Residential schools in Canada started as early as the 1830s, with the Mohawk Indian Residential School opening in Brantford, Ontario, in 1831. The federal government began officially creating and funding residential schools across Canada more broadly in the 1880s, with a system established to forcibly assimilate Indigenous children by removing them from their families and communities. The Indian Act of 1876 and amendments in 1920 made attendance at these schools compulsory for Indigenous children aged 7 to 15. The residential school system operated for over 150 years, with the last school closing in 1996.
