ayiman:

To those of us who have or had family members who grew up in the res schools, my thoughts, condolences and sympathies.

There’s a wealth of information on the res schools here.

The residential school system came with the famous tagline; “kill the indian, save the child.”  The governments of Canada and the USA couldn’t beat our ancestors in battle, so they instead fooled our people into accepting untenable treaties that were never meant to be honoured, and they had our children stolen from us in a bid to whitewash our people.

My grandfather and all of his brothers were stolen from their home, separated and raised in the residential school system.  My grandfather’s generation, my father’s generation and my generation are still dealing with the after-effects of the racist Gradual Civilization Act and the Indian Act.  No amount of money could alleviate the disruption in our family and the destruction of our community, so my grandfather and his brothers refused the restitution offered by the government.  The alleviation of white guilt cannot be purchased with 10 grand and a few platitudes about racism.

So, fuck you Canada, and fuck you, America.

You didn’t kill the indian.  The indian just laid low for a while.

ᐊᐯᐦᐅ