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First Nations, Residential Schools, and the Americanization of the Holocaust: Rewriting Indigenous History in the United States and Canada

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 November 2007

David MacDonald
David MacDonald
Affiliation:
University of Otago
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Abstract

Abstract. The Americanization of the Holocaust has encouraged some notable activists, purportedly acting on behalf of indigenous peoples, to present European colonization as a “holocaust,” repackaging colonial history in starkly black-and-white terms. I pay particular attention to discussions in America and Canada over the genocidal implications of indigenous residential schooling. There is a twin danger involved. At one level the Holocaust is subjected to a process of trivialization. At another level, framing history through the Holocaust decontextualizes group histories by re-reading past victimization through a distinctive and different series of events. While comparing historical atrocities can be academically fruitful, activists will do better to highlight the traumatic effects of atrocities on individuals and families, noting their intergenerational legacies. This may be a better way of representing history, and of building bridges between diverse groups.

Résumé. L'américanisation de l'holocauste a encouragé d'éminents activistes, prétendant agir au nom des autochtones, à présenter la colonisation européenne comme un “holocauste”, reformulant ainsi l'histoire coloniale en termes crûment arrêtés. Je porte une attention toute particulière aux discussions menées au Canada et aux États-Unis concernant les implications génocides de la scolarité des autochtones en internat. Deux dangers se présentent. D'une part l'holocauste est exposé à un processus de banalisation. D'autre part, formuler l'histoire par l'holocauste isole de leur contexte les histoires des groupes en relisant les persécutions passées sous le jour d'une série d'événements distinctive et différente. Bien qu'il soit intellectuellement utile de comparer les atrocités historiques, les activistes feront mieux de souligner les effets traumatisants des atrocités sur les individus et les familles et le triste héritage laissé aux générations suivantes. C'est peut-être une meilleure façon de représenter l'histoire et de faire des rapprochements entre des groupes divers.

Type
Research Article
Information
Canadian Journal of Political Science/Revue canadienne de science politique , Volume 40 , Issue 4 , December 2007 , pp. 995 - 1015
Copyright
© 2007 Cambridge University Press

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