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Effects on residential schools in canada for the community
Effects on residential schools in canada for the community
Indian act canada summary
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To even the most ignorant of Canadian citizens there should be some understanding that roughly between the years of 1815-1960, there was an enormous amount of intimidation and destruction of indigenous life and culture in North America. While there are countless events that occurred during this period, I believe the three most prominent of this would be the residential school system, the Indian Act, and the Red River Colony incidents. The Indian Act was officially passed in 1876 and on a surface level serves the purpose of identifying who is and is not Native American. In an article by André Émond the entire act is laid out in vivid detail from its beginnings to its current effects. He clarifies that before there was the Indian Act, we had …show more content…
Beginning as early as 1890, these school systems were created by a mixture of the federal government and christian churches with more influence from the later. According to Loppie, this process of removing children from their homes to “educate and civilize” them caused an immense amount of physical, emotional and sexual harm. These schools would rip innocent children from their families where they would live in schools were they could only speak in english and/or french, eat foods they did not know and over all live lives that they were not adjusted to whatsoever. The purpose of this torture? To “kill the indian in the child” by destroying the customs and beliefs of indigenous people. After all, if one full generation knows nothing of their heritage then the continuous generations there after will have no way of knowing and the cycle will be ended. Loppie declares them a way of structural …show more content…
In Dickason’s novel we learn the whole truth about the Metis people of what is now called Manitoba. It is true that things ran rather justly and smoothly to being with. Metis people did live off this land in what can be called a state of harmony as the they and the settlers depended on one another. The Hudson Bay Company as well as the North West Company both had established trades with the people of this land for fur. However this bliss did not last long as all members of this trade eventually wanted to keep pelts for themselves and aimed to stop the trade with anyone else. As we discussed in class these conflicts eventually arose to a point that could not be ignored and therefor the Metis people revolted and caused much violence between all these people. As time and struggle continued for years, a consensus was eventually reached in which the HBC knew it needed the Metis people and gave them some political and property rights. While this is all rather positive, we must remember that it was done to better the lives of the colonizers and not the lives of the Metis
Steckley, J., & Cummins, B. D. (2008). Full circle: Canada's First Nations (2nd ed.). Toronto:
This again shows the traumatic effects of residential schools and of cultural, psychological, and emotional upheaval caused by the intolerance and mistreatment of Aboriginals in Canada. Settlers not only displaced Aboriginal people from their land and their homes, but they also experienced emotional trauma and cultural displacement.
The Indian Act is made up from the Gradual Civilization Act of 1857 and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act of 1869. The Gradual Civilization Act encouraged the Indian people to give up their status and become a Canadian citizen. The Gradual Enfranchisement Act gave the government full control over the Indian people. They were able to decide everything from who kept their status, received benefits, and even who were able to keep their children. In 1876, these acts together alongside with other rules and regulations formed the Indian Act. The government thought it was best to be able to control every aspect of the First Nations people’s lives. It was stated in annual report of the Department of the Interior Indian Affairs in 1876:
According to conservative conflict theory, society is a struggle for dominance among competing social groups defined by class, race, and gender. Conflict occurs when groups compete over power and resources. (Tepperman, Albanese & Curtis 2012. pg. 167) The dominant group will exploit the minority by creating rules for success in their society, while denying the minority opportunities for such success, thereby ensuring that they continue to monopolize power and privilege. (Crossman.n.d) This paradigm was well presented throughout the film. The European settlers in Canada viewed the natives as obstacles in their quest of expansion by conquering resources and land. They feared that the aboriginal practices and beliefs will disrupt the cohesion of their own society. The Canadian government adopted the method of residential schools for aboriginal children for in an attempt to assimilate the future generations. The children were stripped of their native culture,...
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,
The Canadian and American governments designed a residential school system to assimilate Indigenous children into Western society by stripping them of their language, cultural practices as well as their traditions. By breaking these children’s ties to their families and communities, as well as forcing them to assimilate into Western society; residential schools were a root cause of many social problems, which even persist within Aboriginal communities today.
In 1879, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School was the first off-reservation Indian school opened by Army officer, Richard Pratt. Pratt based the program off of a program he started at an Indian prison. Pratt quoted an Army general in a speech he gave, “A great general has said that the only good Indian is a dead one.” Pratt said that while he agreed with the sentiment, he felt it was better to, “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man” (npr.org/templates). Consequently, Indian children were taken to these schools in an effort to civilize them and upon arrival were given European style clothes, haircuts, and new names. They were forbidden to speak in their native tongue or to engage in cultural practices and were severely disciplined if caught doing so; this total immersion into white culture put these children into an inconceivable torment. While attending the school, white families could make application for pupils to work their land, now the “In...
