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Residential Schools: The Purpose, A History, and the Contemporary Consequences

Kate Kovacs
ED 4371: History of Canadian Education
Due December 15th, 2017
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The First Nations peoples’ association with the Canadian education system has, historically, not

been positive. The creation of residential schools was an answer to how early Canadians could

conceptualize community among the native peoples already living in Canada; early thinkers like Egerton

Ryerson’s emphasis on raising up an “elevated, intelligent, and moral population…on the unmistakable

assumption that The Canadas were to remain part of the British Empire” was fundamental to

establishing a common peoples.1 As this idea was applied to people within Canada, it became obvious

that First Nations communities did not have the same desires or priorities to become part of the British

Empire. The believed differences in civilization and moral stature between First Nations peoples and

other Canadians had to be bridged before Canada could fulfill its purpose of creating a united

population. However, the implementation and practice within residential schools often caused great

damage to the First Nations youth and their families. The mental health, physical health, and sense of

community of contemporary First Nations residential school survivors and following generations are

greatly negatively impacted by the historical legacies of Canadian residential schools.

Some of the purpose behind the implementation of residential schools can be viewed by

language and communications within Canadian Education policy makers and documents. While it is

often challenging to retain historical empathy in investigations such as this, it is important to note that

in understanding past events and how they came to be, we are better equipped for future decision

making. Language in historical documents can provide an excellent sample of the late 19th century

conceptualizations of First Nations peoples by British-Canadians. In one section of an Indian Affairs

Annual Report where the “Conduct of Indians” is summarized by Indian Affairs officers, the “wild” and

“warlike” people “thirsting…to establish a reputation for bravery” connotes a simplistic and uncivilized

1
Neil McDonald, “Egerton Ryerson and the School as Agent of Political Socialization,” In Egerton Ryerson and His
Times, edited by Neil McDonald and Alf Chaiton, (Toronto: Macmillan, 1978), 83.
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image of First Nations people.2 These descriptions are mirrored in Readers that Canadian students

studied where First Nations individuals are described as insolent and abusive, jeering, shrieking at, and

threatening the Canadian Mounted Police when resisting the building of the CPR.3 Such a narrative

clearly poses a dichotomy between the “Indians” and “Canadians” when the latter appear rational, fair,

and logical throughout the same narrative. The implications of this are that Canadians were being raised

on the assumptions that the First Nations peoples were a very different and less valued type of people,

and a problem that needed to be solved. In fact, this is explicitly described in an 1895 Indian Affairs

report: it was believed that “[t]he Indian problem exists owing to the fact that the Indian is untrained to

take his place in the world. Once teach him to do this, and the solution is had.”4 The same report

describes the acquisition of the English language necessary in order for the First Nations individual to

become civilized. The importance of a nationwide implementation of these schools is explained in a

statement made by Indian Affairs:

“So long as [the Indian] keeps his native tongue, so long will he remain a community

apart…If it were possible to gather in all the Indian children and retain them for a certain

period, there would be produced a generation of English-speaking Indians, accustomed to

the ways of civilized life, which might then be the dominant body among themselves,

capable of holding its own with its white neighbours; and thus would be brought about a

rapidly decreasing expenditure until the same should forever cease, and the Indian problem

would have been solved.”5

2
“Annual Report”, Department of Indian Affairs, 1895, 28.
3
“The Second Trans Canada,” Proud Procession: Canadian Parade Readers, (Toronto: JM Dent and Sons, 1947),
416-419.
4
“Annual Report”, Department of Indian Affairs, 29.
5
Ibid, 28-30.
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Thus, a basis of minimalizing and essentially removing the First Nation differences from whites would

allow for a community of equals to participate in Canada. The ethnocentric language present in this

document builds on the assumptions that First Nations individuals lived up to the pre-conceived notions

that British-Canadians had and were being taught about them. Canadian policy makers saw the

institutional assimilation of those who were different as fundamental to the establishment of Canada as

a country.

In theory, education is a positive thing. However, the fundamental problems within the practice

of residential schools as an educational system are described and analyzed well by Jean Barman in her

article “Schooled for Inequality: The Education of British Columbia Aboriginal Children”. She finds the

institutional failings of residential schools fall largely in four areas. First, that Indigenous peoples were

assumed to be similar to each other and thus that one system could fix the “Indian problem”.

