What were Indigenous Day Schools?

In 2009, a class action lawsuit led by lead plaintiff Garry McClean was filed against the Government of Canada.[1] The McClean v. Canada Lawsuit, also known as the Federal Indian Day Schools Class Action Settlement, aimed to compensate those who experienced harm or abuse as students of Federal Indian Day Schools between 1 January 1920, and the date of closure of the schools.[2] As of July 2025, at least 154 000 claims have been accepted, with almost 20 000 still pending or missing complete documentation.[3] Despite the massive scale of this class action lawsuit, relatively little has been written about Day Schools. Why were Day Schools and Residential Schools created? What was a Day School? How did they operate and what was the difference between Day Schools and Residential Schools? This blog post will discuss the history of Canada’s Day Schools as institutions within the context of the history of education. An upcoming post on the Tyendinaga Central Day School, one of several schools on the Tyendinaga Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Reserve between 1882 and 1 September 1969 will follow.

What were Indigenous Day Schools?

Residential Schools were part of the Indigenous school system run by the Department of Indian Affairs. In the Residential School system, Indigenous students were removed from their communities by force to attend and live at schools far from home.[4] Day Schools were schools that were often on or near reservations and students went home each evening. Though there were more Day Schools than Residential Schools, students of both types of schools were subjected to physical, emotional, and sexual abuse.[5] The Day Schools were administered by the Department of Indian Affairs, but Christian churches (such as the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Methodist, and United churches) managed the schools on a day-to-day basis.5 The schools were often poorly maintained, lacking heat, water, ventilation and other basic necessities.[4, 6] Since Day Schools were poorly funded, they often could not offer salaries competitive enough to attract highly qualified staff, which resulted in rapid turnover.[5]

Notably, not all Indigenous children went to Residential or segregated Day Schools. In fact, both status-holding and non-status-holding Indigenous children attended public schools. Poor attendance led to the frequent closure of Day Schools, and Residential Schools were often at or over capacity limits.[7, 8] Tyendinaga Central experienced periodic closures itself as it struggled to meet staffing needs, have adequate attendance, and fund the repairs needed for the aging school building.[7] For Indigenous parents, the choice to send children to public school was often based on a desire for them to safely obtain an education, without having to completely leave the community.[8] In a study of Indigenous children in B.C. public schools, Sean Carleton states that, “Public schools, especially those in remote and rural areas, often welcomed Indigenous children to boost attendance and secure the number of students required to qualify for funding from the provincial government.”[8] Though there were no Residential or Day Schools in Frontenac County – and there are no records of Indigenous students in the Museum’s  collection – there is evidence of integrated schools outside of the nearby Tyendinaga Mohawk Reserve in the 1940s.[9] One report about the months of October and November 1944, written by Indian Agent A.D. Moore, describes how “[g]ood reports have been received of these Indian pupils attending Shannonville and Milltown white schools as they are attending regular [sic] and making good progress, possibly being due to the new environment.”[9] It is unclear exactly why Indigenous students were attending Shannonville and Milltown schools, given the four day schools located on the Tyendinaga reserve, but the reasons for this decision could range from the distance students were allowed to walk to attend public schools, to a desire to raise the attendance levels at those public schools. 

Why Were Day Schools and Residential Schools Created?

The Indian Act, 1876, was a consolidation of colonial laws under a new federal mandate. From the first iteration of the Indian Act in 1876, there were clear rules about who was and was not a status “Indian.” Applicants for status usually needed to prove that their father was Indigenous.[10] Children with Indigenous mothers and non-Indigenous fathers were ineligible for status.[10] The Indian Act created a system where governments of Indigenous Peoples had to be elected and had to be accountable to the Canadian Government.[14] These were known as band councils. Women, who traditionally held – and presently hold – important roles in Haudenosaunee communities, were forbidden from participating in band councils.[11] Though there was an elected band council, the Department of Indian Affairs took control of the land, finances, and resources of reserves, which prevented the band from making decisions about their communities.[11] By 1920, it was mandatory for Indigenous children to attend Federal Indian Day Schools.[12] Until 1985, Indigenous people were forced to sacrifice their status if they became doctors or lawyers, or if they were women who married outside the community.[16] These laws restricting status aimed to prevent Indigenous people who lost their status from returning home, from participating in community activism, and from reconnecting with Indigenous ways of knowing.

