The Alberta Teachers’ Association

Karen Virag

It is a generally accepted notion that the education and socialization of any given group’s children shape the future of that group. In this country, the residential school system was a “disastrous mistake” (Fenwick 2001) that wreaked havoc on Canada’s Aboriginals to the extent that some have accused the Canadian government of having waged cultural genocide on its Native population. Residential schools might be a thing of the past, but their memories live in the many thousands of Aboriginal students. As the wounds heal, we see heartening examples of Aboriginal peoples getting back some control over their children’s education even as we are forced to consider differing understandings of the meaning of education.

Formal European education of Aboriginal children began in the early 1600s, in Québec, then known as New France, at mission schools operated by the Roman Catholic Church. In the late 1700s and early 1800s, the Protestant churches got in on the act to “civilize” and Christianize North America’s Native population.

The 1830s also saw the construction of residential boarding schools under the auspices of the Catholic and Anglican churches, the colonial governments and, later, the federal government. By 1900, there were 64 residential schools in Canada. Because Native children were removed from their families, and hence their language and culture, the colonial powers considered residential schools ideal vehicles for assimilation—children could “get away from the wigwam” and be better moulded into what the colonialists considered proper citizens; importantly, they could learn English, the better to read the Bible.

After Confederation, in 1867, Aboriginal education was divided into two categories, one for Status Indians (Natives who signed treaties with the federal government), which was overseen by the federal government, and another for non-Status Indians, Inuit and Métis, which became a provincial responsibility. In a particularly paternalistic move, the 1867 British North America Act made all Indians wards of the state, treating them as though they were unruly children, and under the 1876 and 1880 Indian Acts “Indian self-government was abolished, and finance and all social services, including education, were placed under federal control (Barman, Hebert and McCaskill 1986).

In 1880, the federal government created the Department of Indian Affairs to implement Aboriginal policy and to, in the parlance of the day, deal with the “Indian problem.” The department oversaw the construction of large industrial residential schools located far from reserves and, later, of day schools for young children that were located near reserves. “There, attendance would be ensured, and all aspects of life, from dress to use of English language to behaviour, would be carefully regulated. Curriculum was to be limited to basic education combined with half-day practical training in agriculture, the crafts, or household duties in order to prepare pupils for their expected future existence on the lower fringes of the dominant society” (Barman, Hebert and McCaskill 1986, 6).

Barman et al (1986) noted that many young Aboriginals were able to amalgamate useful things they learned in residential schools with what their own culture had already taught them. However, ingrained racism meant that any Indian success was looked at askance, and there were suggestions from the Department itself that too much was being done for Indians. “It has to be carefully considered how far the country can be properly burdened with the cost of giving [Aboriginals] superior advantages” (from an 1898 Department of Indian Affairs document, cited in Barman 1986).

In 1910, the Department issued a revised policy announcement that the goal of Indian education was “to fit the Indian for civilized life in his own environment.” In other words, education of Indian children deteriorated while education of white children improved.

By the 1940s, it became clear that residential schools were not benefiting Canada’s Aboriginal population. Very few were graduating from high school and even fewer were going on to postsecondary studies. The solution devised by the federal government, in cooperation with the provinces, was to provide funding to students to attend provincial elementary and high schools. The government’s aim was not entirely altruistic—it was thought that by removing Native students from the reserve and residential schools the process of complete assimilation would be hastened. By 1960, there were about 10,000 Aboriginal students attending off-reserve provincial schools, but the government’s rosy predictions of assimilation did not materialize, and by 1967 only 200 Aboriginal students were attending university out of a national population of about 60,000.

The 1960s was a watershed decade for civil rights that saw a growing Aboriginal consciousness and the formation of groups such as the Federation of Saskatchewan Indians in 1961, and the National Indian Brotherhood (NIB) in 1968. In 1969, the Trudeau government introduced the White Paper on Indian policy, which called for a repeal of the Indian Act, renunciation of federal responsibilities and termination of Indian special status. The notion was that all people would be treated equally under Trudeau’s vision of a “just society.”  The Aboriginal response was immediate and negative and resulted in the publication of Citizens Plus, also known as the Red Paper, which advocated reaffirming special status for Indians as defined by the treaties. A year after the White Paper, 12 First Nations communities staged a sit-in at Alberta’s Blue Quills Indian Residential School for the purpose of obtaining control of the facility and assuming the responsibility of educating their children. Blue Quills would become the first Native-run school in Canada, and the Trudeau government would retract the infamous White Paper and agree to First Nations’ local control of education.

