In this unit, suitable for senior secondary or undergraduate courses, students are given the task of designing an exhibit on the Franklin expedition—one that relies on Inuit voices—for Nunavut’s new (and at the moment fictional) museum. In order to complete this task, students will develop a critical awareness of how oral primary sources can be used to understand the events of the Franklin expedition and searches for Franklin that followed. More significantly, students learn the process of using evidence and inferences drawn from oral sources to explore the character of early intercultural contact relationships between Inuit and Explorers in Canadian history. Finally, the unit leads to a final assignment involving critical thinking approaches and skills relevant and transferable to the study of other contexts in history.

Unit Overview

This unit uses the Great Unsolved Mysteries in Canadian History website The Franklin Mystery: Life and Death in the Arctic to explore the mystery from the perspectives of both the Explorers, and the people who called the Arctic home. The essential question of the unit, and the focus of its central task, is: What do oral primary sources associated with the mystery of the Franklin expedition reveal about the character of contact relationships between Inuit and Explorers?

Explorers and researchers searching for the Franklin expedition over the last 170 years have relied on Inuit for a great deal of support—indeed, for their survival—while they were in the Arctic. They also relied on Inuit as sources of artifacts and testimony about what happened to the Franklin expedition, and where it happened. These sources offer a great deal of information not only about Franklin, but about life in the Arctic in the 19th century, and the character of relationships between Inuit and Europeans over time. The Franklin mystery is a remarkably well-documented set of events that occurred in a place about which historians have few records.

The unit is designed to introduce students to different examples of Inuit oral testimonies, recorded by the Explorers, as a distinct and rich form of primary source. The culminating assignment of this unit is for students to design an exhibit for a museum in Nunuvut on the topic of contact relationships between Inuit and Explorers in the Arctic, based on the use of multiple primary sources and a well-substantiated characterization. Individual lessons can help teachers develop particular historical thinking skills and approaches with their students.

This unit offers teachers the advantage of an organized and limited set of sources and questions to explore. Teachers and students will probably also want to review the other educational materials associated with The Franklin Mystery website, such as the MysteryQuests and Interpretations section of the website.

Unit Themes

This unit could be used to cover a number of interdisciplinary themes in history and social studies classrooms:

Arctic/Northern Canadian history and geography
19th century colonial history and British interest in Canada
Indigenous (Inuit) history
Colonization and settlement history
History of global/polar exploration and mapping
Oral primary sources and historiography

Unit Objectives

To develop familiarity with the history of the Franklin expedition disappearance and subsequent searches

To learn about Inuit and Explorers in the 19th century in the Arctic
To describe contact relationships between Inuit and Explorers in the 19th century
To engage with examples of Inuit oral primary sources collected and used by Explorers
To recognize oral primary sources as a distinct form of evidence
To understand and apply vocabulary associated with oral primary sources
To make inferences from oral primary sources
To use oral primary sources to reveal characteristics of social/cultural history
To understand that oral primary sources are produced by the interviewer, the interviewee, and the situation of the interview
To develop a substantiated characterization of relationships in the past, using multiple sources

Synopsis

Essential Question: What do oral primary sources associated with the mystery of the Franklin expedition reveal about the character of contact relationships between Inuit and Explorers?

Lesson Title

Time Needed

Lesson Overview

Preparatory Lesson

1 class
(75 minutes)

Refer to Preparatory Exercises and Background Information on page 5.

Lesson 1:

Oral Primary Source Evidence in the Franklin Mystery

3 classes

(assuming 75 minutes throughout)

This lesson introduces students to the story of the Franklin expedition disappearance, and how to browse The Franklin Mystery website for primary sources. Emphasis is placed on the Inuit testimonies section of the website Archives. Activities engage students in creating oral primary sources, exploring the vocabulary associated with oral primary sources, and providing an introduction to analyzing these sources.

Lesson 2: Cultural Contact and Interpreting Sources

2 classes

Students are introduced to the historical importance of contact relationships between Inuit and Explorers, and the spectrum of characteristics they may find in the sources. Students analyze oral sources for what they reveal about relationships.

