Leading up to 1920, Indigenous parents across North America had access to a limited set of choices in terms of parenting decisions. According to a few different sources, primarily A Cultural Approach to a Canadian Tragedy: The Indian Residential Schools as a Sacred Enterprise by Eric Taylor Woods and Chapter 25 of the Truth and Reconciliation Report, generally speaking, a child would end up at an Indian Boarding School for basically three reasons.
A government official felt that their parents and/or family - based on fairly straightforward racism and colonialism - could not sufficiently educate the child and enrolled the child.
Their parents and/or family - for complicated and complex reasons that came about because of racism and colonialism - were not able to properly care for or educate the child and a governmental official made the decision to enroll the child.
Their parents and/or family - for complicated and complex reasons that came about because of racism and colonialism - thought it was the best place for them to be and enrolled their child.
Sitting with the truths around number three, I think, reveals the cruelty that lies at the heart of racism and colonialism. It forces us to recognize that one of the details that make the Indian schools - residential, industrial (trade-focused), or day schools so truly insidious - is that there were adults who truly believed that they were saving children's lives. That without an education similar to what white children got, without understanding that they had to break from their Indigenous roots in order to survive, they had no future. So when parents sent their child, it wasn't about picking the school as a viable alternative to raising their child as their ancestors had been raised - it was picking a bad choice out of a series of bad choices.
Meanwhile, despite what many church and government officials would say, Indigenous parents wanted to parent their children. Sending their child away wasn't their first choice.
From the Report:
Not surprisingly, parents took every opportunity to visit their children. When schools were close by, they regularly tried to see them. ¨is was one of the reasons why Indian Commissioner Hayter Reed preferred the establishment of industrial schools “at a greater distance from their Reserves, than would be the case were they at the Boarding Schools.” Despite the distance, parents still visited the industrial schools. At the High River school in what is now Alberta, Principal Albert Lacombe opposed parents camping outside the school grounds, since “their intercourse and bad inflence demoralize the pupils very much. Of course this diffculty could very easily be removed, by building a good high fence around the play-ground, so that the pupils would be entirely separated from any obnoxious visitors.”
Many of the schools would later institute pass systems and if a parent didn't have a pass, they couldn't visit their child. And as expected, school leaders would withhold passes if a parent was deemed "too" intrusive or if a child was "too" resistant to their new education. These passes were also often denied to white parents who were serving as foster parents to an Indigenous child. (There was internal debate among various heads of the schools - some felt that parental involvement should be encouraged, as it would make the children feel more comfortable. It was benevolent supremacy at its finest.)
From 1920 forward, the reasons were moot; a change to the Indian Act meant that attendance at Indian schools was compulsory for all First Nations children.
10.(1) Every Indian child between the ages of seven and ´fifteen years who is physically able shall attend such day, industrial or boarding school as may be designated by the Superintendent General for the full periods during which such school is open each year. Provided, however, that such school shall be the nearest available school of the kind required, and that no Protestant child shall be assigned to a Roman Catholic school or a school conducted under Roman Catholic auspices, and no Roman Catholic child shall be assigned to a Protestant school or a school conducted under Protestant auspices.
(2) The Superintendent General may appoint any o¢cer or person to be a truant officer to enforce the attendance of Indian children at school, and for such purpose a truant officer shall be vested with the powers of a peace officer, and shall have authority to enter any place where he has reason to believe there are Indian children between the ages of seven and fifteen years, and when requested by the Indian agent, a school teacher or the chief of a band shall examine into any case of truancy, shall warn the truants, their parents or guardians or the person with whom any Indian child resides, of the consequences of truancy, and notify the parent, guardian or such person in writing to cause the child to attend school.
(3)Any parent, guardian or person with whom an Indian child is residing who fails to cause such child, being between the ages aforesaid, to attend school as required by this section after having received three days notice so to do by a truant officer shall, on the complaint of the truant officer, be liable on summary conviction before a justice of the peace or Indian agent to a fine of not more than two dollars and costs, or imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten days or both, and such child may be arrested without a warrant and conveyed to school by the truant officer: Provided that no parent or other person shall be liable to such penalties if such child, (a) is unable to attend school by reason of sickness or other unavoidable cause; (b) has passed the entrance examination for high schools; or, (c) has been excused in writing by the Indian agent or teacher for temporary absence to assist in husbandry or urgent and necessary household duties.
The report goes on to clarify:
It should be noted that the 1920 amendment did not make residential schooling compulsory for all First Nations children. The provision stipulated that students “shall attend such day, industrial or boarding school” (italics added). Indeed, the federal government never constructed a sufficient number of residential schools to accommodate all First Nations children. Where, in the past, the federal government could commit a child to residential school only if it judged that she or he was not “being properly cared for or educated,” the new amendment gave it the authority to compel any First Nations student to attend residential school. It also made it legal to keep the child in that school until they turned fifteen. (However, the department was to take the position that the Act gave it the right to keep children in school until they turned sixteen.)