| dc.description.abstract | For over a century, the central goals of Canada’s Indigenous policies were to eliminate
Indigenous governments, rights, and treaties, and through this process of assimilation cause the
extinction of Indigenous Peoples (Truth and Reconciliation Commission [TRC], 2015).
Residential schools were a central component of this assimilation process, which can best be
described as “cultural genocide” (TRC, 2015). The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
describes cultural genocide as the “destruction of those structures and practices that allow [a]
group to continue as a group” (TRC, 2015, p. 1). The Canadian government worked to remove
Indigenous children from their homes, sending them to residential schools with the main purpose
of breaking the connections to their culture and identity. For residential school students, neglect,
lack of supervision, and physical and sexual abuse were common within the schools, along with
discouragement and prohibition of engaging in traditional practices and speaking their own
languages (TRC, 2015). Canada further pursued and supported the goal of cultural genocide in
relation to Indigenous Peoples to remove itself from legal and financial obligations and to gain
control over land and resources (TRC, 2015). Due to policies under the Royal Proclamation of
1763, Indigenous Peoples reserved all land not ceded by or purchased from Indigenous Nations.
Between 1871 and 1921, Canada negotiated 11 treaties with Indigenous Peoples which provided
the Crown with land for industrial and settler development in exchange for various promises
including special rights to treaty land and distribution of resources. [...] | en_US |
