Washington Post: Residential schools banned native languages. The Cree want theirs back.. “Across Canada, the often brutal residential school system, designed to assimilate Indigenous people into White, European culture, succeeded in breaking the tradition of passing on languages from generation to generation — and put the survival of some in jeopardy. But now, 25 years after the last residential school was shuttered, some Indigenous communities — including the one here that Pope Francis visited Monday — are reviving and relearning their native languages.” Please be advised that the first few paragraphs in this story have references to sexual abuse.