The Impact Of Assimilation: Residential Schools

From the 1870’s until the last school closed in 1996, at least 150,000 Indigenous children attended residential schools in Canada. More than 130 government mandated schools existed across the country. These schools were church administered, with the express purpose of forcibly removing Indigenous children from their native culture, in an effort to assimilate them into Euro-Canadian culture and thereby “kill the Indian in the child”. Countless families were torn apart as the Canadian government placed

Residential Schools were systems set in place by the Government of Canada and enforced by Christian churches as a way to approach the “issue” of the First Nations. They were used by the government to assimilate the Aboriginal children into European culture. It is significant that Canadians remember this time in history because it's not so far in the past. We see the repercussions to this day. This source shows the perspective of the Government, and supporters of the Government. On the other hand Aboriginal people may disagree, they are still greatly struggling with misfortune due to Residential Schools. The perspective shown in the source should be looked into considering the government's insufficient response to the legacies left behind by Residential Schools. For example we see higher prison rates, more drop outs, and family abuse more than most cultural groups in

During the time residential schools existed, the Aboriginal population of Canada was forced to endure appalling treatment. Residential school is regarded as a thing of the past by high school history books, but is that really true when the oppression and abuse that occurred in residential schools has had a long-term effect on Aboriginal peoples? Intergenerational effects of residential schools include post-traumatic stress disorder, high rates of addiction, abuse and violence, probable deadly illnesses, and elevated statistics of suicide in Aboriginal communities. A substantial number of authors, historians, and researchers attest to the fact that residential schools have influenced a number of generations of the Aboriginal people of Canada.

Residential School’s were introduced back in the 1870’s, they were made to change the way native children spoke their languages and how they viewed their cultures. The residential school system in Canada was operated by the government, where the native children were aggressively forced away from their loved ones to participate in these schools (1000 Conversations). The government had a concept, where they can modernize the native children, aged of three to eighteen and extinguish the aboriginal culture. In the twentieth century the Canadian Public School’s had arrived and had improved treatments than residential schools. In Contrast, the treatments within these schools were both different, whereas Canadian public school students had more freedom than residential school students because children were taken away from their families. However, the treatment in these schools were different and some what similar. Even though Residential schools and Canadian Public schools were similar in some form, there were numerous amounts of differences in how the children were taught, how they were treated and how their living conditions were like throughout these schools.

Indian Residential Schools has been a major contributing factor towards the mistreatment and decreased standard of living for the First Nations people of Canada. Originally founded in the 1840’s and the last to close in 1996 the goal of Residential Schools was to assimilate First Nations people into Canadian society. The assimilation process consisted of the forced attendance (by Canadian law) for every Native, Metis, and Inuit child to attend the “boarding” schools. Residential Schools were ran by Christian, Catholic, and Anglican churches, the schools were also funded by the Canadian government’s Indian Affairs. Treatment students received while attending the schools was unbearable for the young children. After being taken and

“Where are they taking me, mom?! Help!” These were the screams of an Aboriginal child when he was dragged to a car that drove him away from his family. Aboriginal kids were forcefully abducted and placed at poorly built and equipped residential schools. Residential schools are a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. Like a disease, these schools spread so fast on Canadian land. They were every Indigenous child’s nightmare. Kids who attended were traumatized due to the mental, physical, and sexual abuse they suffered. Canadians felt superior to Aboriginals which lead them to use their power excessively to civilize these communities. This issue is considered to be one of the darkest chapters in Canadian history. It has a significant impact on Aboriginal communities. Indians suffered a loss of culture and identity. This issue violates various human rights such as; Freedom of language, freedom of culture and religion, freedom of choice, and the freedom of safety and health. The two groups in this controversy are the aggressors; Canadian government, and it’s churches, and the victims; the aboriginals. The question is, is the Canadian government doing enough to make it up to those who suffered the ill effects of residential schools?

The sociological effects that Aboriginal peoples in Canada face are vast. Residential schools, stripped people of their identity, enforced a cultural genocide, abused (both sexually and physically) children and created an unjust line of intergenerational trauma. Kinship ties, for the majority were lost during the residential school period, sometimes leaving entire communities displaced. The Canadian Government fails to recognize the treatment of Aboriginal peoples during the residential school period and there hasn’t been much done to help those who are affected.

While the initial objective was for the schools to help integrate First Nations children into the mainstream society they lived in, this integration clearly became an attempt at conversion. The children were removed from their families for extended durations, attempting to ensure Canadian-Christian upbringing. The residential schools original goal drastically changed, with their disgraceful policy regarding forbidding Aboriginal children from any kind of acknowledgement and recognition of their native language and culture. There are numerous reports of physical, psychological and sexual abuse experienced by Indigenous children in residential schools and painful consequences that in most cases last a lifetime (Hanson, E.).

