Lesson 1: The Impact of Assimilation: Residential Schools and Intergenerational Trauma

Question 1

The Davin Report

(2)

Answer 1

(1) Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald commissioned Nicholas Flood Davin (a conservative MP from Regina) to investigate the industrial schools established for Indigenous peoples in the United States and to write a report on what Macdonald saw as a problem—“Indians.
(2) Davin Report, was officially entitled Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds

Question 2

The Davin report’s solution

(3)

Answer 2

(1) was to focus on training Indigenous children in boarding schools; as it stated, children were to be taken away “from the influence of the wigwam.
(2) declared that not much could be done in terms of “civilizing” Indigenous adults
(3) Indigenous children, however, could be schooled and trained to become like non-Indians

Question 3

Where was the first residential school for “Indians” in the United States

Answer 3

Industrial School in Carlisle, Pennsylvania

Question 4

The architect of the American residential school system

Answer 4

Richard Henry Pratt, an officer in the United States Army

Question 5

When were Residential schools in operation in Canada?

Answer 5

Residential schools were in operation in Canada from 1831 until the close of the final federally run school in 1996

Question 6

The first residential school in Canada

Answer 6

the Mohawk Institute, which began operating as a boarding school for boys from Six Nations in 1831 in Brantford, Ontario

Question 7

How many generations of children attended these schools?

Answer 7

7

Question 8

In 1920, the federal government made it mandatory for all Indigenous children between the ages of 7 and 15 to attend school

Answer 8

although this new amendment to the Indian Act did not mean compulsory attendance at residential schools—because more First Nations children attended day schools than residential schools until the 1944–45 school year, when the pattern was reversed—it did mean that authorities could compel attendance at residential schools when there were no other educational options

Question 9

What happened to Parents who refused to send their children to school?

Answer 9

were threatened with fines or imprisonment.

Question 10

The alleged function of these schools was to provide education to Indigenous children. Other functions and purposes have been now revealed.

(4)

Answer 10

(1) All of the schools mandated the learning and adoption of the Christian religion.
(2) Many Indigenous pupils were falsely taught that their culture was the way of the devil.
(3) Some were threatened with going to hell if they continued to practice their traditional culture.
(4) English and French language was also forced upon children, and speaking in one’s traditional language was forbidden.

Question 11

Immediately upon attending the schools

(3)

Answer 11

(1) children would be assigned a number and their traditional names would be replaced by English or French names.
(2) Traditional long hair or braids would be cut short or shaved off.
(3) Traditional clothing was confiscated and replaced by standard issued uniforms. Sacred regalia and objects were burned.

Question 12

Historian Ian Mosby documents the most ambitious and well known of these nutritional experiments

Answer 12

James Bay survey of peoples from the Attawapiskat and Rupert’s House Cree First Nations conducted from 1947 to 1948

Question 13

genocide

(2)

Answer 13

(1) is the systematic and deliberate annihilation and elimination of a racial, political, or cultural group
(2) to commit an act of genocide does not require direct killing; rather, it is about the destruction and eradication of a people.

Question 14

Coined the term “genocide” during discussions leading up to the United Nations Genocide Convention

Answer 14

Raphael Lemkin

Question 15

the first Indigenous person in Canada to sue and win a case against the federal government for post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from residential school abuses

Answer 15

Willy Blackwater

Question 17

On May 10, 2006, in a landmark event, this agreement was finally approved

Answer 17

The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA)

Question 18

The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA)

Answer 18

(1) was signed by the Government of Canada, legal representatives for residential school survivors, the Assembly of First Nations, Inuit representatives, and legal representatives from the various churches that had operated residential schools.
(2) This agreement confirmed that a comprehensive resolution to the legacy of residential schools would be set into motion.
(3) It represents the largest out-of-court class action settlement in Canadian history. The IRSSA came into effect on September 19, 2007.

Question 19

Common Experience Payment (CEP)

Answer 19

Measure of the IRSSA a 1.9 billion amount to be supplied as lump sum payments to former residential school survivors. Upon verification, survivors who applied could receive 10,000 for their first year of attendance at the school and 3,000 for each year thereafter.

