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DocsTeachThe online tool for teaching with documents, from the National Archives National Archives Foundation National Archives

Assimilation and the Native People of Metlakahtla, Alaska

Seeing the Big Picture

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Assimilation and the Native People of Metlakahtla, Alaska

About this Activity

  • Created by:National Archives Education Team
  • Historical Era:The Emergence of Modern America (1890-1930)
  • Thinking Skill:Historical Analysis & Interpretation
  • Bloom's Taxonomy:Analyzing
  • Grade Level:Upper Elementary
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Please use a tablet or desktop computer to use this activity.
In this activity, students will closely examine a series of pictures from the Tsimshian settlement of Metlakahtla, Alaska. They will identify evidence of cultural assimilation that the community underwent as part of their conversion to the Anglican faith. Finally, they will be asked to state an opinion about whether or not such dramatic cultural assimilation is beneficial or detrimental to Native communities.

For a version in Spanish, visit: La Asimilación y la Gente Nativa de Metlakahtla, Alaska.

This activity is, in part, an English adaptation of a version produced by Sarah Jansen as part of a DocsTeach course for teachers in Alaska in 2013. It was originally developed for bilingual middle school students.
https://www.docsteach.org/activities/student/assimilation-and-the-native-people-of-metlakahtla-alaska

Suggested Teaching Instructions

The activity can be used to:
  • Introduce students to one of many different cultures that makes up Native Alaska.
  • Introduce or reinforce the idea of cultural assimilation.
  • Show the persistence of Native Alaska culture even when a group was thought of as primarily assimilated.

For grades 4–6 (but can also be used as an enrichment activity for higher grade levels). Approximate time needed is one class period.

Begin by providing or reviewing the definition of cultural assimilation: the process through which one group of people adopt the customs and practices of another, often larger or more dominant, group. Provide examples of different groups that have experienced cultural assimilation throughout U.S. history, such as immigrant communities. Examples should supply evidence that characterizes cultural assimilation, such as language, religion, dress, or marriage practices.

Ask students, working individually, to begin the activity and match the photographs to their descriptions while looking for evidence of cultural assimilation. Or work as a whole-class unit to make the matches (this would be a particularly good approach with younger students). Alternatively, assign the activity as a homework assignment after a class on cultural assimilation or Alaska Natives.

When students complete their matching, they will see a final photo of Tsimshian Natives "breaking the rules" by wearing traditional dress to a wedding ceremony. They should click "When You're Done" to record their observations about cultural assimilation and to hypothesize as to why the people in the final photo would take such a risk. As a class, discuss their ideas, as well as their impressions of the effectiveness of assimilation practices.

Selected Additional Resources

  • Students may benefit from a more extensive history of the village at Metlakahtla, available at www.metlakatla.com.
  • Information about Reverend William Duncan and the settlement of Metlakahtla is available in several places online, such ABC BookWorld, a public service project spreading awareness of literary activity in British Columbia, Canada.
  • Mique’l Askren, MA, discusses photography as a method used by the Metlakahtla community to retain and communicate "forbidden" elements of their culture Objects of Exchange: Social and Material Transformation on the Late Nineteenth-Century Northwest Coast.

Documents in this activity

  • "Native Young Folks" picnic in the early days of the settlement of Metlakahtla, Alaska
  • Baseball team, Metlakahtla, Alaska
  • Group in cemetary at grave of "Alex born July 8, 1902, died July 20, 1904
  • Group in native dress taken on occasion of Edward Marsden's wedding day at Metlakahtla
  • Metla-Kathla Church, British Columbia. Built entirely by the Tsimshean Indians.
  • Photograph of an Indian family
  • Photograph of the Marriage of Paul Mather and Emma Benson in Metlakahtla, Alaska

CC0
To the extent possible under law, National Archives Education Team has waived all copyright and related or neighboring rights to "Assimilation and the Native People of Metlakahtla, Alaska".

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