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Shingwauk's Vision

a History of Native Residential Schools
Buffy5
Jan 02, 2017Buffy5 rated this title 4 out of 5 stars
Shingwauk’s Vision This book is copyrighted in 1996 so I’m sure there is more that could be written about the aftermath of residential schools but it is still a well researched comprehensive history of the schools. I must confess that it took me a long time to read this book. Being a slow reader the size of the book alone was intimidating and the chapters were long so it was not easy to pick up and put down whenever I had a moment. The individual chapters were organized by theme rather than chronologically so there were a lot of names and dates of which to keep track. I am glad I persevered. I don’t know much about Native culture and history so this book was a real eye opener. I didn’t know that Native Americans wanted education to help their children adjust to the changing times of the white man. I was surprised to find out that all the major churches were involved in establishing and running residential schools, protestant and catholic alike. I think that J.R. Miller tries to provide an objective view of the running of the schools but he doesn’t mince words in demonstrating the judgemental and dismissive attitude of white people toward Native lifestyle and culture. He also clearly shows the involvement and culpability of churches, the federal government and Euro-Canadian society.