The Indian Act itself was based in a colonial belief known as Vanishing Race Theory. Vanishing Race Theory was the belief that Indigenous Peoples were destined to disappear through their assimilation into allegedly superior European cultures.[13, 16] In 1879, a journalist named Nicholas F. Davin was sent by the Canadian government to the United States to collect information on their residential school system with the ultimate goal of establishing a similar system in Canada.[13] His findings, known colloquially as the Davin Report, recommended partnerships with various Christian churches, which would not only be economically convenient, but which would create a way for the schools to supplant Indigenous ways of knowing with Christian teachings.[14, 17] According to decision makers like Davin, and Sir John A. Macdonald, when children were raised outside of the community, they would not learn or remember the teachings of their parents, and thus Indigenous ways of knowing would not be transmitted intergenerationally.[14]

The legacy of Residential and Day Schools in Canada is deeply tied to the Canadian Government’s attempt to prevent Indigenous Peoples from learning their languages, to disrupt Indigenous communities, to acquire Indigenous land, and to assimilate Indigenous communities into European-Canadian society. Notably, the Government of Canada has apologized to Indigenous communities, acknowledged this difficult history, and has pledged to take action in reconciliation.[15] As survivors of Residential and Day Schools continue to share their experiences, it is important to understand the connections between Day Schools and Canada’s colonial history.

The Frontenac County Schools Museum is committed to reconciliation through learning, listening, and sharing knowledge about the history of Indigenous Peoples in Ontario. We invite you to visit the following resources for more information:

• National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation interactive Map: https://nctr.ca/records/view-your-records/archival-map/ 
• Federal Indian Day Schools Interactive Map: https://www.indiandayschools.org/ 
• Listening to Indigenous Voices: A Dialogue Guide on Justice and Right Relationships: https://jesuitforum.ca/sessions/about-this-guide/ 
• Native Land Digital Map of Traditional Indigenous Territories: https://native-land.ca/ 

Leslie Rodriguez

Notes:

1. 1. Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. “Indian Day Schools (McLean) Proposed Settlement Agreement.” (Government of Canada: 2019), https://www.canada.ca/en/crown-indigenous-relations-northern-affairs/news/2019/03/indian-day-schools-mclean-proposed-settlement-agreement0.html.
   2. Assembly of First Nations, “Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Bulletin – Federal Indian Day Schools (McClean) Settlement“ , April 24, 2025, https://afn.ca/all-news/bulletins/assembly-of-first-nations-afn-bulletin-federal-indian-day-schools-mclean-settlement/
   3. McClean v. Canada, Court File No. T-2169-16, p.8-11.
   4. Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) Commission of Canada, They Came for the Children: Canada, Aboriginal Peoples, and Residential Schools (Library and Archives Canada: 2012), 1-18.
   5. Canadian Encyclopedia, “Indian Day Schools in Canada”, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/indian-day-schools-in-canada 
   6. Nicholas Davin. “Report on Industrial Schools for Indians and Half-Breeds” (Ottawa: March 14, 1879), https://web.archive.org/web/20210104205226/http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/multimedia/pdf/davin_report.pdf.
   7. Please see our upcoming post on Tyendinaga Central Day School.
   8. Carleton, Sean. “‘The Children Show Unmistakable Signs of Indian Blood’: Indigenous Children Attending Public Schools in British Columbia, 1872-1925.” History of Education (Tavistock) 50, no. 3 (2021): 316. https://doi.org/10.1080/0046760X.2021.1879281.
   9. Tyendinaga Central School Files 1896-1933; this is referenced multiple times within the collection, as well as within the maintenance files.
   10. File 441-1, “Report on Tyendinaga Indian Agency for the Months of October and November, 1944” by A.D Moore, in the Public Archives of Canada. Digitized and made easily accessible on this site: https://www.indiandayschools.org/.
   11. Canada, “The Indian Act, 1876”, republished by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, https://nctr.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/1876_Indian_Act_Reduced_Size.pdf.
   12. National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Canada, “The Indian Act, 1876”, republished by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, https://nctr.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/1876_Indian_Act_Reduced_Size.pdf
   13. Indigenous Corporate Training, “Indian Act and Elected Chief and Band Council System” (June 25, 2015), https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/indian-act-and-elected-chief-and-band-council-system.
   14. Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada, “Statement of Apology to Former Students of Indian Residential Schools.” (Government of Canada: June 11, 2008), https://www.rcaanc-cirnac.gc.ca/eng/1100100015644/1571589171655.
   15. Kory Wilson. Pulling Together: Foundations Guide (Open Text BC: 2018), https://opentextbc.ca/indigenizationfoundations/chapter/the-indian-act/.
   16. Allard-Tremblay, Yann, and Elaine Coburn. “The Flying Heads of Settler Colonialism; or the Ideological Erasures of Indigenous Peoples in Political Theorizing.” Political Studies 71, no. 2 (2023): 365-367. https://doi.org/10.1177/00323217211018127.
   17. Truth and Reconciliation (TRC) Commission of Canada, They Came for the Children: Canada, Aboriginal Peoples, and Residential Schools (Library and Archives Canada: 2012), 9-10.