September 2021 issue

9
(Continued from page 5)
Canada’s Indigenous Peoples
Moderator: Malcolm Coutts
Thursday mornings, 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.
Introduction: Sept. 16 th Course: Sep. 30 – Nov. 18
There are more than 600 First Nations in Canada. Two centuries of European immigration compelled them
to cede their land to governments via treaties that were not always honoured, including the thirteen
numbered treaties with the federal government following confederation. Beginning in the 1880s,
indigenous children were taken from their families and sent to residential schools in a misguided attempt to
assimilate them into Canadian culture. This has resulted in enormous psychological damage and
intergenerational trauma.
For the past forty years, the Assembly of First Nations Chiefs have made steady progress in negotiating
an Indian Residential Schools Agreement with the Federal Government and raising the consciousness of
Indigenous people. The recent discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at former residential schools has
inflamed the Indigenous community and led to ever increasing demands for justice and reform.
The Sentinel - September 2021