Treatment of Aboriginal Canadians

• Residential schools

  • Missionaries preached Christianity
  • Aboriginal beliefs were often ridiculed and suppressed
  • English was the language of instruction in the schools - many children forgot the language of their bands
  • Taught to be ashamed of their past
  • Aboriginal males were encouraged to take up farming, even though many bands viewed it as woman’s work
• Budget for Indian Affairs

  • The government budget for Indian Affairs was small and was continuously being cut
  • Negative impact on the services that had been promised by the government in the treaties of Aboriginal people
  • Quality of life on the reserves declined
  • Alcohol was consumed in unhealthy amounts
  • Suicide rates were the highest in the country
  • Tuberculosis continued to kill many more people
  • Terrible poverty with inferior housing
  • No running water or indoor toilets and poor diets