Class 5 - TRC They Came For The Children

• a
Canada, Aboriginal Peoples,

and Residential Schools
They Came
for the Children
“
In order to educate the children properly
we must separate them from their families.
Some people may say that this is hard but if
we want to civilize them we must do that.
”
Hector Langevin,
Public Works Minister of Canada, 1883
This report is in the public domain. Anyone may, without charge or request for permission,
reproduce all or part of this report.
2012
Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

1500-360 Main Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3C 3Z3
Telephone: (204) 984-5885

Toll Free: 1-888-872-5554 (1-888-TRC-5554)
Fax: (204) 984-5915
Email: [email protected]
Website: www.trc.ca
Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
They came for the children [electronic resource] :

Canada, Aboriginal peoples, and residential schools.
Issued also in French under title: Ils sont venus pour les enfants.
Includes bibliographical references.
Electronic monograph in PDF format.
Issued also in printed form.
ISBN 978-1-100-19996-2
Cat. no.: IR4-4/2012E-PDF
1. Native peoples--Canada--Residential schools. 2. Native peoples--

Canada--History. 3. Native peoples--Abuse of--Canada. 4. Native children--
Abuse of--Canada. 5. Native peoples--Crimes against--Canada. 6. Native
children--Crimes against--Canada. 7. Native peoples--Cultural assimilation--
Canada. 8. Native peoples--Canada--Government relations. I. Truth and
Reconciliation Commission of Canada II. Title: Canada, Aboriginal peoples,
and residential schools.
E96.5 T43 2012 371.829’97071 C2012-980023-6
Cover photographs: Clockwise starting from the upper left: Department of Indian Affairs and Northern
Development fonds, Library and Archives Canada, 1973-357, Shingle Point, 1930; a102086; The General
Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada, M2008-10 (P14), Gordon’s school, 1953; P75-103 (S7-184),
Old Sun School, 1945; P2004-09 (348), St. Cyprian’s School, 1952.
Design: Doowah Design Inc.

iii
trc.ca
December 31, 2011

The Parties of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement
To the Parties,
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada is pleased to submit this Report on the
history, purpose, operation, and supervision of the residential school system, the effect and
consequences of the system, and its ongoing legacy, as required by the Commission’s mandate.
This Report was prepared in compliance with the Commission’s obligation to prepare such a Report
at the two-year point of its mandate. However, it has had to have been written without a review of
government and church documents, as the Commission has experienced significant delays in the
collection and receipt of those documents. In addition, the gathering of statements from survivors
and those otherwise involved in the schools is ongoing. The Commission anticipates that once an
analysis of those documents and statements has been compiled, more historical information will
become available. Based on that and its ongoing research, the Commission will be submitting a
fuller and more detailed report, along with a complete set of recommendations, at the completion
of its full five-year mandate.
Yours respectfully,
Justice Murray Sinclair

Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
Chief Wilton Littlechild

Commissioner
Marie Wilson
Commissioner
1500-360 Main Street

Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 3Z3
Tel: 204.984.5885
Fax: 204.984.5915
• v
Contents
Preface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . vii
Introduction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
To Christianize and Civilize: Canada’s Residential Schools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Residential Schools and the Taming of the West. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Aboriginal Peoples and Education. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
The Davin Report. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
To Civilize and Christianize . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Safety and Security . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The Role of the Churches . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
The Rise of the System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
The Long Decline. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
School Days: The Residential School Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Arrival: “Now you are no longer an Indian.”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Education: “Lots of copying and memorizing.”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Health: “My kingdom for a nurse.”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Hunger: “The first and the last thing I can remember.”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Work: “Worked too hard and taught too little.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Discipline: “He never should have gotten a licking like that.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Abuse: “I felt so dirty.”. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Accomplishment: “My experience at the residential school was good.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Resistance: “I don’t ever want to see cruelty like this again.” . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Residential Schools in the North and the Arctic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

The Missionary Period. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
The New North . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
The Experience of the Métis and Residential Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
The Staff Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
The Continuing Legacy of Residential Schools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Appendix A . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Endnotes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Sources of quotations in captions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

