Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

88 • Truth & Reconciliation Commissionlanguage.” 295 The Canadian Welfare Council’s 1967 report on nine Saskatchewan residentialschools described “an emphasis on relating course content to the Indian culture”as “imaginative” and a sign of progress in “making the educational experiencemeaningful for the Indian child.” 296 By 1968, the Roman Catholic school in Cardstonwas incorporating Blackfoot into its educational program. 297 In some schools,Aboriginal teachers were brought in to teach dancing and singing. 298 However, as lateas the 1969–70 school year, there were only seven Indian Affairs schools that offeredcourses in Aboriginal languages or used Aboriginal languages as the language ofinstruction. 299Despite the encouragement that was offered in some schools, and the students’efforts to keep their language alive, the overall impact was language loss. Of her experiencesat the Baptist school in Whitehorse and the Anglican school in Carcross, RoseDorothy Charlie said, “They took my language. They took it right out of my mouth. Inever spoke it again.” 300 In some cases, the residential school experience led parentsto decide not to teach their children an Aboriginal language. Both of Joline Huskey’sparents attended residential school in the Northwest Territories. As a result of theirexperience in the schools, they raised their daughter to speak English. 301 When BruceDumont was sent to residential school in Onion Lake, Saskatchewan, his motherwarned him not to speak Cree. 302Arranging and blocking marriagesThrough the residential schools, Indian Affairs and church officials sought toextend their control into the most intimate aspects of the lives of Aboriginal children.Indian Affairs officials believed that because the department had spent money educatingstudents, it had gained the right to determine whom they married. Governmentofficials feared that if students married someone who had not also been educated ata residential school, they would revert to traditional ‘uncivilized’ ways. 303 The controlof marriage was part of the ongoing policy of forced assimilation. In 1890, IndianCommissioner Hayter Reed criticized Qu’Appelle principal Joseph Hugonnard forallowing female students from the Qu’Appelle school to marry boys who had not goneto school, without first getting Indian Affairs’ approval. Reed argued, “The contentionthat the parents have the sole right to decide such matters cannot for one moment beadmitted.” 304The government not only encouraged marriage between students, but it also beganto make marriage part of the process of getting out of residential school. In his annualreport for 1896, Deputy Minister Hayter Reed wrote, “It is considered advisable, wherepupils are advanced in years and considered capable of providing for themselves, tobring about a matrimonial alliance, either at the time of being discharged from the