Residential Schools in Canada: History and Heritage Education Guide

Introduction: residential schools Residential schools were government-sponsored Christian schools established to assimilate Indigenous children into settler-Canadian society. Successive Canadian governments used legislation to strip Indigenous peoples of their basic human and legal rights and to gain control over Indigenous lives, their lands, and natural rights and resources. The Indian Act , first introduced in 1876, gave the Canadian government licence to control almost every aspect of First Nations peoples’ lives. Amendments to the Act later required children to attend residential schools, the majority of which operated after 1880. These policies were applied inconsistently to Métis and Inuit communities. One of the main goals of these schools was to assimilate Indigenous peoples into Canadian society through a process of cultural, social, educational, economic, political, and religious assimilation, achieved through removing and isolating Indigenous children from their homes, families, lands, and cultures. This goal was based on the false assumption that Indigenous cultures and Indigenous spiritual beliefs were inferior to those of white Euro-Canadians. Assimilation policies, including education policies, ultimately aimed to undermine Indigenous rights. Residential schools were underfunded and overcrowded; they were rife with starvation, disease, and neglect. Children were often isolated from human contact and nurturing, and many experienced rampant physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. While the experience of Survivors varied from school to school, students were often forcibly removed from their communities, homes, and parents, and forbidden from speaking their Indigenous languages or participating in traditional ceremonies. Thousands of children died while institutionalized at residential schools. Many more remain unaccounted for. The Department of Indian Affairs often refused to return the bodies of deceased children to their parents, claiming the cost was too high. Some children were buried in mass graves, and many graves remain unmarked. According to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC), more than 150,000 First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children attended residential schools. The residential school system caused immeasurable damage, disrupting lives and disturbing healthy communities. The damage inflicted by these schools continues to affect Indigenous peoples across Canada today. Generations of Indigenous peoples have been alienated from their worldviews, traditions, and lifestyles. But through the strength and advocacy of Survivors, their families, and communities, Indigenous peoples across the country are working toward reclaiming their lands and cultures and revitalizing traditional practices as they heal from this legacy of trauma. This education guide aims to raise awareness of the history of residential schools in Canada and increase understanding of the important role education plays in the reconciliation process. As the Executive Summary of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada notes: “Schools must teach history in ways that foster mutual respect, empathy, and engagement. All Canadian children and youth deserve to know Canada’s honest history, including what happened in the residential schools, and to appreciate the rich history and knowledge of Indigenous nations who continue to make such a strong contribution to Canada, including our very name and collective identity as a country. For Canadians from all walks of life, reconciliation offers a new way of living together.” — Honouring the Truth, Reconciling for the Future: Summary of the Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada , 21 Cover: Map of residential schools in Canada (courtesy of National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, University of Manitoba). Thomas Moore, Regina Indian Industrial School, c. 1874 (courtesy of Library and Archives Canada/NL-022474). Nuns with a group of students in Quebec, c. 1890. (courtesy of Library and Archives Canada/H.J. Woodside/Library and Archives Canada/PA-123707). “When the school is on the reserve the child lives with its parents, who are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn to read and write his habits, and training and mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. It has been strongly pressed on myself, as the head of the Department, that the Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.” — Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald, Official report of the debates of the House of Commons of the Dominion of Canada, 9 May 1883, 1107–1108 This education guide is based on Historica Canada’s 2016 Residential Schools in Canada Education Guide. The guide was developed in collaboration and consultation with educators, academics, and community stakeholders, including Holly Richard, Dr. Tricia Logan, Dr. Crystal Gail Fraser, Amos Key Jr., Dr. John Milloy, and Kenneth Campbell. 2