Furthermore, First Nations students were not allotted the same quality or length of instruction that non-

Aboriginal students received. Finally, a severe lack of funding contributed to poor living conditions and

limited food and water for the children.6 These problems are massive in themselves. However, Barman’s

article does not address, at length, the widespread physical, psychological, and sexual abuse Aboriginal

youth were subjected to. In a letter to Indian Affairs in 1895, the Indian Agent D.L. Clink describes

several instances of physical abuse at an Albertan residential school. Clink states that he believed the

perpetrating teacher should be “fined and dismissed at once; his actions in this and other cases would

not be tolerated in a white school for a single day in any part of Canada…[S]uch brutality as has been

going on there should not be tolerated for a moment…[I]f the Department forces the parents of these

children to send them to school then they should see that they are properly cared for and not abused.”7

6
Jean Barman, “Schooled for Inequality: The Education of British Columbia Aboriginal Children”, In Children,
Teachers and Schools in the History of British Columbia, edited by Jean Barman, Neil Sutherland and J. Donald
Wilson, (Calgary: Detselig Enterprises, 1995), 57-80.
7
D.L. Clink, Document One: Red Deer Industrial School.” Native Studies Review 9, no 1. 1993-1994. 114-115.
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While Clink does comment on the poor behaviour of some of the students, the language utilized by him

within his letter demonstrates the severity of the treatment of students and unwavering fact that the

school was to blame for such events. This document is especially important as it acts as evidence to the

fact that the government had been informed by one of its official Agents of the institutional abuse of

students at residential schools. However, this abuse evidently continued for many years.

Although much of the field of Canadian Education is limited when it comes to student

testimonies and accounts, through The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, there are many

student testimonies as evidence to the abuse suffered during residential schooling. Not all students

experienced abuse; numerous students managed to recall some positive experiences at residential

schools. However, in Survivors Speak, a non-fictional book that makes public the experiences of these

students, one of the largest sections of the book is titled “Abuse”; “Warm Memories” only makes up 4 of

the 260 pages of this document. These children suffered cultural genocide in their forced participation

at residential schools.8 Accounts from survivors support this. Campbell Papequash describes the physical

mistreatment and verbal abuse he experienced:

“After I was taken there they took off my clothes and then they deloused me … ‘the

dirty, no-good-for-nothing savages, lousy.’ And then they cut off my beautiful hair. You

know and my hair, my hair represents such a spiritual significance of my life and my spirit …

You know and I cried and I see them throw my hair into a garbage can, my long, beautiful

braids.”9

8
Craven, James M. " Judicial Findings From the Inter-Tribal Tribunal on Residential Schools in Canada, Part III: On
the Issue of Ethnocide versus Genocide." Meaningful Consultation in Canada: The Alternative to Forced
Assimilation. 1998.
9
The Survivors Speak: A Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (Truth and Reconciliation
Commission of Canada: 2015), 38.
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The removal of Papequash’s hair was clearly devastating to his cultural and spiritual

understandings. The blatant disregard for autonomous control over his body can be seen. Furthermore,

staff at the schools utilized physically abusive techniques which often led to fear, isolation, and loss of

native language, the original goal of residential schools. Pierrette Benjamin describes the school’s

principal forcing him to ingest soap in order to sever his connection to his spoken language:

“And she put her hand in front of my mouth, so I was chewing and chewing, and I

had to swallow it, so I swallowed it, and then I had to open my mouth to show that I had

swallowed it. And at the end, I understood, and she told me, “That’s a dirty language, that’s

the devil that speaks in your mouth, so we had to wash it because it’s dirty.” So, every day I

spent at the residential school, I was treated badly. I was almost slaughtered.”10

The emotional damage from Benjamin is clear: to be told where he came from, his culture and language,

is dirty and representative of the devil would be incredibly emotionally damaging to all of the children

who experienced it. Finally, Richard Morrison describes the sexual abuse he was subjected to:

“I fought back and fought back and I don’t know how long it was, I just fought and pretty

soon he just, I don’t know what he did, he had restrained me somehow. And when that

happened, he had sexually abused me, he penetrated me and I was just, all I remember was

just a pain. A pain was just strong. It was really hurtful and I remember that day after that I

was a very, very angry kid.”11

The clear psychological damage and long-lasting impact on his identity caused Morrison to try to run

from the school’s abuse many times.12 The negative impacts of residential schools on the students who

were forced to attend can be seen through the survivors’ testimonies. As argued by Barton et al., “[l]ow

10
The Survivors Speak, 51.
11
The Survivors Speak, 154.
12
The Survivors Speak, 136.
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self-esteem and self-concept problems emerged as children were taught that their own culture was

inferior and uncivilized, and it is believed that as a result, many residential school survivors suffer from

low self-respect, and long-term emotional and psychological effects.”13 Ultimately, residential schools

prevented even an adequate physical, emotional, spiritual, and intellectual quality of life for many of

children subjected to them.

