Effect of the Education of Aboriginal Children from Residential Schools
Proposal
To understand the impacts on the Aboriginal Education system during the Residential school period and the psychological impacts Aboriginals face post Residential schools. Identify the changes of the Aboriginal Education system throughout history and how the students were affected by it. Research may involve discovering the reason for the implementation of Residential schools, what the curriculum of education involved, and the challenges Aboriginal face post Residential schooling.
Bibliography
Primary Sources
“Indian Residential School Commission of the Missionary Society of the Church of England in Canada.” Indian Residential School Commission of the Missionary Society of the Church of England in Canada,1935, 1-15. Accessed January 23, 2019.http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/bibliography/10102.html.
“Indian Residential School Commision of the Missionary Society of the Church of England in Canada” is a very important primary source for this research topic. This document explains Residential schools through the perception of the churches and Dominion Government as they push to the creation of this Residential school in Elkhorn Manitoba. It begins discussing in humor that upon its opening in 1888, within the first twelve days of school, the only four students had all ran away together. The distance between the school and the closest First Nations reserve is over fifty miles away and children are coming from reserves over one thousand miles away. The document discusses the importance of religion in the Aboriginal children’s life as it must be the centre of all that is around them. The chores of the students are very similar to european households; the girls stay inside to clean and the boys are outside taking care of the animals and yard work. This primary source is very important towards my research paper as it proves the Churches view to christianise Aboriginal children by taking them away from their families, culture, and language.
“The Canadian Indian.” The Canadian Indian, 1919, 1-23. Accessed January 23, 2019. http://eco.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.99420/1?r=0&s=1.
“The Canadian Indian” is a important primary source as it follows the Societies view on the Canadian Indian. This document includes an important feature regarding Residential schools or in its case boarding schools. It notes the children are sent to boarding schools until the age of 18 unless they get ill. The document notes that the children learn to love the education as they are educated due to their gender. Females work inside sewing, cleaning, and cooking where men tend to the outdoors to farm and garden. Both males and females are taught through the learning of education and industrial training in order to keep the school in great condition. However, the most important training is the teaching of the Bible. This primary source contains information regarding Residential schools which understand the day-to-day lives of the Aboriginal students.
Secondary Sources
Barnes, Rosemary, and Nina Josefowitz. 2018. “Indian Residential Schools in Canada: Persistent Impacts on Aboriginal Students’ Psychological Development and Functioning.” Canadian Psychology/Psychologie Canadienne, July. doi:10.1037/cap0000154.
Rosemary Barnes and Nina Josefowitz explored the psychological development and functioning of Aboriginal students in Residential schools. Through this they categorise the impacts on students as “parental loss, institutional care, forced acculturation and acculturation stress, and discrimination/racism.” Physiological impacts are shown through comparing the effects created at home and through Residential schools to ones later life. Further into the document explains the operational problems of Residential schools. These are explained by the maltreatment, trauma, and bullying that Aboriginal students faces in Residential schools. The topics explaining the various types of mistreatment may all be a factor in psychological impact of the students. This document goes through the various form of mistreatment and abuse on Aboriginal students which may create psychological harm in the future.
Delorme, Sandra. 2017. “The Legacy and Future of the Buffalo People.” BC Studies, no. 193 (Spring): 8–11.https://ezproxy.tru.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db =a9h&AN=122883441&site=eds-live.
Sandra Delorme identifies the change in tactics through the wars between the Canadian Government and the “Indian” through educating them. However, educating Aboriginal peoples to the fullest extent they did not. The use of Residential schools were to education Aboriginal peoples to move into the lower working class. They provided them with training in manual labour and agricultural work only. In addition to this the Aboriginal students had faced psychological, physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Sandra tells her story about her life is a Residential school and into the challenges she faces as an Aboriginal adult. Post Residential school life has created many impacts for Aboriginal peoples as they face challenges being parents due to losing their families when put in Residential schools. This document is important to my reacheach as it explains the challenges Aboriginal peoples have faced post their Residential school years.
Boffa, Adriana. 2017. “The Question of Residential Schools in Canada: Preserve, Demolish, or Repurpose?” Canadian Social Studies 49 (1): 11–14.https://ezproxy.tru.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db =eric&AN=EJ1166030&site=eds-live.
In “The Question of Residential Schools in Canada: Preserve, Demolish, or Repurpose?” Adriana Boffa explains the sense of place brought from Residential schools through the perception of Aboriginal peoples. 17 of the 140 Residential schools are still standing in Canada and questions regarding the use of them are being asked. For Aboriginal peoples these 17 building represent a period of sadness as many children had lost contact with their families, culture, and language. These buildings bring back the memories of a darker time and may cause emotional harm to the survivors. This source provides great insight to the effects of Residential schools on Aboriginal peoples even after this event ended.
Williams, Trevor John. 2014. “Compulsive Measures: Resisting Residential Schools at One Arrow Reserve, 1889-1896.” Canadian Journal of Native Studies 34 (2): 197.https://ezproxy.tru.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db =edo&AN=108357891&site=eds-live.
“Compulsive Measures: Resisting Residential Schools at One Arrow Reserve” by Trevor John Williams summarises the events between the Northwest Mounted Police and Almightyvoice in 1897. When under the “Indian Act,” Residential school was mandatory for Aboriginal children. However, many of the families in the One Arrow First Nations reserve had fought against it due to the control the Roman Catholic churches and Canadian government would have over their children. As many Aboriginal families resisted their children entering Residential schools, the goal for the schools were to “bring them up as we desire” (200). One Arrow Reserve fought to create Residential schools that were closer to the families but after little attendance the local school was shut down and Aboriginals students were sent 400km away. This document is a great source for research as it uncovers conflicts between the Aboriginal peoples and the Roman Catholic churches and Canadian government. The conflicts created proves the willingness for the Aboriginal peoples fight to keep their children away from Residential schools due to its effect on assimilating the children of their culture.
