Children Of The Broken Treaty : Canada 's Lost Promise And One Girl 's Dream

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

Theodore Fontaine is one of the thousands of young aboriginal peoples who were subjected through the early Canadian system of the Indian residential schools, was physically tortured. Originally speaking Ojibwe, Theodore relates the encounters of a young man deprived of his culture and parents, who were taken away from him at the age of seven, during which he would no longer be free to choose what to say, how to say it, with whom to live and even what culture to embrace. Theodore would then spend the next twelve years undoing what had been done to him since birth, and the rest of his life attempting a reversal of his elementary education culture shock, traumatization, and indoctrination of ethnicity and Canadian supremacy. Out of these experiences, he wrote the “Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools-A Memoir” and in this review, I considered the Heritage House Publishing Company Ltd publication.

Knockwood explains the enforcement of residential ideologies as a “combination of physical intimidation and psychological manipulation which produced terror and confusion” (12). The premise of residential schools was to strip Indigenous children from their culture and Indigenous identity, forcing them to only speak English, or face severe consequences. Despite the government and churches best efforts, many Indigenous children still maintained their cultural roots and kept their language while at home. This governmental need for assimilation has had lasting impacts far beyond the scope of active residential schools. Neeganagwedgin notes, “while the schools may be physically closed, the legacy lingers” (34). Beyond this, she urges, present-day institutions still function in a way that continues to undermine and systematically deny, “Indigenous peoples their inherent rights as First Peoples” (Neeganagwedgin 34); such as the justice system, child welfare and the education systems.

First Nation children were forced to attend Indian residential schools dating back to the 1870’s and spanned many decades with the final school closing in 1996. These educational institutions were government funded and church run by Roman Catholic, Presbyterian, United and Anglican denominations (Truth and Reconciliation Commission, n.d.). There were 139 schools where more than 150 000 First Nations children attended. The children of these schools were mentally, physically, emotionally and sexually abused. There were a multitude of accounts of being strapped and needles piercing children’s tongues for speaking their native language. After a sentencing in British Columbia court of a supervisor of a residential school, Supreme Court Justice Hogarth called Arthur Plint a “sexual terrorist” it was also noted that “as far as the victims were concerned, the Indian residential school system was nothing more than institutionalized pedophilia” (First Nations Studies Program, 2009). In 1920 it became mandatory for every Native child to attend a residential school. It was illegal to attend any other main stream educational facility (First Nations Studies Program, 2009). The abuse that the victims suffered during their attendance at the residential school far from concluded at that point. It is evident that it has had an intergenerational effect culturally and psychologically and has caused an incredible loss of family dynamic.

During the whole of this article, Denis tactfully presents the almost stereotypical uncaring view of the European-Canadians. On the outside these people portray a positive, supportive front, however, this is taken down as Denis uncovers an apathetic mentality towards Residential Schools. Countless people push the blame to the past as they did not commit these insufferable acts; wanting to move on and leave these events behind. However, we are shown throughout this article that this is not always the mindset European-Canadians have. Many European-Canadians feel strongly towards making amends and taking action in supporting these people who were so severely influence by Residential Schools. The Anishinaabe see the shift of blame and worry that no change will commence as part of the apology. Denis communicates to the reader that this is only a step

The school systems and the courses being taught are not up to proper standards for First Nations people. The author, Carr-Stewart writes the article “A Treaty Right to Education” to prove to her audience the schooling systems need to change and have been inadequate for many First Nations people. The author shows very strong arguments throughout her article. A main argument presented is that First Nations children deserve the proper education and teaching as non-First Nations children whom are provincially funded versus First Nations children’s education, which is federally funded. She argues that assimilation is a technique used by the crown in order to achieve their goals. The crown is slow and unwilling to help First Nations people in most cases, while this causes tension between the relationship of the crown and First Nations people. Lastly, another argument Carr-Stewart presents is a claim that the schools on reserves are inadequate and lack many fundamental pieces to a proper child’s education including: proper course material, funding, buildings and teachers. Carr-Stewart shows various strengths and weaknesses throughout her article “A Treaty Right to Education”. Repetition and unnecessary content is found within Carr-Stewart’s article. She shows repetition within her quotations and while adding unimportant information; she leaves out several important ideas that could have improved her article. While the article by

It is not possible to talk about the lengthy history of colonial settlers and indigenous groups without addressing the devastating effects of Indian residential schools on the Aboriginal community in Canada. During the past two decades, the Canadian government acknowledged the implications and has taken responsibility for the outcomes of these residential schools. Much has been done through the framework of transitional justice in order to facilitate reconciliation with the indigenous community in Canada. Despite the government’s amends, I will argue that the reconciliation efforts were inadequate because the purpose of these initiatives was merely to draw a line between the past and the present, rather than to restore the socioeconomic wellbeing of the Aboriginal community that existed before the legacy of Indian residential schools.