As outlined earlier, the original intent of residential schools had been to disrupt entire

generations of Indigenous peoples by causing a separation of language and culture. Clearly this goal has

been successful. However, the trauma suffered by First Nations peoples as a result has been and

continues to be monumental; the removal of Aboriginal children from their families and their placement

in psychologically damaging institutions resulted in the fracturing of culturally rich Aboriginal

communities. Durie and colleagues discuss the fact that “[i]dentity [as understood within an Indigenous

context] is to a large extent a collective experience,” which extends the damage from First Nations

survivors to the collective, communal identities of First Nations groups as well.14 Mary Courchene makes

this visible when describing her relationship with her family after coming home from her residential

school. She thought, “You know what? I hated them. I just absolutely hated my own parents. Not

because I thought they abandon me; I hated their brown faces. I hated them because they were Indians;

they were Indian”; Her father’s response was to say, “I guess we’ll never speak to this little girl again.

Don’t know her.”15 Courchenes’ disconnection with her previous community resulted in a loss of

connection and identity mirrored by thousands of others who also suffered under residential schools.

Although it is difficult to establish a direct causal linkage system between the trauma suffered by those

13
Barton et al, "Health and Quality of Life of Aboriginal Residential School Survivors, Bella Coola Valley,
2001." Social Indicators Research 73, no. 2 (2005), 296.
14
Durie M, Milroy H, Hunter E. “Mental health and the Indigenous peoples of Australia and New Zealand.” In:
Kirmayer LJ, Valaskakis GG, eds. Healing traditions: the mental health of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Vancouver:
UBC Press, 2009: 36–55.
15
The Survivors Speak, 106.
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at residential schools and their children and grandchildren, the idea of communal identity in addition to

Kirmayer’s suggestion that “the loss of parenting skills as a result of institutionalisation [and] patterns of

emotional response resulting from the absence of warmth and intimacy in childhood”16 contributes to

an understanding of intergenerational trauma as a consequence of residential schools. Evans-Campbell

does an excellent job of deciphering how “impacts at the individual level” of trauma suffered at

residential schools interconnect with “family-level impacts” which can extend into “community-level

impacts”.17

A study completed by Barton et al. connects health to communal trauma. They indicate that in

Bella Coola, an area in B.C., the “self-health rating, health care rating, life as a whole, over all quality of

life, and satisfaction with health” measured among both First Nations residential school survivors and

First Nations non-attendees to residential schools were considerably lower than the non-First Nations

individuals in the area.18 These lower health and quality of life survey scores indicate a discrepancy

between First Nations and non-First nations populations in the area. These findings, interestingly, do not

show any difference between First Nations survivors and their relatives, demonstrating that the low

sense of health is experienced intergenerationally. According to scholars like Braveheart, this can also

apply to mental health. While emotional stress, depression, violence, sexual abuse, anxiety, and

substance abuse are all often discussed as First Nations responses to residential schooling, Braveheart

further states that “manifestations of such cumulative emotional and psychological wounding over

generations have included high rates of suicide and the major correlates of suicide.” This has been

supported by Chandler and Lalonde who found that some communities of First Nations peoples show

16
Kirmayer LJ, Simpson C, Cargo M. “Healing traditions: culture, community and mental health promotion with
Canadian Aboriginal peoples.” Australas Psychiatry, 2003; 11 (suppl 1): S 18.
17
Teresa Evans-Campbell, “Historical Trauma in American Indian/Native Alaska Communities”, Journal of
Interpersonal Violence, 23, no. 3 (2008): 323-327.
18
Barton et al, 307.
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youth suicide rates at 800 times the national average.19 A study done by Elias et al. in 2012 recognized

that no study had ever been able to empirically demonstrate a direct connection between residential

schools’ intergenerational trauma and suicide as it can be difficult to isolate variables. However, they

were able to find that “that non-attendees who experienced either multigenerational exposure or abuse

were more likely to have a history of suicide behaviours. In terms of multigenerational exposure, this

finding would again suggest that trauma transmission from a parent or grandparent might have

occurred. Those 45 years and older who also had multigenerational exposure were more likely to have

suicide behaviour history, as opposed to those who did not have that exposure and were younger.”20 It

becomes very clear that the culturally destructive impact of residential schools on survivors leads into

First Nations communities as a whole, who often experience health and mental health problems.

