The Beaver and The Point Blanket

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General Steps:

The genesis of this inquiry into the relevance and suitability of the beaver and point blanket as symbols of Canada was the Hudson’s Bay point blanket coat worn by Canadian athletes for the opening ceremony of the 2014 Sochi Olympics. Curiosity about the blanket coat’s status as a “national costume” and memories of giant beavers at the closing ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics led students to investigate how the beaver and point blanket had imprinted themselves as symbols on the Canadian psyche. Using primary source evidence of paintings, photographs, cartoons and advertisements,, students identified how change and continuity in their use as symbols reflected the economic, social and cultural development of Canada. Taking a Cree perspective, they explored the ethical dimension of the fur trade through official records, oral histories and the opinions of ethno and cultural historians. Using the collaborative possibilities of Google Forms, each student provided a different perspective regarding the merit of these symbols as expressions of Canadian identity. They communicated an understanding of their historical significance in a response to contemporary Aboriginal artists for whom the beaver is a symbol of cause and the point blanket a symbol of the consequences of colonialism This year is the 40th anniversary of the National Symbol of Canada Act, which officially designated the beaver as Canada’s national symbol. No animal has had more impact on Canadian history than the beaver or been more persistent in visual representations of Canada.

Yet, a Canadian senator has disparaged the beaver as a symbol of Canada’s colonial past and in his Totem Impact project, Ojibway poet Duke Redbird argues that it is time to choose a symbol more worthy of national designation. The iconic status of the Hudson’s Bay point blanket also invites re-consideration. Like the beaver, it has epitomized Canadian identity for over 200 years. It has been called “the national fabric,” “a wearable heritage”[Nadeau] and “the heart and soul of the nation” [Tichenor]. Yet it also evokes associations with “smallpox blankets” and when Prime Minister Harper proclaimed at the G20 summit in 2009 that “Canada has no history of colonialism,” Aboriginal Canadians chose the point blanket as a canvas on which to embroider their protests. In a video installation called Trade Me, Annishabek artist Keesic Douglas also questioned the association of the point blanket with Canadian identity. He asked HBC to take back his family’s blanket and return to him his great-great-grandfather’s beaver pelts. In this gesture, students saw the point blanket and beaver pelt as symbols of the gulf that exists today between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians. Keesic Douglas has explained that by returning his point blanket he was exploring the connection between his own Aboriginal identity and the history of the relationship, which the blanket and his great-great-grandfather’s furs represents. Students go back to the beginning of that history – the summer of 1780 when a one-point blanket was first offered in trade for a single beaver pelt. To bring a historical consciousness to the cultural interaction, which these symbols represent, students took the perspective of Cree traders and used today’s principles of fair trade to test perceptions that the point blanket is a symbol of colonial exploitation. In the process, they investigated the hidden information that made beaver pelts and point blankets powerful symbols of the worlds they came from. They were “ambassadors,” carrying messages about the people who made them, their technology, their social organization, beliefs and values. In Canada, witnessed in paintings and photographs, the point blanket began a new and uniquely Canadian “social life.” With these insights, each student worked with an assigned reading selection from a comprehensive bibliography, excerpted, edited and adapted for their reading level. Referring as well to a teacher-generated image gallery, they traced the evolution of the beaver and point blanket as Canadian symbols. Using Google Forms, individual student responses were organized into a class chart which enabled students to formulate a balanced response to either Duke Redbird’s Totem Impact project, concerning the continued designation of the Beaver as an official symbol of Canada , OR to artist Keesic Douglas regarding the return of his point blanket.