Joseph Boyden’s novel, Three Day Road tells the story of two Indigenous men named Xavier and Elijah, in the Canadian army in World War II and how their time in it, comes to affect their identities and the rest of their lives. Boyden uses the fates of Xavier and Elijah, their aunt, Niska and Niska’s sister, Rabbit in the face of colonialism to demonstrate the important role of resilience in First Nations culture. Using the chapter entitled, “Kipwahakan (Captive),” where Niska tells Xavier the story of her leaving Residential School, my points are reinforced in the reading on “The Residential School System” found at the Indigenous Foundations. The writer theorizes, that one of the reasons for the discrepancy of cultural attachment within the

The 60s, a time most people remember to be full of partying, overrun with tacky Afros, high Hippies, and cheap Lava Lamps. However, even in the happiest of times, no matter how peaceful the world seems, you can always count on a minority being mistreated, which during the 60s was happening right here in Canada, specifically in Residential Schools. These institutions were designed to assimilate native children into Canadian society, but in reality, they more often than not became host to the mutilation of the native people’s rights, all in the name of the gods that every man, women, and child of Canada worshiped. Richard Wagamese’s book Indian Horse focuses on this aspect of Canadian history. The story follows the life of Saul Allen, an Ojibwa

In the late 1800s, the Canadian government and the church bodies started removing aboriginal children from their homes and started replacing them in industrial schools. The residential schools were the most effective take for destroying aboriginal culture and identity. Many of the Aboriginal children came away from school in their teen year’s barely knowing how to read and write. Thus, what was more critical was that many children were abused emotionally and physically throughout their school years. More importantly, the schools were located far away because the federal government wanted to minimize the amount of parent-child contact. The severity of the abuse suffered in residential schools intended to kill the Indian children within,

This paper revealed the impact of residential schools on the Aboriginal people of Canada. If one does not expect to find education as a tool for assimilation and colonization, indeed you expect to find abuse as a way of assimilation. This paper argued that although there was an apology if Canada continues to discriminate against the Aboriginal people reconciliation is not a factor. It is evident that the Canada government obviously want to stop the Aboriginal people's culture, language, and spirituality. They look at the Aboriginal people as inferior to take care of their children.

First Nations people in Canada have faced colonization and assimilation through Canadian Aboriginal policy throughout history. Policies such as the Indian Act, residential school system, the sixties scoop, and the White Paper have all shared the main goal of assimilation throughout many years. In today’s society, First Nations people are beginning to see positive changes throughout Aboriginal policy. The changes made to the Constitution Act and the Great Bear Rainforest Agreement proves that the government is slowly making positive changes toward Aboriginal policy in Canada. Although the past has shown nothing but struggle and trauma faced by First Nations people because of Aboriginal policy set forth by the government. The Indian Act began

Canada is considered a relatively peaceful country that has little conflict with foreign countries worldwide. Although Canada has peaceful foreign relations its biggest concern comes internally with the Native Aboriginal population. The Native Aboriginal population has had constant conflict with the colonizing population ever since white European settlers colonized Canada.Throughout this paper I will argue how post colonial rule had had detrimental effects on todays Canadian Aboriginal population by examining the Indian residential school system in Canada, the Indian Act, and Canadian Aboriginal reserves.

During the time spent in the course this year, I've gained so much knowledge about the First Nations culture. In the beginning of the course, I barely knew anything, with the information I have received it has opened me to the truth of my own culture, and the First Nations people's culture. It has been disappointing to find out that the information I was taught in elementary school about the First Nations people was false, and how much of it was just stereotyped. An important concept I learnt throughout the course is, the danger of a single story. This is because, I realized having only one viewpoint to a story can extremely limit the ideas we are able to obtain from it. Residential schools are extremely important in First Nations people's cultures past, as that is the cause of what almost took away their whole culture.

When we look back in Canada’s past, one of the most racialized groups in our history is Aboriginals. The Aboriginal people of Canada were singled out due to the fact their skin color and ways of living were different than others. Because of this difference in lifestyle and race, the Aboriginal people of Canada would be subjects to a traumatic experience which would change their lives. Not only would this change their lives but with it would bring them a lot of pain and suffering. This life changing experience is caused by government funded schools called Residential Schools. The intent of this essay is to look at how these schools came to be and how the aggressive assimilation by these schools caused many consequences for the aboriginal people. With that being said, we will begin this essay with a brief review of how these schools came to be