"Church Seeking Dialogue with Natives"

The Anglican Church of Canada must accept the part it played in the cruelty natives endured at residential schools and ask their forgiveness, the church's executive has decided.

Lorna McNaughton, of the Six Nations Reserve, told the church's executive council that the regimentation and cruelty inflicted on native children in the schools robbed them of their culture and spirituality, the Anglican Journal reports.

"I mourn for the loss of my culture, I mourn the loss of my language, the loss of my way of dress, the loss of my childhood and the loss of the closeness that is family," she said.

Margaret Waterchief of Calgary, Alta., said she lost her faith in God as a result of the schools.

"What I know about God today is not what I learned in the residential school," she said. "There, the only think I learned about God was to fear him."

The Anglican church operated 25 native residential schools across Canada between 1910 and 1969. Native children were forced to attend the schools. The emphasis was on indoctrinating them into European culture and forcing Christianity on them.

The executive committee has asked its church to form native councils to foster dialogue.