Indian Residential Schools in Canada

The earliest known date opening of a Residential school was in 1840, located in Manitowaning, Ontario. The school was the Wikemikong Indian Residential School, it closed in 1879. The last Residential school to close was La Tuque I

Children were often humiliated as punishment for being sick. They would be beaten naked in front of the other students at the school while they were still sick. They were also forced to eat their own vomit, and they’d be punished again if they threw-up while doing this.

Sexual abuse was tolerated at the schools but is still not often spoken of. Reasoning for this could be humiliation, guilt, or memory loss from the distressing experiences. There are, however, people who have said that abuse happened at the schools. “One of the housefathers was gonna come around, and I was wondering when it was my turn to take me down that aisle and back. My turn came but I never went. I wouldn’t get out of that bed, and I kicked and screamed and cried, and the guy just left.” There are stories about girls running away from the schools bleeding from being sexually assaulted and showing up at homes in the closest town they could find. Some girls were forced to have abortions after being raped by the staff at the school. There is one case recorded from the Six Nations Residential School of a girl being raped and keeping it a secret until she was too pregnant to have an abortion, the child was born in the school and was there for the first 3 years of his life, until the girl was old enough to leave.

Malnutrition was a major problem at a majority of the schools. The students were given half-cooked, cold porridge for breakfast every day. They would eat stale bread and water for lunch and supper was regularly cold, uncooked, and left out for hours before the students ate it. At many schools, they were given a fresh bun on Sundays with their supper. Many of the children would have traded it the week before with another child for things like socks, candy from other students’ parents, or someone else’s blanket or pillow for a night. The malnutrition led to diseases being spread in the schools and the children were not given proper medical care, if any at all. There is an estimate that approximately 60% of the students that attended residential schools died while they were there because of disease, malnutrition, or abuse.

This unclear understanding of the changes around the children in residential schools led to them questioning why it was different. They learned fast, however, not to question anything they were taught. Questioning led to punishment, and punishment came in all shapes and sizes. Children were abused in residential schools constantly. The emotional abuse never seized, the physical abuse was going on everywhere and sexual abuse was not only known of, but tolerated and unquestioned. Children were whipped repeatedly for reasons they didn’t understand. A seven year-old girl ran in the hall on her first day of school not knowing this was against the rules, and instead of being explained why this was not acceptable, she was given the strap. This girl would have had no idea what she had done wrong and this form of punishment would frighten her to act in the ways she normally would. Chi

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