I think the worst aspect of the Residential School system was that the people at the time thought that this was the right thing to do. It was not intended to be an evil move, but rather one that would bring the "Indians" into "our" world.

It was a classic case of "the law of unintended consequences"

I am sorry but that is complete rubbish ! The anglican and catholic churches who were mainly responsible for the running of the residential facilities knew exactly what they were doing... Refusing a culture the right to indulge in their own practices and speak their own language is no honest held belief that they thought they were doing the right thing!!

When you believe absolutely that your religion is right and theirs is wrong, and because you think they just don't know any better
and you are from the industrial age and they appear to be just out the stone age....
You have fine written language, written history and generations of education
The Church really did believe it was doing the right thing no matter how much pain
It's a problem with people that believe and avoid reason
Stupid mistakes always follow dogma's

Its easy to judge in a age of reason
Ask a southern baptist about Darwin and you'll find that innocent stupidity is still around today
Is not the church but those that chose to follow it with out question

I'm going to be watching this thread with great interest as I've studied Canadian history and am very familiar with the effects of residential schooling to First Nations peoples, at least the many different First Nations that live in British Columbia. "Cultural genocide" is often the term used to describe what happened.

Perhaps this is all a big a secret for those of you who still only pay attention to British media/newspapers, but it's a frequent topic in Canadian media/newspapers.

And these same churches were doing this long before the US or Canada existed in most of the America's. The Spanish and British were not exactly friendly to the Natives through history and tried to force their ways onto them.

The Natives never had a fair chance.

Cultures have always commited genocide, even the Cree and the Blackfoot.

I remember a very controversial play in Britain about 30 years ago, shown at the National Theatre, called "The Romans in Britain." It was controversial for two reasons - it depicted the brutal anal rape of a Briton by a Roman. It was an allegory of Britain's involvement in Ireland.

None of this is new.

Back to my original preposition: Blackfoot men from one of the warrior societies told me (when I worked in the correctional system) that when they beat another tribe in battle they would kill the men, have their tribeswomen bite the noses off the women of child bearing age and use them as slaves, and take the children into their society.

It's not Canada's little secret: there's a part of ourselves , as humans, that WE have to master in order to live in a global village.

To suggest it is an Anglo phenomenon is racist! To suggest that aboriginal people didn't is blind. I have been told by native elders from the Blackfoot, that they despise the white man as weak, because we didn't assimilate them, and foolish because, that being the case, we were not, then, just.

Many native people trust the Queen more than the Canadan Government, and hold the view that they as nations treated with the Crown, rather than with a dominion.

Maybe more Anglo's did engage in more assimilationist policies than other nations, but only (I would submit) because their industrial, economic, administrative and military infrastructures were so powerful at the time.

The victor writes history.

If we took the desire to point the finger to its ultimate and absurd conclusion we Brits should take the Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, French, and Italian governments to the Hague, and the Scots, Irish and Welsh should take the English.

In fact being of Welsh, Irish and English (and therefore of Saxon, Briton, Norwegian, Dane and Norman) origin I should sue myself. And being a Catholic through my English as well as Irish ancestors I should sue the Church of England for burning my ancestors at the stake.

Cough up you protestant bastards!





And though slightly flippant I am not denigrating the experience of native Indians who suffered through and because of the assimilationist practices of the past. In fact, having worked specificially with native populations in a prison setting I probably have more insight than most on this board. Therefore, I'll end with this. Native people do not want our (the dominant culture's) sympathy, or our understanding, they want Justice.

Well put

I once heard it put into simpler terms

We learned from the Romans, watched the French and the Spanish, Studied china
Then we showed the world how to Conquer

There is never Justice for the Loser, he simply chose the wrong side

A Lost Heritage: Canada's Residential Schools

In 1928, a government official predicted Canada would end its "Indian problem" within two generations. Church-run, government-funded residential schools for native children were supposed to prepare them for life in white society. But the aims of assimilation meant devastation for those who were subjected to physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Decades later, aboriginal people began to share their stories and demand acknowledgement of — and compensation for — their stolen childhoods.

.......... Interesting Video archive

http://archives.cbc.ca/society/education/topics/692/

Just to contextualize residential schools.

1914 -1918 the western world ordered millions of it's young men to walk slowly across muddy hellscapes into the decimating fire of machine guns, after enduring relentless shelling.

60,000 British casualties the first morning of the Somme.

The same level of critical thinking went into residential schools.

However the government has not apologised for those orders/actions of WW1. The soldiers are seen as heroes.

The problem with apologies to the native people is that they are cast as victims. When people are cast as victims they are further victimized.

Was it Einstein who said that you can't solve a problem using the same set of thinking skills that created the problem?

What an excellent debate with some really interesting viewpoints from all areas but I still get this feeling that some quarters are still trying to find comparisons and use those as justification for the horrendous way in which the native people have been treated.

Unfortunately for me I was raised catholic and throughout my entire life that particular organization has forever sought excuses for their awful misdemeanours.

I too work and socialize with Native people and the poster was right that they do not want sympathy, they want their lives and culture back and more importantly to be able to function as a family and know what that is. The family concept was taken by the residential system !

Absoloutely! When one really considers the various laws that were brought in to asssimilate the First Nation people of Canada, it can only be concluded that they went through a process of total dehumanization.

The 1876 Indian Act rested on the principle "that the aboriginies are to be kept in a state of tutelage and treated as wards or children of the state"(Department of Interior 1877). Although the act was passed in 1876 most academics in the field would tell you that the tere have been repeated ammendments to the act, but the acts fundamental provisions have scarcely changed.

Like Sheffspurs, I am of the view that it's time to move on and support the First Nations in their reclamation of their culture.

Mrs M x

No justification from me mate.

And it was my upbringing as a catholic that led me to ignore my law degree, become a fanciscan friar, work in prison, work with street kids, with the native community, with prostitutes, with drug addicts and eventually retrain as a teacher while working full time in jail.

I am no apologist either, but these things are rarely black & white, though we try to make them so.

I was brought up in a "C of E" boarding school, there was no systematic abuse, but the hypocrisy that I encountered there put me off religion(s). But it also gave me an understanding of the thought process that went(goes) into a religiously biased education system.

Define justice? No-one can undo what has been done, and how many generations into our future will we have to atone for the sins of our past? Exactly what do the First Nations want to happen for justice to be done?

The individuals who are to blame for the problems are either dead or getting old, and we can apologise every day for the rest of our lives but all parties have to work together to improve the quality of life. What happened was wrong and unacceptable but so was slavery, a practice which the Africans were practicing long before the white man visited them.

I realise "dirty secret" isn't strictly true... this and other iniquities are out in the open and subject to legal review. But it does seem that official attempts to make amends and heal wounds are fatally flawed, if this article is at all accurate.

I'm a recent immigrant so it's only as I learn more about my new homeland that I'm becoming aware of the ongoing injustice to those who lived here before the European and subsequent settlers came. There seems to be a lot of ongoing prejudice against the First Nations peoples...