 Their education must consist not merely training of the mind, but of a weaning from the habits and feelings of their ancestors, and the acquirements of the language, art, and customs of civilized life. Edgerton Ryerson, 1847, report for Indian Affairs. Indian culture is a contradiction in terms. They are uncivilized. The aim of education is to destroy the Indian. Nicholas Flood David, report, 1879. In order to educate the children properly, we must separate them from their families. Some people may say that this is hard, but if we want to civilize them, we must do that. A federal cabinet minister, 1883. The great aim of our legislation has been to do away with the tribal system and to assimilate the Indian people in all respects. Sir John A. MacDonald, May 2, 1887. Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question and no Indian department. Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs, January 1, 1920. Indian children in the residential schools die at a much higher rate than in their villages. But this does not justify a change in the policy of this department, which is geared towards a final solution of our Indian problem. Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs. To our elders who teach us of our creation and our past, so we may preserve Mother Earth for ancestors yet to come, we are the land. This is dedicated to our relatives before us, thousands of years ago, and to the 150 million who were exterminated across the Western Hemisphere in the first 400 years time, starting in 1492. To those who have kept their homelands and to the nation's extinct due to mass slaughter, slavery, deportation and disease unknown to them, and to the ones who are subjected to the same treatment today. To the ones who survived the relocations and the ones who died along the way. To those who carried on traditions and lived strong among their people. To those who left their communities by force and by choice and through generations no longer know who they are. To those who search and never find. To those that turn away the so-called non-accepted. To those that bring us together and to those living outside keeping touch, the voice for many. To those that make it back to live and fight the struggles of their people. To those that give up and those who do not care. To those who abuse themselves and others and those who revive again. To those who are physically, mentally or spiritually incapable by accident or by To those who seek strength in our spirituality and ways of life and those who exploited even our own. To those who fall for the lies and join the dividing lines that keep us fighting amongst each other. To the outsiders who step in good or bad and those of us who don't know better. To the leaders and prisoners of war, politics, crime, race and religion innocent or guilty. To the young, the old, the living and the dead. To our brothers and sisters and all living things across Mother Earth. And her beauty we've destroyed and denied the honor that the creator has given each individual. The truth that lies in our hearts, all my relations.