Residential schools around Canada
Facts
- Over 150000 First Nations, Metis, Inuit enrolled 1857- 1996
- 80 000 survivors alive today
- 130 schools in total around Canada
- 80 running schools in 1931 (peak of Residential Schools)
- Schools started closing in mid 1970s
- Last school closed in 1996 (Akaitcho Hall, Yellowknife)
- 30%-60% death rate, 6-12% per year
- An estimated 50 000 children died at these schools
- At Peigan Reserve, Alberta the death rate was 47%
- At File Hills, Saskatchewan the death rate was 75%
- Over 50% of kids suffered from tuberculosis with a death rate of 69%
- Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, United, and Presbyterian churches ran the schools
- Roman Catholic ran 60%, Anglican 15%, United 15%, 5% Methodist, and 5% Presbyterian
- 40% of teachers had no training
- Kids started going to Residential Schools as early as 2 years old
- Mandatory for kids to be enrolled at age 7-15
- 3 out of 100 advanced past grade 6
- Over a 42 day period students spent 9 days in the class on average
- 80 000 survivors alive today
- 130 schools in total around Canada
- 80 running schools in 1931 (peak of Residential Schools)
- Schools started closing in mid 1970s
- Last school closed in 1996 (Akaitcho Hall, Yellowknife)
- 30%-60% death rate, 6-12% per year
- An estimated 50 000 children died at these schools
- At Peigan Reserve, Alberta the death rate was 47%
- At File Hills, Saskatchewan the death rate was 75%
- Over 50% of kids suffered from tuberculosis with a death rate of 69%
- Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, United, and Presbyterian churches ran the schools
- Roman Catholic ran 60%, Anglican 15%, United 15%, 5% Methodist, and 5% Presbyterian
- 40% of teachers had no training
- Kids started going to Residential Schools as early as 2 years old
- Mandatory for kids to be enrolled at age 7-15
- 3 out of 100 advanced past grade 6
- Over a 42 day period students spent 9 days in the class on average
Hardships
- With all the work children had to do and no class time, many students were 18 and had only got their grade 5
- Most kids had little to no contact with their parents
- Rape, Abuse (physical, mental, spiritual, emotional and sexual), punishment for speaking their language, forced to eat rotten food, hunger/thirst, forced labour
- Common Injuries- TB, chronic ear infections, infected bug bites, ruptured appendix, poliomyelitis, boils
Abuse, racism, malnutrition, little to no medical treatment, suicide, disease were everyday realities in schools
- Opposite genders were separated and unable to communicate
- Siblings were separated and unable to talk to each other as well
- Children were not allowed out of bed for any reason during the night and often wet the bed, the nuns would rub their noses in it
- In some cases, students burned down their schools
- Most kids had little to no contact with their parents
- Rape, Abuse (physical, mental, spiritual, emotional and sexual), punishment for speaking their language, forced to eat rotten food, hunger/thirst, forced labour
- Common Injuries- TB, chronic ear infections, infected bug bites, ruptured appendix, poliomyelitis, boils
Abuse, racism, malnutrition, little to no medical treatment, suicide, disease were everyday realities in schools
- Opposite genders were separated and unable to communicate
- Siblings were separated and unable to talk to each other as well
- Children were not allowed out of bed for any reason during the night and often wet the bed, the nuns would rub their noses in it
- In some cases, students burned down their schools
Atrocities
-deliberate acts of murder, involuntary sterilization, torture, slave labour, medical experimentation and germ warfare
- Children being shackled to beds
- Punishments- electrical shock through tongue, nails through tongues, tied up, burned with cigarettes, beaten with a strap or by the teacher and confinement
- Punishments were usually carried out in front of the other students to scare them
- children were forced to wear soiled underwear on their heads and wet bedding on their bodies
- Principal of Rupert's Land School (Manitoba) fired for kissing female students in 1899
- Female students became pregnant as a result of being raped, and nuns became pregnant from sexually abusing boys
- Some females who became pregnant were murdered by priests because they threatened to talk and buried in unmarked graves
- "We know that there's mass graves behind the school in Port Alberni, in Alert Bay, and in Mission, right next to the grounds of the Mission Folk Fest." Kevin Annett
- A Gordon School (Saskatchewan) teacher took students to Regina, he left them in the car till 2:00am while he gambled, he then to them to a motel and had sex with them. 230 former Gordon students claim to have been sexually abused by the same teacher.
-He banged our heads together so hard he knocked us both out cold. Then he beat us after we were out." Miles Anderson referring to a supervisor at his school.
- Children being shackled to beds
- Punishments- electrical shock through tongue, nails through tongues, tied up, burned with cigarettes, beaten with a strap or by the teacher and confinement
- Punishments were usually carried out in front of the other students to scare them
- children were forced to wear soiled underwear on their heads and wet bedding on their bodies
- Principal of Rupert's Land School (Manitoba) fired for kissing female students in 1899
- Female students became pregnant as a result of being raped, and nuns became pregnant from sexually abusing boys
- Some females who became pregnant were murdered by priests because they threatened to talk and buried in unmarked graves
- "We know that there's mass graves behind the school in Port Alberni, in Alert Bay, and in Mission, right next to the grounds of the Mission Folk Fest." Kevin Annett
- A Gordon School (Saskatchewan) teacher took students to Regina, he left them in the car till 2:00am while he gambled, he then to them to a motel and had sex with them. 230 former Gordon students claim to have been sexually abused by the same teacher.
-He banged our heads together so hard he knocked us both out cold. Then he beat us after we were out." Miles Anderson referring to a supervisor at his school.
Washing Windows
"I have been going to Indian school for the past five years.... Before my holidays this year I was employed in kitchen for eleven weeks.... In the eleven weeks ... I spent a total of two weeks in school. The Sister has beaten me many times over the head and pulled my hair and struck me on the back of neck with a ruler and at times grabbed a hold of me and beat me on the back with her fists. I have also been ordered to stand on the outside of the windows with a rope around my waist to clean windows on the fourth floor with a little girl holding the rope. When I told the Sister I was afraid to go out the window she scolded me and made me clean the window and threatened to beat me if I did not do it. This is being done to other children. After we get a beating we are asked what we got the beating for and if we tell them we do not know we get another beating. The Sisters always tell us not to tell our parents about getting a beating." Fifteen-year-old girl from the Shubenacadie Reserve.