Lesson 3: Multiple Sources in Characterizing Contact Relationships

3 classes

(at least, likely plan for more)

Students are asked to take into consideration the production of oral primary sources—the role of the Interviewer, Interviewee and the situation of the interview—to answer questions about the past. Students use the evidence and inferences they collected from multiple oral sources to develop a recommendation about how to characterize relationships between Inuit and Explorers in a museum exhibit.

Instructional Strategies

Need for Computer Access/Lab Time

This unit will be greatly enhanced by offering students direct access to the website. This might be through bringing their own devices, viewing the website together in your classroom via projector/smart board, or working in a computer lab in pairs or small groups. While the entire unit is fully integrated with the Franklin site, classes with limited access to computer lab time or with bandwidth issues can complete most tasks if the requisite documents are printed for students ahead of time.

Assessment & Evaluation

Because assessment and evaluation standards vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, only generalized guidelines have been included here.

The following skills and habits of mind are ones that should be carefully assessed in the process of evaluating the critical thinking needed to work with this site:

Issues are analyzed seriously and thoughtfully
Presentations and talks are given carefully, with materials well-prepared and organized, and points well thought out
Results are expressed cautiously and are supported with reference to appropriate evidence
Opinions are reasoned. Reports and narratives are written discerningly, reflecting the above and with care, attention and evident pride in quality work 1

Preparatory Exercises and Background Information

If teachers or students have not worked critically with a mysteries website, digital archives or primary sources before, it is STRONGLY recommended that additional background information and preparatory/scaffolding exercises be referenced or completed before undertaking this unit of study. See the following links for resources and examples on the GUMICH website:

Support for Teachers

Exercises Using Key Concepts

Foundational Ideas

Teacher Briefing Sheet:

What You Need to Know About Oral Primary Sources

“Inuit Testimony” sources on The Franklin Mystery website are referred to in this unit as “oral primary sources” rather than “oral history” (see discussion below). You may choose to discuss these issues with your students in varying levels of detail throughout the unit, or at the end of the unit, depending on their abilities.

Oral Primary Sources in the Franklin Archives: What are they?

Many of the Inuit testimonies (collected by Rae, Hall, Schwatka) have the following characteristics:

A brief interview by an Explorer with an Inuk, mediated by a translator
Conditions of interview were likely controlled by Europeans or Americans (not Inuit)
Written documentation of the interview was created by the interviewer, and sometimes later reported or preserved by a different (European/American) individual than the person who conducted the interview, in varying levels of detail
Interviews were focused specifically on looking for irrefutable facts in the mysterious Franklin “case”
Interviewers were acting more like “detectives” than “oral historians”
Interviewers were generally not interested in the way Inuit understand the world
Records of the interviews were selected by and maintained in European/American archives

What is the Difference Between “Oral History” and “Oral Primary Sources”?

Today we usually think of oral history as the process of an historian asking open-ended questions of an individual about their life and experience; about the meaning they attach to the past as well as “what happened.” We have also come to expect that the person being interviewed in oral history practices might have some say in how their interview is conducted, recorded and disseminated.

By contrast, Rae, Hall and Schwatka conducted their interviews with a specific purpose in mind: to find the Franklin expedition, and find out what happened to the men. The Inuit had no say in how their testimonies were interpreted at the time, or used later. These oral sources nevertheless included more detail about Inuit and their ways of living than was strictly necessary in their Franklin investigation, making them useful to answering broader questions. We can use the oral primary sources to understand a picture of Inuit life.

What is the Difference Between “Inuit Oral History” and “Oral Primary Sources”?

There are many Indigenous traditions of passing on oral history, including different Inuit traditions. These may differ from the approach used by academic oral historians (i.e. may be less question-and-answer oriented). Apart from the Inuit testimonies here, accounts of encountering Franklin, his men, his ships, or those who came later in search of Franklin, were handed down through generations of Inuit. These were told by older Inuit to younger family members, in their own language and usually when they determined it was the right time or person with whom to share that account. These accounts might have been told in the course of sharing stories about particular places or events, rather than in relation to a question about Franklin specifically.

