Indian children were taken from their parents and educated. because the government decided that’s the best for them.
(It actually happened also in the USA and even in Australia and probably somewhere else I am not aware of)
Seems like right now some people want to take children from their parents and sexually mutilate them, because they think that’s the best for them.
The governments never change!
Natives asked the government to educate them, because they knew that sellng bannock on the side of the road and holding rain dances in circuses were not viable in the long term. They knew they had to adapt or they would be lost.
Educating them in residential schools was the only economical way at the time of doing it, because we could not afford to build a school that might only have one child and employee a teacher for that one child. Also, during this time, many of the reservations were suffering starvation conditions and sending the children helped ensure they would be fed.
Canada actually tried to do what was right within the limitations imposed upon it as an undeveloped country.