Residential Schools Research Paper

Words: 593
Pages: 3

Firstly, residential schools hold a symbolic importance due to the negative impact it had on Natives throughout the 20th century. Overall, the experience of residential schools for most children was negative for various reasons. Children were isolated from their families, abused, and the poor atmosphere left these children to be ill. To begin with, most students were unable to contact their family members; government officials would force or even kidnap Natives to get them to attend these schools. If a parent had withheld their child from attending, they would be imprisoned. Additionally, strict rules were also enforced to integrate Indigenous children with the ‘Canadian society.’ For instance, students were forbidden to speak their language. Even writing letters home to parents was prohibited, …show more content…
Likewise, Aboriginal students were constantly abused and punished. Even if a student followed all the rules, a punishment was inevitable. These children lived in constant fear but had no choice but to put up with the abuse. Some of the punishments included; inserting needles into their tongues for speaking their language, starving them, and inflicting beatings with a leather strap, just to name a few. In fact, Elaine Durocher, a former student from the Roman Catholic school in Kamsack, Saskatchewan recalls, “A sister, a nun started talking to me in English and French, and yelling at me. I did not speak English and didn’t understand what she was asking. She got very upset and started hitting me all over my body, hands, legs, and back. I began to cry, yell, and became very scared, and this infuriated her more. She got a black strap and hit me some more.” With that being said, the treatment of Natives at residential schools was cruel, to say the least. These children had been robbed of their childhood, innocence, and