vii
Preface
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada is

publishing this history as a part of its mandate to educate the
Canadian public about residential schools and their place in
Canadian history.
The Commission was established by the Indian Residential
Schools Settlement Agreement. The agreement was reached
in response to numerous class-action lawsuits that former
students of residential schools had brought against the federal
government and the churches that operated those schools in
Canada for well over 100 years. The Truth and Reconciliation
Commission has been mandated to inform all Canadians
about what happened in the schools and to guide a process of
national reconciliation.
For the child taken, and for the parent left behind, we
encourage Canadians to read this history, to understand
the legacy of the schools, and to participate in the work
of reconciliation.
1
Introduction
This book tells a painful story. and residences, of which there were at least 150, closed in
the 1990s.*
For over a century, generations of Aboriginal children
were separated from their parents and raised in over-
crowded, underfunded, and often unhealthy residential For Canada, this is a shameful story.
schools across Canada. They were commonly denied the The Canadian government took on heavy responsibili-
right to speak their language and told their cultural beliefs ties when it established residential schools. Education,
were sinful. Some students did not see their parents for it was said, would “civilize” Aboriginal people. Children
years. Others—the victims of scandalously high death were to be fed and housed, and taught skills and trades
rates—never made it back home. Even by the standards that would allow them to support themselves and their
of the day, discipline often was excessive. Lack of supervi- families. But once the schools had been established, poli-
sion left students prey to sexual predators. To put it sim- ticians discovered they had underestimated the cost of
ply: the needs of tens of thousands of Aboriginal children running a humane and effective system. They knew from
were neglected routinely. Far too many children were the earliest days that the schools were failing to provide
abused far too often. children with the education they needed and the care they
But this story is about more than neglect and abuse. deserved. Despite this, government after government
Those painful stories rightfully have captured national lacked either the courage to fund the schools properly or
headlines. They are central to the story this book tells. But
there is more to tell.
* The 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement
identified 134 residential school and residences. Former stu-
This is a story of loss.
dents who attended these institutions on a residential basis
Residential schools disrupted families and commu- were eligible to make compensation claims under the settle-
nities. They prevented elders from teaching children ment agreement. Since the agreement was reached, former
students have applied to have over 1300 schools added to the
long-valued cultural and spiritual traditions and prac-
list. Eight of these applications have been accepted to date
tices. They helped kill languages. These were not side
(August 31, 2011). The vast majority of applications have been
effects of a well-intentioned system: the purpose of the rejected. In August 2011, the Ontario Supreme Court of Justice
residential school system was to separate children from ordered that two more schools be added to the list. At least nine
the influences of their parents and their community, so other schools were not included in the settlement agreement
as to destroy their culture. The impact was devastating. because they closed in the early twentieth century. In addition,
many students attended residential schools, but did not live at
Countless students emerged from the schools as lost
them. Day students have initiated court action seeking com-
souls, their lives soon to be cut short by drugs, alcohol,
pensation for their school experiences. Students who attended
and violence. The last of the federally supported schools boarding schools in Labrador have launched similar court
actions. The stories of both these groups are yet to be told.
2 • Truth & Reconciliation Commission
the initiative to close them down. Drift and inertia took operation of residential schools came soon after. On June
the place of vision. 11, 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued an apol-
ogy to former residential school students on behalf of all
Canadians. His statement recognized that the primary
It is also a story about the response to a sacred call.
purpose of the schools had been to remove children from
For most of the system’s history, the residential schools their homes and families in order to assimilate them into
were operated by religious organizations. Priests, nuns, the dominant culture. Such a policy, he said, was wrong,
ministers, and missionaries organized the schools, taught and had no place in this country.
the classes, and took care of the students from morning to
night. Almost always, they were overworked and under-
Most importantly, this story is a tribute
paid. They took on this difficult life because they felt they
to Aboriginal resilience: a determination
were answering a sacred call to spread the Christian faith
not just to endure, but to flourish.
around the world. They dedicated their lives to this mis-
sionary work. The residential schools were intended to bring about
the end of Aboriginal people as a distinct group within
Canadian society. That effort failed. Aboriginal parents
It is a story about Canadian colonialism.
and children continuously resisted residential school-
While many people who worked in the schools were ing. Aboriginal people wanted educational opportuni-
inspired by an impulse to “save” and to “civilize” Canada’s ties. They insisted that schools be included in treaties.
Aboriginal people, government had other motives. To But they wanted them in their own communities, and
gain control of Aboriginal land, the Canadian govern- expected they would be respectful of Aboriginal culture.
ment signed treaties it did not respect, took over land In the 1980s, former students, who referred to themselves
without making treaties, and unilaterally passed laws as “survivors” of residential schools, began to draw the
that controlled nearly every aspect of Aboriginal life. No residential school history to public attention. They had
other Canadians were subject to this level of regulation. few resources available to help them in this work. Some
No word better describes these policies than “colonial- established support groups, some launched lawsuits, and
ism.” The schools were central to the colonization of the many came forward to speak of their school experiences
Aboriginal peoples of Canada. at the hearings held by the Canadian Royal Commission
on Aboriginal Peoples. Their efforts culminated in 2007
It is a complicated story. with the court approval of the Indian Residential Schools
Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action settlement
It would be wrong and foolish to say that no Aboriginal
in Canadian history. Along with providing compensation
people benefited from the schools. Many have come
for former residential school students, the agreement
forward to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
required the establishment of the Indian Residential
to express their gratitude to the men and women who
Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Through
worked in the schools. Although the overall educational
their courage and determination, the survivors are suc-
outcomes of the schools were limited, the system was not
ceeding in bringing this story to light.
without its accomplishments. Human connections were
made. Doors were opened, and opportunities created.
People applied themselves, overcame tremendous barri- It is a story about how, in crucial ways,
ers, and developed skills they were able to draw upon for our schools failed all of us.
the rest of their lives. For much of our history, all Canadian children—
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal alike—were taught that
It is a story of humility and the Aboriginal people were inferior, savage, and uncivilized,
possibility of change. and that Aboriginal languages, spiritual beliefs, and ways
of life were irrelevant. Aboriginal people were depicted as
Beginning in 1986, Canadian churches began to apol-
having been a dying race, saved from destruction by the
ogize for attempting to impose European culture and
intervention of humanitarian Europeans. Since little that
values on Aboriginal people. Apologies specific to the
Introduction • 3
was taught about Aboriginal people was positive, the sys- of which they were a central element has not been dis-
tem led non-Aboriginal people to believe they were inher- mantled. One can see its impact in the social, economic,
ently superior. and political challenges that Aboriginal communities
struggle with every day. It is present also in the attitudes
This is a story of destruction carried that too often shape the relations between Aboriginal and
out in the name of civilization. non-Aboriginal peoples in Canada.
Residential schools were justified by arguments that

This story is not over.
they would assist Aboriginal people in making the leap to
civilization. It is still argued by some that while residential The history recounted in this book will cause many
schools may have been unpleasant, at least they helped Canadians to see their country differently. It is painful
Aboriginal people become civilized. This, it was said, was to discover that, as a nation, we have not always lived
the price of progress. These views are not acceptable. They up to our ideals or the image we seek to project on the
are based on a belief that societies can be ranked in value. international stage. That does not mean we should
In this ranking system, Aboriginal societies are described abandon our ideals. We cannot change the past, but the
as primitive and savage. European societies judged them- future is in our hands. We are called to undertake the
selves as having progressed to the top of the scale, and ongoing work of reconciliation: to right the relationship
pronounced themselves civilized. This determination of between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canada. This
whether a society could be termed “civilized” supposedly is no easy or straightforward task. We need to revive old
was made on the basis of such criteria as level of social visions in which these communities came together in
organization, moral and ethical advancement, and tech- a spirit of sharing and mutual exchange. The Truth and
nological achievement. In reality, it was a highly biased Reconciliation Commission will be seeking to guide this
judgment, usually made by a powerful society about a less process throughout the rest of its mandate. We encourage
powerful one whose lands and resources it coveted and Canadians to read this history, participate in Commission
whose social and cultural differences it either misunder- events, and, in the coming years, to join in the ongoing
stood or feared. task of coming to grips with our nation’s past and charting
The destruction and transformation of Aboriginal soci- a future in which we can all take pride.
eties, which was unleashed in the name of civilization,
did not constitute progress for the people who lived in
those societies. They already had an effective understand-
ing of their environment. They had developed practices
and technologies to draw a long-term livelihood from it
Justice Murray Sinclair
efficiently. They each had a set of spiritual beliefs that pro- Chair, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
vided coherence to their lives. They had social structures
based on well-developed principles and values. Their
societies were not without violence and social problems,
but neither were the societies that sought to civilize them.
The process of “civilizing” was, in reality, the process of
Chief Wilton Littlechild
destroying a continent full of civilizations. Commissioner, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
This is our story and Canada’s story.
In talking about residential schools and their legacy,

we are not talking about an Aboriginal problem, but
a Canadian problem. It is not simply a dark chapter Marie Wilson
Commissioner, Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada
from our past. It was integral to the making of Canada.
Although the schools are no longer in operation, the last
ones did not close until the 1990s. The colonial framework
5
Chapter One
To Christianize and Civilize:
Canada’s Residential Schools
Students played a major role in building the facilities at the Battleford school (photographed here in 1895). In 1889 the principal reported that
students had built the bakery and the carpenter’s shop, converted the attic to dormitories, and put up a fence separating the boys’ and girls’
playground. David Ewens Collection, Library and Archives Canada, PA-182266.
In 1883, Sir John A. Macdonald, who was both Canada’s system as early as 1620, but it did not take root. Parents
prime minister and minister of Indian Affairs, moved a were reluctant to send their children to the boarding
measure through his cabinet authorizing the creation of schools that Roman Catholic missionaries had opened.
three residential schools for Aboriginal children in the The few children they did recruit ran away to rejoin their
Canadian West. The plan was for two Roman Catholic families as soon as they could. The French boarding
schools, one at Qu’Appelle (in what is now Saskatchewan) school experiment was abandoned long before the British
and one at High River (in what is now southwestern conquest of 1763.3
Alberta), and an Anglican school in Battleford (in what The idea was not revived fully until the 1830s, when
is now Saskatchewan). In announcing the plan, Public
1
the Mohawk Institute in Brantford, Ontario, founded by
Works Minister Hector Langevin told the House of the New England Company, a British-based missionary
Commons, “In order to educate the children properly society, began boarding First Nations students. In 1850
we must separate them from their families. Some people Methodist missionaries opened the Mount Elgin school
may say that this is hard but if we want to civilize them we in Munceytown, Ontario. From its establishment in 1867,
must do that.”2 the Canadian government funded these two schools. In
These three were not the first residential schools for the 1870s, Jesuit missionaries opened boarding schools
Aboriginal people in Canada. Missionaries from France for boys and girls at Wikwemikong on Manitoulin Island,
began laying the groundwork for the residential school while Anglicans did the same at Sault Ste. Marie. In
addition to these schools in eastern Canada, Catholic and

