Pamphlet # 17 were fifteen or sixteen years old. While at passed on by their mother who was often of First
school, they were not allowed to speak their Nation descent.
language or practice their spiritual and cultural
customs. At residential schools, children also The quality of education deteriorated after
Education and encountered physical, sexual, emotional and the signing of the numbered treaties and the
∗
Aboriginal Peoples mental abuse. Northwest Resistance in 1885. Some Métis
children were allowed to attend Residential or
Residential schools nearly destroyed First Industrial schools if there was room. For the
Before contact with Europeans, First Nations Nations communities and left a legacy of despair most part, the education of Métis children was
people had their own educational processes. that was not addressed until 1972 when the haphazard at best. During this time, neither the
Education was a life-long process and the goal National Indian Brotherhood (now the Assembly federal nor the provincial governments assumed
was to become a responsible member of of First Nations) published a document entitled responsibility for the rights and issues of Métis
society. Each person was trained to do Indian Control of Indian Education. The people. The federal government contended that
something which contributed to the overall document was released in response to then the Métis had signed away their rights during the
well-being of the community. Children were Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's 1969 White Scrip process while provincial governments felt
taught by all members of the community and the Paper. The White Paper called for the that the responsibility for both First Nation and
Elders were the transmitters of knowledge and elimination of Treaty rights, the transfer of Métis people should fall with the federal govern-
wisdom. A close relationship with the responsibility for First Nations people to the ment.
environment and learning about the relationship provinces and the elimination of the Department
with nature was an essential component of a of Indian Affairs and the Indian Act. Although Métis children were finally allowed
child's upbringing. to attend public school, no attention was paid to
The National Indian Brotherhood proposed their culture or language. Despite the fact of the
When the British Crown settled the territory that First Nations people needed to have greater grave socio-economic conditions of Métis
known today as Canada, education became the parental responsibility and local control of people, little or no attention was paid to those
primary instrument used to ‘assimilate’ and education. In 1975, Dr. Lloyd Barber became the dispossessed Métis who were forced to live on
‘civilize’ Aboriginal people. The Dominion President of the University of Regina and was government road allowances. These Métis came
Government established residential and able to work with First Nations people in to be known as the ‘Road Allowance People’.
industrial schools following the signing of the establishing the only First Nation owned and
numbered treaties. The objectives were not only controlled post-secondary educational institution
to ‘civilize’ and ‘Christianize’ but also to teach - the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College Contacts
reading, writing and arithmetic. Residential (now the First Nations University of Canada).
schools needed to be self-sufficient, so one of Fred Shore, Office of University Accessibility,
the goals was also to teach children how to Métis people had a different experience than 474-6084 fred_shore@umanitoba.ca
become farmers and housekeepers. The entire First Nations people. For the most part, Métis
process was designed to allow First Nations children who were born during the fur trade era Kali Storm, Aboriginal Student Centre
people to eventually assimilate into mainstream were educated in one of two ways. Those 474-8850 kali_storm@umanitoba.ca
Euro-Canadian society. children who lived with First Nations
communities were raised and educated in a
Many children were taken from their families traditional First Nation manner. Those who lived
around the age of five or six years old and saw with the fur trade community were raised and
their families perhaps once a year until they educated in a Christian and European manner.
Schooling was provided in mission schools
∗ From First Nations and Métis Students: A Faculty Guide.
which were established near trading posts. Aboriginal Information Series
Used by Permission of The University of Regina, The Often, the male children were sent to mission Office of University Accessibility
Saskatchewan Indian Federated College and the Gabriel schools while the female children had a more
Dumont Institute. traditional First Nation education that was
August 2006
Number 17