Canada Hears of Native Abuse Pain
 

Not pointing any fingers at Canada. At least they are trying to address the problem. The same system of abuse occurred in the U.S., but little has been done. It would be nice to see some sincere efforts towards healing in this country too.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7430270.stm

A truth and reconciliation commission examining what native leaders call one of the most tragic and racist chapters in Canada's history has begun.

The commission will study Canada's decades-long policies that removed Aboriginal children from their families to force Christianity upon them.

The state-funded religious schools were often the scenes of horrific physical and sexual abuse.

The commission has a five-year mandate to detail the abuses.

From the 19th Century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 aboriginal children were required to attend Christian schools in an attempt to rid them of their native cultures and languages and integrate them into society.

Darkest chapter

The federal government admitted 10 years ago that physical and sexual abuse in the once-mandatory schools was rampant.

* It's the darkest, most tragic chapter in Canadian history and virtually no one knows about this

Phil Fontaine, chief of the Assembly of First Nations

Many students recall being beaten for speaking their native languages, and losing touch with their parents and customs.

That legacy of abuse and isolation has been cited by leaders of native communities as the root cause of continuing epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction on reservations.

The commission, which is in the early phase of its research, will spend five years travelling across the country to hear stories from former students, teachers and others involved in the so-called residential schools run by the Roman Catholic Church and various Protestant denominations.

The goal is to give survivors a forum to tell their stories and to educate Canadians about what happened.

"It's the darkest, most tragic chapter in Canadian history and virtually no one knows about this," said Phil Fontaine, chief of the national Assembly of First Nations, the umbrella group that speaks for Canada's first nations' people.

Mr Fontaine was himself among the victims of sexual abuse at a church school. "I'm just one of many," he said.

Foster healing

Aboriginal Judge Harry LaForme, who heads the commission, is hopeful Canadians will be more sympathetic of the plight of aboriginals once they know more.

* We know what occurred, what we now want to hear is the stories from the people themselves

Judge Harry LaForme, commission head

Mr LaForme told the BBC that the aim of the commission was not to name offenders and point fingers, but to foster healing.

"We know what occurred, what we now want to hear is the stories from the people themselves."

The commission was created as part of an agreement in 2006 between the government, churches and the 90,000 surviving aboriginal students to help redress some of the issues plaguing the native population.

About C$60m (£30m) will be used to fund the commission's work.

No date has been set yet for testimony to begin.

The start of the commission's work precedes a public apology that Prime Minister Stephen Harper is scheduled to deliver in parliament on 11 June - an acknowledgment that native leaders have sought for years.

Canada's aboriginals - who number nearly one million - remain the country's poorest and most disadvantaged group, with a life expectancy five to seven years lower than non-natives.

Suicide rates are three times higher than the national average, and teenage pregnancies are nine times higher.

How Sad!!!!
 

Absolutely disgusting.

I wonder what has happened to those poor children who were separated from their parents???

Thanks Melody

Abuse is horrible, but abuse in the name of God is unforgivable to me. IMO, it robs the person of the opportunity to heal. :(

I have quite a few friends who were forced to grow up in this system. I've spent the last several years listening to their personal stories of having to deal with unbelievable physical, sexual and emotional abuse while growing up. Those who were able to reconnect with their families and culture seem to have done well. Those who were encouraged to turn to alcohol and drugs have not. Unfortunately, with this group, any religious-based organization set up to help them will only trigger more PTSD in them. Even AA/NA is based on religion.

Here's another article about the mission schools in California.

http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096417308

Newcomb: Spirit-breaking: Mission horrors

Posted: May 16, 2008
by: Steven Newcomb / Indigenous Law Institute

In 1769, Catholic priest Junipero Serra founded the Catholic mission system in California.
In 1775, the Franciscan and Dominican orders in California made
a joint statement characterizing their mission.
The language they used provides insight into their way of thinking and their behavior in the missions.

In the joint statement, the two orders said that their task was the
"spiritual and temporal conquest" of the "vast territory" called
California. They also referred to themselves as being "in this corner of
the world of Old and New California, occupied with the spiritual conquest
and conversion of the infidels." Infidels translates to "not of the faith,"
or, in other words, non-Catholic.

Conquest is one aspect of the paradigm of domination that underlies the
colonizing mission of the Vatican and the Catholic Church in the Americas,
in keeping with papal decrees that called for the "subjugation" of
"barbarous nations." As part of this charge, one task of the church was to
break the free spirit of and "reduce" those who were "not of the faith."
Spiritual conquest involved the use of spirit-breaking techniques that
served as part of the arsenal that was employed
against the originally free and independent Indian nations and peoples of California.

