Residential Schools In The 1920's: A Case Study

Knockwood explains the enforcement of residential ideologies as a “combination of physical intimidation and psychological manipulation which produced terror and confusion” (12). The premise of residential schools was to strip Indigenous children from their culture and Indigenous identity, forcing them to only speak English, or face severe consequences. Despite the government and churches best efforts, many Indigenous children still maintained their cultural roots and kept their language while at home. This governmental need for assimilation has had lasting impacts far beyond the scope of active residential schools. Neeganagwedgin notes, “while the schools may be physically closed, the legacy lingers” (34). Beyond this, she urges, present-day institutions still function in a way that continues to undermine and systematically deny, “Indigenous peoples their inherent rights as First Peoples” (Neeganagwedgin 34); such as the justice system, child welfare and the education systems.

The purpose of Canada 's residential schools was to assimilate First Nation peoples into mainstream Canadian Society, like the Indian Act. The Residential Schools damaged First Nation people because it disconnected the children from their history, language, family, and culture. Residential Schools taught children that their culture wasn 't worth preserving. Some legacies of Residential Schools include alcoholism, poverty, and increased chances of becoming a prostitute or abuser (physical, emotional, sexual, and psychological). Statistics prove that people who have been

These schools were created for the reason of teaching Aboriginal children the Canadian language and culture in the hope that they will become assimilated into it. Every Aboriginal child under the age of 16 will be forcibly removed from their homes and put into residential schools. Often if children spoke their own language or practiced their own cultural traditions they were punished physically and verbally. They would be abused and many students would deal with emotional damage for the rest of their lives. The death and disease factors also had a large impact on the Indian children, at least 4000 Aboriginal children died from tuberculosis and the spanish influenza. By the 1940s and 1950s, residential schools have restricted nutrients and dental care for multiple students creating an unhealthy lifestyle (The Canadian Encyclopedia "Residential Schools."The Canadian Encyclopedia. October 10, 2012. Accessed July 7,

The Indian Residential Schools were boarding schools that forced students to leave their families and homes in order to go and continue their education elsewhere. They were formulated with the partnership of the United Churches along with the Government. (Laing,2013:53). The Government and the Churches put these schools in place in order to separate the children from their family and cultural customs and values. The goal was to isolate the children from what they are used to in order to “kill the Indian in the child” and have them pick up the new Euro- Canadian culture and values along with the English Language. In addition to being taken away from their families, the

Residential schools were a place where thousands of Indigenous children would go to learn but instead get abused very badly. Residential schools existed about a hundred years ago. These tragic schools were established because European people wanted the Indigenous people of Canada to be assimilated into Euro-Canadian. The European people thought that their civilization was the greatest human achievement. A lot of residential schools opened within Canada’s provinces. Life at residential schools was very cruel because the students got limited time to learn and more time to do exhausting chores. The children also got brutally abused for various things including if they offend the nuns and priests working in the schools. By the time the children had finished attending the residential schools they had almost forgotten everything about their culture and traditions. Residential schools treated children very poorly which caused some long-lasting effects that still impact Indigenous people today.

Aboriginal people in Canada are the native peoples in North America within the boundaries of present-day Canada. In the 1880’s there was a start of residential schools which took Aboriginal kids from their family to schools to learn the Roman Catholics way of culture and not their own. In residential schools Aboriginal languages were forbidden in most operations of the school, Aboriginal ways were abolished and the Euro-Canadian manner was held out as superior. Aboriginal’s residential schools are careless, there were mental and physical abuse, Aboriginals losing their culture and the after effects of residential schools.

