RESIDENTIAL SCHOOLS A DARK CHAPTER IN CANADIAN HISTORY

Thomas Moore before and after his entrance into the Regina Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan in Notice any changes?

Where were these schools located?

In 1920, school attendance became mandatory for every Aboriginal child between the ages of 5 to 15 years old. From 1920 to 1996, 150,000 Aboriginal children across Canada passed through these schools.

In 1928, the government created the Department of Indian Affairs, which gave responsibility for the schools to the Anglican and Catholic Church in Canada. The aim was to “civilize”, assimilate and educate the Aboriginal children into the British way of life. h?v=s_V4d7sXoqU&featur e=related

What did these children do there? They learned “useful” skills such as farming, carpentry and domestic skills. The purpose? To “teach” them white British skills instead of hunting and gathering.

Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs from stated: “The happiest future for the Indian race is absorption into the general population, and this is the object of the policy of our government.”

Children were removed from their homes, often under threat of ‘law’ ‘Assimilation’ worked best through separation from families, communities and culture Separation from a traditional support system was a key strategy

As late as 1950, according to an Indian Affairs study, over 40% of the teaching staff had no professional training. Until the early 1950s, students in residential schools spent half of their school day on academic subjects and the remainder doing manual work and receiving religious instruction ard/page-17.htmlhttp:// ard/page-17.html

Punishments given to aboriginal children at residential schools: For failing a test - no food for a day; For not working hard enough - 4 hours of extra work For disobedience, and rude or disorderly conduct - no food or water for a day, a beating (with a stick on the back) For speaking native language - (first offence) no supper - (second offence) no supper and beating - (third offence) considered disobedience and punished as such;

To accomplish this goal of assimilation, discipline was the answer in many missions. "Historians suggest that discipline was more harsh at residential schools than at other schools and would not have been accepted in Euro- Canadian institutions at the time... These methods included isolation cells, flogging and whipping, and humiliation."** **From Residential School Update, AFN March 1998.

The child became isolated and was forced to function in a societal structure not of his own construction, and not within his scope of understanding. Adjustment to society became one of survival versus meaningful integration into society Children stayed stuck in the cycles of dysfunction and became dysfunctional parents. This continues in an ever expanding circle of influence…

By 1931 there were 80+ residential schools across the country, as well as day schools on some reserves The last federally run residential school, the Gordon Residential School, closed in Saskatchewan.

1993: The Anglican, Presbyterian and Catholic Churches offer apologies to the First Nations Peoples. 2009: Pope Benedict XVI expressed his "sorrow" for the abuse and "deplorable" treatment that aboriginal students suffered at Roman Catholic Church-run residential schools. June 11, 2008: The Government of Canada delivered a Statement of Reconciliation to all Aboriginal peoples that included an apology to those who had experienced sexual and physical abuse while attending a residential school. Mghttp:// Mg

Recent Developments Sept. 19 th, 2007: A landmark compensation deal for former residential school students. The federal government-approved agreement will provide nearly $2 billion to the former students who had attended the schools, AS WELL AS $36 billion in damages. The average payout is expected to be in the vicinity of $25,000. Those who suffered physical or sexual abuse may be entitled to settlements up to $275,000.