Sixties Scoop

The Sixties Scoop was the nickname of a policy enacted in Canada from the 1950s through 1980s that allowed government authorities to remove Aboriginal children from their homes and place them for adoption with typically non-Aboriginal families. This policy followed a long pattern of laws meant to assimilate rather than help Aboriginal people within Canada, and it caused many children and families distress, confusion, and detachment. Following the lifting of the policy in 1990, the Canadian government acknowledged its wrongness and offered a settlement to the affected people.

Background

The first known people to inhabit North America most likely arrived at least twelve thousand years ago and spread over time throughout the lands that now form Canada, the United States, and Mexico. In Canada, these native people formed groups of various sizes in many regions and developed their own cultures and ways of life.

During the sixteenth century, European explorers and settlers began arriving in the Canadian territories. They entered into a variety of relationships with the native occupants, ranging from violence to friendship. In the course of the following centuries, Europeans established colonies and fought amongst themselves for control of the land and resources. The native people, also known as First Nations or Aboriginals, gradually lost much of their ancestral lands and freedoms.

In 1867, European colonies in North America united to form the Dominion of Canada. This state was small and had little power or organization. Over the course of several generations, it grew exponentially by incorporating other provinces and arranging more political rights until it had become the vast and independent country of the twenty-first century. During this long process of national formation and growth, the Aboriginal people faced continual abuse and policies that limited their rights and dignity. Many were placed in reserves (called reservations in the United States), where they were forced to reside, and faced numerous infringements.

In modern times, about 5 percent of the Canadian population is made of Aboriginal people of three groups: registered First Nations people, the Inuit of the Arctic, and people of mixed Aboriginal and European ancestry called the Métis. Starting in the mid-1900s, many of these people began speaking out against past and present policies that have infringed upon them personally and culturally. One of the most troubling of these policies is the so-called Sixties Scoop.

Overview

Many policies in North American history have involved attempts to assimilate Aboriginal people into the newly dominant European-American culture. One of the main ways of accomplishing this was through arranging for Aboriginal children—willing or otherwise—to be educated in European-style schools or even adopted into European-American families. This occurred for hundreds of years in various ways.

The Indian Act, a system of laws guiding Canadian policy toward Aboriginal people, was amended in 1951. These amendments extended government oversight of child welfare to include Aboriginal reserves and other settlements. In effect, it legalized the removal of Aboriginal children from their birth families and their placement into typically non-Aboriginal adoptive families. This process was famously termed scooping by social researcher Patrick Johnson in 1983.

By the 1950s, many Aboriginal communities had experienced generations of destructive policies and poor services. Many had high rates of poverty, high death rates, and few opportunities or reasons for hope. Government officials viewing this epidemic opted not to provide more social services to reserves but instead to remove children whose living conditions were deemed unacceptable by Canadian authorities.

Although ostensibly done in the best interests of children, the so-called scooping likely caused more problems than it corrected. Social workers who made judgments on the suitability of Aboriginal families and homes generally had little background knowledge on Aboriginal ways of life or the largely governmental causes for underlying problems. Many such workers removed children against the wills of the children, their parents or guardians, and Aboriginal community leaders.

The scooping process heightened in the 1960s, when thousands of Aboriginal children were removed from their families throughout the Canadian provinces. By the end of that decade, the number of children in protective services rose from about 1 percent Aboriginal to more than one-third Aboriginal. Official records show that 11,132 Aboriginal children were adopted through this program from 1960 to 1990. Independent research, however, suggests the number may have been greater than 20,000.

Only in the 1980s, after extensive outcry, did lawmakers revise the scooping policy. Later amendments gave more priority to extended families or other Aboriginal families to adopt children before the children were sent out of the community. In 1990, the First Nations Child and Family Services program gave major child services and welfare oversight authority to Aboriginal communities instead of the federal government.

Many of the children involved in the Sixties Scoop, and the scoops in general from the 1950s through 1980s, experienced various kinds of distress. Many not only lost track of their original families but also became detached from their cultural identities. Others faced difficulties in getting used to their adoptive families and communities and felt sorrow, humiliation, or confusion. Some adoptees experienced mistreatment, neglect, or abuse from foster families or others.

Since the 1990s, more people have recognized the fundamental unfairness of the scooping policy. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, an organization dedicated to uncovering mistreatment of Aboriginal people, described the scooping as a form of cultural genocide, meant mainly to assimilate rather than assist. Affected people have filed lawsuits against some of the provincial governments involved in the plan. In 2017, the Canadian government offered an $800 million settlement to those affected by the policies.

Bibliography

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Dart, Christopher. “The Sixties Scoop Explained.” CBC/Radio-Canada, 24 June 2019, www.cbc.ca/cbcdocspov/features/the-sixties-scoop-explained. Accessed 2 Oct. 2019.

Fowler, Jennifer. “Creator of Sixties Scoop Adoption Program Says It Wasn’t Meant to Place Kids with White Families.” CBC News, 20 Mar. 2018, www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/creator-of-sixties-scoop-adoption-program-says-it-wasn-t-meant-to-place-kids-with-white-families-1.4584342. Accessed 2 Oct. 2019.

“Indigenous History in Canada.” Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, 14 Aug. 2018, www.aadnc-aandc.gc.ca/eng/1100100013778/1100100013779. Accessed 2 Oct. 2019.

Neylan, Susan. “Canada’s Dark Side: Indigenous Peoples and Canada’s 150th Celebration.” Ohio State University, June 2018, origins.osu.edu/article/canada-s-dark-side-indigenous-peoples-and-canada-s-150th-celebration. Accessed 2 Oct. 2019.

Russell, Andrew. “What Was the ’60s Scoop’? Aboriginal Children Taken from Homes a Dark Chapter in Canada’s History.” Global News, 23 Aug. 2016, globalnews.ca/news/2898190/what-was-the-60s-scoop-aboriginal-children-taken-from-homes-a-dark-chapter-in-canadas-history/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2019.

Sinclair, Niigaanwewidam James, and Sharon Dainard. “Sixties Scoop.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, 6 Oct. 2017, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/sixties-scoop. Accessed 2 Oct. 2019.

“Sixties Scoop.” Indigenous Foundations / First Nations Studies Program, indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/sixties‗scoop/. Accessed 2 Oct. 2019.