There are still many Canadians out there who don’t know much about residential school. All Canadians should learn more about our past and the many terrible things that occurred to First Nations people while in residential schools, and even out of the schools. For many years First Nation Children were taken away from their family and sent to residential schools, which were run by religious institutions. The school’s main goals were to get rid of the Indian in a child, and they would strip them naked of who they were and where they came from. The book Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese gives us a clear insight into all the hard times that a child might have to go through while in a residential school. The book also shows what their lives would

THE NATIONAL RESEARCH CENTRE ON INDIAN RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS. (n.d.). Retrieved April 05, 2016, from http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=815

The federal government did not create any regulations regarding attendance until 1894, at which point attendance was deemed voluntary. However, Indian agents and justices of the peace had the power to place a child in a residential schools if an “Indian child between six and sixteen years of age is not being properly cared for or educated, and that the parent, guardian or other person having control or charge of such child, is unfit or unwilling to provide for the child’s education.” A child could not leave residential school without departmental approval, even if the parents had voluntarily enrolled their child. If a child left residential schools without permission, an Indian agent, justice of the peace, police office, or any staff member of the school or Indian Affairs had the authority to search and place the child back in school, including removal from their home by force with or without a warrant. This effectively gave federal and church staff the authority to use their own discretion to decide if and when to forcibly remove children from their homes and place them in residential schools (The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, 2015b, p. 31). In 1920, the Indian Act was amended to

For the time in which Residential Schools were attended, children were affected physically and emotionally. Primary objectives of the system were to remove, then isolate children from family and cultural influences, and to assimilate into dominant culture (Harper). This underfunded system alienated children from their families for extended periods of time, prohibiting acknowledgement of Aboriginal heritage, culture, or to speak mother tongues

As previously stated, the main goal of the residential school system was to assimilate aboriginal children and was thought to make them more functional in Canadian society. Children ranging from 4-16 were taken from their homes and families and re-homed in institutions with the goal of assimilation in mind (Nagy, 2012). These institutions were often incredibly harmful to the students because they were not well kept or staffed, and were severely underfunded. These issues resulted in malnutrition, diseases, abuse, and even death. Children who attended were subject to abuse emotionally, physically, and sexually (Chansonneuve, 2012). Along with these issues, the absence of family, native language, and tradition caused the children to feel

They weren't even allowed to even talk or even share about their culture and society and the following quote of a leader of a society demonstrates the difference between residential schools and today's building “I want to get rid of the Indian problem… Our object is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been

The children were taught to follow and not question the belief in the moral and intellectual superiority of white culture, and to reject all aspects of their native lives (Claes & Clifton, 1998). The government 's missions for the Native children ranged from assimilation, to make Indians indistinguishable from Europeans, segregation, to education native people and restrict their life in their own communities, and integration, for native people to be absorbed into mainstream institutions and society (Claes & Clifton, 1998). Although the goals of the residential schools changed over time, one thing always stayed the same, the genocide of the Native culture.

“It has been said, 'time heals all wounds.' I do not agree. The wounds remain. In time, the mind, protecting its sanity, covers them with scar tissue and the pain lessens. But it is never gone.” I believe these words from Rose Fitzgerald Kennedy accurately describe the pain and grief First Nations who were affected by residential schools went through. The preponderance of Canadians is not educated on Indian residential schools. Now, the government has realized they were doing wrong and are trying to compensate for the major mistakes they have made. Although the government is trying to reconcile with First Nations, their attempt at doing this may not be meeting the needs of everyone in the process. While some of the problems caused by residential

Several aboriginal peoples were affected by the government’s residential school program which removes numerous aboriginal kids from their homes. “While attending residential schools, some were forced to endure violence and abuse while many others lost their first languages as a well as connection with their culture and community (Hick 2014). In 1948, the liberal federal government showed a main analysis of the Indian Act. Portion of the analysis involved the requirements of the Indian Act relating to education. In Earlier 1948 the “federal government met its constitutional obligations to Indian education by making agreements with religious authorities (United Church, Anglican and Roman Catholic, primarily) for the education of Indian children”(.McCue 2004). Many parents and leaders assumed that First Nations schoolchildren were getting a lower education in contrast to provincial students attending provincial schools. The liberal federal government agreed and in the course of the 1950s in a notable of “integration” it agreed about to accurate the inequity in both the education prospectus and the qualification of tutors (McCue 2004). Moreover, the liberal federal government decided to cost-share the manufacture of several secondary schools through Canada