The dark legacy of Canada's residential schools, where thousands of children died — Transcript

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1. 0:04last year when archaeologists detected what  they believed to be 200 unmarked graves at
2. 0:10an old school in canada it brought new  attention to one of the most shameful
3. 0:14chapters of that nation's history starting  in the 1880s and for much of the 20th century
4. 0:20more than 150 000 children from hundreds of  indigenous communities across canada were forcibly
5. 0:26taken from their parents by the government and  sent to what were called residential schools
6. 0:32funded by the state and run by churches they  were designed to assimilate and christianize
7. 0:37indigenous children by ripping them from their  parents their culture and their community
8. 0:43the children were often referred to as savages  and forbidden from speaking their languages
9. 0:48or practicing their traditions many  were physically and sexually abused
10. 0:53and thousands of children never made it  home the story will continue in a moment
11. 1:03the last of canada's 139 residential schools for  indigenous children closed in 1998 most have been
12. 1:11torn down but the muskogen residential school in  saskatchewan still stands its windows boarded up
13. 1:18its rooms gutted a reminder to a nation that  would rather forget a three-story tombstone for
14. 1:26generations of children who died here sometimes i  wish it would be gone for all what happened here
15. 1:32you wish this had been torn down yeah i  could hear everything in here what was done
16. 1:39it lingers leona wolfe who comes from the muskogan  reserve was five years old and she says she was
17. 1:46taken from her home in 1960. school officials  and police would often show up unannounced in
18. 1:52indigenous communities and round up children  some as young as three parents could be jailed
19. 1:58if they refused to hand their children over when  kids arrived at their schools their traditional
20. 2:04long hair was shaved off if they tried to  speak their language they were often punished
21. 2:10they put me in a dark room like that they'd  shut the door and then they take off the light
22. 2:17all i had to look through was this much light  like i was in jail she says the abuse many kids
23. 2:25at muskogan suffered from the catholic priests  and nuns wasn't just physical father royale
24. 2:32was fondling the girls here a priest father  joella was fondling girls yeah this used to be
25. 2:38sick me this they used to have a bed here and he  would take girls into the bed yeah my cousin you
26. 2:46took your cousin in here how old was she yeah she  was only eight i grew up a very very mean woman
27. 2:55because of all what happened to me you  learned that here you think yeah she
28. 3:02is not the only one more than 150 000  children were sent to residential schools
29. 3:08which canada's first prime minister supported  to in his words sever children from the tribe
30. 3:14and civilized them for much of the 20th century  the canadian government supported that mission
31. 3:20this report aired in 1955 they learned not only  games and traditions such as the celebration of
32. 3:27saint valentine's day but the mastery of words  the idea for the schools came in part from the
33. 3:33united states in 1879 the carlisle indian  industrial school opened in pennsylvania
34. 3:40where this photo was taken of native  american children when they first arrived
35. 3:44this is them four months later the school's  motto was killed the indian save the man
36. 3:52consequently ours was to kill the indian in  the child kill the indian in the child that
37. 3:58was the guiding principle here in canada chief  wilton little child whose cree was six years
38. 4:04old when he was taken to this residential school  in alberta then he says he was given a new name
39. 4:11my name was number 65 for all those years just a  number just the number yeah 65 pick that up stupid
40. 4:19or 65 why'd you do that idiot what does that feel  like at six years old to be called a number well i
41. 4:25think that's where the trauma begins not just the  physical abuse psychological abuse spiritual abuse
42. 4:34and worst of all sexual abuse you were sexually  abused yes i think that's where my anger
43. 4:44began as a young boy chief little child says  he was able to take some of that anger out on
44. 4:51the school's hockey rink he won a scholarship to  university and graduated eventually going on to
45. 4:57a distinguished career in law but his story is  the exception they didn't kill my spirit so i'm
46. 5:04still cree i'm still who i am i'm not 65 my name  is mike and mother so they didn't kill my spirit
47. 5:14in 2008 after thousands of school survivors  filed lawsuits the canadian government
48. 5:20formally apologized for its policies it also  set up a 1.9 billion dollar compensation fund
49. 5:27and established a truth and reconciliation  commission that chief little child helped lead
50. 5:34for six years the commission heard  testimony from survivors across the country
51. 5:40and she put me underwater slapping me and  hitting me slapping me and hitting me and
52. 5:46punching me and punching me and holding me  under water pulling my hair and i thought god
53. 5:54she's going to kill me i'm going to die first  day of school we as little boys little girls
54. 6:06we lost our innocence
55. 6:12in 2015 the commission concluded what happened was  cultural genocide it identified more than 3 000
56. 6:19children who died from disease due to overcrowding  malnutrition and poor sanitation or died after
57. 6:25being abused or trying to run away a government  study in 1909 found the death rate in some schools
58. 6:32was as high as 20 times the national average most  schools had their own cemeteries and sometimes
59. 6:39when children died their parents were never  informed it's really traumatic for those families
