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Donald Wilson Residential School Analysis

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In 2008, Stephen Harper stood up in the House of Commons and admitted a fault that was long time denied of the Canadian Government. An apology came 128 years after the residential school system construction, along with a small financial compensation to the Canadian Aboriginal people. However, many books and scholars speculate the actual effects of the residential schools and who were the true culprits of the aboriginal peoples’ abuse. This essay will observe historians through the 13 years of expansive work done on residential schools to uncover the methodology shifts for understanding why residential schools became what they were and who was to “blame”.
J. Donald Wilson believed that residential schools moved their objective from assimilating …show more content…

Wilson concludes that the civilizing mission “aim of making Indians both useful and reasonably self-sufficient…into the White economic system.” Wilson therefore notes the missionaries in high regard, by using claim of the Aboriginals and the missionaries as seeing economic and logical cause for the movement to industrial schools.
Wilson then delves into extensive detail examining residential schools, focusing on two specific schools, Shingwauk Industrial School for boys and Wawanosh was for girls. Wilson recounts that at Shingwauk “whether teachers or tradesmen, Shingwauk graduates were not to go back to their old way of living.” While “it was expected most Wawanosh girls would enter domestic service.” However, tradesmen and domestic service are lower to middle class wages. Therefore, Wilson’s argument exposes that through the education system – the Aboriginals would live mediocre …show more content…

While Wilson saw the religious agents, Coates because emphasizes the role of the government. Like Wilson, Coates also relays that missionaries saw “schooling [as] the most hopeful branch of mission work,” But in addition goes on to focus on the resistance of the federal government to fund the schooling because that was not their main focus in the northwest of Canada. “Following the discovery of gold, the government increased the [police]… and installed a modest administration.” Coates relays that “until the Second World War, the federal government paid little attention to its northern colonies.”
However, Coates states, “the government disagreed and challenged the missionaries’ claims that even a modest educational system was necessary for the Natives of the North.” Therefore, Coates structures his argument to argue marginal support of the government to fund and support these residential schools affects the quality and outcome of the residential

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The perception was that Native American adults had a limited ability to learn new skills and concepts. Later in the report, it is expressed that children learn little at day school, causing their “tastes to be fashioned at home, and [their] inherited aversion to toil is in no way combated. ”11 Davin recommended that similar industrial boarding schools should be built in Canada, which would attempt to assimilate Native children into the European culture.12 Nicholas Flood Davin’s research and advances about the industrial schools in America, was important in the creation and developing of the Residential school system in

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“Indian School Road” by Chris Benjamin sheds light on the horrific experiences of Indigenous children and families at residential schools. It is a non-fiction book that explores the impact of the residential school system in Canada on Indigenous Communities. The author focuses specifically on the Shubenacadie Residential School in Nova Scotia, where Indigenous children were taken and forced to attend the school from 1930-1967. The Canadian government established these schools intending to indoctrinate Indigenous children into Christian ways, with churches as the main locations and priests and nuns as educators. The book uncovers the history of the Shubenacadie Residential School, exposing the responsible individuals, the government's passive

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Over the past few decades, there has been many distinct perspectives and conflicts surrounding the historical context between the Indigenous peoples in Canada and the Canadian Government. In source one, the author P.J Anderson is trying to convey that the absolute goal of the Indian Residential School system in Canada has been to assimilate the Indian nation and provide them with guidance to “ forget their Indian habits”, and become educated of the “ arts of civilized life”, in order to help them integrate into society and “become one” with their “White brethren”. It is clearly evident throughout the source that the author is supportive of the Indian residential school system and strongly believes that the Indian residential School System

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Throughout assimilation, there was a cultural barrier between the Indians and the teachers. At the core of this barrier was the idea that one culture was more civilized than the other. This idea can be seen in both Native American boarding schools and at St. Lucy’s. As stated in Sarah E. Stone’s dissertation, the teachers at Native American boarding schools were not “culturally familiar” (57) with the students and, as a result, treated them differently. Similarly, at St. Lucy’s the nuns saw the wolf girls as barbaric people and treated them accordingly.

