How 140 years of forced assimilation began in Brantford
June 27th, 1970, marked the official closure of one of the most horrific historical buildings that stood in Brantford. First established by the New England Company (A British Anglican Missionary Society), the Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School operated for more than 140 years. The government of Canada took over operations in 1929 and the land was returned to the First Nations communities where they now lease the land to various institutes such as Six Nations Tourism, Woodland Cultural Centre, Mohawk Village Memorial Park, and Staats Law Office.
The Survivors Secretariat (a non-profit organization responsible for organizing and supporting investigations into missing children at the former residential school) has stated that “The Survivors’ Secretariat has been able to identify children who attended the institute from 60+ communities. The farthest a child has been recorded to have been sent to Mohawk Institute was from Saddle Lake First Nation in Alberta which is over 3,100 km away from their family and community.”
In 1894 the Canadian Government made an amendment to the Indian Act which in turn made attendance to the residential and/or federal day schools mandatory to all indigenous youth. This change forced thousands of children out of their homes and separated families across Canada with more than 15,000 children (1 in 10) attending the Mohawk Institute.
The residential school was the first to open in all of Canada and was open the longest out of all other residential schools. Today Brantford diminishes this fact in our city’s history and lacks acknowledgment to the horrors that started and grew its roots right here in the city.
It is one thing to be a piece of history in this regard but it’s a whole other conversation when acknowledging that the displacement indigenous youth and families faced in the 1900s started with us.
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