What kind of abuse happened at residential schools?
Virtually from the outset, a shockingly large proportion of the 150,000 Indigenous children sent to residential schools were subjected to rape and molestation from principals, teachers, dormitory supervisors and even maintenance workers and janitors.
What years were residential schools open?
Indian residential schools operated in Canada between the 1870s and the 1990s. The last Indian residential school closed in 1996. Children between the ages of 4-16 attended Indian residential school. It is estimated that over 150,000 Indian, Inuit, and Métis children attended Indian residential school.
How did residential schools violate human rights?
At the schools, students were forbidden to speak Native languages and practice their culture. Testimony from surviving former students presents overwhelming evidence of widespread neglect, starvation, extensive physical and sexual abuse, and many student deaths related to these crimes.
What did they eat in residential schools?
At residential school, children ate mostly porridge but on Saturday mornings there were Corn Flakes, which was one of the only foods which Irniq said he looked forward to. There was often an unpleasant soup with lettuce and onions in it. They even had beef cut into four-inch by four-inch squares — served frozen solid.
How did kids die at residential schools?
Indigenous children in residential schools died at far higher rates than other Canadian children, even for the time, the report notes. According to the report, many children died from infectious diseases – in particular tuberculosis – fires in school buildings, suicide, drowning, and other accidental causes.
What were the problems with residential schools?
One of the most devastating impacts of the residential school system was that it gave most students a poor education. For many, that led to chronic unemployment or underemployment, poverty, poor housing, substance abuse, family violence, and ill health.
What was wrong with residential schools?
Residential schools systematically undermined Indigenous, First Nations, Métis and Inuit cultures across Canada and disrupted families for generations, severing the ties through which Indigenous culture is taught and sustained, and contributing to a general loss of language and culture.
Did residential schools starve kids?
Recent food history research has indicated that the malnourishment of children at residential schools was intentional, evidenced by the Canadian government’s awareness of malnutrition in residential school children before the experiments began.
When did residential schools become mandatory?
1920
In 1920, amendments to the Indian Act make it mandatory for every Indian child between the ages of seven and six- teen years, to attend Indian residential school.
