Residential Schools - Written Dialogue

Perspective: Residential School Student from the 1920s

What types of punishments are enforced in residential schools?

When we, as students, do something that is considered bad or disrespectful we

receive a painful or harsh punishment for our so-called wrongdoing. These types of
punishments will scar us for life. Punishments are even given for the simplest of mistakes. For
example, if the teachers do not think we are working hard enough, we are assigned more work
to do. If we speak our native language we might be forced to miss supper, be physically beaten
or dealt some other type of harsh punishment. We sometimes go without food for an entire day
if we fail a test. Sometimes the punishments embarrass us. If someone were to wet their bed,
for example, they might have to walk around with their underwear on their head for the whole
day. This type of embarrassment and punishment should not be tolerated in a school. Think
about the long term effects. I am starting to realize that other students are starting to treat their
classmates with this kind of disrespect. As they grow this behavior may stick with them.

What is your view on residential schools? How are you affected by these schools?

Personally, as a student who has experienced what goes on inside the walls of these
schools, I do not think any of what goes on is right. Not one student here is treated with the
respect that they deserve. We aren't happy here. Since attending this school, I have lost
precious traits to my identity. I have lost important things like my culture, identity and most of my
language. We are forced to live in an abusive environment with no real, loving parent figure. We
are forced to endure physical, sexual, mental and emotional abuse which is not are healthy
environments in which to grow. We were forcibly taken away from our homes and parents. Our
parents had no choice or say in what happened to us. It is no wonder that children attempt to
escape the schools and try to go home. Sometimes, though, these events can take a turn for
the worst and the escape ends in death. During the winter months, we do not have proper
clothing to keep us warm therefore if someone does escape they might very well freeze to death
from exposure to the frigid elements. You just hope that they're safe when you realize they are
missing at suppertime. You wonder and hope, but sometimes the news that another one of our
own has perished in their effort to find their way back home.

What perspective do you hold in regard to residential schools and how it impacts your
future?
I believe that the residential schools will have many negative, long-lasting effects on my
life. Firstly, I believe that once I am out of school I will no longer be able to communicate with my
family. Here in the residential school, I am forced to speak only English. I am beginning to forget
how to communicate in my native tongue and my family is unable to speak English. Also, since
being forced into this school, I have begun to forget the special, native traditions that I used to
celebrate. If I ever go back home I will be out of place because I will not be able to relate to my
former way of life. My family will be like strangers to me and I will be a stranger to them. Then
there is the question of trust. I do not trust these white adults who have abused me. As a matter
of fact, I dont trust any white person because of my treatment in the residential school. But I
wonder if I will be able to trust anyone back home. When I can no longer speak my native
language and I no longer understand my former customs and traditions, my family will perhaps
see me as a white person. Can I trust that my own people will want me back? I wonder if I will
belong anywhere. I can see that future relationships will be strained as I search for a place to
feel wanted, valued and welcome. This whole experience has left me feeling very uncertain and
with very little hope for the future.

Duncan Campbell Scott once said I want to get rid of the Indian problem,. What is you
opinion towards his views?

From my point of view, I totally disagree with what Duncan Campbell Scott has stated
with regard to getting rid of the Indian problem. As a First Nation person, I take objection to my
people being referred to as as problem. I believe that we should be allowed to practice our
own traditions, speak our own language and celebrate our own culture. We are not bothering
anyone yet the white people want us gone. They want us to be just like them. They want us to
look like them, talk like them and act like them, but we are not them! The white people who are
running this country called Canada are trying to assimilate the First Nations population. We are
removed from our families and put in these horrible schools where huge efforts are made to
make us forget our past. How do you think white people would feel if they were in our position?
They would, without a doubt, be extremely scared for their future. They would experience
sadness and depression because they would hate where they had been placed. They would not
enjoy being unable see their family and being punished for almost anything they did. I wouldn't
wish this life on anyone.

Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence -
John A. MacDonald. Do you agree or disagree with this quote? Why?