Protestant missionaries established schools on the Pacific
coast, the Prairies, and in the North.
What existed prior to 1883 was not a residential school
system, but a series of individual church-led initiatives to
which the federal government provided grants. The fed-
eral government decision in that year to open three new
schools on the Prairies marked a break from this practice
and the beginning of Canada’s residential school sys-
tem. Although federal officials let the churches run the
Qu’Appelle, High River, and Battleford schools, the gov-
ernment built them, appointed the principals (on church
recommendations), and paid most of their operating
costs.4 These three new schools were called “industrial
schools.” They were expected to prepare older students
for assimilation into Euro-Canadian society by training
them in a range of trades including printing and boot-
making, and the garment trade, along with a basic educa-
tion in farming, carpentry, cooking, and housework.
The industrial schools were deliberately located
away from reserves, and were intended to comple-
ment the smaller church-run boarding schools. Those
boarding schools provided a more basic education, and
usually were located on reserves, but at a distance from
Prime Minister John A. Macdonald, 1868. Macdonald believed it
Aboriginal settlements.5 Neither industrial schools nor was necessary to separate Aboriginal children from their parents in
boarding schools offered high-school education. In addi- residential schools. In 1883 he told the House of Commons, “When
the school is on the reserve, the child lives with his parents who
tion to these schools, the federal government and the are savages; he is surrounded by savages, and though he may learn
churches also operated day schools on reserves across to read and write, his habits and training and mode of thought are
Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write.” Library and
Canada. There were always more day schools than resi-
Archives Canada, Harold Daly fonds, C-006513.
dential schools and usually more day-school students
than residential-school students. Residential Schools and the
Funding was a problem from the outset. When
Taming of the West
Macdonald gave Indian Affairs the $44,000 needed to
build the first three schools, he actually cut the depart- Canada’s westward and northern expansion began
ment’s budget by $140,000 in that year. As a result of these in 1870 when Rupert’s Land was transferred from the
cuts, Indian Affairs reduced the already meagre relief Hudson’s Bay Company to Canada. In today’s terms,
rations it was providing to western Aboriginal people at a this area of land included much of northern Quebec and
time when they were facing starvation following the dis- Ontario, all of Manitoba, most of Saskatchewan, south-
appearance of the buffalo. 6 ern Alberta, and a portion of the Northwest Territories
Over the next fifty years, the residential school system and Nunavut. For the Canadian government, the prairie
grew dramatically. By 1931 the government was funding West was the jewel in this imperial crown. Settling the
eighty schools. This increase in the number of schools was plains would create a large domestic market for eastern
a central part of Canada’s western and northern expan- Canadian industry, raise grain for export, and provide a
sion, and of the colonization of the Aboriginal population route for a railway to the Pacific.7 It was on the basis of
of Canada’s new lands. the promise of the rail line that British Columbia joined
Confederation in 1871, linking the country from sea
to sea.
To Christianize and Civilize: Canada’s Residential Schools • 7
economic security in a period of dramatic change and

crisis. Eventually, they won provisions for medical care,
livestock, schools, teachers, farm instructors, transporta-
tion, clothing, and, when needed, relief. The government
negotiators also left the people with the impression they
would be allowed to continue to live off the resources of
their lands. By 1884 Cree leaders meeting at Duck Lake in
what is now Saskatchewan concluded that the treaties were
deceptions, nothing more than “sweet promises” intended
to lull them into giving up their land. Reality had proven to
be far more bitter. The Plains Cree found themselves forced
onto small, isolated reserves. Restrictions were placed on
their movement. The promised farm equipment arrived
only after long delay, and often was of poor quality. The
farm instructors often were incompetent. The rations,
when provided, were inadequate.10 The Numbered Treaties
The Canadian government distributed these medals at the signing and the Pre-Confederation Treaties, reached between the
of treaties with the Aboriginal people of the plains. The sun rising on
the horizon indicated that the treaties were meant to last forever.
Crown and sovereign First Nations, were the equivalent
Library and Archives Canada, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern of international treaties. Treating them as anything less
Development fonds, e000009998.
reflects a colonialist attitude and ignores the viewpoint
Aboriginal people made up the vast majority of the resi- of the Aboriginal negotiators. First Nation leaders entered
dents of the new North-West Territories. Before Aboriginal into the Treaty making process for the purpose of estab-
lands could be transferred to settlers, there was a legal lishing a relationship of respect that included an ongoing
requirement that the Crown first deal with the Aboriginal set of mutual obligations including land sharing based on
title to the land. This was accomplished by the negotiation kinship and cooperation. For its part, the Canadian gov-
of a treaty with the First Nations. Prior to Confederation in ernment saw the treaties only as land transfer agreements.
1867, the British government had negotiated numerous The government’s policy was one of assimilation under
treaties with Aboriginal nations in eastern Canada. While which it sought to remove any First Nations legal inter-
the first of these treaties were concluded on the basis of est in the land, while reducing and ignoring its own treaty
one-time-only payments, later treaties included reserves obligations. Schooling was expected to play a central role
(an area of often remote land set aside for specific bands in achieving that policy goal.
of Aboriginal people) and annual payments.

The need for prairie treaties was pressing, since Aboriginal Peoples and Education
Aboriginal people were resistant to the growing Canadian
presence. For example, the Ojibway in what is now north- Historically Aboriginal people throughout North
western Ontario opposed the ongoing passage of settlers America lived in successful and dynamic societies. These
through their territory, the Plains Ojibway turned back societies had their own languages, history, cultures, spiri-
settlers at Portage la Prairie, and the Plains Cree halted tuality, technologies, and values. The security and survival
the construction of telegraph lines.8 In 1870, when the of these societies depended on passing on this cul-
United States was spending $20-million on its Indian tural legacy from one generation to the next. Aboriginal
wars, Canada’s total national budget was $19-million. peoples did this successfully through a seamless mix-
Since Canada could not afford an Indian war, treaty com- ture of teachings, ceremonies, and daily activities.11
missioners were sent out, accompanied by soldiers and, While differing in specifics from one people to another,
later, police officers.9 traditional Aboriginal teachings described a coherent,
Between 1871 and 1877, Aboriginal people from interconnected world. Not only did they account for
northwestern Ontario through to southwestern Alberta the creation of human beings, animals, and the physi-
signed seven treaties. Aboriginal negotiators were seeking cal world, they described the role that supernatural
beings—often shape-changing tricksters with the power
to do good or harm—played in shaping the relationship

