Residential schools where started off in Canada around the pre-Confederation times, but were primarily implemented following the Indian Act of 1876. The Indian Act of 1867 allowed the Crown to place a lot of restrictions on status Indian’s and these restrictions included how their children would be receive formal education. The Indian residential schools in Canada were boarding schools administered by the churches in Canada and funded by the state. The churches involved included Roman Catholic, Anglican Church and Presbyterian Church. Residential schools are commonly known as having being introduced with the intention of educating, assimilating and integrating the Aboriginal people into the western culture and Canadian society. According to the government in those days, the objective was to “kill the Indian in the child.” However in the process of trying to rid the child of their Indian culture and ethnicity, residential school system perpetually committed cultural genocide and the effects would be seen on generations to come. In 2009, the Canadian prime minister, Stephen Harper; offered a long awaited and much needed apology to the Aboriginal communities within Canada. Harper referred to the residential school era as a “sad chapter in our history, that need not have occurred” (Harper, 2008) While the Canadian governments public apology was a step in the right direction, many, from a more critical lens, have referred to the residential school system as a cultural genocide instead of a “mere sad chapter in our history” However, while the Canadian government tries to shy away from such an allegation, the impact of the residential school system on Aboriginals should not be viewed lightly. This p... ... middle of paper ... ...son (2012). The Genocide Question and Indian Residential Schools in Canada. Canadian Journal of Political Science, 45, pp 427- Canada. Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. Report of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, Volume 1: Looking Forward, Looking Back. Chapter 10, "Residential Schools." Ottawa: Supply and Services Canada, 1996. Fournier, Suzanne and Ernie Crey. Stolen from our Embrace: The Abduction of First Nations Children and the Restoration of Aboriginal Communities. Vancouver: Douglas & McIntyre, 1997. Haig-Brown, Celia. Resistance and Renewal: Surviving the Indian Residential School. Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1998. First published by Tillicum Library, 1988. http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/pm-cites-sad-chapter-in-apology-for-residential-schools- http://www.ahf.ca/downloads/misconceptions.pdf 449. doi:10.1017/S000842391200039X.
The validity of this generalization can be evidenced by the moral, political, constitutional and practical concerns that shaped national Indian policy between 1789 and the mid-1830’s.
To begin, Mary Sherry discusses the corrupt school system that lingers. In her article, we obtain insight on how schools
In the mid-19th century, Britain was facing problems of over populated cities. Life for the poor class was incredibly difficult. To survive, children as young as _____ had to find work to bring in money for food and shelter. In such families young children were seen as a burden and older ones as a source of income. Oftentimes unexpected circumstances such as sickness would leave families unable to support themselves. Orphaned children took to the streets or were put in parishes by closest kin which were not much better than the streets. Slowly people started to take notice of their plight. Both newly formed and pre-established philanthropic agencies began bringing in children and apprenticing them. Homes like Barnardo, Rye, and Macpherson Homes were set up all over Britain to accommodate them. Hundreds of families would admit their own children to the Homes when they could no longer provide for them. With this overwhelming response, the child savers soon had more children than they could handle; they began searching for a place to send them.
The history of Indian Child Welfare Act derived from the need to address the problems with the removal of Indian children from their communities. Native American tribes identified the problem of Native American children being raised by non-native families when there were alarming numbers of children being removed from their h...
Our Indian legislation generally rests on the principle, that the aborigines are to be kept in a condition of tutelage and treated as wards or children of the State. …the true interests of the aborigines and of the State alike require...
The government itself said they were doing this for the survival of the Indian race and if that was the case they wouldn’t have moved them to a place they had never been, a place they didn’t know anything about, location thousands of miles away that they couldn’t survive, much less thrive in. Instead they, moved them to a dry desert like land that they did not want. The government said that they would pay for ...