The examples of Inuit oral history collected by Dorothy Eber on the site exemplify this, and are different from the earlier examples collected in the 19th century. Because this unit focuses primarily on the earlier 19th century accounts and does not attempt to teach students how to practice “Inuit oral history” (which might not be appropriate in many jurisdictions outside Nunavut/NWT/other Inuit lands), we have continued to emphasize the “oral primary sources.”

The Question of Truthfulness in Oral Primary Sources: What Do I Need to Know?

People often assume that oral primary sources or oral history is less truthful and trustworthy because it relies on the memory of individuals who may not remember or represent the past accurately. Contrary to this assumption, this unit is designed with the following in mind:

All sources—whether they are written, oral or an artifact—represent some truth, even while we ask critical questions about their content and how they were produced.
No source offers “the Truth,” the “whole story,” or represents the past completely accurately. All sources are affected by human perspective and interpretation.
We refer to oral primary sources as “testimony” because both parties (Inuit and Explorers) in the oral exchange expected that truthful answers and descriptions would be provided. (Whether or not they were truthful is a question for historians to investigate in various ways, depending on the question the historian is asking).
Inuit expectations of oral history, and communication in general, were predicated on the importance of truthfulness.
Usually, if an individual did not experience the events as an “Eyewitness,” what they share is considered “Hearsay.” However, Inuit tradition and culture place value on repeating accounts with precision and exactitude. When we use the term “hearsay” we mean simply that it has been passed from one person to another.

Teacher’s “Cheat Sheet” for Lesson 1, Class 3

Statement	Revised Statement(s)
Interviews do not produce useful sources because they reflect only one person’s view.	Interviews reflect at least two views: the interviewer and interviewee. All sources used by historians (not just interviews) reflect the views of particular individuals. One or two views can possibly be used by the historian to reveal something greater.
If Eyewitnesses who experienced the same events gave different accounts, the Eyewitnesses are probably lying.	If Eyewitnesses have different accounts it could be because of their different positions within the events, differences in the situation of their interview, and other factors that affect what they “see.” Eyewitness accounts usually offer the historian some part of the truth about events.
If the topic of an interview or oral primary source is not the same topic as an historian’s question about the past, it probably is not useful to the historian.	The topic of a primary source (or the purpose for which it was created) may seem very different from the historian’s research topic, and yet it may still reveal something useful to the historian. The historian must read between the lines of some sources, for evidence that relates to their question.
The historian’s job is to find the one best account that gives the whole story.	The historian’s job is to use many sources, each of which may give parts of the story they can tell. Some sources will be more useful than others.
Written sources are always better for historians than oral sources.	Written sources or documents are not necessarily better because the person writing down the account may forget things, misunderstand the Eyewitness, not record enough detail, or change the information. Oral and written sources may both be affected by these factors.
An oral primary source is only as good as the person being interviewed; the interviewer has nothing to do with it.	An oral primary source is shaped by the interviewer, interviewee and the situation of the interview.

LESSON 1: ORAL PRIMARY SOURCE EVIDENCE in the FRANKLIN MYSTERY

8.0.0.0.0.1(Days 1, 2 and 3 of unit, assuming 75 minute periods throughout)

Overview

LESSON 1, CLASS 1 (Day 1 of Unit)

Activities

1.PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: Tell students that this unit will engage them as detectives in answering questions about one of Canada’s most infamous mysteries: What happened to Sir John Franklin’s last expedition in search of the Northwest Passage?

Brainstorming activity:

1) Students list five things they know about the Arctic (e.g. who lives there? what is the place like geographically?), and two things they know about the Franklin mystery or the age of exploration in the 19th century (who was involved? why were they exploring?). Debrief.

2) Brainstorm two things students would like to know about the Arctic, Arctic peoples, and/or the Franklin expedition. Debrief.

2.BACKGROUND INFORMATION: In the computer lab, or using a smart board/projector, read through the following web pages as a class:

“The Mysteries of Franklin's Last Voyage”

“Arctic Homeland”

“Northwest Passage”

3. INTRODUCE PRIMARY SOURCES: Define primary and secondary sources emphasizing that primary sources are usually helpful to historians because they were created close to the time of the events being studied.

Read first paragraph of “Archives” section as a class.

Note the different categories/types of evidence on the left side of the “Archives” page.

