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Forms of Resistance a. Withholding/Removing Children

Residential Schools: Did Authorities Know About Abuse and Fail to Act? (SOURCE: J. R. Millar, Shingwauk’s Vision , Chapt. 12.). Forms of Resistance a. Withholding/Removing Children b. Complaints and Playing on Interdenominational Rivalries

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Forms of Resistance a. Withholding/Removing Children

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  1. Residential Schools: Did Authorities Know About Abuse and Fail to Act? (SOURCE: J. R. Millar, Shingwauk’s Vision, Chapt. 12.) • Forms of Resistance a. Withholding/Removing Children b. Complaints and Playing on Interdenominational Rivalries c. Petitions to Ottawa or Church Leaders d. Threats of Criminal Charges or Lawsuits (p. 357) e. Student Defiance, Theft, & Running Away f. Physical Violence: Arson; Assault; Murder, often after other forms of complaint proved ineffective • Inference It would have been impossible for local officials (e.g., principals, Indian agents) to have concealed some of the resistance from senior officials in govt or churches.

  2. Authorities’ Responses (Slide 2 of 3.) • Discounting Complaints HQ staff of government and missionary organizations tended to discount complaints from Natives themselves. • Example of Non-Responsiveness Federal inquiry into brutal regime of Father Mackey at Shubenacadie was a “whitewash”. Led to a plot to assassinate him. (p. 356) • Effectiveness of Complaining Depended Upon: a. Existing Record of the Person About Whom Complaint is Made (p. 344) b. Probability that the Cabinet Minister Would be Politically Embarrassed (p.344) c. Denominational Rivalry Combined With Threat to Remove Children from the School (p. 344) -

  3. Authorities’ Responses (Slide 3 of 3.) • Power Relationships What emerges from Miller’s examination of resistance to the residential schools is NOT a simple picture of authority and submission. RATHER, there was a subtle and shifting interplay of forces. - Sometimes, influence and power flowed in favour of the Native people, such that their protest and resistance did have some limited effect (e.g., the dismissal of a principal). However, it would be inaccurate to conclude that the FN parents were able to force the schools to operate the way the parents wished.

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