Category: indian residential schools
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“Canada’s war against Indigenous People was through law”
“After Confederation, the government of Canada waged war–just like the Americans did. Americans did it through military might–the Indian Wars during Lincoln’s era and afterwards were a big part of American history. But Canada’s war against Indigenous People was through law. We waged war through law. Imagine being subjected to that. If you wanted to…
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Legal cases cited in the TRCC’s Final Report
“The signing of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) in 2006 was a major turning point in the relationship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians. … The disclosure of pervasive abuse and cruelty in the residential school system resulted in some police investigations and convictions of a number of the individuals who had abused students.…
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Narratives for four Indian Residential Schools come to light
[Update: https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/catholic-orders-residential-school-records-1.4686472] Last year the federal government indicated that no school narratives had been created for four Indian Residential Schools and, therefore, that the government would not be providing them to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) under the terms of a landmark Memorandum of Understanding and Agreement that was negotiated in the…
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Identifying Authority Records that relate to the Oblates
Background Our start on OBLATES-LOD has focused on extracting data from two of AtoM’s main entity types underlying the NCTR’s online archive: Authority records Archival descriptions Here we complete three tasks: Extracting data from 89 Authority Records relate to the Oblates. Collecting HTML and XML versions of the Archival Descriptions of resources that relate to these Authority…
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Catholic entities that operated Indian Residential Schools
Let’s create a dataset that assigns responsibility for the operation of specific Indian Residential Schools to specific Roman Catholic entities for specific periods of time. Our primary source is an order to amend the title of proceedings related to a statement of claim against the Canadian government, Churches, and third parties. Nine courts across the…
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Oblates’ Indian Residential Schools in Canada
What’s here Background TRC’s list of Indian Residential Schools Our list of Oblates’ Indian Residential Schools Next steps Background A year ago, I set out to build an authoratative graph of Indian Residential Schools (IRS) in Canada – beginning with identifying their names, locations, religious affiliations, and dates of operation. As the demands of this…
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Matching Canada’s lists to OIRS
What’s here Background Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement Canada’s initial list of Indian Residential Schools Canada’s final list of Indian Residential Schools Recap Next steps Background Our initial dataset of Oblates’ Indian Residential Schools (oirs_2022-12-17-1) contains basic identifying information derived mainly from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). We want to anchor and enrich this dataset…
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Matching the Oblates’ list to OISR
What’s here Background Oblates’ list of their Indian Residential Schools Recap Next steps Background The corporate website for the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (Oblates) advises that “OMI Lacombe Canada was founded in 2003 in response to the changing face of the Roman Catholic Church in Canada. We are part of the worldwide congregation of priests…
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Integrating NCTR geodata into the OIRS_2022-12-19-1
What’s here Background Geodata National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation x Recap Next steps Background So far our datasets provide only basic information (town/city, province/territory) about the location of Oblates’ Indian Residential Schools. We now want to draw upon two sources for more precise geolocation data. National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation One part of…
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Indian Residential Schools at Kamsack/Fort Pelly and Cross Lake
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission noted that “The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) provides the most comprehensive listing of Canadian residential schools for Aboriginal people. At the time of approval, the Settlement Agreement listed 130 residential schools and residences. The Settlement Agreement also outlined a process by which additional schools could be added to…
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Sources for Indian Residential Schools
Sources Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement Schedule E – Indian Residential Schools Schedule F Schedule x Schedule y AANDC Recognized Insitutions Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, Final Report, Volume 4 Appendix 1.1 – Appendix 1.2 – Superior Court of Ontario Amended Statement of Claim () National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, Authority Records Indian…
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Visualizing the operation of Indian Residential Schools by Catholic entities
We have published a dataset of Indian Residential Schools that were operated by Catholic entities in Canada. We now present different means of visualizing – and thereby highlighting – different aspects of the dataset using Data Driven Documents (D3), a set of free and open tools. Connecting Catholic entities and Indian Residential Schools Catholic entities…
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Processing raw data extracted from an Authority Record’s view page
The NCTR’s online archive lists its Authority Records in a series of web pages that includes links to view pages of these Authority Records. We extracted a good deal of data from the HTML code underlying these view pages. Unfortunately, these data required considerable processing. First, we needed to sort hundreds of values of different types…
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Starting on OBLATES-LOD
I’ve recently posted about the challenge of establishing basic facts about Indian Residential Schools (IRS) in Canada, e.g. How many were there? What were their names? When were they open? Who attended them? I’m convinced that Linked Open Data (LOD) and semantic web technologies will help us overcome this challenge. OBLATES-LOD applies these technologies to…
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Oblates’ management of Indian Residential Schools
Update – November 3, 2022 We have now identified 62 Indian Residential Schools once managed by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate (Oblates). In August 2022, we relied upon “School Narratives” prepared by the Canadian government to identify 57 Indian Residential Schools once managed by the Oblates. We have recently confirmed the Oblates’ management of 3…
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Unmarked graves, undisclosed records – Update July 21, 2022
Update On July 18, 2022, Crown Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada provided me with a copy of the Memorandum of Agreement on Document Sharing between the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation and Crown Indigenous Relations (January 20, 2022). I have updated this post accordingly. Public statements “The federal government has turned over all…
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Links to federal government summaries and narratives of Canada’s Indian Residential Schools
Introduction To assist researchers, we have integrated our identification of Indian Residential Schools that operated in Canada with our account of the federal government’s sporadic release of relevant documents. The Table includes entries for 155 Indian Residential Schools as listed by the Truth and Reconcilation Commission (Final Report, Volume IV: Missing children and unmarked graves,…
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Unmarked graves, undisclosed records
“The federal government has turned over all of the records we have for residential schools to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation in Winnipeg.” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, October 18, 2021 “Unfortunately, this is not accurate.” National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), October 19, 2021 “I have therefore directed my Department to take all…
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Identifying Canada’s Indian Residential Schools: How hard could it be?
