Say this (30 sec)"Our board’s land acknowledgement says our school sits on the Haldimand Tract. Today you’re map detectives. Eight clues, eight places along the Grand River, and one of them is right where you’re sitting."
Grand River, A (mouth) to H (source). ★ = our school.
| # | Clue | Answer | Read this after the reveal | Src |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Heritage River plaque in three languages | D · Cambridge (Galt) | English, French and Mohawk. The Grand became a Canadian Heritage River and the plaque was unveiled in Cambridge on September 26, 1994. | 8 |
| 2 | River ends in a Great Lake; the promise starts here | A · Mouth (Port Maitland) | The 1784 promise gave land “six miles deep from each side of the river,” from Lake Erie to the river’s head, “which them and their posterity are to enjoy for ever.” | 5 |
| 3 | City named after a Mohawk leader | C · Brantford | “Brant’s Ford,” for Joseph Brant (Thayendanegea). The Mohawk sided with Britain in the American Revolution and lost their New York homelands; the tract was meant to replace them. | 6, 7 |
| 4 | Where the river begins | H · Source | The Grand starts in the Dundalk Highlands and flows 290 km to Lake Erie. It is the largest river in Southern Ontario. | 8 |
| 5 | “You are sitting here right now” | E · Hespeler ★ | Hespeler was part of Waterloo Township, which began as Block 2 of the land promised to the Six Nations. Our school sits on the Haldimand Tract. | 4, 12 |
| 6 | Six Nations’ main community today | B · Ohsweken | About 950,000 acres were promised. About 48,000 remain Six Nations land today: roughly 5 in every 100. | 1, 2 |
| 7 | Towns with a gorge; 1791 survey | G · Elora · Fergus | The promise reached the river’s source, but a 1791 survey drew straight lines and land at the north end was cut off. People still disagree about the tract’s true size. | 3 |
| 8 | Mennonites bought 60,000 acres in 1803 | F · Kitchener-Waterloo | The German Company bought most of Block 2. Abraham Erb’s sawmill on Laurel Creek (1808) grew into the village of Waterloo. | 3, 4 |
Read the acknowledgement sincerely; it isn’t a quiz item. Avoid “they sold it, so it’s fair” framing: sales were made under rules the Crown set, and Six Nations still pursues land claims in court today. The Longboat Minute mentions a residential school (the Mohawk Institute, Brantford) and racism. Preview it; keep it factual.
Sources give the original grant as 550,000, 674,910, 760,000 or about 950,000 acres, partly because of the disputed northern limit. We use the Six Nations figure and the 48,000 acres remaining. Great “why do sources disagree?” talk for Grade 7.
The rounds jump around the map on purpose, so no one can guess the next letter. Round 5 turns a sentence kids hear every morning into a place they can point to. The shrink demo makes 5% visible.
How it worksEveryone plays the same Map Detective. Swap in two rounds from the other grade’s curriculum (slides at the end of the deck), use mixed-grade teams, and change only notebook question 3. Grade-lead rule: on a swap round, a student from that grade gives the team’s final answer, +5 if they can say why.
Grade 5 Strand A: Interactions of Indigenous peoples and Europeans before 1713
| Round | Play | Lead |
|---|---|---|
| 2 | Swap in: One Dish, One Spoon (about 1701). Trick round: answer is ALL letters. | Gr 5 |
| 8 | Swap in: The Chonnonton (villages in the 1400s; “Neutral”; numbers fell from famine, disease, war). Answer F. | Gr 5 |
| 1, 3–7 | Regular rounds | Gr 6 |
Who lived here before 1700? How is sharing land different from owning it?
Gr 5: A3.1 · A3.2 · A1.1
Gr 6: A3.1 · A2.3
Grade 7 History: New France and British North America, 1713–1800
| Round | Play | Lead |
|---|---|---|
| 3 | Swap in: The Mohawk Chapel (1785; Crown’s gift to the Mohawk; first Protestant church in Upper Canada; Brant buried there). Answer C. | Gr 7 |
| 8 | Swap in: Beasley’s Mortgage (1796 sale; farms sold before the Six Nations were paid; German Company, 1803). Answer F. | Gr 7 |
| 1, 2, 4–7 | Regular rounds | Gr 6 |
Who gained and who lost when Block 2 was sold? Use one fact.
Gr 7: A3.2 (treaties) · A1.3 (displacement) · A3.8 (interactions) · A3.1
Gr 6: A3.1 · A2.3
Rounds 2 and 8 make room for pre-1713 stories for Grade 5. Rounds 3 and 8 deepen the 1784–1803 story, right inside Grade 7’s window.
Five months before the promise, on May 22, 1784, Mississauga chiefs signed a deed for about 3 million acres between three lakes for £1,180 in goods. Their speaker described the land as being for their people “and our Brethren the Six Nations.” Ask: did both sides understand the deal the same way? (Sources 3, 9)
The shaded band is the land promised in 1784: about 6 miles (10 km) on each side of the river, from Lake Erie to the source. Simplified map; town positions are approximate.
Sentence starter: The Six Nations were promised land … Today …