An intensive three-week course, with field trips and classes four days a week -- what's not to love? That's what Department of Indigenous Studies assistant professor Miriam McNab thought First Nations University of Canada (FNUniv) students would say when she custom-built her Indigenous Studies 222AB: First Nations of Saskatchewan - 1885, earlier this year.

McNab thought a class with intense focus on the spring of 1885 and its aftermath was called for, given that 2010 marks 125 years since the so-called Riel Rebellion at Batoche and events at Poundmaker's Reserve.

McNab designed the course to focus on the events of 1885 in the old Northwest, with particular attention to Cree and Nakota involvment, and consideration of economic and political antecedents, relations with the Metis, events at Duck Lake, Frog Lake, Poundmaker's Reserve and environs, as well as the aftermath and subsequent interpretations and circumstances.

"I thought that because 2010 is the 125th anniversary of the events of 1885, it would be a good idea to look at that history and expose our students to the literature and oral histories that look at that era," McNab explained. "It was also good to be able to focus in on it so intensively."

The class met Monday to Thursday, from 1 p.m. to nearly 4 p.m., and one day took a field trip to Cut Knife Creek, where Chief Poundmaker and Cree and Nakota people were encamped when attacked by Lieutenant-Colonel William Otter and 325 Canadian military troops after a month of tensions -- during which several killings and lootings had occurred in the area. The army was repelled and Poundmaker prevented his warriors from pursuing the soldiers.

When McNab's 18 students weren't discussing the many readings assigned on the events, they welcomed guest lecturers including Drs. David Miller and Blair Stonechild, colleagues in the Indigenous Studies Department. Miller talked about Big Bear's son and the Cree who took refuge in Montana after the troubles, and Stonechild spoke on the book he co-authored with Bill Waiser: Loyal Till Death: Indians and the North-West Rebellion, a Governor General's Literary Award Nominee for Non-Fiction, currently re-released for 2010.

"This was an important book for the class. Typically when you're talking about 1885, you hear about the Métis, Louis Riel, Gabriel DuMont and the rebellion, but Indians (non-Métis) are often lumped in the with the Métis, where their stories were actually different. Many were loyal to the treaties and to the Crown. That's what this book attempts to do: to tell the Indian side of the story, Big Bear's and Poundmaker's side."

According to the publisher, the book "explodes the myth of a grand Indian-Métis alliance," and explains how Ottawa "portrayed the Indians as outlaws to justify increasingly restrictive and repressive measures," despite their rejection of Riel's invitations to rebel.

"This was soon after the signing of the treaties, and First Nations people had expectations that the promises made to them would be kept, that they'd prosper just as much as the settlers would," McNab said.

"But that didn't happen, and in fact worse happened. Though the First Nations remained faithful to their treaty promises during the conflict and didn't participate in the rebellion, more than 50 Indians including Poundmaker and Big Bear were convicted of rebellion-related crimes. So 1885 was a time of terrible injustice for the First Nations," she said.

The Cree call 1885 'E-mayahkamikahk' a Cree word for "the time of troubles". "It really was where things went wrong," said McNab. "That's why it was important to have this class -- because there's a lot of important stories from other points of view to tell. 1885 is not just Batoche."