Bird said most of the abuse that occurred can be attributed to methods of discipline used in the era. The biggest difference between the abuse residential school survivors witnessed and what was dealt out in the Indian day school program was the abuser according to Bird.
In day schools “it was done by the teachers to the kids. In the residential schools it was mostly the caregivers, the staff right in the dorms,” Bird said. “The teachers were just as bad as the caregivers in the residential school as far as the way they treated the kids… We went to school not knowing one word of English, so it was hard on the teachers trying to teach kids that didn’t speak the language. A lot of the kids suffered quite a bit because of that.”
Bird attributes much of this suffering to frustration on the teacher’s part.
“If you went to Indian day school fine, there was abuse. The teachers were probably frustrated because of the language,” Bird said. “Some of the things that happened with Indian day schools were (from) the problem with language, the problem that they weren’t run by local communities, no local staff, and no school boards. Whoever came as principal looked after the whole school.”
Bird said the story of the Indian day schools should be used to educate future generations, just like the stories of the residential school survivors.
“It shouldn’t be ‘okay we’ve told our story now it’s time to move on,’ there’s history behind it that needs to be told to kids,” he said.
On Twitter: @BryanEneas
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