“Strengthening Aboriginal Children and Families.” 2005. Vital Speeches of the Day 72 (1): 19–22.https://ezproxy.tru.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db =a9h&AN=19418440&site=eds-live.
“Strengthening Aboriginal Children and Families” is a speech by Nigel Atkin in 2005 which addresses the need for a positive change in the lives of children and families. Issues being discussed are ways to benefit Aboriginal students to implementing culture into education. In order to complete this Canadians need to accept the diversity in Canadian institutions. The “Youth are Now” program is able to connect Aboriginal youth to the history and culture of Aboriginal peoples in Canada. This speech discusses ways the community is able to work towards creating better services towards educating Aboriginal peoples. This reference is beneficial towards my understand of the challenges Aboriginal peoples face post residential schools and how communities are try to change this through educating.
Books
Haig-Brown, Celia. 1988. Resistance and Renewal: Surviving the Indian Residential School. Vancouver, B.C.: Arsenal Pulp Press, c1988. https://ezproxy.tru.ca/login?url=https://search-ebscohost-com.ezproxy.tru.ca/login.aspx?d irect=true&db=cat03106a&AN=tru.a183549&site=eds-live.
Resistance and Renewal by Celia Haig-Brown understands many perspectives of the Residential schooling system in Kamloops British Columbia through various interviews in the book. The interviews in this book undergoes a difficult time in each person’s life as they try to forget their lives in Residential schools. The book is meant to create an understanding of the lives of these Aboriginal peoples as they were taken from their families, community, culture and language during their Residential school period. This book is a great influence towards my research paper as it uses the perspectives of Residential school survivors to explain the history.
Schissel, Bernard, and Terry Wotherspoon. 2003. The Legacy of School for Aboriginal People: Education, Oppression, and Emancipation. Don Mills, Ont.: Oxford University Press, 2003.https://ezproxy.tru.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db =cat03106a&AN=tru.a194935&site=eds-live.
Bernard Schissel and Terry Wortherspoon tell the story of Aboriginal life in the educational system in Saskatchewan. They explain the importance of education for society as it is a major influence to gain both social and economic power. Education is used to develop personalities and identities to create a positive place for its students. However, this has not been the case for many Aboriginal peoples in the educational system. Aboriginal peoples faced a cultural genocide in Canada during its Residential school period and is told through many personal stories told by survivors. This book provides key points which may influence my research. It explains the significance of education for Aboriginal peoples and also the impacts of Residential schools.
White, Jerry Patrick. 2009. Aboriginal Education: Current Crisis and Future Alternatives. Toronto: Thompson Educational Pub., c2009. https://ezproxy.tru.ca/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db =cat03106a&AN=tru.a498388&site=eds-live.
Aboriginal Education by Jerry Patrick White discusses Aboriginal education in its current situation as well as future solutions to change its education for the better. The current situation explains the large educational gap between Aboriginal peoples to the rest of society. The current situation also provides a brief history on Aboriginal Education starting the 1620 when “francization” was created to turn indigenous peoples in Frenchmen then be converted to Christianity. From their it follows the history of Residential schooling until 1969 when First Nations peoples began to fight for their own control of Indian Education. The second half of the book discusses implementations to be made in order to create better education for Aboriginal peoples. Points involving allowing Aboriginal parents to choose the schools their children go to in order for the schools to meet the needs of their students. The education system are improving their ability to increase Aboriginal students enrollment in highschool to improve their education level in comparison to society. This book will be important for the use of explaining the changes that have come from Aboriginal education throughout Canadian history.
Statement of Process
This topic came to me due to the interest of my family history. My Great-Great Grandparents were not put into residential school but both of the had come very close. The two had ran away from home at a very early age to escape the Residential School system. Both my Great-Great Grandparents on my Fathers-Fathers side were part of the Mohawk band but had changed their last name to make them appear to come from European decent. Although my Great-Great Grandparents were not placed in a Residential school I am still interested in how their lives might have changed if they did not decide to run away.
With the name of this course being “The History of Childhood and Education” I believed this topic would be a great fit as my research paper. Being about to understand the history of Aboriginal education is a sad part in Canadian History. Being able to identify the negative effect of Residential schools through my research paper will help in my understanding towards the history of childhood and education
Through picking my sources I was looking for an answer to my proposal statement. For every source I choose, I made sure it answered my proposal in some form with I could use in good purpose. Through my sources I was able to find many aspects of the research which had gone in depth to provide a better understanding of the topic at whole. I found that documents which held interviews with Residential school survivors to be very interesting and allow to create a personal connection to those students. When finding relationships between the documents I was able to understand that each one had provided different information then the others.
However when looking for primary sources I found finding them to be very difficult. I was able to find two primary source which both represented my topic well but this had come after a couple hours of searching online databases and books in the library.
The assumptions with my research was proven correct as the treatment performed on Aboriginal students in Residential schools created many psychological impacts which affected the education of these peoples. My knowledge going into this research was that a large part of Canadian history which doesn’t like being brought up is that treatment towards Aboriginal peoples in Residential schools. What I began to learn was the students had faced a demaded culture shift from their Native culture to one present by the government and churches.
I question I would like to understand more clearly is more reasoning of the government and churches to assimilate the Aboriginal students of their Native culture to be christianised? In my view I don’t understand what caused this major conflict between Aboriginal people and the churches and government.