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I came across an article today titled Judge rules in favour of Indigenous survivors of Sixties Scoop and it made me think about the discussion we had about culture-crossing yesterday in class. We were acknowledging that when any two cultures meet they will take parts of each other and put them into practice, we also discussed the suffocating effect that western culture seems to have on all other cultures.
Since colonialism we can obviously see that western cultures have adapted little bits and pieces of the other cultures they have come into contact with, however the cultures that have come into contact with western culture have not had the luxury of picking and choosing which aspects they'd like to develop on and which aspects they are better off without. One of the biggest, and perhaps most recent, example of this would be the residential schools in Canada, and across North America.
This article focuses on the Sixties Scoop and a ruling a judge has made that "has found that the federal government failed to prevent on-reserve children from losing their Indigenous identity after they were forcibly taken from their homes as part of what's known as the Sixties Scoop." (Tasker) As we have discussed throughout the year, Native American children were forced to assimilate into western culture and leave behind every aspect of their own cultures. The judge goes on to also explain that, "Canada breached its "duty of care" to the children, and ignored the damaging effects of the Ontario-led program." (Tasker)
This is an incredible leap forward on the part of the government for not only admitting to cultural wrong doing but also paying up for their mistakes, the plaintiff's have requested 1.3 Billion dollars as a settlement although it has yet to be discussed what the actual amount will be.

I really enjoyed reading this post and the article. The fact that the government is being held accountable is a big step forward in making amends with the wrongful treatment of Native American’s in our history. This was a very unfortunate time in our history and by having a judge rule in the favour of the Sixties Scoop, it shows that people are really listening to the treatment and concerns of Native Americans and clearly understanding that the government run programs were wrong and caused harm to many children and families.

RJansen, you bring up a great connection to Zitkala-Sa’s story that we read and discussed in class. In this story we get to learn about these schools through the eyes of the young students that were forced out of their homes and sent away. This story really brought the material to a different level because of the fact that you knew that it was based on a true story and we could get a first-hand ‘look’ at how children were treated and what they were forced to do.
I can completely understand the belief of the Sixties Scoop in regards to the statement outlining the fact that it isn’t about the money. They do not need the money but instead need their families back and need to retrieve their culture and language. It must be so difficult knowing that because of a decision made by the government that these people will never be the same as they were before. Like we saw in “The School Days of an Indian Girl” and “House Made of Dawn”, when you leave home, you also leave behind who you were. They are forced to assimilate to the life that the government wants them to live and they eventually lose all of their cultural aspects that were once so important to them and their family. There is no amount of money that will ever be able to repair the lose that the Native American’s have faced in the past, but the government can try and mend the situation by offering apologizes (and making it clear to the public what they did wrong) and doing good for the community in the future, but it will never excuse their past decisions or the horrible experiences that so many individuals were forced to endure.

In terms of the quote you brought up, JRansen, about the federal government “failing to prevent on-reserve children from losing their indigenous identity”, I agree with you. I can believe that the people who were carrying out the wishes of the government for this program did not know exactly what it was that they were doing to these children and instead thought that they were doing something good for the children, but I think they thought this way because that is exactly what the government was telling them. The government knew the entire time what they were doing and why. The whole intent of bringing children to these new school was to ensure that they would assimilate to the ‘traditional’ life that all other Canadians were living at the time. They wanted to make sure that the children lost all of their indigenous identities and it is important to note that this was not a mistake. It could not have been a mistake or a “failure” because it was the whole purpose of the program. The people running the schools were told that they were helping the children because the government wanted people to think that they were doing good, but really, they were ripping children away from their homes and their identities. It is a big step forward that the judge has ruled in their favour, but I think that it needs to be made clear that the government did not make a mistake and that they were completely at fault. You can’t say “sorry, but I didn’t actually do it”, they knew what they were doing and in order to move forward and ensure that we have a good relationship with the Native American community, the government needs to own their mistakes and state the truth to the situation and apologize for all of the harm that they did cause, not try to ‘beat around the bush’ and escape the consequences, or nothing will change.