Although the Church Missionary Society boarding school at Red River was short lived, it was not without significance. It illustrated, as had the several failed initiatives in New France, that residential schooling for assimilative purposes would not succeed so long as there was an economic alternative to sedentary agriculture available to the indigenous peoples. So, too, Red River showed that as long as a commercial monopoly remained dominant it would use its influence against schooling for Native peoples. But in other ways, the Red River school that operated for thirteen years was a precursor of later developments. West's school did demonstrate that there was a desire for education among at least some Indians.

    The other colonist link to the Sussex Vale experiment in British North America was the famous Mohawk Institute, which was established in 1829. The Mohawk Institute quickly emerged as a success and showpiece of Indian missions and education, at a time when governments in British North America were groping for a new policy towards the indigenous inhabitants.

    In short, by the time the British government began to revise its policies towards Indians, the churches were well established as providers of evangelical and educational facilities, including residential schools in a few localities. The shift of jurisdiction over Native affairs from military to civilian authorities also removed control of relations with the Indians from the hands of men who were relatively sympathetic to Aboriginal peoples to bureaucrats who were insensitive. Military men who had dealt with the Native peoples as equals in an alliance had consequently come to appreciate Indians and to recognize government's obligations to them for their services.