4. INTRODUCE THE CONCEPT OF “REVEALING”:

“Revealing”: primary source evidence is usually explicitly about a single or specific event or person, but it sheds light on wider, greater, or more enduring features of the past.

Complete the preparatory activity “What are Primary Documents? or Seeing Myself in the Future’s Past”. Summarize that primary sources were not necessarily made by those who created them with the intent to be revealing of anything. The sources can tell us a great deal about the past, depending on the questions historians ask, but what the source reveals is determined by the historian (not inherent in the source).

5. CONNECT TO WEBSITE: Depending on the availability of computers, give students time to click on any primary source in the “Archives” section of the website. Ask them to identify 1) Why the source was created or what purpose it served at the time it was created, and 2) How that source might be revealing of something important or interesting to an historian. Work through an example as a class.

6. INTRODUCE TASK AND ESSENTIAL QUESTION: Tell students Nunavut does not have it’s own territorial museum, to date. However, when they build a museum, the head curator might need help from historians to develop an exhibit about the Franklin mystery.

Students are tasked with investigating the oral primary sources on the website to determine what they reveal about relationships between Inuit who lived in the Arctic in the 19th century, and the Explorers who travelled there to search for the Franklin expedition. Students will use multiple oral primary sources to develop a reasoned characterization of the relationship between Inuit and Explorers.

Therefore, the essential question of this unit is: What do oral primary sources associated with the mystery of the Franklin expedition reveal about the character of contact relationships between Inuit and Explorers?

LESSON 1, CLASS 2 (Day 2 of Unit)

Activities

1.EXPLORE ARCHIVES FOR SOURCES: Divide students into two groups. Group 1 will inquire into Inuit life and Group 2 will inquire into British navy/Explorer life. (It is intentional that the groups are large and may be somewhat chaotic). Students can use as many computers as they have access to.

Task:

Together as a group, identify one source anywhere in the “Archives” section of the website, that gives the most revealing evidence about the culture and society of their group of people: Inuit or British/Explorer. Your group must come to consensus on which source is most revealing. (Discuss the term “consensus” if necessary).

At the end of 15 minutes, whatever happens—whether students have come to consensus or not—stop the activity. Do not discuss each group’s final answer, or debrief at all. Ask students to remember what happened, so they can talk about it in a moment.

2. INTERVIEW ACTIVITY: Ask students to find a partner from the opposite group, with one person from the Inuit group and one from the British group working as a pair.

Task:

In pairs, you have 7 minutes to create an oral primary source about what just happened in your groups.

Designate one person as the Interviewer, and the other as the Eyewitness.
Interviewers must provide a detailed and accurate record of the interview.
Interviewers begin by asking: What happened over the last 15 minutes, when your group was given the assignment to come to consensus on a source that is most revealing? and ask any other follow up questions you can think of.

If time is available, swap after so that each student plays each role. Students are not expected to produce anything polished; the purpose is for them to feel what interviews are like.

3. REPORT BACK & DISCUSS: Select several Interviewers to describe the account within the source they just created.

a)Identify key aspects of students’ accounts that are similar and different.
b)Ask students: What variables might have produced such different accounts when the Eyewitnesses were all participating in the same activity and trying to be truthful?

Some examples:

Short amount of time/was interrupted
Couldn’t hear very well in noisy classroom
Not enough time to write notes or forgot to write notes
Ended up talking about something else
Remembered the source, but not why it was revealing

c)Read aloud the notes from one Interviewer (without them adding anything verbally). Ask: Would an historian be able to use their written record to reconstruct the interview?
d)Discuss: Which was the most truthful account? According to whom? What is the difference between accuracy and truthfulness?
e)Using one record shared with the class, brainstorm what an historian might learn from that oral primary source about the “culture” of the group. Identify one comment or observation that an historian might use, and what cultural inference they might make from it.

LESSON 1, CLASS 3 (Day 3 of Unit)

Activities

1.REVIEW: Ask one student to report on what happened last class; what students learned by creating their own oral primary sources.

2.INTRODUCE KEY TERMS: (to be reinforced throughout the unit)

An “oral primary source” is: “a purposeful conversation between two people about some aspect of the past considered to be of historical significance, and intentionally recorded.”

An “account” is: “an individual’s version of events, recorded close to the time those events occurred.”

