how long did residential schools operate in canada

Residential schools operated in Canada for more than 160 years. The earliest origins can be traced back to the 1830s with mission schools, but the formal residential school system funded by the Canadian government began around the 1880s. The last federally-funded residential school closed in Saskatchewan in 1996. Over the course of this period, approximately 150,000 Indigenous children attended these schools, which were part of a policy of forced assimilation and cultural genocide directed at First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples in Canada.