Canadian Residential Schools: History

• Residential schools in Canada were government-funded schools controlled by religious orders across Canada.
• The schools aimed to educate and assimilate Aboriginal children into Canadian society.
• An unstated goal was to eliminate the Indigenous identity within the children.

History and Implementation

• From the 1600s to 1800s, attempts were made to establish residential schools run by religious orders, but most were short-lived.
• These schools aimed to convert children to Christianity.
• The Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario, was the longest-running residential school, operating from 1831 to 1970.
• Early attendance was not mandatory.
• The Indian Act of 1876 established a paternalistic relationship between the Canadian government and Indigenous peoples, based on the belief in the superiority of European-Christian culture.
• The goal of the Indian Act was the assimilation of native people into Canadian society to resolve land claims and treaties and cut costs.
• The 1879 Davin Report recommended mandatory residential school attendance for all Aboriginal children.
• The aim was to separate children from their families to assimilate them into English society.
• The system was a cooperative venture between the federal government and religious orders, with the government paying and the churches running the schools.
• There was no oversight to ensure proper management.
• Boys were taught agriculture, machinery, and farming while girls were taught sewing and cooking.
• Initially, about 1,100 Aboriginal students attended 69 schools across Canada.
• At its peak in 1931, 80 schools operated in every province and territory except Newfoundland, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island.
• Approximately 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children were forced to attend residential schools throughout their history.

Problems and Abuse

• Key issues included the assumption of Anglo-European cultural superiority and the prioritization of assimilation over education.
• Children were forced to attend substandard schools that had poor living conditions, were subject nutritional experiments, and faced physical, psychological, and sexual abuse.
• Students were not exposed to normal family life and were rarely allowed to see family members.
• Education was poor, with most students leaving with a grade 5 level of education or below.
• The goal was to ensure boys could do farm labor and girls could do home labor.
• Students returned home with little formal education and no traditional knowledge.

Deaths and Conditions

• It is estimated that about 6,000 children died in these schools.
• Around 1920, the government stopped keeping records due to the alarming death rate.
• Death causes included smallpox, measles, flu, TB, malnutrition, beatings, and exposure.
• Many bodies were improperly buried or hidden.
• Students were forced to cut their hair, given Anglicized names or numbers, and forbidden to speak their native languages.
• Consequences for speaking native languages include beatings or needles in tongues.
• Boys and girls were separated, including siblings.
• Food was substandard, often rotten or infested.
• Disease was rampant due to the disregard for healthy standards.
• Sexual abuse was widespread.

Later Developments

• A 1951 report detailed the problems at the schools.
• Sending children to these schools was no longer mandatory.
• The schools remained in operation for 40 more years with abusive conditions.
• Amendments to the Indian Act in 1951 gave provinces power over services not provided by the federal government such as child protection.
• Social workers were not trained to deal with Aboriginal communities, viewing them as poverty-stricken and inadequate for raising children.
• In British Columbia, the percentage of Aboriginal children in the child welfare system increased from 1% in 1951 to 34% by 1964.
• An estimated 20,000 children were taken from Aboriginal homes and placed in foster care or adopted by white families in Canada, the US, and Europe.
• These actions were often carried out without warning, done without informing tribal leaders.
• This practice, most prevalent in British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Ontario, stopped in the 1980s.