The Indian Residential School system was a systematic effort by the Canadian government over decades to snatch Indigenous children from their homes and families, eradicate their culture and heritage, and remove them from the modern world. Education was a treaty obligation, which was fulfilled when chiefs and councils requested a school.
00:00:27.080there were 31 convictions listed in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission reports
00:00:33.040over 139 schools in 133 years. We all wish that number was zero, but that's a very low ratio.
00:00:42.600Most students were voluntarily enrolled by their own parents who wanted them to have useful
00:00:47.000education for the modern world. Some parents wanted the free daycare. Some parents had
00:00:52.360remarried, and sadly, the new partner did not want the other's kids. And many families were huge by
00:00:58.240today's standards, and even the standards then. Families with 10, 12, 14 children could not feed
00:01:05.120and care for them all, so many of the kids were sent to Indian Residential School to survive.0.84
00:01:10.960The kids may not have liked it, or understood that their parents were all part of the scheme.
00:01:16.480But how is this different from today's parent taking a child to their first day of school,
00:01:21.780distracting them with a toy, and then running away.
00:01:25.880And education was a treaty obligation,
00:01:29.660which was fulfilled when chiefs and councils requested a school.
00:01:33.700The Indian residential school system was agreed to by Indian chiefs.
00:01:39.280Schools were requested by chiefs and council.
00:01:42.020Education was part of treaty obligations, not for snatching.
00:01:45.700The IRS system was set up with prior review and approval by numerous Indian chiefs, as told in historian Don Smith's article, The Chief's Journey.
00:01:57.080So they went, a handful of chiefs went down east.