After being accused of tyranny by another priest, "Father" Lasuen, of
Mission San Miguel, stated: "The Indians are flogged, and wherefore not ...
It is evident that a nation which is barbarous, ferocious and ignorant
requires more frequent punishments than a nation which is cultured,
educated and of gentle and moderate customs."
Abuse of the Indians kept at the missions was legion, and
they were kept more as prisoners than parishioners.
"The children and adults of both sexes are carefully locked up
every night and the keys are delivered into the possession
of the padres," stated one commentator.

As many Indians as possible were locked in a room with tiny windows and
little circulation. The room had an open-pit latrine in the middle of the
floor.
Governor Borica, who inspected some empty living quarters, declared,
"So pestiferous were they that I could not endure them
for even a minute."

Such filthy conditions resulted in an extremely high death rate among the
Indian people; and in some cases,
the water supply came from the same place that the sewage was dumped.
"A more perfect arrangement for the spread of
gastrointestinal disorders could scarcely be devised,"
said one doctor in the 1940s.
By one estimate, the average life span in the missions
was a mere six years.
Being consigned to a Catholic mission, in other words,
was likely to be a death sentence for any Indian.

One priest wrote: "We succeeded in sending a great number of children to
heaven, who died almost as soon as they were baptized."
And after visiting a number of missions, Lt. George Peard said:
"A great mortality to which the children are particularly subject takes place
amongst the Indians in the missions."
From 1769 to 1834, when the missions closed,
a mere estimated 29,100 Indians had been born and
some 62,600 had died in the missions.
Of course, this result was simply part of the process
of "the temporal and spiritual conquest" of the indigenous nations of California.

"Father" Palou, of Santa Barbara Mission, wrote:
"The missionary fathers are the foreman and
the neophytes [Indians] are the workmen."
The missions had a six-day work week, and
one report from San Diego said of the Indians:
"They begin their labors at six in the morning and
work almost until sunset."

The Indians at the missions were fed very few calories
in comparison with the
number of calories expended during their laborious day.
Malnourishment weakened their immune systems and
made them much more susceptible to diseases.
A report issued in 1798 at Santa Barbara stated:
"Although sufficient to sustain life,
the ration cannot suffice for he who works from morning till night."

The Catholic mission system had a devastating effect on
Indian women. At Mission La Purisima, for example,
an estimated nine out of 10 infants were stillborn, a rate of genocidal proportions.
Father Payeras wrote:
"The majority of the pregnant women have produced
stillborn babies."
At Mission San Francisco, Father Senan stated that
in 1806, more than 300 Indians had died, "and
only 23 have been born."

Hugo Reid told of what happened to an Indian woman
who had a stillborn
child: "When a woman had the misfortune to bring
forth a stillborn child,
she was punished.
The penalty was shaving the head, flogging for 15
subsequent days, iron on the feet for three months,
and having to appear
every Sunday in church, on the steps of the alter,
with a hideous painted
[effigy] child in her arms."

As for the beatings, Reid wrote of Mission San Gabriel:
"So as not to make
a revolting picture, I will bury acts of barbarity known
to me through good
authority,
by merely saying that Father Zalvidea must have considered
whipping [to be] meat and drink to them, for they [the Indians] had it
morning, noon, and night."

To this day, the Holy See of St. Peter (the Vatican) has never publicly
acknowledged the sadistic and inhumane system that the Catholic Church
instituted for the temporal and spiritual conquest of Old and New
California.
It is long past time for it to do so under the leadership of
Pope Benedict XVI.

Steven Newcomb, Shawnee/Lenape,
is indigenous law research coordinator in the
education department of the Sycuan Band of
the Kumeyaay Nation in San Diego County,
co-founder and co-director of the Indigenous
Law Institute, and author of
"Pagans in the Promise Land:
Decoding the Doctrine of Christian Discovery"
(Fulcrum Publishing, 2008).

Well, not to keep bashing the Catholic Church, did you ever see the movie "The Magdalene Sisters"??

I saw it and I was thrown for a loop. Being raised a Roman Catholic and educated by the nuns ALL of my life, well I know what I saw in the classrooms. (The boys got beat every single day), but we were scared enough to get a proper education, that much I know.

But get a load of this: I believe that they are out of business and this doesn't go on any more, but years ago, well these poor women had no voice.

I never knew there were Irish Laundries run by nuns and the Catholic Church.

http://www.icl-fi.org/english/spi/oldsite/Magdalen.html

Wow, those poor women. :( I hadn't heard of the movie.

I don't understand how anyone can participate in such abuse and think it has anything to do with serving God. :confused: These are crimes against humanity meant to serve man. It's clearly a human need for power, control and economic gain. How the heck do these people expect to 'splain themselves to their Jesus? :eek: I'd be shaking in my boots if I were them.

I hear ya!!!!