I was there, only six, and he was there with all the bishops in their robes. I didn't even know why I was there. My sisters were five and seven and when we got there we cried every night for three or four months. Coon Come survived his traumatic childhood better than most. He went on to become chief of the Cree and is now national chief of the Assembly of First Nations.
Few people disagree that the history has been damaging.
Families were destroyed by institutionalizing children. The kids lacked parental guidance or love. Some were abused emotionally and sexually. Even those not directly damaged became dysfunctional. They were taken out of their Third World existence on reserves and homelands then forced to return there after years of absence and little affinity.