Missing Information

The first major missing research and information is about the very specific languages that were lost from the Indigenous children. When residential schools formed, they were built all across Canada. There isn’t only one group of Indigenous peoples - there are several that exist in the country. I believe there is limited information on specific Indigenous languages lost from the survivors who went to residential schools because there are not enough of them who remember what were their native languages and how to speak, read and write them.

Another major missing research and information for the topic of assimilation in residential schools, is the specific rituals lost from the Indigenous survivors. Many languages are associated with rituals such as the rituals done in the Ojibwe language. According to the research present, there are very few specific examples of languages and rituals lost. Once again, this could be due to Indigenous children forgetting the details of the rituals associated with their language, because of learning the Catholic and Euro-Canadian rituals instead.

Many of the Catholic priests, nuns, administrators of the residential schools, did not give their stories on how they assimilated the children. When someone assimilates another person to their culture, they do it voluntarily, openly, and with full intention. Not all Indigenous children were open about how they were assimilated because they were conditioned to keep it secret. The staff of the residential schools did not want to admit their strategies for assimilation, due to public embarrassment.

Catholic Church was missing from the research because the assimilation was based on the principles of the Catholic Church, therefore I expected some insight on strategies the Catholic Church used in complete assimilation of the Indigenous students into their culture. Many of the Catholic churches did not mention their apology for the effects of assimilation - the fact that an entire culture was lost from one generation to the next.

The testimony from the family members of the students who went to residential schools was missing. The parents could have expressed how they felt when they discovered that their child completely forgot about aspects of his culture and traditions through assimilation. The reaction of the parents would have been beneficial to the research, as they did not expect all the effects of assimilation. There is lack of research on how the survivors who were assimilated raised their children with lack of knowledge on their culture.