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.

1 History
2 Reconciliation attempts
3 References
4 Further reading
5 See also
6 External links

[edit] History

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, many 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 enroll 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 encourage the indigenous people to adopt agriculture. In 1857, the Gradual Civilization Act was passed by the federal government with the aim of assimilating First Nations people. The federal government noticed that the Protestant efforts complemented their aim for assimilation, and began to fund the schools. In 1920, attendance became compulsory by law for all children aged 7-15. Children were forcibly removed from their families, or their families were threatened with prison if they failed to send their children willingly.

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 particular, 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. Literary education, or any serious efforts to inspire literacy in English or French, were almost non-existent. School books and textbooks, if they were present at all, were drawn mainly from the curricula of the provincially funded public schools for non-Aboriginal students, and teachers at the residential schools were notoriously under-trained.

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. Although a settlement has been offered to former students, the federal government has decided not to apologize for the system or any damage caused. ^[2]

[edit] Reconciliation attempts

In 1998, the Government made a Statement of Reconciliation – including an apology to those people who were sexually or physically abused while attending residential schools – and established the Aboriginal Healing Foundation. The Foundation was provided $350 million to fund community-based healing projects focusing on addressing the legacy of Indian residential schools. In Budget 2005, the Government committed an additional $40 Million to continue to support the important work of the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

In June 2001, the Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canana (IRSRC) emerges as a new department of the Federal Government. It's mission is to address the legacy of the Residential Schools system and its effects on former students of Residential Schools by providing alternative means of compensation and support to the victims.

In the Fall of 2003, after some pilot projects launched since 1999, the Alternative Dispute Resolution process or "ADR" is launched. The ADR is a process outside of court providing compensation and psychological support for former students of Residential Schools who have been physically, sexually abused or in situations of wrongful confinement.

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

This compensation package became a Settlement Agreement in May 2006. It proposes, among other things, some funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation, for commemoration and for a Truth and Reconciliation program in aboriginal communities, as well as an individual Common Experience Payment. Any person that can be verified as attending a Residential School in Canada would be entitled to a Common Experience Payment. The amount of compensation would be based on the number of years attended by a particular former student of residential schools: $10,000 for the first year attended plus $3,000 for every year attended thereafter.

The Settlement Agreement also proposed an Advance Payment for former students alive and who are 65 years old and over as of May 30, 2005. The eligible former students have to fill out the Advance Payment form available for download on the IRSRC website to receive $8,000 that would be deducted from the Common Experience Payment if the Settlement Agreement comes into full effect. The deadline for reception of the Advance Payment form by IRSRC is December 31, 2006.

Following a still ongoing legal process including an examination of the Settlement Agreement by the courts of the Provinces and Territories of Canada and an opt-out period during which former students of residential schools may reject the Agreement if they do not agree with its dispositions, the Common Experience Payment would then become available to all the former students of residential schools. All former students (including those 65 years of age and over as of May 30, 2005) would have to fill out the Common Experience Payment application form to receive their full compensation. The federal government has not issued any date or time frame as to when the Common Experience Payment would start to be paid out.

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).

[edit] References

^ J. R. Miller (1996). Shingwauk's vision: A history of Canadian residential schools. University of Toronto Press
^ No residential school apology, Tories say, Globe and Mail, 27/03/07

[edit] Further reading

Annett, Kevin, "Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust" (2005)
Barman, Jean et. al., eds. (1986) Indian Education in Canada. Volume 1: The Legacy. ISBN 0-7748-0243-X
Ward Churchill, Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential Schools, City Lights Books.,U.S., 2004, ISBN 0872864340
Edwards, Brendan Frederick R. (2005). Paper Talk: a history of libraries, print culture, and Aboriginal peoples in Canada before 1960. ISBN 0-8108-5113-X
Haig-Brown, Celia. (1988). "Resistance and Renewal : Surviving the Indian Residential School." Vancouver. Tillacum Library, Arsenal Pulp Press Ltd. ISBN 0-88978-189-3
Milloy, John S. (1999). 'A National Crime': the Canadian Government and the Residential School System, 1879 to 1986. ISBN 0-88755-646-9
Mitchell, Jennifer. "Indian Princess #134: Cultural Assimilations at St. Joseph's Mission" (2003)