THE PEOPLE OF THE VALLEY
OX CARTS: INVENTIONS FROM THE VALLEY

Grade Level:
6^th-8^th

Standards Integration:
Minnesota:
Grades 6-8: Mathematical Concepts and Applications: Number Sense
4. Apply proportional reasoning to solve a variety of problems using rates, ratios, proportions, and percents.

North Dakota:
Grades 5-8: Social Studies: Geography
8.6.1 Understand how to use geographic tools to describe and locate physical features and places.
Mathematics-Number and Operation
8.1.4 Compute with real numbers using appropriate computational methods for given situations.

Materials:
Copies of the Red River Trails (available from the Minnesota Historical Society); topographic maps of the region; a travel map or atlas

Objectives:

	Through active participation, students accurately will calculate the distance of each Red River trail.
	In order to display critical thinking skills, students will conclude which trail was the most efficient way to get from one place to another.

Background:
Inventions native to the Red River Valley are numerous and diverse. The Red River cart, or oxcart, was of great significance to the development of the Valley economy. Developed in the early 1800s, the oxcart revolutionized trade to the degree that by 1856 half of all goods in the Red River Valley were transported by cart trains. Goods such as furs, pemmican, and other supplies where moved through the Valley by oxcart. Originally the carts were small horse-drawn vehicles that carried up to 450 pounds. Later, larger wheels with spokes were designed. Gradually the Red River carts, pulled by teams of horses or oxen, carried nearly 900 pounds each. Entire families, organized in trains of carts, moved goods along the Red River from present-day Winnipeg to Fargo-Moorhead and then on to St. Paul. The Red River Cart quickly became a symbol of the Metis people.

Pre-Visit Activity:
Give the students background information on the Red River carts and the Metis who created and used them. Discuss the significance of this invention to the traders in the area between present-day Winnipeg and St. Paul.

Post-Visit Activity:
Divide the students into groups and give each group a map of the Red River Trails. Ask the students to calculate distance of a trail, discuss the topographic features of each trail, and decide which trail was most the efficient road to take. Finally, using a travel map, find out if today’s roads follow the old oxcart trails.