1. Residential Schools
The Beginning

2. Terms
Assimilation: The adaptation to the cultural traits of the dominant culture.
Usually occurring through colonization, where the colonized or minority group’s beliefs become the same as the dominant group’s.

3. Timeline
1600s-1850s: Missionaries set up day schools for First Nations and Labrador Inuit children.
: Education becomes a priority in the numbered treaties
The government becomes responsible for First Nations education
The government funds existing missionary schools

4. 1879: The Davin Report supports establishing residential schools to increase assimilation
1880s-1970s: Residential schools grow, reaching a peak in the 1930s
1951: The government changes the Indian Act
1960s: Government begins to close residential schools

5. 1969: Government issues the White Paper
1970: The Indian Chiefs of Alberta issue the Red Paper
1970: Protest at Blue Quills residential school results in first Nation-run school

6. 1973-present: First Nations-run schools grow in Canada
1996: Last government-funded residential school closed
1990s: First Nations and Inuit people take action against abuse suffered in residential schools
1996: Royal Commission of Aboriginal Peoples (RCAP) supports First Nations rights

7. 2000: 7000 cases of abuse in residential schools are brought to court
2008: Public apology from Stephen Harper