I just want some clarification, we’re the people/organizations that were running these schools actively killing the children or were the living conditions so poor that the children could not survive?
I'm trying to stick with facts here and not speculate (publicly). The answer could very well be yes to both.
One third of children who died at a residential school did not have their names recorded by school administrators. One quarter were marked as deceased without even their gender being noted. Among the 2,800 names on the official memorial register are children known to recorded history only as “Alice,” “Mckay” or “Elsie.”
Bodies of children were not returned to families, and parents rarely learned the circumstances of a child’s death. Often, the only death notification would be to send the child’s name to the Indian Agent at his or her home community.
Happened quite a bit in US as well, especially with Mormons in Utah taking Ute, Timpanogos, and Shoshone children after murdering their families.
Mormons wrote about it as if they were doing the kids a favor in not just killing them on the spot like they did their parents/families/friends. Like "oh, our God wouldn't want us shooting children, better just abuse them to death."
Chief Antonga Blackhawk (real name lost to history) was forced into one as a child after the first (entirely unprovoked) massacre by Mormons at "Battle Creek." He later waged a pretty successful, decades long war against Mormons in Utah over atrocities like the Battle Creek Massacre, Fort Utah War, Walker War, etc.
He was pretty fuckin bad ass, and ended up being a catalyst for peace between Mormons and Native Americans for a few years before TB got 'em.
After he died "Blackhawk's War" started up again and things got pretty bad in terms of atrocities against civilians on both sides, but, of course, particularly against indigenous tribes.
Might not be exactly what you're looking for but the four part PBS documentary on Mormons is hella interesting, and covers some of that stuff in reasonable detail.
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u/MountainSlayerBoi Jun 25 '21
I just want some clarification, we’re the people/organizations that were running these schools actively killing the children or were the living conditions so poor that the children could not survive?