Residential Schools in Canada

  • First residential school open

    First residential school open
    The first boarding students arrived at the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario, in 1831.
  • Period: to

    Years of Residential school

  • Trying to increase the Burden

    From the 1890s until the 1950s, the government attempted constantly to move the burden of the system onto the churches and onto the students. By the 1940s, it was clear to numerous that the half-day system had failed to supply private students with adequate education and preparing.
  • The Height of Residential Schools

    At its height around 1930, the residential school system totalled 80 institutions. The Roman Catholic Church worked three-fifths of the schools, the Anglican Church one-quarter and the United and Presbyterian Churches the leftover portion.
  • Enraged Wars

    Indigenous students and parents challenged the unforgiving regime in put at most residential schools. A few children denied to co-operate and sabotaged the operations of the kitchen or classroom. At least 25 fires were set by students as a form of challenge against the schools' unforgiving conditions.
  • An End of Residential Schools

    The Gordon Residential School in Punnichy, Saskatchewan, closed in 1996. It was the final federally-funded residential school in Canada.