Question 21

“Independent Assessment Process”

(2)

Answer 21

(1) Another component of the IRSSA that would evaluate whether a payment in addition to the CEP should be made.
(2) It was set up to compensate survivors who experienced physical, sexual, and other forms of abuse suffered during their attendance at a residential school.

Question 22

A problem with the compensation process

Answer 22

One problem has since been noted with this compensation process: it forced survivors to retell their horrible experiences in order to receive compensation money.

Question 23

Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)

(4)

Answer 23

(1) another established component of the IRSSA.
(2) It was allocated a budget of 60 million over five years.
(3) The commission was mandated to promote public awareness; to provide a culturally safe place for survivors, their families, and communities to come together and share their stories about residential schools; and to acknowledge residential school experiences and the consequences of these experiences.
(4) also mandated to create as complete a record as possible about residential schools and their impacts, from the information gathered throughout the commission’s work, and to set up a permanent archive of all relevant documents and material.

Question 24

Challenges facing the TRC

(4)

Answer 24

(1) in its first year the resignation of its first chair and commissioners which delayed and reduced the time frame for completion of two required reports
(2) problems obtaining from governments the documents necessary to complete its final report.
(3) The government tactlessly disagreed with commissioners over which documents were “relevant” and required from government files and archives.
(4) had to turn to the courts for assistance, which was especially difficult given the TRC’s huge mandate, the deadline of July 1, 2014, for issuing its final report (which was extended to June 30, 2015), and its time-limited funds

Question 25

Aboriginal Healing Foundation (AHF)

Answer 25

(1) Another measure of the IRSSA was the allocation of a further 125 million
(2) These monies were designated to fund healing projects that would address the legacies of residential schools.
(3) An additional 100 million was also contributed by the involved churches to support healing initiatives.

Question 26

Intergenerational Legacies and Trauma

(6)

Answer 26

(1) The residential school experience had broken the crucial tie between a child and parents at a critical time in child development
(2) some people denied their identity as a consequence of the severe program of cultural replacement and because they had been raised in an environment that had little or no respect for Indigenous peoples
(3) children were not raised within their culture or according to the teachings of the elders.
(4) They were denied a traditional, nurturing family environment.
(5) by the late 1940s, four or five generations of Indigenous peoples had come out of residential schools as angry, poorly educated, abused strangers “who had no experience in parenting.
(6) some residential school survivors and their descendants found it hard to establish trusting or supportive attachments with family members, including their spouses, children, and grandchildren.

Question 27

Indigenous communities also suffered as a result of Residential Schools

Answer 27

(1) The loss of children dismantled family social organization and structure and affected parenting.
(2) Given the overt racism children experienced at the schools and in the broader Euro-­Canadian world, many educated there were unable to fit into society easily, feeling alienated from their communities because of broken ties and unwanted elsewhere.

Question 28

Criminologists Raymond Corrado and Irwin Cohen, in an analysis of 127 case files of Indigenous residential school survivors who had undergone clinical assessment

(3)

Answer 28

(1) showed that almost half (49 per cent) had been convicted of charges, including murder, theft, arson, possession of a weapon, robbery, major driving offences, drug offences, and sex offences.
(2) Slightly more than half (51.6 per cent) were convicted of at least one sexual offence, and
(3) 55 per cent were convicted of assault

Question 29

What does Phil Fontaine describe as being critical to the future of Indigenous peoples? ( Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle)

Answer 29

Leaders decide that healing is critical to their future and healing means coming face-to-face with the whole residential school system.

Question 30

How does Delmar Johnnie explain his first day at residential school? What did he feel on that first day, and what did his brother tell him? ( Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle)

(2)

Answer 30

(1) He understood school to mean you were going home at the end of the day. He got into his first fight and was separated from his brother so he could not associate with family.
(2) “We can’t go home we are here forever.”

