Before European settlement of North America, First Nations had a strong and vibrant culture. Their faith, systems of education, and trade was radically different to European traditions of commerce and institutionalized religion.

With confederation, Canada was preoccupied with securing its borders and interior lands. European settlers, who once relied on the indigenous population for survival and trade, now viewed the First Nations as dangerous rivals.

The First Nations understood the growing threat of encroachment on their lands by Europeans. And in the late 1800s attempted to fight and hold their traditional territories.

In response to these challenges, Sir John A MacDonald, as Canada’s first Prime Minister, developed an aggressive Indian policy and wage a Silent Warwith the clear objective of ending the Indians legal claims to the land. The question as to who owned the territory would be settled by ending the Indians as a definable peoples. This Policy would see Indian Children taken from their families and isolated behind these brick walls. Through aggressive assimilation into a European culture, they would cease to be Indian.

No Indians - No Land Claims.

Building on existing Religious Schools,… These new Indian Industrial Residential schools were to become critical tools in land settlements.

The trauma that these institutions caused to an entire race of people, is still felt today.