Children Of The Indian Residential Schools

150 000 Aboriginal children were taken to one of the 130 residential schools across Canada from the 1870s to as late as 1996. In the book Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, an Aboriginal boy named Saul Indian Horse is conflicted by discrimination for the colour of his skin after attending a residential school. Residential schools have a strong impact on Aboriginal People across Canada. Residential schools affect Aboriginal People’s mental states, families and as individuals.

Not everyone knows how residential schools have impacted Indigenous people and communities forever. A residential school is a “ Government-supported boarding school for children from Inuit and other Indigenous communities.” (Oxford Dictionary) Both colonizers and recruiters are on the hunt for Indigenous people. These recruiters and colonizers would remove children from their homes and take them away from their families, bringing them to schools or factories.

Canada holds a shameful history of operating beyond 130 residential schools for the Aboriginal Children during 1800’s until late 1900’s (“Misconceptions of Canada’s Indian Residential School System” 2007). Due to the implementation of the Indian Act in 1876, more than 100 000 Aboriginal children between the ages of four and sixteen years old were forced out of their homes, separated from their family, and sent to the residential schools to be assimilated into Euro-Canadian cultures (ANISHINABEK, 2013). The residential schools were operated by the churches and were funded by the Government of Canada. The main reason for sending the children to the residential schools was due to the strong belief that the assimilation has to start with the children to make them a civilized human beings as the Aboriginal were seen as “savages”. (NEEGANAGWEDGIN,

Usually, the schools were built in areas where they were far away from the Aboriginal homes, which therefore cut off ties with family and community influences. In these residential schools, children were stripped of their identity of their heritage where they were forbidden to speak their native language and where only English was allowed to be spoken; not allowed to wear their native clothing, this caused children the loss of their belief in their traditions of their native culture due to not being able to put them in practice because they were the “Other” which is considered inferior (rel after 304). The most horrible things of this residential school if the children did speak their native language or did anything native such as rituals they were punished. The Aboriginal children went through a cruel amount of abuses through emotional, physical and sexual which are life threatening to the children, this is considered a scaring and impacted many Aboriginal people with repercussions of the loss of

Native Canadians are the backbone of much Canadian history, and still, the Native Canadian children were deprived, abused, and secluded for years in Residential schools for decades. In ‘Aboriginal History- A Reader, chapter nine discusses the horrifying genocide that took on estimate 150,000 children’s culture and lives forcefully away from them. Haig-Brown illustrates the disturbing time period in which Residential schools took place. Residential schooling in definition was the forced schooling upon tens of thousands of Indigenous Canadian children; these schools were often located hundreds of miles away from their homes, leaving children as young as two years old growing up without their Father or Mother.

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

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

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.

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.

Residential schools have been a part of Canadian history for many years, and it has left a large impact on many first nation communities in the 20th century such as families dealing with the effects of separation and loss of traditions, children having their natural community and supports violated and lastly how it impacted Canada as a whole. Primarily residential schools not only affected indigenous children but their parents who were left behind as well.in the 20th century, children were highly valued, greatly loved members of the community (Florence,25). parents had to manage the overwhelming impacts of division and the danger of losing the attached connection between their children. Life at residential schools resulted in having their hair cut, they were stripped out of their own clothes and forced to wear uniform-like

80 Residential schools were developed and established all across Canada in 1931, and slowly over the years, about 150 000 First Nation students attend the different schools. This happened because many believed that education was one of the biggest factors to assimilation, and so the Canadian Parliament changed the Indian Act requiring all children, ranging the ages of seven to fifteen to go to school . The biggest concerns for the Indigenous at the time was that they had to trek thousands of kilometres from home to the nearest school, unknown of the dangers these parents were sending their children into. At these “academic” schools, English was stressed to speak when interacting with others while native tongue and language was banned , due to the fact, most of these schools were ran by churches. Also because these schools were ran by these churches, Christian religion and ideals were emphasized, while Aboriginal Spirituality and culture was condemned. These poor kids were separated from everything they knew about growing up, and they just threw them into a curriculum and material that is so very different from what they knew and would get penalize from not understanding and would feel like they were an outsider. And they would have to deal with this on the daily. And what made it worse was the fact that many of these teachers were harsh and cruel towards these students, hurting them physically, mentally or sexually, causing trauma they’d never forget in their lives. The

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 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

In the past, Canada’s Aboriginal people’s culture was at stake and for it to resolve. The Residential Schools were established to help aboriginal children to not forget about their language and culture in the contemporary society. In 1931, there were about 80 schools in Canada. It was a total of 130 schools in every territory and province. In 1996, Residential schools in Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick closed all residential schools which led all the Aboriginals, Intuits, and Métis were forced to attend the schools.

Examining the residential school system in Canada between the 1870s and 1996 exposes numerous human rights and civil liberties violations of individuals by the government. This case study involves both de jure discrimination and de facto discrimination experienced by Aboriginals based on their culture. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms specifically protects Aboriginal rights under section 25 and section 15 declares that, “Every individual is equal before and under the law” (Sharpe & Roach, 2009, p. 307). Human rights and civil liberties of Aboriginal children and parents were ignored and violated by residential schools which were fuelled by government policy, agendas of church organizations, and a