Step 1: Factual Inquiry: Show Canadian athletes in HBC point blanket coats at the 2014 Olympics and the giant beavers at the closing ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. Review student awareness of the beaver and point blanket as symbols of Canada.
Step 2: Conceptual Inquiry: Comparing Values: Share HBC’s explanation that the point blanket design is meant “to capture the essence and spirit of Canada.” With regards to the beaver, refer to the Globe and Mail’s opinion that an animal symbol should have a “personality that speaks to the spirit of Canada” [Jan.22 2015] Using the Paragraph Text feature in Google Forms, students share their own criteria for a national symbol.
Step 3: Testing the Hypothesis: Continuity and Change: The most obvious symbolic marker of Canadian identity is the Maple Leaf flag. This year is its 50th anniversary. Students watch Awesome Canadian Flag Designs that Got Cut to review ideas about the meaning of Canadian symbols. They note the number of beaver designs.
Step 4: Identifying the Issue: Continuity and Change: The Ethical Dimension of History: 2015 is also the 40th anniversary of the National Symbol of Canada Act which designated the beaver as Canada’s national symbol. Remind students that the flag debate suggests that even the most cherished Canadian symbols can be challenged. Have students sing “O Canada.” Ask them to identify a simple change that would make the anthem more inclusive. Confirm their idea with “Restore Our Anthem.” [http://www.restoreouranthem.ca] Introduce Senator Nicole Eaton’s challenge to the beaver symbol. She questions its colonial past. [Kingston] Refer to similar criticism of the point blanket by showing images from the art project “(official denial) trade value in progress” in which Aboriginal Canadians use the blanket as a canvas on which to embroider their objections to Prime Minister Harper’s statement that “Canada has no history of colonialism.” [Refer to the textbook Crossroads for a definition of colonialism]. Suggest that controversy over our national symbols explains the concern of the Department of Canadian Heritage that our traditional symbols are becoming less relevant. In its report, Canadian Identity, Culture & Values, it wonders if new, more appropriate symbols are needed to bring Canadians together. This official concern establishes our inquiry.
Step 5: Debatable Inquiry. Are the beaver and point blanket appropriate and relevant symbols of Canada? Continuity and Change: To establish the long and symbiotic relationship of the beaver and point blanket as symbols of Canada show the four beavers on the HBC coat of arms dating back to 1670. Outline HBC’s origins as a company trading for beaver pelts and identify the point blanket as one of its most consistently popular trade items. Students interpret the meaning of the current HBC logo, which combines the multi-stripes of the point blanket with the original four beavers.
Step 6: Testing the Hypothesis: Students compare their ideas with the designer’s explanation that the point blanket logo is intended to associate HBC with “a heritage that helped build a nation.”
Step 7: Taking a Historical Perspective: Point out that, according to Canada’s official guide for new citizens, one aspect of Canadian identity is a belief in “fair play.” To test whether, as symbols of Canada, the beaver and the point blanket represent a heritage of “fair play” that “helped build a nation,” students are given individual reading assignments. They take a Cree perspective to negotiate the value of beaver pelts and blankets when they were first traded in 1780.
Step 8: The Ethical Dimension of History: Testing the Hypothesis: Students refer to Fairtrade Canada to decide whether the trade of a beaver pelt for a point blanket in 1780 would meet today’s fair trade criteria. Using Google Forms, they add their individual arguments to a class chart explaining whether as national symbols the beaver and blanket exemplify “fair play.”
Step 9: Using Primary Source Evidence: Continuity and Change: Students use individually assigned readings and the teacher-generated Beaver and Point Blanket Symbol Gallery to trace the evolution of the beaver and point blanket as visual emblems of Canadian identity. They add to the class chart their arguments for and against the merits of the beaver and point blanket as national symbols. Testing the Hypothesis: Show Ojibway poet Duke Redbird’s Totem Impact video and Keesic Douglas’s video Trade Me. Redbird outlines arguments against the beaver as a Canadian symbol. Trade Me follows the 2013 attempt by Keesic Douglas to trade back his point Blanket to HBC.
Step 10: Establishing Historical Significance: Cause and Consequence: Students use the arguments on the class chart to decide the merits and failings of the beaver and point blanket as Canadian symbols. They articulate their opinion in a written response to either Duke Redbird OR to Keesic Douglas.

Suggested Resources: 

Acheson, Katherine. "A Visual History of the Canadian Beaver." Academia. edu, 2015. 

• Acheson traces the versatility of the beaver as a visual symbol of Canada over the 400 years since it first appeared on “Beaver Maps” as a symbol of the potential wealth of Canada and the vital role of Aboriginal Canadians in the fur trade. As the fur trade declined the beaver symbol was used to represent French Canadians. After Confederation, its small stature and unassuming nature reflected Canada’s junior role within the British Empire. During the World Wars the beaver symbol suggested a separate national identity for Canada. By the middle of the 20th century its reputation for quiet persistence made it a symbol of ‘ordinary’ hard-working Canadian. Its ordinariness however, was also used as to indicate Canada’s lack of international standing, especially in relation to the American Eagle.

Barbeau, Marius. "The Beaver in Canadian Art." The Beaver, September 1941.

Birks, Kim, “Earning Its Stripes: The Hudson’s Bay Blanket” 

Bolan, Michael. "Awesome Canadian Flag Designs That Got Cut (PHOTOS)." The Huffington Post.