During the 19th century the Canadian government established residential schools under the claim that Aboriginal culture is hindering them from becoming functional members of society. It was stated that the children will have a better chance of success once they have been Christianised and assimilated into the mainstream Canadian culture. (CBC, 2014) In the film Education as We See It, some Aboriginals were interviewed about their own experiences in residential schools. When examining the general topic of the film, conflict theory is the best paradigm that will assist in understanding the social implications of residential schools. The film can also be illustrated by many sociological concepts such as agents of socialization, class inequality, and language as a cultural realm.
The Indian Residential schools and the assimilating of First Nations people are more than a dark spot in Canada’s history. It was a time of racist leaders, bigoted white men who saw no point in working towards a lasting relationship with ingenious people. Recognition of these past mistakes, denunciation, and prevention steps must be taking intensively. They must be held to the same standard that we hold our current government to today. Without that standard, there is no moving forward. There is no bright future for Canada if we allow these injustices to be swept aside, leaving room for similar mistakes to be made again. We must apply our standards whatever century it was, is, or will be to rebuild trust between peoples, to never allow the abuse to be repeated, and to become the great nation we dream ourselves to be,
...rtwine between education and politics. Unlike public schools during the same period which were separate and disconnected from federal power, Indian schools were a site where U.S. policy directly influenced the students. Under rule by the B.I.A., Indian schools were alike in architecture and landscaping, and all structured military-style regime (Student Body Assembled). They all also had a common curriculum which involved English, farming and manual trades for men and domestic work for women. The goal of the boarding schools thus went far beyond industrial training, gender role socialization and even the creation of capitalist desires. Re-socialization of Native Americans was to be accomplished by institutions: removal of personal possessions, loss of control over their own schedule, uniforms, haircuts and the inability to escape from organizational rules and policy.
The Indian Child Welfare was passed in congress because Indian children were being removed from their homes and put into ones of other ethnicities unjustly; many
The Indian Act no longer remains an undisputable aspect of the Aboriginal landscape in Canada. For years, this federal legislation (that was both controversial and invasive) governed practically all of the aspects of Aboriginal life, starting with the nature of band governance and land tenure. Most importantly, the Indian act defines qualifications of being a “status Indian,” and has been the source of Aboriginal hatred, due to the government attempting to control Aboriginals’ identities and status. This historical importance of this legislation is now being steadily forgotten. Politically speaking, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal critics of the Indian act often have insufferable opinions of the limits of the Indian Act’s governance, and often argue to have this administrative device completely exterminated. Simultaneously, recent modern land claim settlements bypass the authority of the Indian Act over specific groups.
In 1887 the federal government launched boarding schools designed to remove young Indians from their homes and families in reservations and Richard Pratt –the leader of Carlisle Indian School –declared, “citizenize” them. Richard Pratt’s “Kill the Indian… and save the man” was a speech to a group of reformers in 1892 describing the vices of reservations and the virtues of schooling that would bring young Native Americans into the mainstream of American society.
You simply cannot justify ripping a child from a loving home and stripping them of their culture and placing them in prison like dormitories where you attempt to “civilize” them. Deculturaliztion will never be a right or just act. Decades later the Native Americans are still picking up the pieces from the wrecking ball that was the Indian Boarding School experience.
The Indian Child Welfare Act was passed in 1978 to “‘promote the best interests of Indian children and promote the stability and security of Indian tribes’” (“Indian Child”). Congress gave tribal courts exclusive control over the adoption and custody of Indian children who live in their tribes’ reservations to prevent the practice of Indian children being removed from their homes (“Indian Child”). Even though some suggest the ICWA is racist and increases the risk of child abuse, the law should remain in place with no significant changes because it helps children’s mental health by connecting them to their culture.
The Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 was the New Deal for the Indian nation. The new policy was intended to ease the injustices that the Indians suffered at the hands of government. It was intended to stop the practice of forcing Indians to assimilate into western society (erasing their Indian identity and culture), as well as forcing them to live on reservations that were too small to sustain them (Kennedy, pg. 379).