Final answer:
The original purpose of the Residential School System was to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture by placing them in boarding schools to erase their cultural practices and languages.
Step-by-step explanation:
The original federal policies that created the Residential School System were not intended to preserve Indigenous languages and culture, promote Indigenous self-governance, or enhance Indigenous spiritual practices. Instead, the purpose of these policies was to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture. Government officials, clergymen, and social workers in the United States and Canada established educational institutions known as boarding schools around the 1880s. These schools were part of a broader policy aimed at eradicating Indigenous cultural practices and languages by removing children from their homes and forcing them to adopt Euro-American customs, languages, and religions. The assimilation policy involved compulsory education, strict discipline, and vocational training in an attempt to transform Indigenous children into 'patriotic and productive citizens' of the dominant culture. The children in these schools were often subjected to physical and sexual abuse, deprived of their traditional clothing, language, and family connections, and trained for manual labor rather than academic advancements. Many of the negative impacts on Native American communities today stem from this history of forced assimilation and cultural imperialism.