He didn't mention his name, only that he was 62 years old and belonged to the Poplar River First Nation, indigenous people who live on the east shore of Lake Winnipeg, in Manitoba.

Then he talked about his childhood. When he was seven, he was separated from his family and sent to a Christian boarding school far from his village. He wasn't allowed to speak Ojibwa, his native language, and risked punishment for so much as mentioning a traditional prayer or ceremony.

At the mercy of the teachers and administrators, he says, he was beaten and abused. He endured cold, hunger, medical neglect. Only when he was 14 did he see his parents again. Everything that had stood for home was