B.C. residential school survivor says he was starved - British Columbia
As a 10-year-old boy, Alvin Dixon remembers having to milk cows during his stay at a residential school in Port Alberni, B.C. Yet, he was always fed only powdered milk. Dixon, who is now 76 years old, was forcibly taken from his family in Bella Bella, on British Columbia's northwest coast, when he was a child and relocated to Port Alberni, B.C., where he said he and many of his classmates were starved. "We would be so hungry and we would steal these potatoes [from farmers' fields] and eat it raw," he told CBC News. Recently published research suggests Dixon's experiences were part of a long-standing, government-run experiment designed by researchers to test the effects of malnutrition. The research by food historian Ian Mosby has revealed the experiments involved at least 1,300 aboriginal people, most of them children.
The Residential School System
Children's dining room, Indian Residential School, Edmonton, Alberta. Between 1925-1936. United Church Archives, Toronto, From Mission to Partnership Collection. Residential Schools
A history of residential schools in Canada - Canada
What is a residential school? In the 19th century, the Canadian government believed it was responsible for educating and caring for aboriginal people in Canada. It thought their best chance for success was to learn English and adopt Christianity and Canadian customs.
For Residential School Kids, a Legacy of Sex Abuse
Native leaders hope Truth and Reconciliation hearings will break the cycle of violence. The residential school in Port Alberni, one of the most notorious, operated for more than half a century from 1920 to 1973. Jerry Adams hears "Just get over it," a lot. He hears it from some young aboriginal kids who say they're sick of talking about their grandparents' residential school experiences.
Aboriginal students: An education underclass - Canada
John Woods/CP The two schools sit a mere five kilometres apart as the crow flies, in a rural stretch of Manitoba about four hours west of Winnipeg. Their soccer teams compete every spring. Their students groan over many of the same textbooks. But as the road from Rossburn Collegiate to the Waywayseecappo reserve school runs down a hill into a lush valley, it also crosses an invisible jurisdictional line that led to an egregious gap between native and non-native students. Until about 18 months ago, a student in Waywayseecappo received about $7,300 in annual funding from the federal government, while a student at Rossburn Collegiate received about $10,500 from the provincial government.
A shared residential school experience - News
Tyler Clarke Daily Herald "I'm not going to tell my story because I've heard my story a lot today," former residential school student Marlene Bear said, Thursday. Bear was one of many former students and family members of former students to speak up during three days of sharing panels at the Prince Albert Indian Métis Friendship Centre this week.
Suicide plagues residential school
Author: Trevor Sutter, Regina Leader-Post, Lebret Saskatchewan Page 2 More than a dozen female students attending the Indian Residential School have attempted suicide over the past year - a statistic that has alarmed school and hospital administrators. One girl died and officials haven't been able to pin down what's causing the incidents in the Native-run school of almost 200 students. "I don't think it's a result of anything we're doing out here, I just can't see it," said Vern Bellegarde, executive director of the school, about 90 kilometres northeast of Regina.
About Residential Schools
From the early 1830s to 1996, thousands of First Nation, Inuit and Métis children were forced to attend residential schools in an attempt to assimilate them into the dominant culture. Those children suffered abuses of the mind, body, emotions, and spirit that can be almost unimaginable. Over 150,000 children, some as young as four years old, attended the government-funded and church-run residential schools. It is estimated that there are 80,000 residential school Survivors alive today.
Canadian Indian residential school system
There has long been significant historiographical and popular controversy about the conditions experienced by students in the residential schools. While day schools for First Nations, Metis and Inuit children always far outnumbered residential schools, a new consensus emerged in the early 21st century that the latter schools did significant harm to Aboriginal children who attended them by removing them from their families, depriving them of their ancestral languages, sterilization, and exposing many of them to physical and sexual abuse at the hands of staff and other students, and enfranchising them forcibly. History[edit] The foundations of the system were the pre-confederation Gradual Civilization Act (1857) and the Gradual Enfranchisement Act (1869).
Suit alleges sex abuse at school decades ago
Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION By: James Turner Posted: 10/15/2013 1:00 AM
Residential school survivors eligible for compensation - Education
The payments made to residential school survivors were expected to start flowing in October. Survivors are allotted a $10,000 base plus $3,000 for every year at school and more money for those sexually or physically abused. Lyle Whitefish, a vice-chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indian Nations, said in September that there could be impacts when the money started to flow in. Thousands of residential school survivors applied for Common Experience Payments this September.
This article shows the neglect that the goverment had against the aboriginals. At the time the gouverments intentions were not for the sake of the aboriganals. Although, to this day, the government now recognizes that the consequences of the Residential Schools were negative. by hilallebrun Oct 26
In this apology letter written by the canadien prime minister of Canada in 2008, you can see and read about how hard the life for the students of these schools must of been. We can also unederstand that the things that happend in those schools will marked those people lifes for ever and I think no apology in the world could bring back the years they spent in those schools. by stuartghita Oct 26
This link brings you to the official apology letter written by the Prime Minister of Canada Stephen Harper for the Indian Residential Schools system. It was written on the 11th of June 2008, in Ottawa, Ontario. Harper begins by giving a brief history of the system and then apologises for the many consequences these schools brought to aboriginal families. by hazbounwasher Oct 24
In this pearl, is the official apolagy made by the canadien government to the aboriginals to say sorry for the trauma they were forced to go through in residential schools. The apolagy might have made a slite difference in the lives of a small amount of aboriginals who where not in the schools for a long time, but for the rest ( the most of them ) a simple apolagy does not sufice for a lifetime taken away from them. by simlaramee Oct 23
After 13 years, the prime minister of Canada Stephen Harper excused himself behalf the Canadian government for the Indian Residential School system. Many Indians think it is far too late. The government offers to give payments to these people for a couple of years. Even though the government gave its apologies, we believe that the Indians are still scared by these events and nothing will repair them. by grigorislarose Oct 18
In this pearl, we see the apoligies that the Prime Minister made to all the aboriginal communities. It was very nice of him and ethic. But for all the damages that they did to the Indians, an apoligy was not enough by dufresnehernandez Oct 17
On June 11th, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an apology to all aboriginal communities on behalf of the Government of Canada. This apology was issued on television, 12 years after the last Aboriginal school closed. Stephen Harper acknoledges that words cannot excuse the damage caused by the residential schools. While there was an Aboriginal representative at the Parliment accepting the Government's apology, many Aboriginals felt that the apology was given far too late and was not sincere. by bertrandlegaulthernandez Oct 15
In this webpage the Prime Minister Harper offers full apology on behalf of Canadians for the Indian Residential Schools system. by boccanfusothirion Oct 15