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Aboriginals who were adopted into white families during the 1960s “Scoop” are suing the federal government for the loss of their culture and emotional trauma.

Almost 1,200 adoptees have filed a class-action lawsuit in Saskatchewan, seeking compensation from Ottawa for “cultural genocide.”

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From the 1960s to the 1980s, thousands of aboriginal children were taken from their homes by child-welfare services and placed with non-aboriginal families, some in the United States. Many consider the adoptions as an extension of residential schools, which aimed to “take the Indian out of the child.”

David Chartrand, 52, who is part of the lawsuit, was removed from his family in Manitoba at the age of five and moved to Minnesota.

“They wanted maids, butlers. They wanted slavery and to do it legally. We just fit that criteria,” said the Métis man. “I was made to clean the house, be their slave, be the punching bag.”