123 School Work

indian residential schools and the long term effects on the children who attended

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  Two articles studied in our English 110 class were Mary Englund's, "An Indian Remembers," and Marie Battiste's, "Annie Battiste: A Mi'kmaq Family History." These two articles describe the injustices faced by native children in public and residential schools in the early twentieth century. This paper attempts to uncover the long-term effects this oppression might have had on the children who attended Indian residential schools, such as confusion about culture and identity, as well as a loss of self esteem and self worth. Celia Haig-Brown's book entitled, "Resistance and Renewal: Surviving the Indian Residential School," illustrates that the prime objective of these schools were to assimilate the native children into the "dominant" European social order, by direct order of the Canadian Government. The priests and nuns who ran the schools used strict catholic religion, culturally bias education, and extreme punishment to convert the influential native children into white culture.
       Marie Battiste, Marie Englund, and Haig-Brown writings provided evidence of a loss of culture experienced by students after going through this school system. The priests and nuns used clever tactics to disassociate the native children from their traditional roots. For example, the kids were forbidden to speak anything except English at school. If they were caught using their native tongue, severe punishment was not uncommon. Many children attended the school up to twelve years, where by the time they left the school, they had completely forgotten their native language...