Residential Schools, A Legacy Of Shame
...European contact the indigenous people have been treated as sub-humans; savages with no religion, intelligence, or right to live. This general idea has carried through-out the history of our supposedly great country; Canada. This essay will examine the residential school system in depth. It will then relate the Canadian Government's actions in response to residential schools, good and bad.
From the late nineteenth century until well into the twentieth century, the Government of Canada worked vigorously to enforce their legislative "war against Indianness". The Canadian Government passed the Indian act in 1876, which defined federal administration of the native population and their lands. The government cited many outlandish and down right confusing reasons for the reserves while trying to mask the real reason, to totally destroy the Indian population.
Legislators on both sides of the borders believed that assimilation was the answer to the ever daunting "Indian problem". It was assumed that natives would just give in and end their primitive ways. The Indian Act abolished the traditional government styles and enacted a system of local "band councils". Hereditary and consensually chosen chiefs were removed, and matrilineality was officially abolished. The purpose of the band councils was to grant native people a limited degree of self-government that was enshrined in legislation. They were used to appease the people and to provide a smoke screen. Duncan Campbell Scott was the minister of Indian Affairs and the man responsible for creating the reserve system and the residential school system. He stated that the reserves were primarily for the protection of the Indians, but would lead to the destruction of their "Indianness".
An example of an Aboriginal self-government practice that was taken away by the Indian Act comes from the novel, In The...
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