History

Early Colonization
In the sixteenth century with the European Colonization, there was a dramatic culture change amongst Aboriginal peoples in Canada. Along with the interactions with European settlers from missionaries, fur traders, fishing expeditions, colonists and explorers. Which also encountered Mesoamerican and Caribbean Natives that accompanied the European expeditions.Through the European contact, there was a tremendous devastation within the Indigenous peoples, because of the negative influence that was implemented in to their culture. The oppression of the Aboriginals were through the impact of the economic, political, and religious institutions (Kirmayer & Valaskakis, 2009).

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During the colonization, the destruction of the peoples were caused by the infectious disease. Prior to the European settlers, the Indigenous population were over seven million people (Chansonneuve, 2007). The cause of death of ninety percent of the population were brought by the settlers, that included smallpox, measles, influenza, bubonic plague, diphtheria, typhus, cholera, scarlet fever, trachoma, whooping cough, chicken pox and tropical malaria (Kirmayer & Valaskakis, 2009).======

**Introducing to Alcohol**
The alcohol abuse began in the early Canadian history when the liquor was introduced by the European fur traders in the early seventeenth century. Drunkenness and violence were uncommon to the Aboriginal people and their communities. Prior to the colonization, they had a "very low incident of violence"(Chansonneuve, 2007).



Forced Relocation
The Indigenous peoples and their ways of life were exterminated by the Canadian and American government through forced sedentarization, relocation to isolated regions, creation of reserves, regional schools, lack of fundings and poor resourcing for the necessary services such as: health care, education and bureaucratic control. In most Aboriginal settlements, the risk of transmission of contagious diseases were from crowded and poor quality housings, which included tuberculosis that involved prolonged hospitalization and undermines the reputation of families and communities (Kirmayer & Valaskakis, 2009).

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Aboriginal peoples were imposed to relocate when new land was needed for the settlers. Many groups of people were required to improvise new ways of living and social structures. In most cases, Aboriginal peoples were not permitted to a desirable part of land because of the settler’s way of expanding cities and farms. Other forced relocations took place for other political reasons (Kirmayer & Valaskakis, 2009).======

**Forced Residential School**
The dominant non-Aboriginal society encouraged and supported many forms of discrimination and racism. The Aboriginal peoples were depicted as “primitive,” “savage,” and uncivilized. They were viewed with incompetency of compromising and participating in democratic government. By forcing them to conform into mainstream Canadian society; they were encouraged to be “civilized". Aboriginal children were the central target of eliminating the indigenous culture, through forced attendance at residential schools. (Kirmayer & Valaskakis, 2009)

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In the late 1800s when the residential school system was established, the church and government authorities believed that the purpose of residential schools were to separate children from the “evil surroundings” of their families and communities. The only way to achieve the proposition was to take the children under the control and influence of church-run boarding school (Chansonneuve, 2007).======

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In 1831, the first residential school that opened was at Brantford, Ontario to the last closure in 1988 where approximately 130 schools were functioning. There were hundred thousands of Aboriginal children enrolled. The stated purpose of the schools was to give education to Aboriginal children, however they were put through to relentless denigration to integrate them into mainstream culture (Chansonneuve, 2007).======

In residential schools, there were many forms of abuse; psychological, emotional, physical and sexual, according to Chansonneuve (2007).


 * //Psychological and Emotional Abuse://**


 * Continual shaming by name-calling, such as “heathen” and “savage”
 * Humiliation and degradation, such as being forced to crawl at the feet of those in authority, scrubbing floors or toilets with toothbrush, being forced to wear diapers for bedwetting, and to wear soiled clothing as punishment.
 * Taught to believe that women are inferior to men, and Aboriginal people are inferior to white people.


 * //Physical and Sexual Abuse://**


 * Sexual assault, including forced oral-genital, masturbatory, or sexual intercourse between men and women, and the girls and boys in their care.
 * Sexual touching and fondling of children by those in authority.
 * Arranging or inducing abortions in female children impregnated by men in authority.
 * Beating children to the point of unconsciousness, drawing blood, breaking or fracturing bones, or inflicting serious injuries causing deafness or other permanent disabilities or chronic pain.
 * Severe torture when children spoke their own language or tried to escape, including needles stuck in the tongue, lye soap in the mouth, or beatings.
 * Beating naked or partially naked students in front of other students and authority figures.
 * Starving or isolating children who were sick; forcing them to eat their own vomit.
 * Withholding medical treatment from children who were suffering the effects of abuse or illness, sometimes to the point of causing death.



**The Indian Act**
Chansonneuve (2007) had argued that, The Indian Act in 1876 elaborated the Canadian Government system’s participation in controlling and restricting the Aboriginal peoples by dismissing their basic human rights:


 * Native people were prohibited from leaving or traveling off the reservations without written permission signed by a government agent.
 * The status rights of Native women who married non Native-men were removed, and their children denied rights under the //Indian Act;// while non-Native women who married Native men, as well as their children, were granted status rights.
 * Traditional spiritual ceremonies were criminalized; anyone practicing them was liable to imprisonment as was anyone encouraged such practices.
 * Traditional leaders and forms of governance were replaced with leaders and governance chosen by the Canadian government.
 * It was illegal for Natives to kill any of their own livestock or sell any fish they had caught off the reserve.
 * Legislation was passed in 1888 to prevent Native people from taking out loans for farm machinery; the reason given by Hayter Reed, then deputy minister of Indian Affairs, was that forcing the Indian to work soil using only hand implements would help him evolve from hunter to peasant, and only then to modern man.
 * In response to Native people organizing to raise money for lawsuits against these injustices from 1900-1927, the Canadian government made it illegal to raise money or contribute funds to Indians for political purposes, including land claims.

The Canadian Aboriginal History: Silence (Youtube, 2009)

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