Residential schooling for Native Canadian children throughout the 19th and 20th century was forced schooling upon thousands of children. These schools were often far away from the children's homeland and were controlled, taught, and supervised by different Church systems including the Anglican Church, Roman Catholic Church, the Baptist Church and others. There were schools in every province and territory in Canada except Newfoundland & Labrador. Native Canadians are the backbone of much Canadian history, and still, the Native Canadian children were deprived, abused, and secluded for years in these schools. Abuse of all kinds was common in these schools and it did not only affect the children directly, it affected Native Canadians as a whole. The years lost to Residential schools were not spoken of until the last quarter of the 20th century although the schools were open from the early 1840's. There are now many court cases currently on the table and many more to come. The healing has finally begun. .
The earliest known date opening of a Residential school was in 1840, located in Manitowaning, Ontario. The school was the Wikemikong Indian Residential School, it closed in 1879. The last Residential school to close was La Tuque Indian Residential School, located in La Tuque, Quebec. This school opened in 1962 and closed in 1980. These schools, run by religious people, were not a choice for Native Canadians. The education was forced upon these people and it was looked at as the resolution to the "Indian problem". There were a total of 130 schools across Canada, and over 90 000 children attended them. In 1922, a law was passed that if parents did not hand over their children to a residential school official, they would be charged and, in some cases, jailed. In many cases, the parents were not told where their child would be brought, when they"d be back, or how they could communicate with them.
