The Canadian Government Enacted An Indian Act

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

The British North America Act of 1867 and the subsequent Indian Act of 1876 gave the Canadian government, under prime minster John A. Macdonald, full control over the nation’s Aboriginal people. The government used this power to establish boarding schools for Aboriginal children. An estimated 144 residential schools operated at different times between the late 1800s and 1996 throughout Canada. These schools were established with the purpose to enhance assimilation of Aboriginal children into the Canadian culture of British and French heritage. However, despite these misguided government attempts lasting more than a century, the Aboriginal culture and civilization could not be eradicated, and the residential school system as originally conceived proved to be a failure.

The Indian Act was an attempt by the Canadian government to assimilate the aboriginals into the Canadian society through means such as Enfranchisement, the creation of elective band councils, the banning of aboriginals seeking legal help, and through the process of providing the Superintendent General of the Indian Affairs extreme control over the aboriginals, such as allowing the Superintendent to decide who receives certain benefits, during the earlier stages of the Canadian-Indigenous' political interaction. The failure of the Indian Act though only led to more confusion regarding the interaction of Canada and the aboriginals, giving birth to the failed White Paper and the unconstitutional Bill C-31,

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.

Residential schools in Canada was the planned assimilation of Aboriginals into European way of life through church run schools. These forging societies have not only been a vital part to the Canadian economy but have also played an important role in protecting Canadian land form American conquest in the 1700’s-1900’s. The residential schooling system revealed the monstrous and shameful acts humans commit when they are power hungry. With the decline of the fur trade industry British colonizer started to see aboriginal peoples as a threat and began introducing treaties and laws to decimate the aboriginal population. Colonizer began implementing land treaties, reserve system but soon realized it was not enough to destroy aboriginal culture. Of the many laws that were passed residential schooling could the most heinous law used to cripple the aboriginals and destroy their culture, and make them second class citizens. This paper argues that euro centric practices reproduces the marginalization and downward social mobility of aboriginal people through the residential schooling system.

In addition to the Indian Act came another mechanism called residential schools. According to Frideres (2011) residential schools were an educational institution established by the Canadian government and the Roman Catholic missionaries for the purpose of forcing native people to abandon their culture and adopt “a more superior” way of living. The first residential school was established in 1874, after which the number of these schools rapidly spread all

The Indian Act is the principle document through which the parliament administers indian status. This act discriminated lot of First Nations rights and freedoms. The Indian act was first signed in 1876, critics argue that the act assumes that federal government officials are the best judges of the needs for the First Nation people. In a recent conversation with an Aboriginal social worker. We discussed how this changed her worldview as her children are leaving in the end of the summer to residential schools. She complained that her children are going to forget who they are and what they represent for their ancestors, and their legacies will turn into fantasies. As she continued she mentioned how the government is trying to assimilate First

Residential schools are a dark past of Canadian history which many people are not educated about. Residential schools were the extremity of day schools and were traumatizing and disturbing. A residential school was an institution for the first nations children where the child was forced to attend to learn about Christianity, and be taught the English language and the European ways. The residential schooling system was run by the Canadian government. The idea of the schools was to “kill the Indian in the child”. The meaning of this assimilation is that the purpose of the establishments was to take away all of the culture and identity of the First Nations children. In the peaks of residential schools, the Europeans believed highly that the first

Residential schools have been a part of Canadian history for many years, and it has left a large impact on many first nation communities in the 20th century such as families dealing with the effects of separation and loss of traditions, children having their natural community and supports violated and lastly how it impacted Canada as a whole. Primarily residential schools not only affected indigenous children but their parents who were left behind as well.in the 20th century, children were highly valued, greatly loved members of the community (Florence,25). parents had to manage the overwhelming impacts of division and the danger of losing the attached connection between their children. Life at residential schools resulted in having their hair cut, they were stripped out of their own clothes and forced to wear uniform-like

The original intentions for the residential schools were to “remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture.” These two objectives make it clear that in the past we viewed the Aboriginals as unequals, we treated them as if we were superior, trying to rid them of their culture and spiritual beliefs. The motives of assimilation were wrong and have no place in Canadian identity.

An agreement called Indian Residential Schools Settlement Act is where Native Canadians is taken away from their families and placed in Canadian residential school system during 20th century. That demonstrates the consequences of assimilation in every residential schools. Devaluation of their culture and religion is one of the consequences of imperialism addressed by the policy. Natives are forced to have European culture and leave their own culture to fit in with everybody else; going to a residential school is one of the most common ways of assimilation. Residential Schools in Canada started in 1831, where natives have encountered traumatic, physical and sexual abuse from the schools that were directed by churches. Any communications with

The history of Canada’s Aboriginal people is one of extreme complexity and not something that can be simplified into a single paper. However, the purpose of this essay is to better grasp and understand just one component of the many that make up the history of these people which is the period that residential schools were in place. Residential schools had an immense impact on the Aboriginal people of Canada and the effects are still being felt by many of them to this day. To understand the impacts of these institutions, one must first be aware of the history behind them. The introduction of Canadian Residential Schools, their successfulness, and their lasting outcomes on individuals will be analyzed throughout this essay.

Residential school refers to a boarding school system setup for Aboriginal children that operated from the 1880s until the late twentieth century education. This system was put in place to “kill the Indian in the child” ( Loppie et al., 2013, p. 6; Miller, 2004, p. 35) While at these boarding schools, they were not permitted to speak their language or practice anything of their culture. These schools were run by religious men and woman. The children were only educated up to grade five level, and only to become work as general laborers in factories or in the home. The focus of their education was to have them, assimilate into ‘Euro-Canadian’ culture, were ultimately this was cultural genocide. Moreover, reports of emotional, physical, and sexual abuse are well documented from survivors of residential schools. Moreover, there were cases of medical experiments being conducted on children. Many children died at residential schools due to maltreatment (FNHA, n.d., para. 22; UBC, 2004, para. 1-3).

On June 11th, 2008 former Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized to the Aboriginals saying “today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm and has no place in our country” (CBC news). The Aboriginals, waiting for this moment to occur in Canadian history responded with sorry is not enough. Assimilation is defined as absorbing a culture or adapting to a nation. The wrong in what happened in the historical past was assimilation was attempted in very wrongful unforgiving way, actions indeed do speak louder than words. The real question could be why was assimilation such a key goal? Did it play a part into why Aboriginals culture slowly is eroding? Some may say that the lack of Aboriginal Culture in our days, today was caused by a reason that had nothing to do with the Government of that time. With the White Paper being rejected, it lead to Canadians thinking that Aboriginals denied a “great offer”. But none of the canadians came to realize how unfair the terms the Aboriginals received were. The Indian Act was a way the government used to be successful in assimilation in a lot more secretive manner. Whereas the Residential Schools practically were screaming out “assimilation”, their goal was made a lot more clear after the Residential Schools came out. This essay will argue that Indian Act, Residential Schools, and the White Paper was an assault to their culture and an erosion of their values/practice .

People often view Canada as a very innocent country. Despite Canada currently being such a friendly country, it is impossible to deny some of the atrocious actions that Canadians have done in the past. A less known example would be the discrimination against the Japanese since their immigration to Canada in the late 19th century. This discrimination reached its peak during World War II; using the war as an excuse, Canadians forced people of Japanese decent out of their homes, and they forced them to remain in internment camps. However, these acts pale in comparison to the horrendous acts towards the Canadian Aboriginal Peoples. In particular, the formation of residential schools. This paper will discuss how the Aboriginal Peoples were