Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

The history • 59more than simply an educational program: it was an integral part of a conscious policyof cultural genocide.Further evidence of this assault on Aboriginal identity can be found in amendmentsto the Indian Act banning a variety of Aboriginal cultural and spiritual practices.The two most prominent of these were the west-coast Potlatch and the PrairieThirst Dance (often referred to as the “Sun Dance”). 106 Residential school principalshad been in the forefront of the campaign to ban these ceremonies, and also urged thegovernment to enforce the bans once they were put in place. 107The Aboriginal right to self-government was also undermined. The Indian Act gavethe federal government the authority to veto decisions made by band councils andto depose chiefs and councillors. The Act placed restrictions on First Nations farmers’ability to sell their crops and take out loans. Over the years, the government alsoassumed greater authority as to how reserve land could be disposed of: in some cases,entire reserves were relocated against the will of the residents. The Indian Act was apiece of colonial legislation by which, in the name of ‘protection,’ one group of peopleruled and controlled another.The industrial school initiativeIt was in keeping with this intent to assimilate Aboriginal peoples and, in the process,to eliminate its government-to-government relationship with First Nations thatthe federal government dramatically increased its involvement in residential schoolingin the 1880s. In December 1878, J. S. Dennis, the deputy minister of the Departmentof the Interior, prepared a memorandum for Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonaldon the country’s Aboriginal policy. Dennis advised Macdonald that the long-termgoal should be to instruct “our Indian and half-breed populations” in farming, raisingcattle, and the mechanical trades, rendering them self-sufficient. This would pavethe way “for their emancipation from tribal government, and for their final absorptioninto the general community.” Dennis argued that residential schools were keyto fulfilling these goals. It was his opinion that in a short time, schools might become“self-sustaining institutions.” 108In the following year, Nicholas Davin, a failed Conservative candidate, carried outa brief study of the boarding schools that the United States government had establishedfor Native Americans. He recommended that Canada establish a series of suchschools on the Prairies. Davin acknowledged that a central element of the educationprovided at these schools would be directed towards the destruction of Aboriginalspirituality. Since all civilizations were based on religion, it would be inexcusable, hethought, to do away with Aboriginal faith “without supplying a better [one].” For this