While Stephen Harper apologized to the First Nations community in 2008 for the Canadian

Government’s role in residential schooling, that does not close the book on residential schooling. The

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada includes among its goals, that we must continue to

“promote awareness and public education of Canadians about the IRS system and its impacts.”21

Although the most significant historical legacy for First Nations individuals in the context of Canadian

education may be the horrors and continual effects of residential schooling, that does not mean we

cannot continue to investigate, apologize, and make positive choices in the future that honor and

respect all cultures. Although we proclaim to be a forward-thinking society, racism and ignorance

continue to surround perceptions of First Nations peoples. One of the biggest things we can do as a

society is educate our students on what has been done in the past, what is happening presently, and

19
J Chandler, Michael & Lalonde, Christopher. (2008). Cultural Continuity as a Protective Factor Against Suicide in
First Nations Youth. Transcultural Psychiatry, vol 35: 2 (1998), 10.
20
Elias et al., "Trauma and suicide behaviour histories among a Canadian indigenous population: an empirical
exploration of the potential role of Canada's residential school system." Social Science & Medicine. EPub: 2012.
1567.
21
“Goals.” Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. 2015.
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show them what they can do in the future. Already Canadian curriculum is changing to include the

history of residential schools and to share First Nations perspectives within all curriculum areas. It is up

to us, as educators to ensure we are aware of what past educational policy has been, and to ensure our

students are treated with much more dignity than First Nations students experienced in residential

schools.
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References

“Annual Report”. Department of Indian Affairs. 1895.

Barman, Jean. “Schooled for Inequality: The Education of British Columbia Aboriginal Children.” In

Children, Teachers and Schools in the History of British Columbia, edited by Jean Barman, Neil

Sutherland and J. Donald Wilson, 57-80. Calgary: Detselig Enterprises, 1995.

Barton, Sylvia S., Harvey V. Thommasen, Bill Tallio, William Zhang, and Alex C. Michalos. "Health and

Quality of Life of Aboriginal Residential School Survivors, Bella Coola Valley, 2001." Social

Indicators Research 73, no. 2 (2005): 295-312.

http://www.jstor.org.ezproxy.uleth.ca/stable/27522225.

Chandler, Michael & Lalonde, Christopher. (2008). Cultural Continuity as a Protective Factor Against

Suicide in First Nations Youth. Transcultural Psychiatry, vol 35: 2 (1998) 10.

Clink, D.L. “Document One: Red Deer Industrial School.” Native Studies Review 9, no 1. (1993-1994).

Craven, James M. " Judicial Findings From the Inter-Tribal Tribunal on Residential Schools in Canada, Part

III: On the Issue of Ethnocide versus Genocide." Meaningful Consultation in Canada: The

Alternative to Forced Assimilation. 1998. http://caid.ca/IntJudFin1998.pdf

Durie M, Milroy H, Hunter E. “Mental health and the Indigenous peoples of Australia and New Zealand.”

In: Kirmayer LJ, Valaskakis GG, eds. Healing traditions: the mental health of Aboriginal peoples in

Canada. Vancouver: UBC Press, 2009. 36–55.

Elias, B., J. Mignone, M. Hall, S. P. Hong, L. Hart, and J. Sareen. "Trauma and suicide behaviour histories

among a Canadian indigenous population: an empirical exploration of the potential role of

Canada's residential school system." Social Science & Medicine. EPub: 2012.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22464223.
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Evans-Campbell, Teresa. "Historical Trauma in American Indian/Native Alaska Communities." Journal of

Interpersonal Violence, 23, no. 3 (2008): 316-38. doi:10.1177/0886260507312290.

“Goals.” Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. 2015.

http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/index.php?p=7

Kirmayer LJ, Simpson C, Cargo M. Healing traditions: culture, community and mental health promotion

with Canadian Aboriginal peoples. Australas Psychiatry, 11, no. 1 (2003): S 18.

“The Second Trans Canada.” Proud Procession: Canadian Parade Readers. Toronto: JM Dent and Sons,

1947. 416-419.

The Survivors Speak: A Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. Truth and

Reconciliation Commission of Canada: 2015.

http://www.trc.ca/websites/trcinstitution/File/2015/Findings/Survivors_Speak_2015_05_30_w

eb_o.pdf