Residential schools were boarding schools for Indigenous children and youth, established primarily in Canada by the government and operated by various Christian churches. Their stated goal was to educate Indigenous children but, in reality, they aimed to assimilate them into Euro-Canadian society by forcibly separating them from their families, cultures, languages, and traditions. The children were often prohibited from speaking their Indigenous languages or practicing their customs and faced severe punishment if they disobeyed. The schools provided substandard education and subjected students to physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse. The system operated from the 1880s until the late 20th century and has had lasting traumatic effects on Indigenous communities, including cultural genocide and intergenerational harm.