Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

The history • 79Grandin College in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, developed a positive reputation as a “leadership factory” for theNorth. Deschâtelets Archives.by the Department are thoroughly confused, the curriculum is inappropriate, andmany current practices of the system are not only ill-conceived but actually harmful.”224 Although 60% of the students at the Inuvik school were in the first three grades,few teachers had any background in primary education, and “almost none has anyspecial training in native education, and will receive none from the Department.” 225The schools were producing individuals who “lack not only the skills required for mostpermanent wage employment but also those necessary for the traditional economy.” 226The decision to leave curriculum to provincial education departments meant thatAboriginal students were subjected to an education that demeaned their history,ignored their current situation, and did not even recognize them or their families ascitizens. This was one of the reasons for the growing Aboriginal hostility to the IndianAffairs integration policy. An examination of the treatment of Aboriginal people inprovincially approved textbooks reveals a serious and deep-rooted problem. Inresponse to a 1956 recommendation that textbooks be developed that were relevantto Aboriginal students, Indian Affairs official R. F. Davey commented, “The preparationof school texts is an extremely difficult matter.” It was his opinion that “there areother needs which can be met more easily and should be undertaken first.” 227 In thefollowing years, assessments of public-school textbooks showed that they continuedto perpetuate racist stereotypes of Aboriginal people. 228 A 1968 survey pointed out thatin some books, the word squaw was being used to describe Aboriginal women, andthe word redskins used to describe Aboriginal people. 229