An “Eyewitness” is: “someone who saw or experienced the events about which they are giving an account.”

“Hearsay” is: “someone’s account of events in which they did not witness the events themselves, but are passing on what someone else told them about the events.”

“Inferences” are: “plausible conclusions drawn from the evidence you have observed, including primary sources.”

“Revealing” is: “primary source evidence is usually explicitly about a single or specific event or person, but it sheds light on wider, greater, or more enduring features of the past.”

3.BRIEFING SHEET ACTIVITY: Hand out Worksheet 1. Oral Primary Source Briefing Sheet. Working in small groups, students consider each statement in the left-hand column of the worksheet, compare it with their experience in the last class (or when using other primary sources), and then revise the statements (in pencil!) so their sheet reflects what they learned as a class about oral primary sources.

4.SHARE & DISCUSS: Groups share and compare revised statements, attempting to arrive at the best revisions.

5.TEACHER REINFORCEMENT: Refer to “Teacher’s “Cheat Sheet” for Lesson 1, Class 3” (p. 7). Reinforce or correct any points that students do not arrive at themselves.

LESSON 2: CULTURAL CONTACT and INTERPRETING SOURCES

9.0.0.0.0.1(Days 4 and 5 of Unit)

LESSON 2, CLASS 1 (Day 4 of Unit)

Overview

Activities

1.INTRODUCE INUIT TESTIMONY: As a class, read “Lost Franklin expedition ship found in the Arctic” in the “News”.

Highlight the assertions that Inuit testimony correctly located the HMS Erebus. Explain that other evidence and support offered by Inuit helped Explorers determine what happened to Franklin’s expedition.

Emphasize this point by reading aloud “The Searches for Franklin”.

Remind students of last class: many questions exist about interpreting eyewitness accounts. The website can reveal many of the mediating factors influencing how evidence was shared and accounts were created across cultures.

2. DISCUSS INTERCULTURAL CONTACT: Read aloud together the section on the website “Contact Zone”.

Ask students what “intercultural contact” means to them. Students share, in small groups or as a class, an experience of intercultural contact (i.e. travelling or moving to a new country). Record 10 words that describe the experiences or feelings that the people involved may have had (“fear”, “surprise”, “self-consciousness”, or even “anger”).

Ask students why these things might arise, and the larger issues involved (fear of new situations, different ideas of ‘normal’, misinterpretations and embarrassment, etc.).

Ask students if they can imagine going to a place without having their phones or the internet, before or during their visit – how might it change their experience of intercultural contact?

3. INTRODUCE RELATIONSHIPS SPECTRUM: Return to the website statement (“Contact Zone” page): “Contact between the two groups varied from surprise and fear to mutual respect and support.” Tell students this is one interpretation that may need to be investigated. Using a projector or printed handout, show students the spectrum of characterizations below. In discussion, add two types of relationships that fit in between. Identify synonyms, adjectives or behaviours associated with these characterizations in the context of contact relationships.

Fear

Surprise

(Other)

Indifference

(Other)

Support

Mutual Respect

Remind students of the essential question of this teaching unit: What do oral primary sources associated with the mystery of the Franklin expedition reveal about the character of contact relationships between Inuit and Explorers? They may look for evidence of these characteristics, or others that they come up with.

4. ORAL PRIMARY SOURCE EXAMPLE: Hand out copies of the oral primary source “Schwatka visits Netchillik village, interviews Seeuteetuar, Toolooah, Ooping [as reported by Gilder] (1878-1880) (1881)”.

Working in groups, students underline sentences that provide evidence of contact relationships (i.e. not necessarily “what happens” or what is being said about Franklin in this source), between Inuit and Explorers. Then ask students to underline the sentences that help them make inferences to characterize contact relationships. Model with the class if necessary.

Debrief as a class. What characteristics did they find? Problems? Questions?

Explain to students that they will use oral primary sources like this one to inform the design of their exhibit for the future Nunavut museum.

LESSON 2, CLASS 2 (Day 5 of Unit)

Preparation

Teachers may wish to review, select excerpts, and print off hard copies of the links below, “Franklin Expedition Timeline” (emphasize dates up to 1854) and “Rae’s Dreadful Findings Described in 1854” (emphasize sections in which Inuit evidence is prominent).