among humans, animals, and the landscape.12 There was
no rigid separation of daily secular life and spiritual life.
For example, in some cultures, animals were said to give
themselves as gifts to the hunter. To be worthy of receiv-
ing the gift, the hunter had to participate in a ceremony
prior to and after the hunt.13
Ceremonial feasts could bring people together for a
variety of spiritual, cultural, and economic purposes. At
such feasts, people could fulfill spiritual commitments,
exchange goods and information, and impart traditional
teachings.14 Elders were the keepers and transmitters of
this knowledge, and in some cases medicine people had
specific roles in dealing with the spirit world and in cur-
ing the sick.15 Just as spiritual life was part of daily activity
rather than confined to a church, education was woven
into everyday activities. In this way, living and learning
were integrated. Children learned through storytelling,
through example, and by participation in rituals, festi-
vals, and individual coming-of-age ceremonies. In some
cultures, there were spiritual societies with specific posi-
tions to which people could be promoted after undergo-
ing proper instruction.16 This teaching method was strong
enough to assure the survival of identity, history, tradi-
tions, and beliefs.
Hamasaka in Tlu Wulahu costume with Speaker’s Staff - Qagyuhl,
Through story, children were taught how to live cor- British Columbia, approximately 1914. Elders played a key role in
rectly, how not to offend spirits, and how to contribute the education of Aboriginal children. Library and Archives Canada, Edward
S. Curtis, Edward Curtis’s The North American Indian collection, C-020826.
to the community’s physical survival. Angela Sidney, a
Tlingit woman from the Yukon Territory in the early twen-
From an early age, children contributed to the survival
tieth century, said, “They used to teach us with stories.
of the community. In the early twentieth century, Mary
They teach us what is good, what is bad, things like that.…
John, a Carrier woman from the British Columbia inte-
Those days they told stories mouth to mouth. That’s how
rior, took care of younger brothers and sisters while she
they educate people.”17 Albert Canadien, who grew up
was still a youngster, and her older sister learned to dry
fifty years later in a Dene community on the Mackenzie
and smoke fish, and to hunt.20 The young Inuit girl Masak
River, received the same sort of education: “I heard many
was taught by her grandmother how to scrape skins, and
stories that provided some explanation for why we must
cut and sew mukluks.21 Born in 1942 in western Manitoba,
do certain things and why things were the way they were.
Raphael Ironstand spent much of his early life travelling
A story was much better than an adult simply saying,
with his mother and father in the Duck Mountain region,
‘You do this because I told you so!’ Children tend to listen
living off the land. On the night before a hunt, his father
and be a little more attentive to stories than to rules.”18
would bring out the hand drum and sing traditional songs
Growing up in a Mi’kmaw community in Nova Scotia in
in a slow, soft voice. According to Ironstand, his father
the 1930s, Isabelle Knockwood was taught to revere elders
“was a survivor, using all his cunning and native guile as
and their knowledge: “They knew the seasonal cycles of
he tracked and stalked game for food, singing his songs
edible and medicinal plants, and the migrations of ani-
when he was closing in on the prey.”22
mals, birds and fish, and they knew which hunting and
Coming-of-age ceremonies could include vision
trapping methods worked best with certain weather
quests, in which young men, after undergoing a period of
conditions.”19
made a commitment to provide financial support for

local residential schools.27 Eventually, dissatisfaction with
the schooling led many to drop their support.28
Others remained keenly interested in extending school
to their communities. In 1871 Augustine Shingwauk, an
Ojibway leader from Garden River, Ontario, travelled
to Sarnia, London, and Toronto to seek the support of
church leaders for a proposed “big teaching wigwam” for
his community. There, he said, “children from the Great
Chippeway Lake would be received and clothed, and fed,
and taught how to read and how to write; and also how
to farm and build houses, and make clothing; so that by
and bye they might go back and teach their own people.”29
This initiative led to the establishment of the Shingwauk
Home boarding school in 1873.
Aboriginal people on the Prairies had experience with
mission schools that dated back to the 1820s. They recog-
nized that education was necessary if they were to adjust
to a changing economic and social situation, and insisted
that schools, teachers, and salaries be included in the
Ojibway woman with child in carrier basket, 1858. Missionaries
across North America commented on the close bond between treaties negotiated in the 1870s. Government negotiator
Aboriginal parents and their children. A seventeenth-century Alexander Morris assured them that “The Queen wishes
missionary, Gabriel Sagard, observed, “They love their children
her red children to learn the cunning of the white man
dearly.” Library and Archives Canada, Humphrey Lloyd Hime, National Archives of
Canada fonds, C-000728. and when they are ready for it she will send schoolmas-
ters on every Reserve and pay them.”30 The early trea-
privation, might acquire a guardian spirit or experience a ties called for on-reserve schools, and from Treaty Seven
vision that promised them invincibility in war or long life.23 (1877) onward, the treaties committed the government
Because personal autonomy was highly regarded, to pay for teachers.31 There was no mention of residential
scolding or disciplining children was not common. schools in the treaties or the negotiation process. Indeed,
Seventeenth-century French colonists often commented in one of his reports, Morris wrote: “The treaties provide
that Aboriginal parents loved their children so much they for the establishment of schools, on the reserves, for the
were unwilling to deny them anything.24 The reality was instruction of the Indian children. This is a very important
more complex. Children were not indulged: they were feature, and is deserving of being pressed with the utmost
taught their community responsibilities and trained in energy.”32
self-reliance and respect for others.25 For example, an
Inuit child who asked for consolation might be com-
forted, but one who was having a tantrum might be left The Davin Report
to cry. 26
In 1879 the federal government appointed Nicholas
Given that the Aboriginal education system was inter- Flood Davin, an Irish-born, Toronto-based journalist,
twined so tightly with both spiritual belief and daily life, lawyer, and, most recently, an unsuccessful Conservative
it is not surprising that Aboriginal people were reluctant parliamentary candidate, to investigate the boarding
to give their children over to others to raise. In the early school system in the United States with an eye to estab-
nineteenth century, the Ojibway in what is now Ontario lishing similar schools in the North-West Territories. At
made several efforts to integrate school-based education the time of Davin’s appointment, the United States was
into their communities. Peter Jones, a man of European preparing to launch a new initiative: government-run, off-
and Ojibway descent, played an important role in estab- reservation manual training (or industrial) schools. These
lishing day schools in communities in southern Ontario schools were to gather together youngsters from different
in the 1830s. In 1846 Ojibway leaders in southern Ontario reservations, separate them from their communities for
On the strength of his limited investigation, Davin

