Canadian residential school system

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St. Paul's Indian Industrial School, Middlechurch, Manitoba, 1901

The Canadian residential school system consisted of a number of schools for Aboriginal children, operated during the 20th century by churches of various denominations (about sixty per cent by Roman Catholics, and thirty per cent by the Protestants) and funded under the Indian Act by Indian and Northern Affairs Canada, a branch of the federal government. The schools' purpose was "to take the Indian out of the Queen's Red Children"^{[citation needed]} according to the Gradual Civilization Act which implemented the system.

The first residential schools were set up during the French colonial rule in the 1600s by Roman Catholic missionaries. Their primary role was to convert First Nations children to Christianity. However, the First Nations people did not wish to be converted. Despite inducements from and pressure by the Society of Jesus and the colonial government, few students could be recruited for the schools, and those who did enrol frequently left during hunting season. Eventually the few students who attended either ran away permanently or refused to co-operate.^[1]. Most schools did not last over a decade^{[citation needed]}.

Qu'Appelle, Saskatchewan Indian Industrial School, ca. 1885. Parents of Indian children had to camp outside the gates of the residential schools in order to visit their children.

In the early 1800s, Protestant missionaries opened residential schools in the current Ontario region. The Protestants not only spread Christianity, but also tried to help the indigenous people adopt agriculture. The federal government noticed that the Protestant efforts complemented their aim for assimilation, and began to fund the schools.

Students were required to stay in residences on school premises, which were often walled or fortified in some manner, and were often forcibly removed from their homes, parents, and communities. Most students had no contact with their families for up to 10 months at a time due to the distance between their home communities and schools. Often, they did not have contact with their families for years at a time. The locations of the schools were planned deliberately to ensure a "proper distance" from the reserves. They were prohibited from speaking Aboriginal languages, even amongst themselves and outside the classroom, so that English or French would be successfully learned and their own languages forgotten. Students were subject to often unreasonably severe corporal punishment for speaking Aboriginal languages or practising non-Christian faiths. It is because of this that the residential school system (and indeed the entire Gradual Civilization Act) have been called blatantly racist by native rights groups and have been severely criticized as culturally insensitive or even inhumane. It was also openly acknowledged that the schools were an attempt by government and church churches to assimilate the Aboriginals into the European-Canadian culture, and it was at least partially successful in many cases.

In 1909, Dr. Peter Bryce, general medical superintendent for the Department of Indian Affairs reported to the department that between 1894 and 1908 mortality rates at residential schools in Western Canada ranged from 35% to 60% over five years (that is, five years after entry, 35% to 60% of students had died). These statistics did not become public until 1922, when Bryce, who was no longer working for the government, published The Story of a National Crime: Being a Record of the Health Conditions of the Indians of Canada from 1904 to 1921. In particuluar, he alleged that the high mortality rates were frequently deliberate, with healthy children being exposed to children with tuberculosis.

Residential school group photograph, Regina, Saskatchewan circa 1921

Until the late 1950s, residential schools were severely underfunded, and relied on the forced labour of their students to maintain their facilities. The work was arduous, and severely compromised the academic and social development of the students.

In the 1990s, it was revealed that many students at residential schools were subjected to severe physical, psychological, and sexual abuse by teachers and school officials. Several prominent court cases led to large monetary payments from the federal government and churches to former students of residential schools.

The last residential school closed in 1996. The federal government has since apologized for the trauma the students experienced.

On November 23, 2005, the Canadian government announced a $1.9 billion compensation package to benefit tens of thousands of survivors of abuse at native residential schools. National Chief Phil Fontaine of the Assembly of First Nations said the package covers, "decades in time, innumerable events and countless injuries to First Nations individuals and communities." Justice Minister Irwin Cotler called the decision to house young Canadians in church-run native residential schools "the single most harmful, disgraceful and racist act in our history." At a news conference in Ottawa, Deputy Prime Minister Anne McLellan said: "We have made good on our shared resolve to deliver what I firmly believe will be a fair and lasting resolution of the Indian school legacy."CBC

Similar forced residential boarding schools for native communities were operated in the United States (under the name Indian boarding schools) and in Australia (the Stolen Generation).

Any person that can be verified as attending a Residential School in Canada is entitled to a Common Experience payment of $10,000.00 plus $3,000.00 for every year attended.

1 References
2 Further reading
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] References

^ J. R. Miller (1996). Shingwauk's vision: A history of Canadian residential schools. University of Toronto Press

[edit] Further reading

Annett, Kevin, "Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust" (2005)
Haig-Brown, Celia. (1988). "Resistance and Renewal : Surviving the Indian Residential School." Vancouver. Tillacum Library, Arsenal Pulp Press Ltd. ISBN 0-88978-189-3
Mitchell, Jennifer. "Indian Princess #134: Cultural Assimilations at St. Joseph's Mission" (2003)