The residential school system was based upon the idea of "Kill the Indian, save the man". This quote, by Capt. Charles Pratt founder of the Carlyle Indian School has become synonymous with the residential school system in both Canada and the United States. As the quote implies the goal of these schools were to assimilate First Nations people into the Euro-Canadian norm. However, due to differences between the two cultures this resulted in a trauma that continues to affect First Nations and these communities to this very day.
Trauma
Trauma results from not only the treatment that students received in these schools but also through government policy that denied First Nations people the right to control their own development. According to Dr. Leslie E. Korn: "Community Development that is not self-determined precipitates intergenerational trauma in individuals and communities. When this occurs people suffer loss and grieve over ways of life. Families divide and rituals of celebration and healing lose meaning." In other words, development is traumatic when change is imposed by one group on another. Development that is not in the control of communities is a form of socially condoned violence and leads to oppression and ultimately cultural genocide.
External Oppression
The long term effects of this oppression via both government policy and the residential school system has resulted in a number of problems for First Nations communities and individuals. This external oppression is defined as: the unjust exercise of authority and power by one group over another. It includes imposing one group's belief system, values and life ways over another group. External oppression becomes internalized oppression when the oppressed group come to believe and act as if the oppressor's beliefs system, values, and life way is reality.
Internalized Oppression
Internalized oppression is defined as: "The set of negative feelings and misinformation that individuals carry about themselves and other members of their group. It is the turning inward of and adopting as true the misinformation that is directed toward oppressed people by the external oppression. " In other words, as a people many First Nations have accepted the myths created by the oppression and have turned them inward on themselves.
There are a number of myths that arise from this internalized oppression, these include but are not limited to the belief that First Nations people are:
- peripheral
- disposable
- untrustworthy
- victims of the past and always will be victims
- last in the line of all liberations
- as a group identitified by the stereotypes held by the larger society.
These myths further impact First Nations people and communities by promoting the beliefs that:
- the mainstream of society is inaccessible
- First Nations people can only work in certain jobs or professions
- First Nations people must group together in order to be safe
- First Nations people must look/act in certain ways to be members of the First Nations community
- First Nations can only seek allies through sympathy about our victim status
This internalized oppression is manifested within First Nation communities through a number of behaviors both at the community and individual level. For many First Nations communities the result of internalized oppression is shame and the disowning of the individual and cultural reality. Without internalized oppression, previously unseen levels of violence, especially against women and children would not be a reality in many First Nations communities. Besides violence, some of the other ways internalized oppression is manifested are:
- Acting out feelings of rage, fear, indignation, frustration, and powerlessness at each other - often those closest to the individual
- finding fault, criticize or invalidate each other
- fear, mistrust, isolation from others within the group
- attack, criticize or have unreal expectations of anyone who takes a leadership role in the community
- accepting a narrow and limiting view of what it means to be part of the group
- exclusion of those who do not fit into the narrow definition of who is part of the group
Oppression is most damaging in it's internalized form. By internalizing the oppression the oppressor does not have to exert any more pressure because the group exerts pressure internally resulting in control and validation of many of the myths created by the oppressors. The impacts of the oppression is then trivialized by the larger society because it appears that the victim is simply victimizing others within the group. The fact of the matter is that divide and conquor works.
Overcoming Internalized Oppression
While internalized oppression has long term and often devistating results in the oppressed group, these First Nations people can heal and overcome this oppression. This can only be achieved by the promoting the traditional values of the culture, especially those that promote respectful and harmonious relationships between individuals. It is only by working together that the legacy of generations of oppression via the residential school system and government policy can be changed and healed.
