By Marc Lalonde Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The federal government announced last week it had come to a settlement agreement in the Federal Indian Boarding Homes (Percival) class-action lawsuit. The suit was launched on behalf of the approximately 40,000 Indigenous children that were part of boarding home placements with private families for the purpose of attending school between approximately 1951 to 1992. Many of the children placed in these boarding homes suffered physical, sexual, and other abuses and were robbed of their culture and heritage. A significant number of these placements were overseen by the federal government until control of the program delivery was passed on to Indigenous communities, the government said. The $50-million settlement will provide individual compensation to individual class members for having been placed in a boarding…