Activities

1.BACKGROUND INFORMATION: To offer context for the oral primary sources and increase understanding of the events of Franklin’s expedition and disappearance, students read (in groups or as a class):

“The Voyage”

“The Disappearance”

“Franklin Expedition Timeline” (emphasize dates up to 1854)

2. ANALYZE A SOURCE FOR EVIDENCE & INFERENCES: With students, read about John Rae. Provide students with “Rae’s Dreadful Findings Described in 1854” (emphasize sections in which Inuit evidence is prominent).

Allow students time to read the source.

Hand out Worksheet 2. Analyzing Oral Primary Sources for Evidence and Inferences. Review the difference between evidence and inferences. Note that on the Worksheet students are asked to identify inferences drawn by the interviewer (Rae), AND they are asked to draw their own inferences. Ask students to observe differences in the way Rae interacted with different eyewitnesses. They should choose a section of the report that features one account from an Inuit eyewitness. Complete Worksheet 2 as fully as possible. Faster students may complete a second Worksheet 2 on a second account within the source.

3. SYNTHESIS: When students have completed one or two analyses of eyewitness accounts, hand out Worksheet 3. Characterizing Relationships between Explorers and Inuit. Draw student attention to question 2 on Worksheet 3. Review the concept “revealing”. Take them through an example of how evidence can lead to an inference, and how an inference can allow the historian to reveal something about that group/culture.

Allow time for students to complete the worksheet. Then, discuss problems of a) inadequate evidence from single sources, and b) even if students have collected strong evidence, it may not support a reasonable generalization. For their final assignment (lesson 3), students will need to refer to multiple sources.

LESSON 3: MULTIPLE SOURCES in CHARACTERIZING CONTACT RELATIONSHIPS

10.0.0.0.0.1(Days 6, 7 and 8 of Unit)

LESSON 3, CLASS 1 (Days 6 and 7 of Unit)

Overview

Activities

1.REVIEW: Discuss how students answered Question 2 and Question 3 on Worksheet 3 (the hypotheses they have formed so far).

2.CONSIDER PRODUCTION OF SOURCES: This activity asks students to consider what you can tell about the situation of the interview from the oral primary source, if anything.

Hand out Worksheet 4. The Interview Situation - Factors Affecting Sources. Working from the same oral primary source as in the last class, students complete Worksheet 4 and compare findings.

Students may then revise or complete a new Worksheet 3, if required by their new findings.

3.BACKGROUND INFORMATION: Explain that the remainder of this class will be used to further substantiate their developing characterization of relationships, based on several sources. Sources may come from different time periods, but in most cases Explorers and Inuit were encountering each other for the first or second time, and comprise “contact relationships.”

Allow 15 minutes for students to read through the rest of the “Franklin Expedition Timeline”

and explore the maps mentioned therein:

4. ANALYSIS OF MULTIPLE SOURCES: Allow students to choose at least three oral primary sources that they want to analyze, reading them from the “Inuit Testimonies” section of the website Archives, or printing them off.

Students fill out Worksheets 2, 3 and 4 for each source. This might carry over to the next lesson.

LESSON 3, CLASS 2 (Day 8 of Unit, and as many as necessary)

Activities

1.INTRODUCE FINAL ASSIGNMENT: Remind students of the task and essential question (described in step 6 of Lesson 1, Class 1). Students can work independently, in pairs, or in groups to prepare a rationale for their exhibit recommendation, including evidence from multiple oral primary sources. They should refer back to the evidence and inferences they collected from their worksheets in the previous classes.

Handout and review the questions and criteria in Worksheet 5. Final Assignment Questions & Criteria. Ask students (particularly advanced ones) to come up with some of their own criteria for the museum exhibit.

2.WORK ON FINAL ASSIGNMENT: Using the criteria, students develop a detailed exhibit outline/plan/map, or simply develop the exhibit title with a written rationale (follow Worksheet 5).

3.PRESENT FINAL ASSIGNMENT: Invite students to present their assignments when complete. Have students peer review each other’s exhibit recommendations, giving them feedback on how they addressed the criteria for a museum exhibit.

