The Unbreakable Link: An Analysis of the Connection between Federal Indian Policy and Native American Boarding and Canadian Residential Schools

Native American boarding and Canadian residential schools were a part of assimilation used by the respective governments to force Native communities into the Non-Native society. Both governments released different federal policies that would have a significant impact on the children who attended the schools and the communities that they were taken from. By studying different personal narratives, this paper will pay attention to how federal policies affected the students’ experiences while they were attending these schools. It will also provide evidence to suggest that Native children had their own way of resisting the governmental policies that tried to assimilate them. Since the close of Native American boarding and Canadian residential schools, each government has had a different response to their involvement in this piece of history. Different organizations have also emerged to help the survivors begin and continue the healing process