In 1972, the NIB produced a policy paper entitled Indian Control of Indian Education, which called for more Aboriginal teachers, the promotion of Native languages and the development of appropriate curriculum.

By 1983, more than 200 schools on reserves were band operated, over 80 reserve schools offered Native languages and 38 per cent of children attending reserve schools received some kind of Native language instruction.

In 1986, the Piikani of southern Alberta assumed local control over their education administration from the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs. They were followed the next year by the Nakoda and Tsuu T’ina, but it was not until 1988 that the last residential school in Alberta closed, though the last residential school in the country, located outside of Regina, was open as late as 1996.

It is estimated that as many as 150,000 Native children attended residential schools since the 1930s. Commentators have noted that not all Aboriginal students experienced the cruelty and sexual abuse that are the stuff of modern lawsuits against the federal government and various churches. However, even at their best, residential schools instilled a sense that indigenous culture was inferior, forced foreign values on an entire people and took children away from their families. As Fenwick (2001, 34) asks, “How do you learn to be a family if you don’t grow up in one?” In a 1996 report, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples described residential schools as institutions designed to “kill the Indian in the child” (Lowey 1999). Finally, in 1998, the federal government issued a statement of reconciliation with Aboriginal people and apologized for its role in the administration of residential schools. As part of its apology, Ottawa has established a “healing fund” of $350 million for community counselling for former students (Lowey 1999) and has pledged $2 million for improvements to Aboriginal education. Provincially, Alberta Education released the First Nations, Métis and Inuit Education Policy Framework in 2004, which seeks to ensure that “[t]he life-long learning aspirations and potential of First Nations, Métis and Inuit (FNMI) individuals and communities are realized through a responsive and accountable public education system that is recognized as a provincial leader in Aboriginal education.” One of the framework’s strategies calls for improved FNMI curriculum, language, learning and teaching resources, and to this end Alberta Education has developed Cree and Blackfoot language and culture programs for Grades 1–12, and a high school Aboriginal studies program. In September 2000, Edmonton Public Schools opened Amiskwaciy Academy, an alternative high school that incorporates Aboriginal ceremonies, traditions and prayer into the school day.

It is estimated that only about one-quarter of Aboriginal students graduate from high school. Further, in Alberta, Aboriginal people account for only 2.4 per cent of the teaching profession, though they make up 5.8 per cent of the general population. Perhaps, though, in consultation with Aboriginal people, we need to reconceptualize exactly what education means. It is not, after all, an ideology-neutral concept. As Hookimaw-Witt (1998) notes, the school system cannot be successful because “it’s not based on our cultural values and traditions.” In the Western educational paradigm, emotion and tuition are not part of curriculum, Hookimaw-Witt says, whereas they are integral elements, along with spirituality, in Aboriginal education, which tends to teach not by the three Rs, but by the three Ls: look, listen and learn. It is clear that much remains to be done to improve education for Aboriginal children.

Karen Virag is ATA publications supervisor.

Bibliography

Barman, J., Y. Hebert and D. McCaskill, eds. 1986. Indian Education in Canada, Vol. 1: The Legacy. Vancouver, BC: University of British Columbia Press.

Canadian Encyclopedia. First edition, sv “Native People.”

Fenwick, F. 2001. “Residential School Update.” Law Now 25 no. 3: 33–36.

Hookimaw-Witt, J. 1998. “Any Changes Since Residential School?” Canadian Journal of Native Education 22, no. 2:159–70.

Lowey, M. 1999. “Natives Will Sue for Abuse at Church-Run Schools.” Edmonton Journal, January 3.

MacDonald, J. 1991. “No Fond Memories of Residential Schools Here.” Edmonton Journal, June 10, p. B3.

Ruttan, S. 2000. “A Disgusting Evil.” Edmonton Journal, April 1, p. H2.

Schissel, B. and T. Wotherspoon. 2003. The Legacy of School for Aboriginal People. Toronto, Ont: Oxford University Press.

Wikipedia online encyclopedia. sv “Residential Schools,” www.wikipedia.org .