) were shot in Ada’s bedroom in the Redpath mansion in Montreal’s affluent Golden Square Mile district. Beyond these facts it is difficult to know what happened. 
Wedding of George Drummond Redpath and Alice Stiles Mills (Redpath Sugar Museum). Golden Square family weddings were elaborate celebrations in the late nineteenth century. This image shows one between two elite Montreal families that took place at Shanklin, Isle of Wight, England, on 29 May 1867. Here Ada Maria Mills Redpath and John J. Redpath (visible to the left and right of the bride and groom) celebrate the marriage of her sister, Alice Stiles Mills, to his brother George Drummond Redpath. Our researchers collected many photos, paintings and drawings related to the Redpath Mansion Mystery. The images in our online archives are ideal for student projects. The Redpath Mansion Mystery reveals the lives of the super-wealthy in turn-of-the-century Montreal, as well as those of their servants. It shines a light on family loyalty and tensions, health and disease, and on the built world of mansions, hospitals, and monuments a century ago. You can investigate this murder mystery with your students by using the three classroom-ready MysteryQuests we developed. Partner News – Concordia UniversityBy Ronald Rudin The Lost Stories Project collects little-known stories about the Canadian past, transforms them into pieces of public art on appropriate sites, and documents the process through short films. The project is directed by Ronald Rudin of the Concordia History Department and based at the university’s Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling (COHDS). It encourages Canadians to think about why some stories are remembered while others are lost, and to ask questions about how stories about the past are told in public space. For Canada's 150th anniversary, Lost Stories has created four new episodes from across Canada. These episodes provide an opportunity to hear the voices of people with relatively little power: First Nations, Inuit, Acadians, people with disabilities or disease, and immigrants of colour. The Lost Stories Project worked with these communities so that their stories can be discovered by a much larger audience through the films recently launched on the project website. 
The four new stories illustrated in this composite photo above are (clockwise from top left) Yee Clun and Regina's "White Women's Labour Law"; The Kidnapping of Stó:lō Boys During the Fraser River Gold Rush; Leprosy on Sheldrake Island, New Brunswick; and From the North to Ottawa's Southway Inn. Along with its new films, Lost Stories is also launching Teaching Lost Stories. Developed by the project’s educational consultants, Scott Pollock and GUMICH co-director Ruth Sandwell, Teaching Lost Stories consists of a set of lesson plans and historical documents aimed at intermediate and high school students. The first set of lessons deal with the story of Thomas Widd, a deaf man who created the first Protestant school for the deaf in Montreal. The Thomas Widd lesson plans challenge students to think about why this particular story was “lost” and ask them to develop historical markers such as monuments to commemorate the story. In the process, students will enhance their historical thinking skills as they work with primary documents and learn to ask thoughtful questions about the relationship between the past and the present. In the months ahead, lesson plans connected with our four new stories will be released, so that teachers can select an episode with the greatest meaning for their students. 
Screen shot from the Lost Stories home page. |
|
