Why Were Residential Schools Started?
How were First Nations people Treated in Canada before Residential Schools?
What was the Purpose of Residential Schools?
The government did not want to give First Nations people what they were supposed to get through the treaties. By sending children to Residential Schools they could assimilate them to our culture and make them no longer considered Indians under the law. Their other goals were to get rid of the First Nations languages, religions, and lifestyle.
"I want to get rid of the Indian problem. I do not think as a matter of fact, that the country ought to continuously protect a class of people who are able to stand alone… Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question, and no Indian Department, that is the whole object of this Bill."
-Duncan Campbell Scott (Minister of Indian Affairs, 1920) |
When did the first schools start?
The idea of residential schools in Canada first came from the French missionaries in 1620. This idea did not work out and did not last long because no parents would send their children to the schools. From the 1830's to the 1880's churches set up individual schools that were similar to residential schools but not part of a residential school system. The first schools created by the government of Canada were opened in 1883.
Why didn't anybody put a stop to them?
In most schools nobody was allowed to visit during the school year so parents had no way of knowing how their children were being treated. Some parents did take their children out of schools but it did not happen very often. Children rarely spoke up about how they were being treated until the schools finally closed. For the most part parents did not have a choice because the law said all children must go to school and there were no schools on the reserves.
Through the 1970s and 1980s the schools started closing or changed to be under local control because the federal government could no longer pay for all these schools and teachers. The last residential schools did not close until the mid-1990s.
Through the 1970s and 1980s the schools started closing or changed to be under local control because the federal government could no longer pay for all these schools and teachers. The last residential schools did not close until the mid-1990s.