Residential School Essay

1876 was the year of Indian Act, the Indian Act was made by the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development to control and assimilate the First Nations. One way to assimilate First Nations kids was Residential schools. The first residential Schools was established in 1884 and the last one closed in 1996. Residential Schools were a network of live-in schools funded by the government that removed children from their homes and forced them to go to these schools until age 18. Over 30% (150, 000) of First Nations children went to these schools. Of those 30%, at least 6000 of the kids died in those schools due to sickness, or sometimes even abuse. In the 112 years, 130 schools existed in every province and territory except Newfoundland,
Many of the system survivors have suffered from PTSD as well as loss of culture and language from being forced not to talk in their native language. This was then passed down to their offspring because they were not able to teach them about their culture. As adults, many lack adequate parenting skills, as their childhoods were filled with abuse and that’s all they know. Starting in the 1980’s, the survivors began taking the government and the churches that were involved to court for the damages caused by the school system. Only a few of the cases were won, others were settled. This way of assimilation, we hope, will never be used again as we see now how detrimental and horrible the effects were, instead of helpful. In November of 2005, the Canadian government had announced that $1.9 billion was going to a compensation package for the thousands of surviving students. The amount that they got was based on the number of years the student resided in the school. $10,000 for the first year then $3,000 for every year on top of that. Claims of physical and sexual abuse were compensated up to $275,000. Prime Minister Stephen Harper made a formal apology on behalf of the Canadian government in June of 2008;