Peering Through the Past Through Paintings

The purpose of this lesson is to create a secondary historical source that attempts to portray the lives of those who lived long ago, much as Gordon Miller's 1850 painting of the Ninstints village captures a time long past. 

Transport your students to an era when the passage of time was measured by the position of the sun and the phases of the moon, forests and waterways served as supermarkets, and the Pacific Ocean was the only highway. Totems of the village of Ninstints still stand as a reminder of a time when life was linked more closely with the land. This connection provided the impetus for Miller's painting, which portrays a moment in history before the unfortunate decimation of the village by smallpox. 

Students will creative a narrative for the people of Ninstints from their perspective; they will choose a figure from Gordon Miller's painting and use the questions in the attached worksheet to guide their narrative. For this project the students must do some research to familiarize themselves with the Haida people and consider the effects of a Euro-centric perspective of their lives.