1. Residential Schools Above: Kamloops Residential School Location: Kamloops Indian Reserve, across the Thompson River. Operated from 1893 – 1977.

2. It all started with an idea… Europeans settled in Canada, which was mostly populated by First Nations people: 1871: BC has 25,000 Aboriginal people and 8,500 Europeans European people begin to view First Nations people as… SAVAGES! UNCIVILIZED! DISEASED! SUPERSTITIOUS! The First Nations people were forced to move off the lands they called home and were placed on new territory – “Indian Reservations” – part of the government’s plan to assimilate

3. How did the government view First Nations? All First Nations Peoples are the same. They have the same beliefs, same religion, same language, same ideals, same social structures, etc. They are uncivilized, and they need to be converted to a proper way of life – such as European life. They must be cleaned, they must change religions, they must stop all their traditions. What did this mean for children?

5. RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL SYSTEM 1880’s: The Federal Government gives the Church the right to educate all Aboriginal children. THE GOAL: ASSIMILATION “We must take the Indian out of the child” In other words, the goal was not to educate. The goal was to…. ERASE ALL ABORIGINAL TRADITIONAL BELIEFS, LANGUAGES, AND CUSTOMS

6. What Happened? Missionaries became teachers at residential schools. They feared that if the children just came to school during the day, it would be too hard to convert them from their traditional ways to the “new European” way. So, they worked with the government and created a system where all First Nations children were forced to leave their homes, their parents, their lives behind… and live at the residential schools. They were not allowed contact with their families. Imagine a 5-year old child being dragged from her home, her parents standing helplessly aside as the officials came and forced the child out of her home… Could the government do this today? “Steal” children from their homes, put them in far away schools, and force them to change?

7. No Money for First Nations Education In 1947, the federal government gave some schools $45.00 for every First Nations student, and $200.00 for non- First Nations students. However, many residential schools did not get any funding at all from the government. This meant that teachers were not trained professionals, but often religious volunteers – their plan was to convert all First Nations students to Christianity, not to give them an education. This also meant schools could not afford to heat buildings, provide students with clothing (especially warm clothing in winter), could not afford beds or bedding supplies, could not even afford food. Many First Nations students starved to death in residential schools. Many others survived on one small meal of porridge or soup every day. If students were caught sneaking food without permission, they were physically abused, given chores for punishment, and denied food the next day.

8. What Happened in Residential Schools? Abuse. Sadness. Defeat. Neglect. Poor education. Forced change. Forgotten culture.

9. More Specifically…. students were not allowed to speak their own language or follow their own customs. If they were caught, they would experience SEVERE punishment (needles inserted into tongues for speaking a native language) children were responsible for the complete maintenance (cooking, cleaning, laundry, grounds keeping, farming, etc.) grade three was the acceptable standard of education shaming by public beatings of naked children constant racism withholding presents and letters from family Not allowing letters home to family, or forcing children to write letters in English which their parents couldn’t read locking children in closets and cages sexual assaults exposure to freezing outside temperatures withholding of medical attention forced labour in unsafe work situations intentional contamination with diseased blankets insufficient food for basic nutrition and/or spoiled food. brothers and sisters in same school segregated beating until unconscious and/or inflicting permanent injury

11. "Children were frequently beaten severely with whips, rods and fists, chained and shackled, bound hand and foot and locked in closets, basements, and bathrooms." Crowstand School, 1907 quoted in RCAP, 1996 "The Sisters didn't treat me good. They gave me rotten food to eat and punished me for not eating it. I was locked in a room, fed bread and water and beaten with a strap, sometimes on the face, and sometimes [they] took my clothes off and beat me. This is the reason I ran away." Christine Haines, St. Joseph's 1995 Estimates suggest that as many as 60% of the students died (due to illness, beatings, attempts to escape, or suicide) while in the schools. Quoted from http://www.irsss.ca/history.html

12. When students returned to the reserve, they often found they didn't belong. They didn't have the skills to help their parents, and became ashamed of their native heritage. The skills taught at the schools were generally below standard; many found it hard to function in a setting outside of the school. The aims of assimilation meant devastation for those who were subjected to years of mistreatment.

13. Didn’t Anyone Fight Back? Some children refused to co-operate and sabotaged the operations of the kitchen or classroom, stole food and supplies, ran away, or, in extreme cases, burned down their schools. Their parents and native political leaders protested the schools' harsh conditions and poor education, but their objections were mostly ignored. By the 1940s it was obvious to both the government and most missionary bodies that the schools were ineffective, and native protests helped to secure a change in policy. In 1969 the decision was taken to close the residential schools, and the last school, located in Saskatchewan, closed in 1996.

14. Survivors Many survivors of residential schooling are alive today. They have horrifying memories of things they experienced and witnessed in residential schools: "After a lifetime of beatings, going hungry, standing in a corridor on one leg, and walking in the snow with no shoes for speaking Inuvialuktun, and having a heavy, stinging paste rubbed on my face, which they did to stop us from expressing our Eskimo custom of raising our eyebrows for 'yes' and wrinkling our noses for 'no', I soon lost the ability to speak my mother tongue. When a language dies, the world it was generated from is broken down too." Mary Carpenter 1995 From the “Indian Residential School Survivors Society”

15. Recent Happenings…. On 11 June 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on behalf of the Government of Canada, offered an apology to all former students of Indian residential schools in Canada. The apology openly recognized that the assimilation policy on which the schools were established was "wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country." It recognized the profoundly damaging and lasting impact the schools had on aboriginal culture, heritage and language and was one of the steps that the government has taken to forge a new relationship with Canada's Aboriginal peoples.

16. The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian residential schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture, heritage and language. While some former students have spoken positively about their experiences at residential schools – these stories are far overshadowed by tragic accounts of the emotional, physical and sexual abuse and neglect of helpless children and their separation from powerless families and communities. The legacy of Indian residential schools has contributed to social problems that continue to exist in many communities today. It has taken extraordinary courage for the thousands of survivors that have come forward to speak publicly about the abuse they suffered. To the approximately 80,000 living former students, and all family members and communities, the government of Canada now recognizes that it was wrong to forcibly remove children from their homes and we apologize for having done this. Not only did you suffer these abuses as children, but as you became parents, you were powerless to protect your own children from suffering the same experience, and for this we are sorry. The 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. we are sorry. -Excerpts from Harper’s Government apology