Summary Of Legend Of The Sugar Girl

In “Legend of the Sugar Girl”, written by Joseph Boyden, the effects that residen-tial schools had on First Nations People in both their adolescent and subsequent years, are brought to light. They were taught new traditions, languages, and ways of life which ultimately lead to a loss of identity and an unimaginable future. As shown in the re-search, from the late 1800s to 1996, over 100,000 First Nations children were enrolled in residential schools in Canada. At these institutes, the children experienced emotional, sexual, and physical abuse; with punishments for reasons such as simply speaking their own language. Likewise, in the story, the “Sugar Girl” lost her identity as all of her tradi-tions that were native to her before were simply

Firstly, the most profound effect that residential schools had on the First Na-tions children was the loss of their Indigenous languages and traditions. As Boyden discussed, many children were punished and physically abused whenever they com-mitted a wrong doing such as speaking their mother tongue at the residential schools. Because of this, First Nations children lost their Indigenous languages at an early age as they attended the schools. The children were forced to attend residential schools as Million states that the they “were removed by priests, social workers and police to residential schools” (2000). Many parents of the First Nations children simply felt that they “had no choice but to do what the government told them” (Boyden 184) as they were

We learn that after the children left the residential schools in the “Legend of the Sugar Girl” it was already too late as the elders were too old now to teach them the ways of their people. It is known that a strong spiritual connection exists between the First Nations and the Nature that surrounds them. Rajotte describes this as he states “all of life is spiritual: everything that exists, animals, plants, people, rocks, the sun and stars have elements of sacred-ness” (1998). The Elder First Nation peoples trickled down spiritual teachings to their children. But in the “Sugar Girl’s” case, “her parents were too old now to go back and live in the bush, to teach her brothers and sisters how to hunt and trap and make Indian clothing and prepare game for eating. That life was gone” (Boyden 190). Due to the fact that many of the First Nations children lost their mother tongue, the children could no longer learn about the spiritual beliefs and rituals of their people. Blair et al states that “spirituality was all encompassing, affecting not only their thoughts about the spirit world but also their knowledge of places, plants and animals and traditional skills such as fishing, trapping, and tanning” (2002). If the First Nations children did not