What Genocide Looks Like in Canada

 

Students at Carlisle Indian Residential School, US, circa 1885. 

This SubStack article written by a former Indian residential school teacher points out a few salient facts, although he tends to bury his lede:

- The death rate from tuberculosis in the residential schools in the period 1930 to 1950, according to the Truth And Reconciliation Commission’s own data,  was many times lower than that on reserves generally. “TB mortality in the residential schools was consistently much lower than among the general First Nations population.”

- The Indian Residential Schools were brought “up to code,” so to speak, to conform with expert opinion on preventing tuberculosis, at least sixteen years earlier than the public schools of Toronto.

- A 1909 survey of kids at the residential schools found that “only 60% of the fathers of residential school students, and 70% of the mothers, were still living.” They served primarily as orphanages, taking those whose families could not care for them. Closing them may not have helped these children.

- At the same time, 1909, death rates for children on reserve were 25 to 50%. It should not be surprising if some children died at residential schools as well. Nor is it likely to be entirely the school’s fault.

- Young people living on reserve even today, with all our medical improvements, have a higher death rate than in the residential schools any year since about 1950. Child and youth death rates on reserve today are three to five times higher than among the general population.

- “By several key measures, residential school students fared better as adults than their peers who did not attend.” Only one third of Indian children attended the residential schools, as opposed to regular day schools. This select group were more likely to earn a diploma or degree, more likely to be employed, less likely to be on welfare. They were taller on average and less likely to be obese. This despite the fact that they were, commonly, orphans or from the most impoverished families.

So what is the solution to the sufferings of our “First Nations”? Don’t close the schools. Close the reserves.