Residential School Poverty

Residential Schools affected every single person that attended, with varying degrees of consequences. Numerous problems arose, however, one of the biggest impact that affected every generation to come would be the result of poverty from residential school. These institutes didn’t teach many helpful skills that would aid them down the line. Instead, they just taught the students the languages of the Caucasian man and the religion of Christianity. As a result of First Nations not receiving useful education, they were not applicable for either jobs or for higher tier jobs. Alas, an abundance of “Indians” were either unemployed or underemployed. In response to poverty, the human mind can be induced by trauma in addition to psychological damage.

Their education did not provide any useful skills they could apply to their life further down the line. In the schools, priests and nuns taught the children either English or French with household chores sprinkled in. With the knowledge of a new language, it virtually provided no support to their careers at the time. With the multiple years they spent in these schools , it was completely useless compared to the time you could’ve spent learning to perfect the arts of hunting, farming or even crafting. These jobs would have provided so much more for each individual or even community. Without money to expend for resources, many people didn’t have enough to afford any basic needs of the human. Statistics say approximately 50% of First Nations children lived in poverty from a study in 2006. Having such a high poverty rate, it was more than likely children would be born into families with either no wealth or close to zero wealth. Over time, a family in poverty will give birth to the next generation of poverty which will then continue the cycle. Along with these effects of poverty, trauma was also present. Lacking the essential resources to maintain a stable family, the mental and physical suffering of the victims has

The issue of poverty had eventually led to much greater consequences of mental disorders and then addictions. Sadly, these issues still affect First Nations today despite their efforts to try and reverse it. With such huge problems floating around, it is nearly impossible to completely decimate. But with every attempt, we can slow the effects of poverty and its results of mental and addiction