Canada likes to paint an image of peace, justice and equality for all, when, in reality, the treatment of Aboriginal peoples in our country has been anything but. Laden with incomprehensible assimilation and destruction, the history of Canada is a shameful story of dismantlement of Indian rights, of blatant lies and mistrust, and of complete lack of interest in the well-being of First Nations peoples. Though some breakthroughs were made over the years, the overall arching story fits into Cardinal’s description exactly. “Clearly something must be done,” states Murray Sinclair (p. 184, 1994). And that ‘something’ he refers to is drastic change. It is evident, therefore, that Harold Cardinal’s statement is an accurate summarization of the Indigenous/non-Indigenous relationship in
The goal of this was to assimilate them into mainstream Canadian culture. However, many of the schools went much further than separation and isolation. In the context of residential schooling, killing the Indian meant disconnecting children physically, emotionally, mentally and spiritually from their language, culture and their communities. Even more significant was the separation from their own sense of identity as being Indian. A physical disconnection was achieved by removing children from loving families and communities and forcing them to grow up in institutions among prejudiced strangers. Mental disconnection was achieved by forbidding children to use their own languages or any familiar customs that may have given them comfort. Emotional disconnection was achieved by teaching children that the parents, grandparents and Elders they so loved were savages, and their own bodies and racial characteristics were sinful and dirty. Spiritual disconnection was achieved by teaching children to adopt the new religion or suffer God’s wrath
...ulted in widely ranged political and legal protests, including petitions to the Government and the Crown, legal challenges in defense of Aboriginal resource rights and land, and careful enforcing of the Indian Act’s regulations. The federal government often responded with harsh legislative measures to the Indian Act, such as outlawing the Potlatch (and subsequently, arresting those who publically continued to engage in cultural practices), and disallowing of hiring lawyers to pursue Aboriginal rights through court. The passage of such laws, however, did not stop Indigenous groups, and they continued to meet, organize, maintain cultural traditions, and retain respect for hereditary leaders. But, since they lived in such an oppressive society, the Canadian Government continued to have reign over their lives and their opportunities to participate in a broader society.
“Pontiac, chief of the Ottawa Indians, is trying to take Detroit, and the neighboring Indian groups join in and help. They have become disenchanted with the French, plus the French aren’t really there anymore. They hate the English. They want their land back. Starting to succeed and the British negotiate and reach a settlement. In order to keep Pontiac happy, no settlement allowed in the Frontier region. An imaginary line is drawn down the Appalachian Mountains, colonist cannot cross it. This doesn’t last long, in 1768 & 1770, Colonists work with the Iroquois and Cherokee and succeed in pushing back the line and send in surveyors. Colonists begin to settle. So, despite this line, colonists push west anyway” (Griffin, PP4, 9/16/15). During the Revolutionary War, “Native Americans fought for both sides, but mostly for the British, thought they stood to be treated more fairly by British than colonists. Those that fought against the colonists were specifically targeted to be destroyed during battles. There were no Native American representatives at the treaty meetings at the end of the war” (Griffin, PP8, 9/21/15). Even the Native American’s thought of their women, because they believed “an American victory would have tragic consequences: their social roles would be dramatically changed and their power within their communities diminished” (Berkin,
The Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF) represents the Métis community in Manitoba in political, cultural, social and economic matters (Manitoba Métis Federation (MMF), 2013). Manitoba Métis Federation, representing Métis in Manitoba, filed a claim asking for a declaration that the federal and provincial statutes, which affected the implementation of Manitoba Act provisions, were "constitutionally invalid” (Chartrand, p. 477, 1991). In Section 31 of Manitoba Act, 1870, it provided lands to the Métis people. Section 32 assured the settlers, Aboriginal or not, that their occupied lands in 1869 would not be “jeopardized” by the wave of newcomers (Sprague...
To them, the excitement and the adventure of the buffalo hunt held more appeal than farming. Hundreds of Metis were content to earn a living by hunting buffalo, making pemmican or finding employment as freight drivers. After a while Canada bought Rupertsland from Hudson Bay Company. When the Metis heard this they were alarmed. They feared their religion,their language, their lands and their old, free way of* life.
The schools provided environments for students that made them feel alone and helpless, by completely taking away the students culture, traditions, and native language. The students went into the school with little to no English skills and yet, were expected to speak English and were beaten for speaking anything but English. An article written by BBC stated, “The schools, which operated from the late 19th Century, were designed to assimilate the children into European-Canadian society by removing their language, religion, and culture. Many students recall being beaten for speaking their native language.” (BBC News). This was an extremely unhealthy environment for the students because they were always scared and couldn’t really express themselves having no prior knowledge of the English language. In an interview with artist and former Residential School student Freddy Taylor stated, “When he couldn’t recite the Lord’s Prayer, he was beaten; when he couldn’t spell an English word, he was beaten; when he spoke in his native tongue of Ojibwa, he was beaten” (Eagle). These children were stripped of their identity and were beaten when they tried to recover what was left of it. Even when the children tried to adapt to the European-Canadian culture, if they would make a mistake when learning the English language, they
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.