recommended the federal government establish a part-
nership with the Canadian churches to operate four
industrial schools on a residential basis in the Canadian
West. By separating children from their parents and edu-
cating them in residential schools, Aboriginal children
would be “gradually prepared to meet the necessities of
the not distant future; to welcome and facilitate, it may be
hoped, the settlement of the country.”38 Since there were,
by Davin’s estimate, 28,000 Indians and 1200 Métis fami-
lies in the area covered by treaty, he warned that delay
would be dangerous and expensive.39
Davin recommended a partnership with the churches
for two reasons. The first was moral. The type of educa-
tion he was advocating would undermine existing spiri-
tual and cultural beliefs, and it would be wrong, he said,
to destroy their faith “without supplying a better” one;
namely, Christianity.40 The second reason was economic.
He said teachers should be paid adequately, but by hiring
missionaries, the government would get “an enthusias-
tic person, with, therefore, a motive power beyond any-
thing pecuniary remuneration could supply.”41 Put more
In 1879 Nicholas Flood Davin prepared a report recommending the
Canadian government establish a series of residential schools for plainly, dedicated religious men and women would be
Aboriginal students in partnership with the churches. Saskatchewan attracted to residential schools, even if the pay were sub-
Archives Board, R-A6665.
standard. This was an idea that, in coming years, the fed-
several years, and, it was hoped, provide them with skills eral government would test to its limits.
that would allow them to earn a living. It was expected
that students’ attachments to their home communities
To Civilize and Christianize
would weaken while they were at school, and they would
not return to their reservations upon graduation, thus Government and church officials often said the role
contributing to breaking up reservations and tribes.33 of the residential school was to civilize and Christianize
Davin’s investigation was not extensive; appointed Aboriginal children. When put into practice, these
on January 28, 1879, he submitted his report just forty- noble-sounding ambitions translated into an assault on
five days later, on March 14, 1879. During that time, he Aboriginal culture, language, spiritual beliefs, and prac-
travelled to Washington, where he met with US govern- tices. Residential schools were seen as preferable to on-
ment officials and representatives of a number of Native reserve day schools because they separated children from
American nations.34 He then made a brief visit to a mis- their parents, who were certain to oppose and resist such
sion school in Minnesota, and met with church and gov- a radical cultural transformation.
ernment officials in Manitoba. There, he also spoke with The government’s intent to break Aboriginal fam-
several Aboriginal people, whom he dismissed as chronic ily bonds was clear from the outset. In 1887, Lawrence
complainers.35 He was disturbed to discover that since Vankoughnet, the deputy minister of Indian Affairs, jus-
schools had been included in the treaties, Chief Prince, tified the investment in residential schools by claiming
among a number of other chiefs, believed they “had some that Aboriginal children who went to day schools “fol-
right to a voice regarding the character and management lowed the terrible example set them by their parents.”42
of the schools.”36 Davin said this would be a mistake, and The Archbishop of St. Boniface wrote in 1912 of the need
that the schools were best kept out of the “designing pre- to place Aboriginal children in residential schools at the
dilections of a Chief.”37 age of six, since they had to be “caught young to be saved
The federal government supported not only the large industrial schools, but also smaller boarding schools, such as this Methodist school in
Morley, Alberta, photographed in 1900. David Ewens Collection, Library and Archives Canada, PA-182269.
from what is on the whole the degenerating influence of homestead opportunities offered to other Canadians. The
their home environment.” 43
act placed new restrictions on Aboriginal hunting rights.
These schools were not just an assault on families. They The government had the power to move the bands if
were part of a larger government policy: the elimination of reserve land was needed by growing towns and cities. The
the economic and social responsibilities the government government also gave itself increasing authority to lease
took on through the treaty process. At the heart of this pol- or dispose of reserve land without band authorization.
icy was the Indian Act, which, in 1876, brought together Under the act, it was illegal for Indians to possess alcohol
all of Canada’s legislation governing Indian people. The or to patronize pool halls.
act both defined who Indians were under Canadian law The act’s ultimate goal was to bring Indian status to
and set out the process by which people would cease an end. This policy had been articulated first in the colo-
to be Indians. Under the act, the Canadian government nial government of Canada’s 1857 Act for the Gradual
assumed control of Indian peoples’ governments, econ- Civilization of the Indian Tribes in the Canadas. Under
omy, religion, land, education, and even their personal this act, a male Indian (as defined by the government) in
lives. The act empowered the federal cabinet to depose Ontario and Quebec who was fluent in either English or
chiefs and overturn band decisions—and the government French, free of debt, and of good character could receive
used this authority to control band governments. Indian full citizenship, and fifty acres of reserve land and a share
farmers could not sell their produce without the approval of band funds. Although this process was termed “enfran-
of the Indian agent, a government official responsible for chisement,” it did not actually provide the right to vote.
the day-to-day enforcement of the act. Provisions in the Instead, it removed all distinctions between the legal
Indian Act prohibited Indians from participating in sacred rights and liabilities of Indians and those of other British
ceremonies such as the Potlatch on the west coast and the subjects. Since an enfranchised person ceased to be an
Sun Dance on the Prairies. Indians could not own reserve Indian in legal terms, the government expected that with
land as individuals, nor could they take advantage of the
as preparing people for the labour market. He said that “if

the Indian is to become a source of profit to the country, it
is clear he must be amalgamated with the white popula-
tion.”47 While some industrial schools did provide training
in printing and shoemaking, for the most part the voca-
tional training in the schools was limited to farming and
It is unlikely that any Tribe“

or tribes would give trouble
of a serious nature to the
Deputy minister of Indian Affairs Duncan Campbell Scott said in
1920 that he was working for the day when “there is not a single
Indian in Canada who has not been absorbed into the body politic.”
Government whose members
Library and Archives Canada, Yousuf Karsh, Desiré Elise Scott collection, C-031512.
each enfranchisement, the number of Indians would

had children completely
decline, and the size of each reserve would shrink.
Two years after Confederation, the Canadian govern-
under Government control.
ment adopted the Act for the Gradual Enfranchisement of
Indians, which made enfranchisement the cornerstone of
Canadian Indian policy. Enfranchisement was incorpo-
rated into the Indian Act.44 From the outset, the policy was
”
Indian Affairs school inspector J.A. Macrae, 1886
a failure; from 1859 to 1876, only one person was enfran-

