odds of dying for children in residential schools was 1 in 25. (Schwartz) The Truth and Reconciliation Committee has over 6,000 documented deaths if residential school students as a result of their experience. Those are just the documented number, the odds are that there are still many more undocumented cases. Those 6, 000 make the odds of a child dying in a residential school as roughly the same for those Canadians who served in the second World War. (Schwartz)
As stated before, these schools were the only way of life that these kids knew, they believed that this abuse in all it’s forms, was just a regular part of life, they of course didn’t like it but, that was their normal. At these schools children were taught the being native meant that they were dirty, worthless and it was programmed into their brains that their race was an abomination to humankind that needed to be fixed. This was taught to children for 9 years of their early lives, the most influential time in their life. The last residential school closed in 1996, that was just over twenty years ago.
The effects
of residential
schools were
predicted to
be seen
throughout
the next
seven
generations.
It would be
easy to call it
a cultural
genocide, so
much of native american culture is passed down by teachings and stories from word of mouth and with no kids around to hear the them, many were slowly forgotten and lost over time. With the childhood those children endured, how can they be expected to treat their children any differently?