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The TRC’s “The History” author appeals to logos through the use quantitative findings. The use of logical evidence from the collection of testimonials made by former residential school students is an effective way to aid the persuasion of a reader. Throughout “The History”, the author describes the memories of known First Nations peoples Frederic Ernest Koe, Marlene Kayseas, Lily Bruce and many others. In addition, the author quotes Vitaline Elsie Jenner’s use of ‘kaya nakasin’ (TRC, 2015, p.38) in describing her experience with residential school. The author’s example that contains the use native language reaffirms his credibility and detailed knowledge of the

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These schools gave traumatic experiences to the Aboriginal youths and haunted them for the rest of their life. the government pursued the schooling to first nations to make them “economically self-sufficient” with its underlying scheme(Miller) the government secretly lied to them and planned on lessening Aboriginal dependency on the public purse (funds raised by the government) Eve Cardinal, a former student of a residential school, still has traumatic memories that even 45 years later, Eva still cries about (Boguski) “Students were punished for just about everything,” -Eve Cardinal (Boguski) getting out of bed at night, wetting the bed, speaking their native language, etc. some students were forced to hold down their peers on a table as the nun beats her (the peer being held down) with a strap “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…

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We Were Children, the documentary on residential schools, is a re-enactment of two aboriginal children and their first hand experiences in the residential school system. The kinds of problems this documentary presented include mistreatment faced by the children who attended these schools, corruption and scandal inside the administration of the schools, and the false perception about these schools that resonated amongst Canadian society. These two children talk about the bullying they had to endure from the nuns which show that the children were not seen as equal to a child of non-Aboriginal decent. Furthermore, the types of abuse administration would put these kids through was immensely disturbing considering this was a state run institution.

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Residential schools are significant to the people of Canada; it was an awful occurrence that happened for over 150 years. Settler Canadians recognize the pain they caused and are trying to resolve the complication, one way Settler Canadians are working towards reconciliation is by participating in events such as orange shirt day and by participating in campaigns like the Moose Hide Campaign, where you are supporting your commitment to honour, respect and protection for the women and children in your life by wearing a little square of moose hide on your shirt. Another way that non-Aboriginal Canadians reconciliate is by listening to the stories of children who survived or didn’t survive their experience. Two stories of children and their stories during this time are, Sugar Falls and Secret Path, the reader gets a better understanding of what happened during these times, and how these people felt and why they felt it. The themes of these stories is not only the hard times and experiences they had, but the strength they gained through it.

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Although in this time period, the Puritans were seen as extremely devoted followers of God, they still seemed to be hypocrites as others of this time. In Hawthorne’s short story, when Goodman Brown gets to the meeting place of the devil and his fellow Puritans he sees the people who, “Sabbath after Sabbath, looked devoutly heavenward” (37). Even though the Puritans went to church every Sunday and were always looking up to God, Hawthorne portrays them as secret sinners who meet with the Devil in the woods together, just as they meet at church every Sunday. Furthermore, after looking at all the familiar faces of his fellow Puritans’ deep in the mysterious woods, Goodman Brown points out one familiar face in particular, Goody Cloyse. Upon

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• The government has the responsibility in the inability of native American youthfulness in today’s schools because there is a lot of problems between the tribes and the government not resolved

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Native Americans in Canadian society are constantly fighting an uphill battle. After having their identity taken away in Residential Schools. The backlash of the Residential Schools haunts them today with Native American people struggling in today 's society. Native Americans make up five percent of the Canadian population, yet nearly a quarter of the murder victims. The haunting memories of Residential Schools haunt many Native Americans to this day.

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In the final account with Anne Wampy William Apess uses “quotes” from her to show that even Native Americans late in age can become devoted Christians. Throughout The Experience of Five Christian Indians William Apess uses intellectual and rhetorical sovereignty as well as characterization to show that Native Americans are people who can think for themselves and represent themselves anyway they see fit. “The Experience of Anne Wampy” was the last entry in William Apess’ The Experience of Five Christian Indians and I argue that it was the most compelling argument of the five throughout the work. “The Experience of Anne Wampy” is very different from the other four accounts in the book, instead of being converted at a very early age or relatively early age like the other four, Anne Wampy was not converted until she was seventy years old. Also, instead of changing her English to a better written form Apess decided to leave it as is, this

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They faced many challenges, as some had dependents to look after—children or partners, some of whom did not have jobs.” She took on the counselling for the girls and women, while a male college took on the counselling of the boys and men. She wanted to help women achieve better jobs and future by helping them with their education. Kirkness discusses the difficultly students had adjusting to the new way of life, “Since most of the homes were with non-Native families, our students had to get used to a different way of life in totally different cultures.” The students were Indigenous, but the placement homes these students were placed in were not, for the most part, Indigenous.

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The idea of residential schools, the frustration of students in the environment, as well as hatred for the school system would have definitely drove many of the students to continue their defiant behaviours. The fear of losing their language; their culture; and most importantly, their identity, further increased their determination to resist the force put upon them in residential schools. Despite facing harsh punishments such as a variety of forms of corporal punishment, the idea of showing opposition towards a subject that they did not comply with was a much stronger force that drove students to engage in acts of resistance than the force of fear that the residential schools attempted to inflict toward them. As a result of this, many students were able to resist the desired outcome that the government hoped for, in spite of the

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