chised voluntarily.45 Since adult men were not interested associated skills such as blacksmithing and carpentry for
in giving up their rights, government officials pinned their boys and homemaking for girls. Teachers and tools were
hopes on education. often in short supply. Deputy minister of Indian Affairs
The link between enfranchisement and residential James Smart argued in 1898 that: “To educate children
schools was drawn clearly in 1920, when the government above the possibilities of their station, and create a dis-
amended the Indian Act to allow it to enfranchise people taste for what is certain to be their environment in life
without their consent, and to require school-aged Indian would be not only a waste of money but doing them an
children to attend school. Duncan Campbell Scott, dep- injury instead of conferring a benefit upon them.”48 At
uty minister of Indian Affairs, said the government would the same time, a future Indian Affairs minister, Frank
“continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that Oliver, described government policy as either training
has not been absorbed into the body politic, and there Aboriginal people “to compete industrially with our own
is no Indian question, and no Indian Department.”46 people, which seems to me a very undesirable use of pub-
Residential schools were not established to meet the gov- lic money, or else we are not able to educate them to com-
ernment’s treaty obligations to provide schools (which pete, in which case our money is thrown away.”49 When
were supposed to be on reserves), but to further its long- the system was expanded in northern Canada in 1954,
term aim of ending the country’s treaty obligations by the federal government’s Sub-Committee on Eskimo
assimilating its Aboriginal population. Education concluded: “The residential school is perhaps
When it came to the educational purposes of the the most effective way of giving children from primitive
schools, government officials over the years expressed environments, experience in education along the lines of
contradictory views. In 1889 Hayter Reed, Canada’s civilization leading to vocational training to fit them for
Indian Commissioner for the Prairies, viewed the schools occupations in the white man’s economy.”50
Qu’Appelle school principal Father Joseph Hugonnard, staff, Grey Nuns, students, and parents in 1884, the year the school opened. O.B. Buell, Library
and Archives Canada, PA-118765.
Safety and Security of the young nation’s elite, but reformatories and jails
established for the children of the urban poor. Those
There was a safety and security component to resi-
institutions were judged to be failures by the early twen-
dential schools as well. One year after the 1885 Northwest
tieth century, and largely abandoned, but the residential
Rebellion, Indian Affairs school inspector J.A. Macrae
schools continued in operation.56
noted, “It is unlikely that any Tribe or tribes would give
trouble of a serious nature to the Government whose
members had children completely under Government The Role of the Churches
control.”51 Duncan Campbell Scott worried in 1910 that
As recommended by Davin, from 1883 onward
“without education and with neglect the Indians would
the Canadian government was a major partner in the
produce an undesirable and often dangerous element in
Canadian residential school system. Churches were eager
society.”52
to embrace the partnership because church missionary
Indeed, from the 1870s on, Canada had been sending
societies had laid the foundation for the system. For most
other “dangerous elements”—the children of the urban
of the system’s history, the churches had responsibility
poor—to industrial schools. Ontario’s 1874 Industrial
for the day-to-day operation of the schools. Nineteenth-
Schools Act allowed magistrates to commit neglected and
century missionaries believed their efforts to convert
truant children to industrial schools.53 By 1900 there were
Aboriginal people to Christianity were part of a worldwide
four non-Aboriginal industrial schools in Ontario, two for
struggle for the salvation of souls. This belief provided
girls and two for boys, with a total of 225 residents. Ten
justification for undermining traditional spiritual leaders
years later, there were also such schools in Nova Scotia,
(who were treated as agents of the devil), banning sacred
Quebec, Manitoba, and British Columbia.54 In developing
cultural practices, and attempting to impose a new moral
plans for a residential school in the Canadian northwest,
code on Aboriginal people by requiring them to abandon
Roman Catholic Bishop Vital Grandin drew on a visit he
their traditional family structures. Individual missionaries
had made to a reformatory prison in Citeaux, France.
often worked in isolation and under difficult conditions.
The controlled and disciplined environment he observed
Nevertheless, they were representatives of worldwide reli-
there, coupled with the instruction in trades and the
gious institutions that enjoyed the backing of influential
musical education the students received, seemed, in his
elites in the most powerful nations of the world, including
view, to transform the young prisoners, and would do the
Canada.57
same for Aboriginal children. Industry, economy, cleanli-
The two most prominent missionary organizations
ness, and sobriety were the prized virtues.55
involved with residential schools in Canada in the nine-
The models for the residential schools, then, were not
teenth century were the Roman Catholic Oblates of Mary
the private boarding schools established for the children
An Oblate sister and child at the McIntosh In his 1899 book The Indians: Their Manner and Customs, Methodist missionary John
School near Kenora, Ontario. St. Boniface Historical Maclean wrote that while the Canadian government wanted missionaries to “teach the
Society Archives, Fonds Oblate Missionaries of the Sacred Indians first to work and then to pray,” the missionaries believed that their role was to
Heart and of Mary Immaculate, PA 821/9. “christianize first and then civilize.” This photograph was taken at the Methodist school
at Red Deer, Alberta, sometime between 1914 and 1919. The United Church of Canada Archives,
93.049P850N.
Immaculate and the Church Missionary Society of the travelled on the society’s behalf from England to Red
Church of England (the Anglican Church). The Oblate River, where one of his first acts was to establish a residen-
order, founded in 1816 in southern France, was part of a tial school for Aboriginal children.60 By 1901 the Church
broader Catholic response to the French Revolution. The Missionary Society supported 510 male missionaries, 326
Oblates emphasized the importance of unity, discipline, unmarried females, and 365 ordained indigenous pas-
and the authority of the Pope, and enforced a strict moral tors around the world.61 Training in manual labour was to
code. 58
In the 1840s, Montreal Bishop Ignace Bourget be an essential part of missionary schooling. As early as
invited the Oblates to Quebec. Soon, they were active not 1853, the head of the Church Missionary Society was able
only in Quebec but also on the Prairies, in the North, and to report: “In India, New Zealand, and all our missions,
on the Pacific coast.59 As a result of their dramatic expan- an industrial department is being added to our schools.”62
sion through the Canadian West and North, the Oblates Methodist and Presbyterian mission societies, based
established and managed the majority of church-run in both Great Britain and the United States, also car-
Canadian residential schools. This educational work ried out work in Canada in the nineteenth century, and
would have been impossible without the support of a became involved in the operation of the residential
number of female religious orders, the prominent ones school system. Women played a key role in the work of
being the Sisters of Charity (also known as the Grey Nuns), the Protestant missions. In some communities, residen-
the Sisters of Providence, the Sisters of St. Ann, and, in the tial schools grew out of the schools and orphanages that
twentieth century, the Oblate Sisters of Mary Immaculate. wives of missionaries established in their homes. Young
These female orders provided the school system with women from Canada and Great Britain were recruited to
teachers and nurses. Although the Roman Catholic Jesuit work as nurses and teachers in remote northern schools,
order had a long history of missionary work among particularly in the early years of the system.63
Aboriginal people in New France, in the nineteenth cen- Initially, the missionaries received considerable finan-
tury, its work in residential schooling was limited to two cial support from outside Canada. By the 1860s, the
schools on Manitoulin Island. These schools were relo- French branches of the Society for the Propagation of the
cated in the twentieth century to Spanish, Ontario. Faith and the Society of the Holy Childhood were support-
The British-based Church Missionary Society was the ing forty-two Aboriginal children in four Oblate schools
first Anglican organization to focus solely on converting and two orphanages in western Canada.64 The 1907 con-
the “heathen” of the colonial world. It dispatched its first struction of the Church of England residential school at
missionaries in 1802. In 1820 the Reverend John West Chapleau, Ontario, was paid for with money raised in
In 1893 the federal government cut its funding for the High River school (pictured here in 1896) from $185.55 per student to $130 per student.
Canada. David Ewens Collection, Library and Archives Canada, PA-182268.
England.65 To both Protestant and Catholic missionaries, efforts were not unrewarded: the 1899 census identified
Aboriginal spiritual beliefs were little more than super- 70,000 of 100,000 Indian people in Canada as Christians.70
stition and witchcraft. 66
In British Columbia, William In the twentieth century, the Protestant churches
Duncan of the Church Missionary Society reported: “I established independent Canadian operations and mis-
cannot describe the conditions of this people better than sionary societies, and began to recruit their mission-
by saying that it is just what might be expected in sav- aries and school staff from within Canada. In 1925 the
age heathen life.”67 Missionaries led the campaign to out- Methodist Church and the majority of Presbyterian con-
law Aboriginal sacred ceremonies such as the Potlatch gregations (along with the smaller Congregationalist
on the west coast and the Sun Dance on the Prairies.68 In Church) merged to create the United Church, which
British Columbia in 1884, for example, Roman Catholic took over all the Methodist schools and many of the
missionaries argued for banning the Potlatch, saying Presbyterian ones, as well.
that participation in the ceremony left many families so The number of schools rose and fell throughout the
impoverished they had to withdraw their children from system’s history, but the Roman Catholic Church oper-
school to accompany them in the winter to help them ated most of the schools, up to 60 percent of them at any
search for food.69 one time. The Anglican Church operated about 25 per-
While, on one front, missionaries were engaged in a cent of the schools, the United Church operated about 15
war on Aboriginal culture, on another, they often served percent, and the Presbyterian Church ran only 2 or 3 per-
as advocates for protecting and advancing Aboriginal cent of the schools. A United States-based Baptist church
interests in their dealings with government and settlers. ran one school in the Yukon, and a Mennonite evangeli-
Many learned Aboriginal languages, and conducted reli- cal congregation operated three schools in northwestern
gious ceremonies at the schools in those languages. These Ontario. (A map showing school locations and religious
affiliation is included at the back of this book.)
A group of students and parents from the Saddle Lake Reserve, en route to the Methodist-operated Red Deer, Alberta, school. Woodruff. Department of
Interior, Library and Archives Canada, PA-040715.
While church and government officials would have it switched to a per-capita funding system under which
their differences, their overall commitment to civilizing churches were paid a set amount per student. With that
and Christianizing Aboriginal children gave rise to an money, school administrators were expected to pay for
education system that emphasized the need to separate maintenance, salaries, and expenses. For the industrial
children from their culture, impose a new set of values schools, this new formula amounted to a cut in funding.
and beliefs, provide a basic elementary education, and At the High River, Alberta, school, for example, funding
implant Europe’s emerging industrial work discipline. dropped from $185.55 per student to $130.00 a student.71
This system also provided churches with an incentive to
compete with one another in recruitment campaigns,
The Rise of the System
and to enrol the maximum allowable number of students,
From 1883 onward, the federal government began even if they were in poor health or suffering from infec-
funding a growing number of industrial schools in the tious disease.
Canadian West. It also continued to provide regular fund- The churches came to rely increasingly on student
ing to the church-run boarding schools. The residential labour. This was provided through what was known as
system grew with the country. As Euro-Canadians settled the “half-day system.” Under this system, older students
the Prairies, British Columbia, and the North, increasing spent half the school day working. The fact that students
numbers of Aboriginal children were placed in residen- spent only half their time in class guaranteed that most of
tial schools. them would receive an inferior education.72
As the system grew, controlling costs quickly became By the beginning of the twentieth century, the fed-
a primary concern for the federal government: salaries, eral government had concluded that industrial schools
for example, were reduced in 1888. By 1892 Ottawa was were poor investments. Many had been hastily built,
so concerned about rising industrial school costs that were unhealthy, and had trouble attracting and keeping
File Hills, Saskatchewan, school, 1948. The half-day system, under which the students often spent half the day doing chores, ended only in 1951.
The United Church of Canada Archives, 93.049P1132N.
students. Indian Affairs minister Clifford Sifton concluded with another 6784 in 241 federally funded day schools. It
it would be better to close the industrial schools, and was estimated that 45 percent of Indian children were not
transfer the students and government support to smaller enrolled in school at all.77 While the schools were intended
boarding schools. Concern over the death rates in the
73
only for children with status under the Indian Act, many
residential schools gave rise to a movement within the Métis children attended these schools throughout the
Anglican Church to end the residential school system system’s history. (For more on the Métis experience, see
completely. In 1908 one of the leaders of this campaign, Chapter Four.)
Samuel Blake, argued that the health conditions in the The new funding system was only four years old when
industrial schools were so dire that the government was the First World War broke out. The war placed a financial
leaving itself open to charges of manslaughter.74 By 1908 strain on the federal government, and led it to abandon
federal Indian Affairs minister Frank Oliver had concluded planned improvements and repairs to many residential
that “the attempt to elevate the Indian by separating the schools.78
child from his parents and educating him as a white man In 1920 the Indian Act was amended to make it com-
has turned out to be a deplorable failure.” 75
pulsory for status Indian children between seven and fif-
Despite such support in high places, the campaign to teen to attend either day or residential school. In reality,
end the system failed in the face of opposition from the between them the day schools and residential schools
Catholic Church and some Protestant church leaders.76 It could accommodate little more than half the school-aged
did lead, in 1910, to a contract system that increased per- Indian children.79
capita rates, and established a number of health guide- Even with compulsory attendance laws in place, the
lines. By then 3841 status Indian students were enrolled in schools had difficulty recruiting students. The principal
seventy-four residential schools (the term that came to be of the Lejac school complained of having to spend his
applied to both industrial schools and boarding schools), Septembers coaxing and threatening parents who were
reluctant to send their children to school.80 Over time, as The Great Depression of the 1930s led the federal
enforcement of the attendance laws increased, in some government to cut funding repeatedly. The vulnerable
locations Indian agents would show up in the fall and suffered greatly during the Depression, but the children
take children. The churches sought and received court
81
in residential schools shouldered far more than their
injunctions threatening parents with arrest if they did share of the burden. In 1938, when the federal govern-
not bring their children to school. In some cases, par-
82
ment was paying $180 per student for residential schools
ents were jailed for refusing to do so.83 Throughout the in Manitoba, the Manitoba School for the Deaf and the
system’s history, the government placed orphans or chil- Manitoba School for Boys, both residential institutions,
dren it deemed to be delinquent or neglected into resi- were receiving per-capita payments of $642 and $550,
dential schools. respectively, from the provincial government.89 At the
Parents also placed their children in the schools same time, the Children’s Aid Society of Alberta esti-
because they could not afford to care for them. 84
In mated that the minimum cost of supporting a neglected
some communities, parents, who were often former child was a dollar a day, which, at $365 a year, was double
students themselves, reluctantly sent their children to what the federal government was spending per student in
school because it was the only educational opportunity Manitoba residential schools.90
available.85
Increases in school funding during the 1920s failed to
“
keep pace with costs. The system suffered a fundamen-
tal breakdown in responsibility. Government officials
often issued highly critical reports on the poor quality of …school integration
food, harsh discipline, or overwork of students in a par-
ticular school. The churches had a standard response: to represents the first step
the degree that a problem existed, it could be resolved
by an increase in funding. This generally brought the toward the dissolution of
matter to an end. Indian Affairs regularly adopted vari-
ous policies regarding health, discipline, and education, most reserves…
but these were not enforced consistently. At the out-
set, it had few school inspectors (and those it did have
lacked educational qualifications). In later years, provin-
cial school inspectors, who had no power to have their
recommendations implemented, inspected the schools.
”
The Hawthorn Report, 1967
From the record, it is clear that controlling costs was the

The Long Decline
prime policy objective. Having taken over the direction
and funding of the church-run system in the 1880s, the By the 1940s, the failure of the residential school sys-
federal government had enlarged the system without pro- tem was apparent. The level of academic achievement
viding adequate funding or professional management. was low. In 1930 only 3 percent of the students had gone
The schools could neither teach nor care for children. beyond Grade 6. The comparable figure for the general
By 1927 there were 77 residential schools with 6641 Canadian school population was 33 percent.91 By the end
students. In 1930 the Shubenacadie school, the only fed-
86 of the Second World War in 1945, the federal government
erally run school in the Maritimes, opened in Nova Scotia. was supporting less than eighty Aboriginal students at the
It was intended for children who were orphans, deemed high-school level.92 Even though, for over twenty years,
illegitimate, or neglected.87 The first schools in Quebec, Indian Affairs supposedly had required that all teachers
both at Fort George on James Bay (one Anglican, one have provincial teaching certificates, a 1948 government
Roman Catholic), opened in the early 1930s. In 1931 the study found that over 40 percent of staff had no profes-
system reached its peak number of schools, with eighty sional training.93 This was largely the legacy of underfund-
schools in operation.88 However, even as the number of ing. Because residential school teachers and staff were
schools would decline in coming years, the number of not paid competitive wages, it was particularly hard to
students in attendance would increase. hire skilled vocational education instructors, who could
These students are demonstrating in Edmonton in support of a 1970 campaign to have the Blue Quills, Alberta, school turned over to a First
Nations educational authority. Provincial Archives of Alberta, J48512.
make far more money practising their trade than teaching government began hiring teachers directly in 1954. By
it at a residential school.94 1962, 90 percent of the staff was fully qualified.98
The federal government solution was not to work with The number of students in residential schools reached
parents to develop a more suitable education system. 10,000 in 1953.99 Two years later, the Department of
Instead, it simply decided to phase out residential school- Northern Affairs and National Resources launched a
ing, and transfer First Nations education to the provinces. major expansion of the system in northern Canada,
The first step in what turned out to be a lengthy process building a series of schools and school residences, thus
of closing the schools came in 1949, when the federal gov- increasing the number of schools even as the government
ernment agreed to pay a British Columbia school board sought to close the schools in the South. (For more on the
to educate First Nations students. By the 1960s, it was northern and Inuit experience, see Chapter Three.)
negotiating similar agreements with provincial govern- During the 1950s, the schools in southern Canada
ments. This process was termed “integration,” as opposed came to be used largely as child-welfare facilities. In 1953
to “assimilation,” but the old goals of enfranchisement almost 40 percent of the students in the schools had been
remained. The Hawthorn Report, a 1967 government placed there because the government had judged them
report on the status of First Nations people, concluded to be neglected by their parents.100 In 1966, on the eve of
approvingly that “school integration represents the first Canada’s centennial celebrations, a federal study con-
step toward the dissolution of most reserves, because cluded that 75 percent of the students in the schools were
education makes it possible for the Indians to adapt from homes considered “unfit for school children.”101 The
themselves to the White Canadian’s way of life.”95 officials who made these decisions had little understand-
In 1951 the half-day system was ended officially, ing of Aboriginal families or culture. Where children were
although many schools still depended heavily on student at risk, governments did not provide any supports to help
labour.96 The per-capita system, with its incentive for keep families together: they simply apprehended the chil-
overcrowding, remained in place until 1957. The federal
97
dren. This period of dramatically increased apprehension
has become known as the “Sixties scoop,” although it con-

