Catholic Church Abuse of Indigenous Canadian Children (in the past)

[Disir]

Actually, it's not necessary to repeat this on the American stage. I'm done with lets educate the younger generations because they can't be bothered to read. We have too much that needs to be accomplished and we are already too far behind. Time was wasted because we had to stop and deal with the idiocy of the protests and then the idiocy of the "pandemic".

Yes, the institutions have drastically changed. In fact, I can attest to agencies making Native American families a priority.

 

[Disir]

The last of these indian schools closed in 1996.

They were taken over by the Tribes. ICWA passed in 1970s. That changed everything.

 

[AMart]

Explainer: Why did the Catholic Church cooperate with the Canadian government’s abuse of Indigenous children?

The discoveries of unmarked burials have left many wondering what motivated Catholics to participate in a colonial system that would be responsible for the loss and violation of thousands of Indigenous children.

www.americamagazine.org

After watching a "60 Minutes" report on the Canadian indigenous childrens' residences which were largely run by Roman Catholic religious communities in Canada, I did a huge amount of internet research and found the linked article, which seems to tell exactly the same story.

For those too lazy to read it, the story is basically as follows: The Canadian government made a value judgment that its indigenous people were being held back by their primitive culture, customs. lifestyles, and values. Let's call it 1850. The government called upon certain religious communities (basically, communities of nuns) to run childrens' residences with the objective of integrating the children into Canadian society. Accordingly, they were taught English, converted to Catholicism, and encouraged to move away from their own native cultures. Living in these residences was apparently compulsory when one was available.

Recently it has come to light that large numbers of the residents died while in residence, and those deaths were neither formally recorded or reported to their families. THousands of unmarked graves have been found and it is assumed that many more remain to be found.

People who lived in these residences (now basically retirement age) report various sorts of abuse, some of it rather horrific, and demand formal apologies from the Church, and various agencies that were involved. They feel that their heritage was stolen from them, resulting in all sorts of later problems in life that are well documented and known.

This very disturbing history and its recent reporting raises a lot of questions, at least in my mind.

• Why aren't these reports taken with even a microscopic amount of skepticism?
• Isn't it convenient that not a single person who was on the staff of these residences is still alive to be questioned to at least see another point of view?
• Why is no consideration given to the fact that these residences were under-funded, and hence not able to deal effectively with the kinds of diseases that were prevalent at the time, especially for people who are living in close quarters?
• The comparisons of death rates are between indigenous kids in the residences, and non-indigenous kids in the general population. This is irrelevant. The appropriate comparison is between kids in the residences and indigenous kids who were living in the indigenous communities.
• While institutions like this have always been a magnet for perverts, the main authorities were communities of nuns. I have a hard time believing they would tolerate large scale sexual abuse of the kids. They just don't operate like that.

Certainly this story is worthy of public attention, but providing a one-sided presentation, where the side making the points is looking to benefit financially, defies logic.

Someone could do a better job of it.

It seems the moral of the story is to "trust government".

 

[Disir]

I think we have two boarding schools open in this state and both are run by the Tribes. I believe that there is a wait list on both.

 

[Disir]

I am going to tell you why this is pissing me off. I see an elected official that wants a Truth Commission in what appears to be an attempt to redeem herself. If you insist on following that path then the general public will hit emotional exhaustion at some point. At the end of this road, a few people will feel better but the actual work involved won't be done or acknowledged. I will tell you this, you will see a group of predominantly white women that comes out on a stage and gives everyone this:

I was a caseworker up until May 31st. I quit. Before anyone starts their crap, I absolutely loved about 99.9% of my families. Beautiful souls. I feel blessed to have known them.

I spent a great deal of time (until it became impossible) trying to maintain cultural ties because that is a major issue and it's the one that everyone is currently professing that they give a crap about. I would have killed to have had alphabet books, bed time stories and access to resources for children to learn their tribe's language even if it was done by video. We absolutely need Tribal mentors for my pre-teen and teen kids. Cooking classes for a tribe's traditional foods would have been fantastic. A lot of it can be done via video calls.

The series of laws that came out in the 70s altered the landscape. The tribes are involved. They can take jurisdiction of cases. They have caseworkers. Ok. Here have a look see:

https://www.nicwa.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Guide_ICWA_Compliance.pdf

https://tribalinformationexchange.org/files/products/ICWAPlacementPreferences.pdf

A judge will need to order there is good cause to deviate from ICWA preferences.

 

[KissMy]

In 1996?

They didn't all die in 1996. These deaths happened over a period of 100 years.

 

[surada]

They didn't all die in 1996. These deaths happened over a period of 100 years.

Yes, I know.