A Plan for Cultural Genocide

After the North-West Rebellion, the federal government redoubled its efforts to assimilate Native people into the dominant white culture. Their plan had two components, both aimed at destroying the viability of Native societies. The first outlawed key cultural institutions, and the second sought to "re-educate" aboriginal children. The policies implemented by politicians and Department of Indian Affairs bureaucrats at this time amounted to a plan for cultural genocide. They were put into effect in a particularly heavy-handed fashion in the West, where officials still regarded the Plains and coastal nations as potential threats to orderly settlement.

--Arthur J. Ray, An Illustrated History of Canada's Native People: I Have Lived Here Since the World Began, 4th ed. (Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press, 2016), 222.