The Indian Act and Residential Schools, 1890–1914

Let's start with a question

What makes you you? Your name, your language, your family, the food you eat, the stories you know?

Between 1890 and 1914, the Canadian government tried to take many of these things away from First Nations children, on purpose. In this lesson you will learn how, why, and how people resisted.

The Indian Act, 1890–1914

In Strand A you learn that the Indian Act of 1876 gave the federal government sweeping control over First Nations. In this period, the government changed the Act to give itself even more power:

• Banning ceremonies: the potlatch had been banned in 1884. In 1895 the ban was widened to cover other ceremonies, such as parts of the Sun Dance. Many communities kept ceremonies going in secret.
• Schooling: an 1894 change allowed the government to make rules forcing First Nations children to attend school, including residential schools.
• Land: a 1911 change made it easier to take reserve land for railways, roads and other public works, and to move reserves away from growing towns, without the community's full agreement.
• Movement: on the Prairies, an unofficial pass system tried to stop people leaving their reserves without an agent's written permission.

The government's goal was assimilation: to make First Nations people give up their identities, so that their nations, and the government's treaty responsibilities to them, would disappear.

What were residential schools?

Residential schools were boarding schools paid for by the federal government and run by churches: Catholic, Anglican, Methodist and Presbyterian. Some had existed earlier, but the system grew a lot after the 1880s. The Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario, and the Shingwauk school in Sault Ste. Marie are two Ontario examples. Métis children attended some schools too, and later Inuit children were sent to them.

In residential schools, children were often:

• taken far from their families, sometimes for years;
• punished for speaking their own languages;
• given new names or numbers and had their hair cut;
• given poor food and crowded, cold buildings;
• made to do hard work, with only part of the day spent on classes;
• kept apart from brothers and sisters.

Many children were harmed, and many became ill. Some never came home. The damage to families, languages and communities lasted for generations.

The Bryce Report (1907)

Dr. Peter Bryce was the chief medical officer for the government's Department of Indian Affairs. In 1907, he reported on residential schools in Manitoba and the North-West.

• He found very high death rates, mostly from tuberculosis, a lung disease that spreads easily in crowded rooms with poor air.
• At one school (File Hills), he reported that a large majority of former students had died.
• He said the causes were poor conditions and sanitation, and that the government was responsible.

The department did not publish his report. Newspapers reported on it, and people called for change, but the schools stayed open and most of Bryce's recommendations were ignored. After he retired, he published a pamphlet in 1922 called The Story of a National Crime.

Resistance and resilience

First Nations, Métis and Inuit families and children resisted:

• Parents refused to send children, hid them, or petitioned the government and churches.
• Children spoke their languages in secret, helped each other, and some ran away to go home.
• Communities kept ceremonies, stories and languages alive, sometimes in secret.

The last federally run residential school closed in the 1990s. Survivors spoke out for decades. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (2008–2015) heard thousands of Survivors and issued 94 Calls to Action. Since 2021, 30 September has been the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day. Today many First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities are revitalizing their languages, running their own schools and leading reconciliation.