Brightman, Robert A. "The New Technology." In Grateful Prey Rock Cree Human- Animal Relationships, 350. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press, 1993.

Carter, Sarah, Aboriginal People and Colonizers of Western Canada to 1900,Toronto: UTP,1999.

"Cree Hunters of Mistassini" Video file. NFB.

Department of Canadian Heritage. Canadian Identity, Culture and Values: Building a Cohesive Society. Ottawa 1997.

Dion, Joseph. My Tribe the Crees. Calgary: Glenbow Museum, 1979.

Gilman Carolyn. Where Two Worlds Meet. St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1982.

• Gilman describes the process of transforming a beaver pelt into a felt hat. She illustrates how in European society the beaver hat was a symbol of social status.

Hackett, Paul. “Averting Disaster: Hudson’s Bay Company and Smallpox in Western Canada during the Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries." Bulletin of the History of Medicine, 78, no. 3 (September 2004).

Hood, Glynnis. The Beaver Manifesto. Victoria, BC: RMB, 2011.

• Hood argues that the beaver symbolizes a flawed Canadian identity because although respect for wilderness is part of our self-image, our identity is also built on resource exploitation. She details how, in many parts of Canada, beaver had been wiped out by the mid-1800s. Given their ability to create and maintain wetlands the loss of beaver through the fur trade had a devastating effect on water resources. Colonial settlement also resulted in the loss of beaver habitat. Hood suggests that it is nothing short of a miracle that there are any beavers left. Yet they have survived and are making a comeback as their value in creating and maintaining wetlands is recognized.

Houston, C. Stuart. "The first smallpox epidemic on the Canadian Plains: In the fur traders' words." The Canadian Journal of Infectious diseases, March-April 2000.

• William Tomison was in charge of HBC’s Cumberland House on the Saskatchewan River in 1781 and 1782. He described trying to control a devastating smallpox epidemic. with quarantine and disinfection and taking dying Aboriginal people into the already crowded fort and providing them with food, shelter and care.

Hudson's Bay Company. Our History: The Hudson's Bay Company Point Blanket: FAQs. 

• The company denies any connection to the frequently repeated story about smallpox blankets.

"The Hudson’s Bay Blanket: Textile Museum of Canada." Video file. Textile Museum of Canada. 

• Curator Steven Loft describes the accusation against British general, Lord Amherst, of planning to use blankets as a weapon against First Nations by infecting them with smallpox.

“Hudson’s Bay Company Logbooks” The Hudson’s Bay Company, National Maritime Museum 

• The company logbooks describe the annual 3000 mile voyage of the Prince Rupert to Hudson Bay.

Kapoun, Robert. Language of the robe: American Indian trade blankets. Salt Lake City: Peregrine Smith Books, 1992.

• Kapoun explains that Hudson’s Bay blankets were manufactured to be worn as robes draped over the shoulders or wrapped around the body. As they replaced beaver or buffalo robes they became an integral part of Aboriginal life. The way people wore the blanket was a way to communicate ideas and emotions.

Jensen, Doreen. Robes of power totem poles on cloth. Vancouver: UBC Press,1986.

• On the NW Coast Hudson’s Bay blankets were transformed into ceremonial robes using pearl buttons and abalone shells.. These button blankets became “totem poles on cloth.”

Kingston, Anne. "Beaver Be Damned." Macleans, November 4, 2011.

Long, John S. “Narratives of early encounters between Europeans and the Cree of western James Bay,” Ontario History 80.3 (September 1988).

• Long recognizes the difficulties in interpreting Cree oral traditions which often express the attitudes of the present or the recent past. He suggests that Cree feelings that they were victims of the fur trade and unwilling contributors to the vast wealth of the HBC are influenced by their grandparents‘ memories of lean years when HBC would not help them – violating the Cree ethic of sharing. HBC documents, however, show the skill of the Cree in bargaining for value so that it’s difficult to establish who was being exploited by whom.

In Fashion: A Canadian Pespective, edited by Alexandra Palmer. University of Toronto Press, 2004.

• The HBC blanket coat has been worn in Canada since the 17c. by Aboriginal Canadians, habitants, voyageurs, coureurs du bois and British soldiers. By the mid 19c it had come to represent a uniquely Canadian identity distinct from the US and Britain. It was often labelled in newspapers as a Canada’s national costume.

Rubric

Full Bibliography of Project Images 

Globe and Mail Editorial Cartoon, August 7, 2015