First Nations: The long road to reconciliation



(Canadian Indian School Photo - Circa 1921)

Canada’s indigenous people are now categorized into three major groups:  Inuit (“The People” of the Arctic, formerly called “Eskimos” by many), Métis (“Mixed” ancestry, indigenous plus European), and First Nations (those indigenous people in Canada who are neither Inuit nor Métis).  First Nations includes such varied tribes as the Skw­xwú7mesh (originally from the Pacific Northwest) and the Anishinaabe (originally from the Great Lakes).

Back in 1857, Canada passed a bill called the Act to

Encourage the Gradual Civilization of Indian Tribes in

this Province, and to Amend the Laws Relating to Indians.  This longwinded title was often shortened to the Gradual Civilization Act - which could have been further shortened to just one word:  Trouble.  It was this prejudicial Act that paved the road to the hellish Canadian Indian residential school system.

The first of these residential schools began in the 1840s, and the last didn’t close until 1996.  They were established with the main intention of “civilizing” indigenous people by forcing them to become English-speaking Christian farmers.  According to Wikipedia, some of these forcible methods included removing children from family homes against the will of their parents, physical and sexual abuse, plus bans on speaking native languages and practicing ancestral faiths. 

Although these schools were funded by the government, they were run by the churches:  approximately 60% by Roman Catholics, and 30% by the Anglican Church of Canada and the United Church of Canada.  Presbyterian, Congregationalist and Methodist churches had also been involved.  Canada’s CBC News has reported that three of these Churches have issued formal apologies for such involvement – “the Anglican Church in 1993, the Presbyterian Church in 1994 and the United Church in 1998.”  In 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper offered an apology on behalf of the Canadian government.

In April 2009, a delegation from Canada’s Assembly of First Nations met with Pope Benedict XVI for half an hour.  During this historic meeting, the Pope expressed “sorrow” and offered them his “sympathy and prayerful solidarity.”

Resources

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2009/04/29/pope-first-nations042909.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Nations

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Indian_residential_school_system

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gradual_Civilization_Act

Copyright June 22, 2011 by Linda Van Slyke   All Rights Reserved