1. Life under the Indian Act:
The legacy of Residential Schools

2. Indian Act of 1876 A consolidation of all the aboriginal laws
Main goal: assimilation! = eliminate the “Indian Problem”
Gov’t working under the idea that they had to look out for Aboriginals best interest (protecting them from whiskey traders and Americans)
The Indian Act allowed the Canadian gov’t to extinguish Aboriginal rights and title to land completely and created treaties that granted back certain specific rights.

3. What is an “Indian”? The Indian Act of 1876 defined “Indian” as:
Any male person of Indian blood that belongs to a particular band
Any child of such person
Any woman who is or was lawfully married to such person.

4. The Loss of Aboriginal Rights
Defined who was “Indian” (identity was a number)
No self government (end of hereditary chiefs)
Not allowed to vote (unless gave up status)
Prohibited from buying or consuming alcohol
Couldn’t leave the reserve without the Indian Agent’s permission
Forbidden from holding traditional ceremonies (i.e. potlatch, Sun Dance)
Educated at government run schools (residential schools)

5. First Residential School in BC
St Mary’s in Mission 1861
Longest Run Residential School in the Province of BC
Closed its doors in 1984 (the last school in the province)
130 schools in total across Canada
70% were operated by the Catholic Church
First Coined as Industrial Schools to train the ‘Indians’ with some skills
Mirrored after the American Model – to help save the indian from the negative influences from families and culture

6. Aggressive Assimilation Policy 1879
Policy to forcibly remove children

7. Dr. Bryce’s Report.
Controversy in the early 20th Century…why are Aboriginal students dying in schools?
1907- Dr. Bryce was assigned as Chief Medical Examiner to produce a report on the health conditions at the schools
People complained but no legal jurisdiction as the Indian Act allowed for aboriginals to be wards of the state
Poor ventilation contributed to the prevalence of TB

8. Dr. Bryce – “National Crime”
“Indian Children were being systematically and deliberately killed in Residential school.”
- Dr Bryce, 1907
Tuberculosis epidemic = National Crime
“Inadequate funding, poorly constructed schools, sanitary and ventilation problems, inadequate diet, clothing and medical care”
24% of all the students who had been at the schools were known to be dead
Was in direct opposition to governmental policy and his report was published without his recommendations
High death rate was not enough to “justify a change in the policy of this department, which is geared to the final solution of our Indian Problem”

9. How children were transported
1920 Duncan Campbell Scott made Attendance Mandatory to Indian Residential School
All Children ages
How children were transported
But it ended in 1948

10. Canada’s Assimilation Policy
“I want to get rid of the Indian problem. I do not think as a matter of fact, that the country ought to continuously protect a class of people who are able to stand alone… Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question, and no Indian Department, that is the whole object of this Bill.”
Dr. Duncan Campbell Scott – 1920
Department of Indian Affairs

11. Genocide Convention
1948 United Nations Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
The Convention defines genocide as any of the following acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group, as such:
a. Killing members of the group; b. Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group; c. Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; d. Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; e. Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.
the term does not necessarily signify mass killings... More often it refers to a co-ordinated plan aimed at destruction of the essential foundations of the life of national groups so that these groups wither and die like plants that have suffered a blight."
"The end may be accomplished by the forced disintegration of political and social institutions, of the culture of the people, of their language, their national feelings and their religion," Lemkin wrote in 'Genocide - A Modern Crime.‘
Not all of the International Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (CPPCG) made it into the Canadian Criminal Code. The following parts of Article Two, which define the crime of genocide, were omitted when the Convention was ratified and became law in 1952: "Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group" and, "Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group." Dr. Roland Chrisjohn, director of the Department of Native Studies at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, says that the omissions are not a coincidence. The original two omissions correspond directly to Canada's official policy of abducting Native children and keeping them in residential schools, where many were subject to gruesome and well-documented abuse and torture.

12. Cultural Genocide
Cultural genocide is the systematic destruction of traditions, values, language, and other elements which make one group of people distinct from other groups.

13. Life back on the reserves
When students returned to the reserve, they often found they didn't belong.
They didn't have the skills to help their parents, and became ashamed of their native heritage.
The skills taught at the schools were generally substandard; many found it hard to function in an urban setting.
The aims of assimilation meant devastation for those who were subjected to years of mistreatment.
Intergenerational Impacts

14. What are Intergenerational Impacts?
When someone experiences or witnesses a traumatic experience and that experience is not dealt with – those effects are passed on to the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Aboriginal people who attended the residential school system.

15. Impacts Misuse of Alcohol and Drugs FASD and NAS Violence Self-worth
Dysfunctional families and relationships
Parenting skills
Suicide
Teen pregnancy
Depression/Anger
Passive Aggressive behaviour
Poverty
Spiritual Confusion
Internalized Inferiority
Toxic Communication
Co-dependency
Disconnection to natural world
Feel like you have no voice
Eating disorders
Sleeping disorders
Fear
Sexual abuse
Education

16. Last School to close in Canada
Gordon’s Indian Residential School, Saskatchewan, 1996

17. Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement
Initiated by survivors, it’s the largest class action lawsuit in Canada to date
Common Experience Payment (CEP): offers direct payments to all former students of federally run residential schools. Application had to be before 2011.
Independent Assessment Process (IAP): revolve and compensate claims of sexual abuse, serious physical abuse, or other wrongful acts that caused psychological damage
Healing fund of $125 million to continue the healing of survivors.

18. 130 “recognized” schools in Canada

19. Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Gather testimony from survivors to create a historical record that is available to the public
Promote public awareness and education to all Canadians
A report recommending what is to be done regarding the legacy of residential schools
Support commemoration of former Residential school students and their families

20. Was this a learning institution?

21. Some questions to consider
What was the Indian Problem?
Why was it a problem?
Who’s problem was it?
The Indian Problem would no longer exist because there would be no more "Indians." Education would be the tool to "civilize" the "savage.“
And the thinking behind the desire to educate the Indians: "At the very least," U.S. Indian Commissioner Thomas Morgan said, "it was cheaper to educate Indians than to kill them." A predecessor, Carl Schurz, had done the math, calculating in 1882 that it cost nearly $1 million to kill an Indian in battle, but $1,200 for eight years of schooling.

22. Curriculum 40% of the teaching staff had no professional training
Half the day was spent on academics, the other was spent between manual labor and receiving religious instructions
Grade 9 education was made available, very few achieved this level
Centered on vocational training, like animal husbandry, homemaking and general labor.

23. What life was like
They were right about institutions – Total Institutions
All activities were under strict guidance and control
24 hour surveillance
They were given a number
Not given much of an education
Chores! Chores! Chores!

24. Cleanliness
Children were told they were “dirty little Indians” and were reprimanded for bed wetting etc
Told that their parents had done poor jobs raising them

25. What went wrong?
Residential schools were established with the assumption that aboriginal culture was unable to adapt to a rapidly modernizing society.
Students were discouraged from speaking their first language or practising native traditions. If they were caught, they would experience severe punishment.
Throughout the years, students lived in substandard conditions and endured physical and emotional abuse. There are also many allegations of sexual abuse.
Students at residential schools rarely had opportunities to see examples of normal family life. They were in school 10 months a year, away from their parents. All correspondence from the children was written in English, which many parents couldn't read.
Brothers and sisters at the same school rarely saw each other, as all activities were segregated by gender.