Chapter

Historical Background

Introduce yourself to the important historical events and issues that are explored throughout the rest of the book Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools.

Published: June 23, 2017

Last Updated: October 14, 2019

This resource is intended for educators in Canada who are teaching in English.

Chapter

Language

English — CA

Subject

Social Studies

Grade

6–12

Genocide

Overview

This section of Stolen Lives provides historical context for many of the issues explored throughout this resource on the Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools. It is primary designed to serve teachers, although advanced classes might also find it useful.

24 readings

Inside this Chapter

Reading

Introduce yourself to the important historical events and issues that are explored throughout the rest of the book Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools.

Graphic from cover of "Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools."

Reading

The term First Nations, as of 2013, refers to some 617 different communities, traditionally composed of groups of 400 or so who lived in America long before European contact.

Reading

The term Inuit refers broadly to the Arctic indigenous population of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland. Today, the Inuit communities of Canada live in the Inuit Nunangat—loosely defined as “Inuit homeland”—which is divided into four regions.

Reading

The term Métis describes descendants of both Europeans and First Nations people (the Canadian government did not formally recognize the term until the Constitution Act of 1982).

Reading

Learn about the history behind the invention and stereotype of the term "Indian".

Reading

When the European powers set their sights on North America, some three hundred years after the so-called discovery of the continent (which for them was the “New World”), it became a location for French and British settlements.

Reading

War and political changes also contributed to the destruction of indigenous ways, livelihoods, and physical existence.

Reading

Reserves existed in Africa, in the British American colonies, and in Canada, where the colonizers had to address the people they dispossessed— people who seemingly stood in the way of the political and economic plans of European settlers.

Reading

After the 1812 war with the United States ended with no significant border changes, the British Canadians established themselves as the dominant power in the region and began to plan a process of nation building.

Reading

As Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald said in 1887, after the residential schools began to operate, “The great aim of our legislation has been to do away with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people in all respects with the other inhabitants of the Dominion as speedily as they are fit to change.”

Reading

The idea that Western culture was superior and that the Indigenous Peoples needed to be Christianized and civilized came from the biases of Europeans and their unwillingness to appreciate the complex, largely unwritten teaching processes inside indigenous communities.

Reading

The key to this policy was a system of industrial schools where religious instruction and skills training would help the Native Americans catch up with the demands of Western society.

Reading

Learn about the Canadian government's role in creating legislation for funding residential schools.

Reading

Learn about the Catholic and Anglican churches' role in propagating residential schools throughout Canada.

Reading

One of the most important historians of the residential schools, James R. Miller, estimates that a great number of indigenous students were, in fact, educated in day schools, although the residential schools left the most painful, long-lasting marks on indigenous communities.

Reading

Duncan Campbell Scott oversaw the operation of the residential schools. As a career civil servant, he was involved in Aboriginal affairs throughout his career (he proposed several amendments to the Indian Act and negotiated one of the major treaties).

Reading

Hear from former students about their traumatic experiences attending Indian residential schools.

Reading

The anti-colonial movement was growing stronger around the world, and with the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948 by the newly formed United Nations, many turned their attention to the rights of colonized people globally.

Reading

The 1969 White Paper was met with widespread opposition inside and outside of indigenous communities.

Reading

Learn about the public apologies issued by several churches in the years following critical reports and testimony from residential school survivors.

Reading

Learn about the 1980s response of the Canadian government to the long-lasting effects of residential schools on indigenous communities.

Reading

The apology is part of the process arranged by the government and the First Nations as parties to the agreement, part of an overall attempt to address the government’s role in the history of the Indian Residential Schools.

Reading

Because of the massive lawsuit it faced, the government was almost forced to focus on the Indian Residential Schools, and it set up a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) in 2008 to address those issues. So what is a truth and reconciliation commission? What are its goals?

Reading

In the 1990s, residential schools scholars such as James R. Miller and many indigenous leaders began to argue that the efforts of the Canadian government to assimilate the Indigenous Peoples in the residential schools embodied the principle of cultural genocide: assimilation was intended to destroy the Indigenous Peoples as culturally distinct group.

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This interactive self-guided course will support you in teaching your Canadian history course with a methodology and accompanying resources that encourage an honest and complex approach to the content.

Educator holds discussion in a Canadian classroom.

Professional Learning

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Delve into the testimonies and experiences of those who were part of the National Inquiry in Canada, both in the past and in the present, while maintaining the importance of intersectional and Indigenous-led storytelling in documenting genocide.

Professional Learning

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Explore the gendered nature of colonization and genocide in Canada, with particular reference to the histories of Indigenous women, girls, Two-Spirited and transgender people. Drawing on the testimonies shared during the National Inquiry into Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women and Girls, as well as traditional stories from Metis, Inuit and First Nations communities, Dr. Karine Duhamel explains the varied traditional roles of women in community, the particular gendered effects of so-called “blind” policies historically, and contemporary impacts on the safety and security of Indigenous individuals and families today.

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Professional Learning

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Virtual

Learn about the increasing number of hate crimes fueled by antisemitism in recent years in Canada, as well as examples of individuals, groups, and civic leaders standing up and speaking out against hate. Jeff McGuire, Executive Director of the Ontario Association of Chiefs of Police will speak about the rising rates of Antisemitic hate crimes in Ontario and the ways that police units across Ontario are responding. We will also explore the role of upstanders, and provide models for addressing hatred and intolerance for all of us to follow.

Video

Senator Murray Sinclair, chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, discusses what it means to work toward reconciliation in Canada. This video is a part of the resource Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and The Indian Residential Schools.

Collection

Find interview transcripts, historical overviews, and primary source documents about a particular Jewish partisan or country.

Russian partisans, one of them photographer Faye Schulman, gathering together in the forest, Naliboki Forest, Belarus, December 1944. The Molotava Brigade was a partisan group made up mostly of escaped Soviet Army POWs. The woman pictured is Faye Schulman, a Jewish woman who fled into the Naliboki forest with her camera equipment and joined the Molotova Brigade. For two years in the forest she photographed the partisan's activities, worked as medical aid and participated in the partisans raid's.

Unit

Explore the stories of Jewish partisans that stood against Nazi oppression, genocide, and antisemitism during World War II.

Lesson

Students will come together as a community of learners to develop a contract that establishes a safe, but challenging environment in their classroom.

Collection

Explore resources that meet the California History–Social Science Framework standards.

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Explore resources that meet the Massachusetts History and Social Science Framework.

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Lesson

Students learn about the events and choices of the Armenian Genocide and explore the consequences of the genocide from the perspective of survivors.

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Chapter

Découvrez comment la langue et la culture forment l’identité et apprenez-en davantage sur les défis auxquels sont confrontés les Peuples Autochtones au Canada quant à la préservation de leur identité traditionnelle.

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Historical Background