4.CLOSE THE UNIT: At the end of the unit, come back to students’ prior knowledge sheets, questions about the topic, oral primary sources briefing sheet, and anything else they worked on that helps determine or summarize what they learned during the unit.

Worksheet 1. Oral Primary Sources Briefing Sheet

This briefing sheet includes statements made by other people about what oral primary sources offer historians. The statements may or may not reflect your experience with, and class discussion about, oral primary sources.

Your task is to revise these statements about oral primary sources, based on what you think oral primary sources offer historians.

Statement	Your Experience	Revised Statement
Interviews do not produce useful sources because they reflect only one person’s view.
If two Eyewitnesses who experienced the same events gave different accounts, the Eyewitnesses are probably lying.
If the topic of an interview or oral primary source is not the same topic as an historian’s question about the past, it probably is not useful to the historian.
An historian’s job is to find the one best account that gives the whole story.
Written sources are always better for historians than oral sources.
An oral primary source is only as good as the person being interviewed; the interviewer has nothing to do with it.

Worksheet 2. Analyzing Oral Primary Sources for Evidence and Inferences

Date of the primary source: Name of the Explorer/Interviewer collecting the account:

Name of the Inuit Interviewee (if available):

1. What account does the Inuit Interviewee offer about the Franklin expedition?	Evidence	Inferences Drawn by Explorer/Interviewer

2. What account does the Explorer/Interviewer offer about the Inuit Interviewee?	Evidence	Inferences about Interviewee by Explorer/Interviewer

3. What evidence is provided by the Explorer/Interviewer about the situation of the interview?	Evidence	Inferences You Draw

Worksheet 3. Characterizing Relationships between Explorers and Inuit

1. How would you characterize the relationship between this Explorer and the Inuit they encounter, based on this one source? (Fear, surprise, indifference, support, mutual respect or something else)

a. What evidence substantiates this conclusion?

2. What does this one source reveal about the wider relationship between Explorers and Inuit, in general, if anything?

a. What does it reveal about how Inuit feel/behave towards Explorers?

b. What does it reveal about how Explorers feel/behave towards Inuit?

c. How was this a good or bad source for revealing the perspective of Inuit and Explorers regarding contact relationships?

3. What is your hypothesis of what you will find in other sources about the relationship between Inuit and Explorers?

4. What questions are still remaining, that might help you reveal the character of contact relationships?

Worksheet 4. The Interview Situation - Factors Affecting Sources

Date of the primary source: Name of the Explorer/Interviewer collecting the account:
Name of the Inuit Interviewee (if available):

	If this factor was present in the interview situation, describe it.	How might this factor have affected the content of the primary source, if at all?	How does this change your view of the Interviewer-Interviewee relationship, if at all?
Cooperativeness/Feelings of Inuit Interviewee?
Perspective of Inuit Interviewee (what they saw/didn’t see?)
Language, vocabulary and translation
Background information of Interviewer
Documentation or record created by Interviewer
Assumptions/judgments by Interviewer
Situation of the interview (how did they meet each other?)
Other
Other

Worksheet 5. Final Assignment & Criteria

You are tasked with making a recommendation to the head curator of a Nunavut museum, based on evidence from multiple oral primary sources, about how to characterize contact relationships between Inuit and Explorers.

1) What exhibition title will you recommend to the curator?

2) What evidence from oral primary sources substantiates your recommendation, revealing the character of contact relationships?

3) What “notes” will you offer the museum about how the oral primary sources you’re using were produced, and how the situation of the interviews informs your recommendation?

Criteria for Effective Museum Exhibits Using Oral Primary Sources

1.Supports a characterization with evidence and reasonable inferences

2.Shows how evidence can be revealing

3.Is sensitive to cultural differences

4.Uses multiple sources

5.Uses oral primary sources in complex ways (i.e. not limited to the question of truthfulness or accuracy)

6.OTHER (develop as a class)

1 Taken from Roland Case and Ian Wright, “Taking Seriously the Teaching of Critical Thinking,” in The Canadian Anthology of Social Studies: Issues and Strategies for Teachers, Roland Case and Penney Clark, editors (Vancouver: Pacific Educational Press).