evement 3the superiority of a non-native lifestyle. Thus, this is the reason many natives stood in strong opposition to early residential schools. Susan Awashish of the council of the Atikamkw of Manawan Nation states, "If one...society imposes its [institutions] on the other, the latter will react with hostility, adopting an adversarial attitude, because it feels restricted where its most fundamental rights are concerned...We believe that a dominant society has the responsibility to protect its minorities from eventual assimilation" (Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples,1993). This is also the reason many natives today view the education required in white schools to be irrelevant with regards to the traditional native lifestyle. It is apparent that to many degrees, cultural assimilation through education did not work for a variety of reasons. Although early native students were culturally displaced in white schools, they continued to take tremendous pride in their heritage. It was impossible for the early aboriginal student to apply anything learned in these early schools to anything he had previously experienced. Subjects taught in residential schools did not generally interest the native student. Native indifference to early formal education can be found. One student enrolled in the early schools recounts his experience, " I do not remember any book learning acquired there. A bell was rung each morning to announce that school was opened. We all usually showed up with painted faces, breech cloths and a blanket" (Barman, Hebert & McCaskill, 1986). Documentation such as this, shows the pride the natives had in their culture, and their unwillingness to surrender to the missionaries and early educators. Demonstrated in this passage as well, is the failure of the early education system to adequately prepare the students for what they would face in these schools. The education system itself was inadequately prepared to teach ...