Residential schools in Canada were present for over 100 years and were created by the government to eliminate the Indigenous culture. These schools successfully separated families while creating huge cultural barriers between children and their Native culture (COHA, 2011). These children were forcibly removed from their families and taken to residential schools because Canadians saw Indigenous peoples as “backwards” or “savage” (COHA, 2011). They also believed that they were inferior to Natives and that these schools would help “civilize” aboriginals by replacing their Native traits with Western values (COHA, 2011).

Residential school refers to a boarding school system setup for Aboriginal children that operated from the 1880s until the late twentieth century education. This system was put in place to “kill the Indian in the child” ( Loppie et al., 2013, p. 6; Miller, 2004, p. 35) While at these boarding schools, they were not permitted to speak their language or practice anything of their culture. These schools were run by religious men and woman. The children were only educated up to grade five level, and only to become work as general laborers in factories or in the home. The focus of their education was to have them, assimilate into ‘Euro-Canadian’ culture, were ultimately this was cultural genocide. Moreover, reports of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse are well documented from survivors of residential schools. Moreover, there were cases of medical experiments being conducted on children. Many children died at residential schools due to maltreatment (FNHA, n.d., para. 22; UBC, 2004, para. 1-3).

Between 1875 and 1996, First Nations children were forced to attended residential schools to be systematically assimilated into an English-Christian society through abuse, segregation, and racism. Residential schools were created by the Canadian government to transition First Nations children into a newly colonized Canada, but somewhere something went wrong and the policy of teaching was corrupted into assimilation through abuse. The priority of residential schools was to kill the Indian in the child. As a result many languages and cultures were lost as children were not taught the traditions of their heritages and could not pass on this knowledge to their children. Residential schools directly contributed to the loss of the First Nations traditional cultures and created a cycle of abuse for generations to come.

Residential schools were built up with the assumption that aboriginal culture was not able adjust to a quickly modernizing society. It was believed that local aboriginal kids could assimilate if they absorbed into standard Canadian culture by embracing Christianity and communicating in English or French. Students were discouraged from speaking their first language or practicing native traditions. If they were caught they, would experience severe punishment. Consistently, students lived in substandard conditions and persevered through physical and psychological mistreatment. Since all correspondence from the kids was composed in English, numerous guardians couldn't read and didn’t know what they were getting their kid(s) into. As indicated

Residential schools were a collaborated effort between the federal government and Euro-centric religious institutions to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture but had resulted in causing long term problems in indigenous communities and disrupting the lives of its students. While both the government and First Nations wanted schooling provisions of Aboriginal children, their reasons differed greatly. The Indigenous leaders hoped Euro-centric schooling would provide their future generation adequate tools and resources to coexist in a society dominated by an alien culture. The federal governemt, on the other hand, saw Residential schools as a means to make the First Nations economically self-sufficient and lessen the dependency

This paper is focusing on Residential Schools and the effect they had on the development of the individuals who attended the schools. The thought behind the Residential Schools was that, “Residential schools were the institutions, in operation from the 19th century to the late 20th century, which Indigenous children in Canada were forced to attend” (Ross, Dion, Cantinotti, Collin-Vézina, & Paquette, 2015, p. 184). Residential Schools have caused intergenerational hardship and trauma to Indigenous People’s that has affected their well-being and development. Being First Nations myself and having family members who suffered the Residential Schools, I have seen the effects on our people. Residential Schools had negative impacts on the individuals who attended these schools by removing them from their communities and placing the children in these schools, the effects of the Residential Schools still impact some of the survivors to this day. It needs to be remembered that these, children did not choose to attend these schools, they were forced into attending. Those who are different tend to stand out. As Ranzjin (2010) explained “… exclusion occur[s] when people are systematically excluded from meaningful participation in… social, political, cultural and other forms of human activity” (p. 718).

In Canada, there are 634 First Nations, Inuit and Métis communities. These indigenous people have history of being structurally violated. One of them is “residential school” (Trimble, 2016). Residential schools were established aiming at isolating indigenous children from influence of their own culture and assimilating them to the mainstream stream Canadian culture. This was based on “Aggressive Assimilation Policy” started in 1874, in which indigenous people and their culture were recognized as inferior. In residential school, children were segregated from their family, their culture and tradition（University of British Columbia, n.d.）. It is estimated that 150,000 children were forced to go to residential school. The number of these schools peaked around 1930. At that time 80 out of 130 schools were residential schools. (Trimble, 2016). The conditions of residential schools were