Causes Of Residential Schools

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

Residential schools were viewed as a way to refine the Aboriginal population and keep children from keeping their language and their cultural traditions. The purpose of residential schools was to civilize the Aboriginal people and to make them useful and good members of society with strict punishments for any of their wrong doings. Richard Pratt is the person who founded the Carlisle Indian Industrial School and he said “you must kill the Indian in him; to save the man”. (Kill the Indian in him) The goal of residential schools was to combine the Aboriginals into white society when they were children since they were much more gullible. My research paper will focus on the residential schools and will contend that the Canadian government and churches committed genocide against the Aboriginal population in an attempt to eliminate the Aboriginal culture.

The first residential school opened in Canada in the 1830’s and closed in 1996, these schools were made for indigenous children. The children did not leave at free will they were “forcibly taken from families — sometimes at gunpoint — and flew them to remote locations they could not escape — sometimes in tiny handcuffs — where they were submitted to a program” (Staniforth). When the children arrived they were stripped of their clothing, cut their hair and given European clothes and the “European look”. They were not allowed to speak in their own language or practice their traditions, aboriginal culture and spiritual beliefs were seen as unequal and thought that the children should learn the ways of Euro-Canadians and only speak English or French. They forced these children to practice a catholic faith and attend church, if these rules amongst many others were not obeyed they would experience severe consequences. The consequences ranged anywhere from being physically, mentally, emotionally and even sexually abused. The schools were ridden with pests, illness, lice and were overpopulated, children were even experimented on to see the effects of malnutrition. The lack of funding for these systems caused them to use children as labourers and said that it “built character”(Staniforth). The education was very limited and the girls were

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

Residential school happened in the past, but still affect us in today's world. Globalization and Residential school's go hand in hand in the history books. Globalization created the residential schools; Euro-Canadian culture was the Canadian government's foremost concern, therefore, they created religious schools which accustomed the indigenous children to their society. The churches easily made it into a cultural genocide. The children were abused; physically, spiritually and sexually. The children were malnourished for the most part, and were used to run experiments. They died from tuberculosis, freezing to death, or starvation. The source claims that we should not judge the Canadian government with our modern perspectives about them running the residential schools, and that the churches were operating due to the Canadian government. The Euro-centrism of the Canadian government led them to the residential schools, they believed that they should be the ones that give the children good benefits; like how to survive in the society. The churches part in this plan was to give them a good home where they were cared for. The government abused their power, their rank, and trust. The source is incorrect, because the government and the churches should be judged from a modern perspective, because the government could have learned from past mistakes, the churches chose to abuse the students, and they were not helping the students integrate into society, but rather creating social

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

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.

While the initial objective was for the schools to help integrate First Nations children into the mainstream society they lived in, this integration clearly became an attempt at conversion. The children were removed from their families for extended durations, attempting to ensure Canadian-Christian upbringing. The residential schools original goal drastically changed, with their disgraceful policy regarding forbidding Aboriginal children from any kind of acknowledgement and recognition of their native language and culture. There are numerous reports of physical, psychological and sexual abuse experienced by Indigenous children in residential schools and painful consequences that in most cases last a lifetime (Hanson, E.).

The purpose of Canada 's residential schools was to assimilate First Nation peoples into mainstream Canadian Society, like the Indian Act. The Residential Schools damaged First Nation people because it disconnected the children from their history, language, family, and culture. Residential Schools taught children that their culture wasn 't worth preserving. Some legacies of Residential Schools include alcoholism, poverty, and increased chances of becoming a prostitute or abuser (physical, emotional, sexual, and psychological). Statistics prove that people who have been

The sociological effects that Aboriginal peoples in Canada face are vast. Residential schools, stripped people of their identity, enforced a cultural genocide, abused (both sexually and physically) children and created an unjust line of intergenerational trauma. Kinship ties, for the majority were lost during the residential school period, sometimes leaving entire communities displaced. The Canadian Government fails to recognize the treatment of Aboriginal peoples during the residential school period and there hasn’t been much done to help those who are affected.

In reflecting on that Wab shared of his father’s experience in the residential school system, information gathered from the text, as well as my own prior knowledge, operated under various religious organizations, in tandem with the Government of Canada, residential schools were one of the methods used to assimilate Aboriginal children into white society (textbook). Tasked with the responsibility to “remove the Indian from the child” such was accomplished through whatever means necessary, whereby come the stories of physical and emotional abuse, in addition placing many children under experiments involving malnutrition (Erin discus). The consequences of such schooling then included, an increased number of generations growing up outside the family environment, these individuals no longer fitting into their Aboriginal communities, yet they are not accepted in

These schools were created for the reason of teaching Aboriginal children the Canadian language and culture in the hope that they will become assimilated into it. Every Aboriginal child under the age of 16 will be forcibly removed from their homes and put into residential schools. Often if children spoke their own language or practiced their own cultural traditions they were punished physically and verbally. They would be abused and many students would deal with emotional damage for the rest of their lives. The death and disease factors also had a large impact on the Indian children, at least 4000 Aboriginal children died from tuberculosis and the spanish influenza. By the 1940s and 1950s, residential schools have restricted nutrients and dental care for multiple students creating an unhealthy lifestyle (The Canadian Encyclopedia "Residential Schools."The Canadian Encyclopedia. October 10, 2012. Accessed July 7,

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).

Furthermore, there were a lot of mental issues that the kids developed at the schools. Ultimately residential schools were a horrible time and place for First nations children to be going to school. First Nations students at residential schools would face abuse from the

Most people believe that residential schools does more harm than good to First Nations. They have all the means to believe that, since stories like Chanie Wenjack’s death and many more reveals the brutal ruthlessness of some residential schools, but is there another side to this story? Residential schools are built to assimilate First Nations culture. They certainly achieved that, but were residential schools such a horrible place? Were residential schools the only schools that abused children?