Several weeks ago, I had an idea. I’d first need a definitive list of Canada’s Indian Residential Schools. How hard could it be to find it. Surprisingly. How time-consuming could it be to make it. Ridiculously. I’ve stopped short of a definitive list of Canada’s Indian Residential Schools, but I’m happy to share what I’ve…
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Identifying Canada’s Indian Residential Schools
Identifying Canada’s Indian Residential Schools was challenging for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) and remains challenging for us today. The TRC recognized that the “Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) provides the most comprehensive listing of Canadian residential schools for Aboriginal people,” but also observed that “issues combine to complicate any attempt to list…
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Canada’s Indian Residential Schools under the original IRSSA
By our reckoning, the original Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) identified 131 Indian Residential Schools: Schedule E (Residential Schools) identified 107 Indian Residential Schools Schedule F (Additional Residential Schools) identified 24 Indian Residential Schools. We are publishing these 131 institutions, as they appeared in the original IRSSA, as a machine-readable, Tab-Separated-Value file, with these…
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Applications and Canada’s decisions under Article 12 (March 28, 2013)
We have seen that Canada issued periodic updates of its decisions regarding applications to add institutions to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) under Article 12. We are publishing data about 1,502 institutions from the last available update (March 28, 2013), as a machine-readable, Tab-Separated-Value file, with these data fields: Field Definition PREFERRED_NAME Preferred…
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Analysis of Applications and Canada’s Decisions under Article 12 – 20130328 Update
We have seen that Canada issued periodic updates of its decisions regarding applications to add institutions to the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) under Article 12. The last available update (March 28, 2013) concerns 1,502 institutions. The original IRSSA included 104 (6.9%) of these institutions; another 8 (0.5%) institutions were added to the IRSSA…
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AANDC’s “Recognized Institutions”
By our reckoning, Canada identified (at some point, at least) a total of 146 institutions as Indian Residential Schools under the IRSSA: The original IRSSA listed 131 Indian Residential Schools Canada agreed to add 6 institutions under Article 12 Courts ordered Canada to add 4 institutions under Article 12 Canada added 5 institutions to one…
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Canada’s Indian Residential Schools under the final IRSSA
By our reckoning, the original Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) identified 131 Indian Residential Schools: Schedule E (Residential Schools) identified 107 Indian Residential Schools Schedule F (Additional Residential Schools) identified 24 Indian Residential Schools. Under Article 12 of the IRSSA, Canada agreed to recognize 6 additional institutions as Indian Residential Schools; courts ordered Canada…
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TRC’s Indian Residential Schools
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) commented extensively on the limitations and anomalies of Canada’s final list of Indian Residential Schools. The TRC used primary sources to overcome these difficulties as far as possible, and published two lists of its own: 143 Indian Residential Schools covered by the IRSSA 16 Indian Residential Schools not covered…
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Schools
Selecting “Schools” from the dropdown list of channels to browse, takes the user to the Schools landing page (Figure 1). Now, clicking the link to Coudert Hall (for example) takes us to the school’s landing page. To the left and right of the photograph of Coudert Hall (Figure 2a), we are presented with three categories…
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Information, Truth and Reconciliation
The Reports and 94 Calls to Action of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRCC) were published in 2015. Appreciating and responding to this rich body of work will take generations of study, reflection, planning, and engagement. The politics of Truth and Reconciliation — politics that is both visible on the surface and also…
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Taking on the Catholic Church – Part I
A Renewal Grim discoveries of many hundreds of unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Kamloops and Marieval Indian Residential Schools have renewed calls for the Government of Canada and Christian Churches to be accountable for their parts in a campaign of genocide waged against First Nations. So far, the Catholic Church has been…
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John A. Macdonald: Nation-builder, Nation-destroyer
On September 25, 2020, Sean Carleton, Assistant Professor in the Departments of History and Native Studies at the University of Manitoba, made a deputation to the Macdonald Working Group in Prince Edward County. Dr. Carleton spoke about Macdonald’s legacy as a nation-builder and a nation-destroyer, and about the difference between history and commemoration. With permission,…
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George Manuel recalls the Kamloops IRS of the 1920s
George Manuel, the future founder of the National Indian Brotherhood, carried three strong memories from his years at the Kamloops, British Columbia, residential school in the 1920s. These were: “hunger; speaking English; and being called a heathen because of my grandfather.” The memories of hunger dominated. He was hungry from his first day at the…