I absolutely disagree with John A. MacDonalds comment. Since we were taken from
our families at such a young age, we are unable to remember what life was life before being to
cruelly taken from our homes. The First Nations children are being forced to grow up without
any parental figure because the government removed us from our original homes. Growing up
without a parental figure has not been good for the younger population of the First Nations
people. It is our parents who teach us love and how to love. We experience none of that here in
the residential
school. Here it is quite the opposite. We are abused in every sense. So we dont know how to
love. As I mentioned in one of my previous responses, I am noticing that many other students
are adopting the abusive behaviors of their mentors here at the residential school. I believe that
because of this when we, the First Nations children, grow into adults grow we will, in turn, abuse
our own children because it is only way we know how to act. Abuse is what we are learning. It is
all we will eventually know. We will have no idea what love is, how to give it or how to receive it.
Having healthy relationships in the future will be pretty much impossible for us. Being raised by
our own families would not only teach how to love, but it would ensure our true identities would
remain with us. The residential schools are turning us into white people. Physically, we look
different, but thats it. We speak English...we have to adopt white people ways and customs.
Without our parents to help us keep our native language, customs and traditions, we are pretty
much losing our identity. Except for the way we look, we will be white people!

Personal Response

To what extent should the Canadian citizens respond the the legacies of residential
schools?

In my opinion, Canadian citizens should respond to the legacies of the residential

schools to the greatest of extents. The last residential school, Gordon Indian Residential School
in Saskatchewan, was shut down in 1996, however we still seeing the tragic effects of these
schools in our modern-day society. One of the biggest impacts we see today is intergenerational
trauma. Since the First Nations children were forced to attend these residential school and,
therefore, did not have proper loving parental figures present in their life, they developed the
behaviors of the torturous mentors at the school. Native children attending the residential
schools were not treated well and were abused physically, sexually, mentally and emotionally.
When these children grew into adults and had children of their own, many have acted in abusive
ways towards their own children. Canadian poet and bureaucrat, Duncan Campbell, stated that
he wanted to get rid of the indian problem and make sure that there is not a single Indian in
Canada that has not been absorbed Into the body politic. I firmly believe that if we had never
bothered the First Nations people, never put them in residential schools and never tried to take
their identity, then they would be much different people today. Now, we are trying to fix
something that we made a mess of years ago. This population of people will be hurting for many
years to come and it will take generations for them to heal.

I believe, secondly, that in order to help the First Nations people break free from their
own abusive behaviors, we need to help them as much as possible. In order to do so, we have
to and have apologized for the horrific mistakes that were made. On June 11, 2008 we did just
that when our former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, on behalf of the Canadian Government
and it citizens, made a Statement of Apology to all of the past students who attended residential
schools. Now that the apology has been made, we must give these people the support and help
that they need to heal. I believe that we should send the First Nations people and their families
to counselling so they are able to re-build loving and caring relationships with each other as well
as help them learn how to trust others again. We can never give them back the life that they
never had, however, we can at the very least, provide funding for counselling as well as
monetary compensation for the First Nations people who were traumatized by their time spent in
the residential schools. Although none of this will erase their pain and suffering, it will allow them
to go on and improve their quality of life. It is a rightful and deserving payment for the
wrongdoings that were done against these people.

In the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada: Calls to Action, I believe that one
important section is Health. One section in particular is #18. This Call to Action is important
because it addresses how all levels of government must acknowledge the overall poor state of
aboriginal health in Canada is directly linked to residential schools. The deficient health of the
First Nations people today is because of those past events that happened in the residential
schools. I believe that this is a valuable concern to us because we should work towards a nation
where all citizens are healthy, happy, productive and proud to be Canadian. Another Call to
Action that I believe is important is the section about Commemoration (#79-83). This section is
important because #79iii talks about how we should develop and implement national heritage
plans to help remember the residential schools, what went on inside the walls of the schools,
and how it is important to Canadas history. This Call to Action is important because it is
important for us to be aware of what went on in the past. We need to know what happened at
these schools so we can try to figure out how to fix the impacts it has on today's society. More
importantly, it is another step in making amends for the wrongdoings that were done. It is public
acknowledgement and apology for the tragedies that were committed.