Treaty Annuity Payments

by Jessica Wesaquate and Andrea Rogers

Subject area:

Mathematics/Social Studies

Strand:

Problem-solving. currency

Grade Level:

Five

Unit Association:

interdependence, minority groups, identity, heritage, local community,
fact versus opinion, Canada

Objectives:

Students will be able to learn who Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) is
and their role in the Treaty Annuity Payments.

Students will be able to determine treaty annuity payments in mock scenarios.

Students will be able to use the proper symbols when problem-solving with currency questions.

Students will be able to state 3 new things they learned about the
Treaty Annuity Payments process.

Before completing this lesson, have your students watch the interview video with Kelly Quewezance. Kelly is employed with Indian and Northern Affairs Canada. He serves as a great Aboriginal role model.

Click here to link to the INAC webpage for the history and background on the treaty annuity payments. You may also want to use this webpage to share with the students what INAC is responsible for.

History/ Background:

A First Nation member's right to treaty payments depends on the precise terms and conditions of your First Nation's treaty. You are entitled to annual treaty payments if you are registered as an Indian and a member of a First Nation that signed a treaty providing for annual treaty payments. You may also be eligible if you have an affiliation with a Treaty First Nation. Treaty annuities are normally paid in cash at Treaty Day events held annually on or off reserve.

A treaty member gets $5.00 annually. Like Kelly says in the video, for First Nations members that do not collect their $5.00 on a given year or years, that money still remains collectable for the following year or year when the member picks it up.

Source:

Indian and Northern Affairs Canada

Problem Solving Scenarios:

Students will need to understand the history of 'treaty money' before problem-solving the answers to the following scenarios:

1. Say you are 21 years-old and the last time that treaty money was collected for you was when you were three years-old. You are going to pick up your treaty money at Regina's Urban Treaty Days. How much money are you going to get?
2. Say you are the father of three children. You are going to the school gym on your Treaty 7 reserve to collect your annual treaty money for yourself and your three children. One of your three children has never been collected for and he is eight years-old. How much will you get in total?
3. If you collected treaty money from the day of your birth in 1995 to your passing in 2058, how many $5.00 bills will you have been given?

As the educator you can use this activity as an introduction or create it into a full lesson by creating more problem-solving scenarios.

Assessment: Have students fill-out exit notes at the end of the lesson indicating three new things they learned about the Treaty Annuity Payments process.

Extension/Optional Activity:

• Give students time to explore the INAC website. They could create a document to list 5-10 new things they learned about INAC and/or Aboriginal peoples and share with their classmates. They could also use their new found knowledge to create a visual project.
• Invite an elder or community member to share stories with the students about the treaties and First Nations relationships with the government.
• Parallel Native Canadian experiences with Native American experiences. How has their struggles been similar and different than that in Canada?
• Use this lesson to talk about stereotypes or misguided beliefs that surround the treaties.

Aboriginal Perspectives is supported by the University of Regina, the Imperial Oil Foundation, the Canadian Mathematical Society and the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences.