Impacts of Indian Day Schools on Indigenous Well-being
By Wahéhshon Shiann Whitebean
The international community widely supports the right to education, particularly in consideration of educational attainment as a determinant of health and factor in quality of life. Yet, for over a century, adjoined education and child apprehension policies were two of the primary tools of destruction wielded by agents of colonialism against Indigenous peoples, most notably in Turtle Island (North America). These specific established structures of assimilation are known as Indian Residential (boarding or industrial) Schools, Indian Day Schools, and other child welfare institutions. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis populations in what is presently known as Canada, continue to grapple with myriad health and social injustices due to historic and ongoing oppression from the colonial state. Considering that euro-centric education has been harmful to Indigenous peoples, yet it clearly provides socioeconomic benefits, how may these contraindications be reconciled?
The history of Indigenous education in so-called Canada generally refers to the imposition of colonial schooling and its use in conversion of Indigenous peoples to Christianity as well as acculturation into colonial-settler society. Most of the published research on Indigenous education has focused on the history of Indian Residential schools. Fortunately, there is increasing public awareness about Indian Residential Schools system and its intergenerational impacts, particularly after the atrocious human rights violations, abuse, and death of children at these institutions came to light in recent years.
What is not as well-known about the history of Indigenous education is that twice as many Indigenous children attended Indian Day Schools. And so, we know very little about those histories and experiences and the resulting impacts on Indigenous communities.
WHAT ARE INDIAN DAY SCHOOLS?
Indian Day Schools had the same objective and mandate as Indian Residential schools: assimilation and conversion. A key difference is that with Indian Day Schools, children returned home at the end of the school day, while those who attended Indian Residential Schools were required to reside there for long periods of time. Initially, mission (day) schools were founded by various religious orders within or near reserves, some operating seasonally. It was in the mid-19th century that Indian Day Schools were prolifically established across so-called Canada, as a cost-sharing partnership between the federal government and Christian authorities. Cross-nationally, commonalities in day schooling experiences included: mandatory attendance, poor quality facilities and educational instruction, the prohibition of cultural expression, suppression of speaking Indigenous languages through punishment, Christian indoctrination, and abuse (physical, mental, emotional, and sexual).
Due to the lack of published research and firsthand accounts of forced removal and institutionalization of Indigenous children, there is a tendency to generalize these experiences which reinforces a metanarrative of trauma. Community specific studies sourced from both archival and oral histories provide the best insight into the effects of colonial child welfare and educational institutions, without generalizations. While children attending Indian Residential Schools were cruelly separated from their families and disconnected from the realities in their communities, children attending Indian Day Schools, for the most part, stayed within their home communities. Indian Day School histories, therefore, present unique opportunities to examine the larger context on reserves and situate those experiences within the framework of community life, since the children were still living within communities while attending day school.
FEDERAL INDIAN DAY SCHOOL CLASS ACTION
As many as 200,000 Indigenous former students/survivors of Indian Day Schools in so-called Canada are eligible for compensation under the Federal Indian Day School Class Action Lawsuit. These numbers exclude any individual that attended an institution that is not listed on ‘Schedule K’, such as provincially and/or territorial operated schools. The class action settlement includes 699 schools nation-wide and spans a one-hundred-and-twenty-year period, for schools in operation from 1868 to 1988. Compensation settlement applications have five levels, ranging from $10,000 to $200,000 based on proven forms of harm suffered at Indian Day School. The last living generation of survivors that attended Indian Day or Residential Schools would be in their thirties and forties today: the transition generation.
The transition generation experienced, firsthand, the shift away from Indian Day/Residential schooling. Indian Day Schools were springboards into community-controlled education systems and public schooling for Indigenous children. Efforts to restructure education systems and integrate culturally-centered curriculum and teaching approaches began slowly but have gained momentum.
REFLECTIONS: LONG-STANDING IMPACTS OF INDIAN DAY SCHOOLS
As researchers, we strive to locate and fill gaps in the literature. For myself and other Onkwehón:we scholars, this kind of work may also fill gaps in our familial history and everyday lives.
Often, I am asked about the long-standing impacts of Indian Day Schooling on the health and well-being of Indigenous communities. As a researcher, I can say with confidence that Indian Day Schools resulted in both multigenerational and intergenerational trauma. Trauma manifests in numerous variations of health and social issues, such as cycles of family violence, addictions, and high rates of suicide. As a Kanien’kehá:ka woman from Kahnawà:ke, I am part of the transition generation and settled my own claim in the Federal Indian Day School Class Action. My generation lived through the tail end of Indian Day Schools, and witnessed the hard-fought changes in my community within the Kahnawà:ke education system. Still, Indian Day Schools have had lasting impacts on our lives. We are just beginning to unpack the complexities of harm due to abuse, attempted linguicide, and acculturation. When asked how Indian Day Schools impact us today, the answers are not always simple.
MOVING FORWARD: DECOLONIZING EDUCATION
The effects of Indian Day Schooling on the health and well-being of Indigenous communities must be examined through a community-centered lens, to understand schooling experiences adjacent to the additional historic as well as ongoing impacts of colonialism, systemic racism, and oppression. The fact that there are three times as many Indigenous children in the Canadian child welfare system today than there were at the height of Indian Residential Schools, exemplifies this. Indian Residential/Day schools may have closed or shifted into community or public schools; however, this does not mean that euro-western education or schooling is not harmful to Indigenous children. Structurally, education systems in Canada are fundamentally colonial in origin and in practice. Education/school reform must go beyond performative gestures and surface level changes. In many Indigenous communities today, schools are centers of cultural knowledge and practice. Indigenous-led education reform signifies an alternate use of colonial schooling, to restructure education as a means of reclamation, culture, and language revitalization. Education is no longer solely an instrument of Indigenous destruction; community schools are now sources of language revitalization and contribute to the restoration of ancestral knowledge systems. Indigenous peoples have found a means of maximizing the benefits of education while countering the harms, and we are leading the way forward.
[i] Onkwehón:we in Kanien’kéha (Mohawk) language translates to original/real people, a term referring to Indigenous peoples.
[i] My research on Indigenous education, Indian Day Schools, and language/culture revitalization is grounded in my lived experiences as a traditional Kanien’kehá:ka woman, mother, and activist. I often remind people that we need to address our grief in our language activism as well. While we strive to be encouraging, positive, and motivated, there is an unspoken pain surrounding our efforts which embody our collective resistance and refusal to allow our languages and cultural identities be extinguished.
About the Author:
Wahéhshon Shiann Whitebean (she/her) is a Wolf Clan of the Kanien’kehá:ka Nation at Kahnawà:ke and mother of three. She is a PhD Candidate (ABD), Vanier Scholar, and Tomlinson fellow in the Department of Integrated Studies of Education at McGill University. Wahéhshon’s doctoral research centralized the stories of formal Indian Day School students/survivors from her home community – to assess the intergenerational impacts on individual and communal levels. She is the co-author of the first Research Policy & Code of Ethics for the Kahnawà:ke Education Center, where she currently holds the position of Education Research Coordinator and Chair of the Education Research (ethics) Committee. Visit shewalksabout.com for more info. She tweets @SheWalksAbout