A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the by John S. Milloy

A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the by John S. Milloy

John S Milloy is professor of history and Native studies at Trent University. He has written extensively on Aboriginal history and frequently acts as a consultant on Aboriginal issues. A National Crime is based on his research for the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.

For over 100 years, thousands of Aboriginal children passed through the Canadian residential school system. Begun in the 1870s, it was intended, in the words of government officials, to bring these children into the "circle of civilization." The results, however, were far different. More often, the schools provided an inferior education in an atmosphere of neglect, disease, and often abuse.

Using previously unreleased government documents, historian John S. Milloy provides a full picture of the history and the reality of the residential school system. He begins by tracing the ideological roots of the system and follows the paper trail of internal memoranda, reports from field inspectors, and letters of complaint. A National Crime shows that the residential school system was chronically underfunded and often mismanaged, and documents in detail how this affected the health, education, and well-being of entire generations of Aboriginal children.