Question 31

Some survivors share that they were taught not to cry, and taught not to say anything about the abuse they endured. How was it explained in the film in regards to how this impacted people later in life? ( Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle)

(6)

Answer 31

(1) Can take any amount of beating and feel
nothing
(2) Devoid of any feeling from any mental & emotional abuse
(3) Affected the way he communicated
(4) addiction to alcohol to numb and forget
(5) violent crime
(6) family violence

Question 32

James Charlie spoke about the playgrounds, and he explained, that “when you played, you never really played” and you never really “enjoyed yourself,” as much as you tried. Why was this? What does he explain as being a reality? ( Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle)

Answer 32

(1) They were always awaiting the whistle sound which indicated the boy’s whose number was called would have to spend the rest of the afternoon entertaining the “brother”.
(2) After the person was chosen then they could be at ease

Question 33

How and in what ways did shame impact people’s lives? ( Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle)

(5)

Answer 33

(1) Hid parts of their lives
(2) Refused to acknowledge what happened
(3) Felt that he was evil
(4) Loneliness
(5) cannot accept help

Question 34

Delmar Johnnie discusses talking circles in the video, what does he say talking circles were traditionally used for? How are these circles playing a role in healing people today? ( Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle)

(3)

Answer 34

(1) Decision-making
(2) Helping to get feelings out, relieving pain and anger
(3) Talk until they are done with it

Question 35

What was the lesson given in regards to the “frazzled” feather? ( Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle)

Answer 35

(1) It relates to the human being. It has a backbone just like a human being. Each time someone puts you down on the street it “frazzles” you.
(2) A frazzled feather like the human being when you start taking care of the feather it all goes back like nothing has happened to it.

Question 36

In the film, it is explained that Sweat lodge ceremonies and talking circles have nothing to do with religion. What does the person explaining this in the film say it has to do with? ( Kuper Island: Return to the Healing Circle)

(2)

Answer 36

(1) It has to do with healing and taking care of themselves.
(2) Belief in the creator within yourself

Question 37

how did the schools impact Indigenous family social organization and structures? How did these schools and their impacts affect parenting?

(4)

Answer 37

(1) residential schools have broken the tie between parents and their children at a critical time in child development
(2) children were not raised within their culture or according to the teachings of the elders. They were denied a traditional, nurturing family environment.
(3) Indigenous communities, too, suffered. The loss of these children dismantled family social organization and structure affecting parenting”
(4) by the late 1940s, four or five generations of Indigenous peoples had come out of residential schools as angry, poorly educated, abused strangers, who were denied access to loving parenting

Question 38

Dion Stout and Kipling (2003) explain that those in residential schools developed coping mechanisms to allow them to survive in this prison-like environment

(2)

Answer 38

(1) once released from residential school, the interpersonal skills learned while there, such as hiding their feelings, or pushing others away, were not helpful in their everyday lives, but rather the opposite
(2) depression, mental illness, post-traumatic stress disorder, addictions to alcohol and drugs, powerlessness, dependency, low self-esteem, suicide, prostitution, homelessness, gambling, sexual abuse, and violence—both interfamilial and extrafamilial”

Question 39

a key factor in survivor’s resilience (5)

Answer 39

(1) sharing
(2) Being able to talk about feelings and experiences with people who had related experiences has been noted as being a form of healing
(3) Pursuing education has also become an important healing factor for many survivors, as it has allowed people to reclaim what was denied to them in residential schools
(4) re-learning Indigenous languages, which were also denied in residential schools is a route some survivors have taken as part of their healing journey
(5) spirituality and religious beliefs have also been cited by survivors as playing an important role in their present well-being

Question 40

In order to build better relationships between Indigenous communities and the police, RCMP members in Alberta engaged in:

Answer 40

the KAIROS Blanket Exercise

Question 41

the KAIROS Blanket Exercise

(2)

Answer 41

(1) program was developed in response to the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, and its recommendation to improve Indigenous educational history in Canada
(2) This exercise aims to teach people Indigenous rights and histories that they might not be aware of, or learned enough about, and are re-taught over 500 years of history through an Indigenous lens

Question 42

In May of 2017, RCMP members in southern Alberta participated in a two hour interactive role playing and discussion exercise designed to improve relations between them and the Indigenous communities they serve

(4)

Answer 42

(1) Part of this exercise involves covering the floor with blankets, which stands to represent Indigenous people’s traditional territories.
(2) Facilitators walk people “through pre-contact, treaty-making, colonization and resistance”
(3) Then, one by one, the blankets are folded up to represent their territory shrinking due to the colonizers.
(4) Through this activity, the police learn about disease epidemics, such as smallpox, as well as the relocation of peoples, and residential schools