A CBC article titled, "Ottawa reviewing student on student abuse cases at St.Annes Residential School" caught my interest today, as it reminded me of Zitkala-Sa's residential school experiences. While Zitkala-Sa does not explictly mention any instances of physical and sexual abuse that she encoutered, she does highlight how her hair was cut off and therefore a part of her spirit and identity was tarnished. Furthermore, it is likely that Zitkala-Sa encountered abuse from the missionaries, but was likely deterred from writing about this because the audience reading her text were mostly white colonial people. I also found it interesting that these particular cases involved student to student abuse, as often we do not think of the impacts and violent acts that other Indigenous children experienced from their peers.

The article also highlights how Ottawa is reviewing 11 cases of student on student abuse, a year later after the cases were first reported. What is also shocking is that "for roughly the first seven years of the process, the federal government withheld records from an Ontario Provincial Police investigation in the 1990's" which looked into the abuse that took place within this school. What this proves is that all levels of government should be held more accoutable for their actions and rather than ignoring our past actions, we need to learn from them and provide compensation to groups of people that we have harmed. While there are some governmental figures like Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller who are taking actions towards reconcilaition and acknowledging the damage that survivors of this abuse have endured, there are others who choose to remain silent. As Evelyn Korkmaz, a residential school survivor states, "The government is not transparent, we need to hold them accountable". Ultimately, it is not until governments are forced to recognize the numerous hidden abuse cases and Indigenous stories that they have ignored over the years, will change and progress start to occur.

Works Cited
Stefanovich, Olivia. (2022, October 25). Ottawa reviewing student on student abuse cases at St.Anne's residential school. https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/minister-miller-st-annes-11-claims-review-1.6627390
Zitkala-Sa. American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings. Penguin Books, 2003.