
In 1883, Sir John A. MacDonald addressed the
House of Commons and stated that “secular
education is a good thing among white men,
and if possible, good Christian men by
applying proper moral restraints, and
appealing to the instinct for worship that is
found in all nations, whether
civilized or uncivilized.”

Prime Minister MacDonald argued that it was
“of the greatest importance with a view to the
future progress of the Indian race in the arts
of civilization and in intelligence, that every
effort should be made to educate and train
the young Indian females, as well as the male
members of the different Bands of Indians.”

Ottawa favoured Native residential schools
that ensured that the Native child would be
dissociated from the prejudicial influences by
which he is surrounded on the reserve of his
band.

At the peak of their existence, Native
residential schools totalled 80 institutions,
and perhaps only a minority of children;
probably as many as 75 % of all eligible Innuit
and status Indian children of school age.

Native children were forcibly taken from their
homes, or parents may have given them up
willingly with promises of money and
benefits, and by promoting the advantages
for their children. Some parents were
penalized or sent to jail if they did not send
their children to the Residential Schools.

“Native children were removed from their
family homes and familiar lands. This
isolation made children more vulnerable to
the massive brainwashing that was
undertaken to replace their pagan
superstitions with Christianity, and their free
and easy mode of life with relentless labour
and routines.”

“Clearly Canada chose to eliminate the
Indians by assimilating them, unlike the
Americans, who had long sought to
exterminate them physically.” This “policy of
assimilation, a policy designed to move
Aboriginal communities from their savage
state to that of civilization and then to make
one community in Canada – a non-Aboriginal
one.”

Schools were operated by various religious
groups including: Roman Catholics,
Anglicans, United, Methodists, Baptists, and
Jesuits. Despite this, the care of the Native
children was anything but Christian.

Food, the lack of it, and its bug-infested
inferior quality, were on-going problems.
Stealing became a real problem because the
children were simply not getting enough to
eat.

Since dressing and grooming were considered
indicators of the degree to which the
assimilation program was succeeding, there
were strong attempts to make the Native
children look white by forbidding them to
wear their Native costumes, and making them
wear the European clothes. Often the
children wore military-like outfits or school
uniforms, often in poor repair.

Natives reared in Residential Schools were
“called apples: red on the outside, white on
the inside, or they were called ‘wannabe
Indians.’”

The teachers were not well trained, did not
have any cross-cultural training, did not
know how to handle these children, were
poorly paid, had poor working conditions, no
time off, little privacy, and many had not even
completed high school themselves.

Native children while at the schools were not
allowed to speak their Native language and if
caught doing so, were badly beaten and
abused. Children were also sent to bed
hungry, and sent into isolation.

“Yes, I received quite an education there all
right, being to taught to feel guilty, inferior,
and ashamed to be a ‘heathen’ and a
‘savage’. They beat me for speaking Ojibwa
and for practising my own culture, and they
crushed my spirituality with their religion.”

There were many problems in the schools
including … the sanitary conditions were
horrid; poor ventilation; overcrowding in the
homes; a high risk of fires because of the
heating by stoves, and the use of coal-lit
lamps; disease, illness, and death. “Children
in these schools had been dying in
unbelievable numbers.”

Children were subjected to horrid treatment
including various forms of abuse – verbal,
physical, emotional and sexual.

Native Residential Schools created children
who had no family ties, were poorly educated,
angry, and abused, and who had no
experience in parenting. They also had no
strong connections with their Native culture
and language.

Children were taken from a permissive Native
culture, from parents and relatives who had
never struck a child in their lives. The
Residential School system was a supporter of
corporal punishment.

The “final irony of this situation was that in all
areas of the country, except the high plains
after the disappearance of the buffalo,
children on entering the schools likely left
behind a better diet, provided by
communities that were still living on the land,
than that which was provided to them by
school authorities.”

The survivors of the Indian Residential
Schools system have, in many cases,
continued to have their lives shaped by the
experiences in these schools. Persons who
attended these schools continue to struggle
with their identity after years of being taught
to hate themselves and their culture.

The Residential Schools led to a disruption in
the transference of parenting skills from one
generation to the next. Without these skills,
many survivors had difficulties in raising their
own children. Native children learned that
adults often exert power and control abuse.

“Once all the witnesses are gone, maybe
history can be re-written and this crime
against Native humanity can be given a
couple of good coats of whitewash/ But until
then, I’m going to speak out because my
body may be broken, but not my spirit. That
is why, on spite of the government of
Canada’s best and worst efforts, I can proudly
say that I am still an Indian”, said Gabe
Mentuck, a 77 year old Winnipeg resident,
and survivor of a Native Residential School.



Cruel Lessons
AD0112 (1997)
25 minutes