60. 6:46who don't know what happened to their child or  relative in the schools why weren't kids who died
61. 6:53at the schools why weren't they sent home to save  money last year archaeologists detected what they
62. 6:59said could be 200 unmarked graves at this former  school in kamloops british columbia weeks later a
63. 7:06further 751 unmarked graves were detected across  from the former maryville residential school
64. 7:13on the kaus's reserve in saskatchewan  there was once a catholic cemetery here
65. 7:18but the headstones were bulldozed in the 1960s  by a priest after a dispute with a former chief
66. 7:25and what were these lists for so it will tell  a small team of researchers has been trying to
67. 7:30discover the names of those children buried here  but for decades the government and the church have
68. 7:35been reluctant to share their records chief cadmus  delorme is trying to get answers do you know that
69. 7:41they're all children we can't verify how much our  children but based on the research we're doing
70. 7:49a lot of them were children that were forced to  go to the maryville residential school and died
71. 7:55in the maryville residential school chief delorme  says he hopes to give the unidentified children a
72. 8:01dignity in death that they never received in life  i want to make sure that canada knows the truth
73. 8:09because you can't move to reconciliation until  you accept the truth the discoveries of the
74. 8:15graves open deep wounds more than a dozen  churches have been vandalized or destroyed
75. 8:22and thousands have marched  demanding the pope apologize
76. 8:26and the church's open archives to help identify  any missing children indigenous communities
77. 8:32across the country have begun conducting their own  searches using ground penetrating radar we've laid
78. 8:38out a number of grids throughout this landscape  archaeologist keisha supernant and terry clark say
79. 8:4435 unmarked graves have been discovered at  the muskogen school there's something going
80. 8:50on there that's not natural when we were there  this past october they found what appeared to be
81. 8:55another according to survivor accounts children  sometimes had to dig their classmates graves
82. 9:02the priests or the school officials would force  the kids to dig other children's graves yep
83. 9:08can you imagine being like 10 or 11 and digging  a grave for your classmate what that must have
84. 9:15been like keisha supernant says the search for  unmarked graves will continue for years this is
85. 9:22very emotional work it's very devastating work  it's heartbreaking for everyone who's involved
86. 9:27you feel that too i do our communities still feel  the impacts of these institutions in our everyday
87. 9:34lives we're way over-represented in in child  welfare and adoptions and and foster care we're
88. 9:40way over-represented in the prisons you can draw a  direct line with that to these places and the pain
89. 9:47of that that has been passed on from generation  to generation i started school here in 1958
90. 9:54ed bitter knows whose cree understands that  pain he was eight years old when he was taken
91. 10:00to the muskogen school his parents lived within  sight of the school and when he tried to run away
92. 10:06he says the priest forced him to kneel on  a broom handle for three days that's where
93. 10:11my house was i would sit here and wonder why i i  couldn't be home that must have been devastating
94. 10:21yeah it wasn't only adults he feared  some students themselves victims of abuse
95. 10:29preyed on other children were you abused  here uh yeah actually in this room here
96. 10:38by one of the one of the one of the boys
97. 10:42in this very room this very area here later  he says he was also sexually molested by a nun
98. 10:49when he left school he was rudderless and violent  and turned to alcohol when he got married he says
99. 10:55he didn't know how to show affection you didn't  know what love was no no i never thought it here i
100. 11:03didn't start saying i loved her until we were  married about 40 years and then i was very careful
101. 11:10how i said it you didn't say to your  wife for 40 years that you loved her
102. 11:16yeah he says his life changed when he began  rediscovering his cree culture raising buffalo
103. 11:23and sharing traditional knowledge with children  brought healing and finally an understanding of
104. 11:28the word love you can say that now i can say  that now and it feels good and we i still joke
105. 11:37with my wife about that don't say that too  loud you know so you can say you just don't
106. 11:42want to say it too loud yes you know what it's  better than nothing yes that's what she says
107. 11:50as for leona wolfe her life and the lives of her  children and grandchildren have been plagued by
108. 11:56violence and substance abuse intergenerational  trauma she says that began the day her own
109. 12:02mother was sent to school at muskelgon did  you see the impact of this place on your mom
110. 12:09yeah wow by drinking a lot being mean to me and  it impact us me and my brother and my siblings
111. 12:18what had was done to her she passed on to  you and what was done to you and others
112. 12:24here was passed on to my children this is  why sometimes i go into my rage of anger
113. 12:32and i cry because it all it was all done to us all  of us but it's going to stop now you know it is
114. 12:44you believe that i am good i'm breaking  the cycle with my great-grandchildren
115. 12:51hey full of grace leona wolfe has returned  to her traditions as well walking the halls
116. 13:00of muskelkin she began to sing hail mary a  prayer she was forced to learn here long ago
117. 13:11now she sings it her own way
118. 13:17that's not how you sang it here when  you were in school though was it nope
119. 13:20you made peace with the virgin mary  yes i made that song peace with myself