Deceptive Headlines

.Residential Schools - Historica Canada > .

Residential schools were government-sponsored religious schools established to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture. Although the first residential facilities were established in New France, the term usually refers to the custodial schools established after 1880. Originally conceived by Christian churches and the Canadian government as an attempt to both educate and convert Indigenous youth and to integrate them into Canadian society, residential schools disrupted lives and communities, causing long-term problems among Indigenous peoples. Since the last residential school closed in 1996, former students have pressed for recognition and restitution, resulting in the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement in 2007 and a formal public apology by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in 2008. In total, an estimated 150,000 First Nation, Inuit, and Métis children attended residential schools.

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A lamentable period in Canadian history. However, the numbers should not be taken out of context (though they undoubtedly will be):

"From about 1863 to 1998, more than 150,000 indigenous children were taken from their families and placed in [residential] schools."

"The Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia was the largest in the residential system. Opened under Roman Catholic administration in 1890, the school had as many as 500 students when enrolment peaked in the 1950s. [It] closed in 1978 [88 years of operation]."

"A mass grave containing the remains of 215 children has been found ... at the former residential school." 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57291530 .

Statistical reality = 215/88 = an average of 2.4 deaths per annum. 

Prior to vaccination for children, the numbers of children succumbing to infection each year were probably higher across the entire population. So, sad though the death of any child is, this was not genocide. 

Cultural genocide? Without doubt the experience of being torn from one's parents would be traumatic -- ask any British child sent off to a public boarding school -- and conditions were undoubtedly worse than at British public boarding schools. The prevalence of mental health issues on native reservations supports claims of emotional trauma within the residential school system, and highlights the necessity of providing social supports. Culturally, though, the fact that today's First Nations adults continue to practice their native traditions suggests that indigenous children learnt to be bilingual and bicultural, rather than losing all connection to their indigenous heritage.