As Canadians wrestle with the heritage of failed Aboriginal policy in the 1990s and beyond, they should remember both the nature of the problem and their legal and moral responsibility. The problem is that Euro-Canadian society, believing that it knows best or that it 'couldn't turn control' over to Native people, has consistently perverted what Aboriginal people have asked of it in return for sharing the land and resources of Canada.

      Shingwaukonce in 1831 and his son four decades later asked for help to make their vision of 'a teaching wigwam' a reality. As the Shingwauk Home that was set up at Garden River and later at Sault Ste Marie showed - and, indeed, all the Shingwauk homes and other residential schools established from the 1870s onward - under the control of Euro-Canadians who believed they knew best what was good for the people around the Great Chippeway Lake, Shingwauk’s vision turned into an Aboriginal nightmare.