Residential schools in what is now Canada began in the early 1800s, with the first church-run residential school opening in 1831, and the federally run “Indian Residential School System” taking shape in the early 1880s.

Key dates in brief

  • 1831: The first church-run Indian Residential School opened (often identified as the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario). Its origins as a residential institution date from the early 1830s.
  • 1830s–1870s: Churches and colonial authorities operated various mission and boarding schools for Indigenous children, mainly in Eastern Canada. These formed the early roots of the system.
  • 1867–1876: After Confederation (1867) and the Indian Act (1876), the federal government took a central role in Indigenous education and laid the legislative basis for a national system of residential schools.
  • Early 1880s: The official federal residential school system “began around 1883,” when Canada started funding and expanding a network of church-run schools across the country.

In other words, residential schools started as church-led institutions in the 1830s, but the state-organized, Canada‑wide residential school system most people mean by the phrase “residential schools” started in the early 1880s.

Why there are different “start” dates

  • Some historians point to the 1600s mission schools as the earliest roots of residential schooling for Indigenous peoples, because churches were already using education to “civilize” and assimilate Indigenous children.
  • Others highlight 1831/1834 and the Mohawk Institute as the first long-running, clearly residential school for Indigenous children.
  • Many official timelines say the system “began around 1883” , because this is when the Canadian government adopted a formal policy of funding residential schools across the country.

So, depending on how the question is framed, you’ll often see either “1830s” (first schools) or “1880s” (start of the national system) as the answer to “when did residential schools start.”

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.