"Indian residential schools in Canada span a history over one hundred years producing a storm of controversy that is on going. The principal parties to this controversy include a number of Christian churches in Canada, the federal government and the Native students who attended these schools. This thesis exams a segment of that issue.

The current debate rages over the extent of sexual and physical abuses of children victimized while in residence at these schools. Little discussion has been targeted in the area of the impact of attempted assimilation on the lives of former students.

My contention in this study is that the delicate maturational stages of Native children were tampered with arbitrarily by those in authority resulting in life-long social disorientation for many of the Native people who attended these schools"--abstract.