What Were The Effects Of Residential Schools In 1800-1900's

Aboriginal people have had to suffer through many different experiences and social determinants over the years, one of them being Residential schools, which has added to many other issues and arising problems. Starting early 1800-1900’s, kids were taken from their families and forced to attend these schools. There were a variety of the schools across Canada. The schools were government funded, and run through churches, where priests and nuns taught; some of the teachers were hardly educated themselves. Families were told that their children must attend these schools, because of the Indian Act that had been implemented, or the family members would be arrested or suffer greater consequences. That day would come when their kids were forcibly ripped from their homes, and the parents were left thinking their children were generally in good hands and getting the education that would
help them prepare for their futures. The government made the schools out to seem like a positive and educating experience for the kids, and many of the parents were not even aware of the neglect and trauma that their kids were dealing with. A positive experience was not the case; these schools were extremely traumatizing and psychologically damaging, and when eventually the schools were shut down, survivors were and are still suffering today with the experiences that they have been through. These schools were initially supposed to support education and employment for aboriginal children, but started to become more of a plan to assimilate. The schools forced Christian religion on the kids, and forced them to recite the bible endlessly in class, and pray. Kids were reprimanded severely for speaking their own language, and Zigante-Wall Page 3

physically, mentally, sexually and emotionally abused by the people we were supposed to be taking care of them. Many of these kids didn’t even know any other language but their own, so they didn’t even understand what they were being punished for. Often, they were strapped on the hands, or forced to hold their tongues out for hours on end (We Were Children, 2012). They were also punished in many other ways. The teachers were racist and bullied or discriminated the kids for their culture and ethnicity. They considered the Aboriginal culture and beliefs inferior and unequal. (The Residential School System, 2009) There was a large amount of overcrowding in the schools; the more students there were the more money the schools were making.
Overcrowding would cause a huge amount of disease and illness within these schools. “The food at many schools was rotten and substandard; malnourishment and hunger were common. Inadequate clothing or poorly heated buildings resulted in children being frequently cold. Many children reported receiving inadequate medical attention when ill or injured. The dependence of funding on full enrolments encouraged residential schools to admit even children who were ill, a practice that exposed previously healthy children to infection. Many aboriginal children at the residential schools became seriously ill; e.g., one well-publicized report noted that 25% of students died during outbreaks of tuberculosis.” (Residential Schools: Impact on Aboriginal Students' Academic and Cognitive Development, 2006). There was a lack of resources, and ventilation which led to mould and that would make the kids really sick. “So far, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has determined that
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than 4,000 of the school children died” (The National Post, 2014). Many of the kids actually ended up dying in these schools, because they didn’t have a chance of surviving in the environment they were in. The goal of the schools was to “Kill the Indian in the Child” (We were Children). Basically to beat the culture out of them; these kids were treated extremely unfairly, and experienced tons of neglect, and were even raped, and went through a various amount of other sexual molestation. “As far as the victims were concerned, the Indian residential school system was nothing more than institutionalized pedophilia” (The Residential School System, 2009). Most of the kids weren’t even allowed to keep their names, and were given numbers as names, like animals. These schools were basically considered a genocidal policy (Residential Schools and Decolonization, 2012). The kids were even forced to cut their hair, something that is considered precious in the Aboriginal communities. The kids weren’t allowed to wear their own clothes either; they were forced to wear uniforms. A lot of the schools were under funded, so they used the kids for unpaid labour to keep the schools on their feet, and running somewhat efficiently. The kids were neglected, and never got to experience a nurturing environment. They were forced to stay in these schools until around the age of 15-16, and most of them completed up to a grade 8 levels, but sometimes only up the grade 5. When many of them left, they ended up turning to alcoholism, and other forms of substance use to cope. Many of them were extremely depressed, and that ended up leading to suicide or a lack of parenting. Zigante-Wall Page 5

The parents hadn’t been shown love when they were children, so they didn’t know how to reciprocate. It was basically “an intergenerational effect: many descendants of residential school survivors share the same burdens as their ancestors even if they did not attend the schools themselves. These include transmitted personal trauma and compromised family systems, as well as the loss in Aboriginal communities of language, culture, and the teaching of tradition from one generation to another” (The Residential School System, 2009). Residential schools have affected not only the survivor, but the rest of the survivor’s family as well. Since leaving many of the aboriginal people who attended the residential schools have tried seeking out help and justice for the psychological and physical damage they endured. These schools affected their cognitive development. This contributed to a lack of education and employment and also health come their adult years. Many of them have low income jobs, low self-esteem, and a bad taste towards the education system, and refuse to go back for further education. “On June 11, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered an apology for residential schools from the floor of the House of Commons. Acknowledging the lasting and damaging impact on Aboriginal cultures, heritages, and languages, Harper indicated to Aboriginal people that "[t]he burden of this experience has been on your shoulders for far too long. The burden is properly ours as a government, and as a country.’”(Residential Schools and Decolonization, 2012) Even though Stephan Harper gave his apologies, it still doesn’t make up for the things they had to endure in those schools, and it still affects the aboriginal people today. There were Zigante-Wall Page 6

over 150,000 children that were forced to attend those schools, and an approximate 80,000 survivors; the last school closed in 1996. (We Were Children, 2012) The survivors just wanted everyone to know the truth about what happened to them, and get the justice they deserve. In conclusion, Residential schools were extremely detrimental to Aboriginal peoples’ health, and contribute to social determinants that still affect them today. The schools played a huge part on impacting these people’s lives in many ways, including through the ways they were educated and mistreated. These kids were raped, abused and neglected by people who should have been role models to them. The teachers should have stuck up for them; they should have shown them love and care, instead of being so horrible towards them, and although the churches and prime minister have since apologized for the events that happened, the pain is still apart of these people’s lives every day. Luckily the survivors did receive a lump sum of money, from a lawsuit, to go towards their pain and suffering, but as the saying goes: money can’t buy happiness, and it’s true. It’s hard to go through something like that in life, and not have it let alone impact an individual’s life, but also impact generations on after that person. Their aboriginal culture, and religion was ripped away from them, and it will take some time to recover and gain that back. Many people also don’t have that motivation to try to gain their life and beliefs back, and that’s how the negativity and pain carries on through generations, because people are just showing the same care they were given, to their kids. Zigante-Wall Page 7

It will definitely take some serious time and healing for the survivors and the families to overcome what happened in those schools.