tinued into the 1970s.102
Funding levels were not increased to reflect the fact
that the schools were caring for children with a wide
range of needs.103 A 1967 study of residential schools
in Saskatchewan found them to be crowded, poorly
designed, and highly regimented. The study said this
“absence of emphasis on the development of the individ-
ual child as a unique person is the most disturbing result
of this whole system.”104
Church involvement in the system was reduced dra-
matically in 1969, when the federal government took over
the operation of most of the residential schools in the
South. During this period, it also transferred responsibil-
ity for most of the northern schools and residences to the
Yukon and Northwest Territories governments. Over the
next decade, the government closed most of the schools,
once more with little consultation with parents. When the
government attempted to close the Blue Quills School
near St. Paul, Alberta, the community protested. Parents
and students did not want to see the school closed, they
simply wanted it operated under local control. To block
the closure, they occupied the school. As a result, Blue
Quills, as well as a number of schools in Saskatchewan,
British Columbia, and the North, continued to operate
under the direction of First Nations educational authori-
ties.105 While the residential school system had largely
wound down during the 1980s, the last residences (the
Gordon’s Student Residence and the Prince Albert Student
Residence in Saskatchewan, and the Yellowknife, Inuvik,
Cambridge Bay, and Iqaluit residences in the Northwest
Territories) did not close until the mid-1990s.106
Just as the system was closing down, former students
were speaking up. They began to mount an increasingly
successful campaign to draw attention to the way they
had been treated in the schools. That treatment is the
essence of the residential school story. The next section
of this book provides an overview of that experience from
the first day through to the events that dominated daily
life. It concludes with a discussion of an issue that has
been in the public eye for much of the past decade: stu-
dent abuse; and with one that has been largely ignored:
the ways in which Aboriginal parents and children
resisted the residential school system.
21
Chapter Two
School Days: The Residential
School Experience
Girls at the Gordon’s school in Saskatchewan being transported to church by truck in 1953. The General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada, M2008-10
(P14).
Arrival: “Now you are no from five to sixteen piled in the back of the truck.”1 In ear-
lier decades, priests and ministers had brought students
longer an Indian.”
to school on wagon or by boat. In later years, they came
In the 1940s, residential schools across the Canadian by train or even plane. Few students ever forgot their first
Prairies would send out battered trucks to collect stu- day at school.
dents on the first day of school. The parents of children On arrival, many students were overwhelmed by the
attending the Lestock school in Saskatchewan would sight of the residential school building. Simon Baker was
bring their children to collection points, often the local excited by the imposing Lytton, British Columbia, school
farm instructor’s office, where they would wait for the building.2 Raphael Ironstand thought the Assiniboia
truck. According to George Peequaquat, “The size of the school in Winnipeg “seemed enormous, with marbled
group increased as we went from reserve to reserve. It was floors and ceilings, and hallways about two hundred feet
not uncommon to have up to forty children ranging in age long. It smelled strongly of disinfectant, and our voices
Reverend Thompson Ferrier taking boys to school in Brandon, Manitoba, in 1904. The year before, the Methodist missionary James MacLachlan
and six students he was taking from Berens River to the Brandon industrial school drowned in a canoe accident. Manitoba Museum EP 347.
echoed when we spoke. The whole place looked cold and Charlie Bigknife recalled being told, after his hair had
sterile; even the walls were covered with pictures of stern- been sheared off at the File Hills school in Saskatchewan,
looking people in suits and stiff collars.”3 On her first sight “Now you are no longer an Indian.”11 Students were given
of the Shingwauk school in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Jane a new wardrobe—often used and ill-fitting.12 Even though
Willis thought, “Nothing could ever go wrong in such her grandmother had made her warm winter clothing,
beautiful surroundings.” Originally impressed by the
4
Lillian Elias was not allowed to wear it at the Roman
chapel at Shubenacadie, Isabelle Knockwood later con- Catholic school at Aklavik. Instead, all the students had
cluded it was “a place where a lot of children’s prayers did to wear the same type of parka. “Maybe,” she later won-
not get answered.”5 dered, “they wanted us to dress like them!”13
When six-year-old Anthony Thrasher was deposited A new Christian identity required the imposi-
at the Roman Catholic school in Aklavik in the Northwest tion of new names. The first boy Anglican missionary
Territories, he saw the grey-habited nuns, heard their John West recruited to his school at Red River in 1820,
voices carried on the wind, and turned and ran. With Pemutewithinew, became James Hope.14 At the Aklavik
no place to go, he was caught, grabbed by his hood, and Anglican school in the Northwest Territories, Masak
dragged into the school, where he was scrubbed and became Alice—she would not hear her old name until she
checked for vermin, and put to bed. 6
returned home.15 Charles Nowell got his name “because
The assault on Aboriginal identity began the moment a Sunday school teacher in England wanted Mr. Hall to
the child took the first step across the school’s threshold. give me his name, and they say that he was my godfather
In 1893, at the age of six, Mike Mountain Horse was sent when I was baptized.”16 Jane Willis had been raised to
to the St. Paul’s school on the Blood Reserve. “My Indian answer to Janie Matthews, but on the residential school
clothes, consisting of blanket, breech cloth, leggings, shirt register at Fort George (now Chisasibi), Quebec, she was
and moccasins, were removed.” The embroidered parka
7
Janie Esquinimau, a nickname that belonged to her great-
and mukluks that Alice Blondin-Perrin’s mother had made grandfather.17 At the Qu’Appelle school in Saskatchewan,
for her were taken on her arrival at school. She never saw Ochankugahe (Path Maker) became Daniel Kennedy,
them again.8 Once stripped of their clothes, students were named for the biblical Daniel, while Adélard Standing
roughly bathed. 9
Buffalo was named for Adélard Langevin, the Archbishop
Braided hair, which often had spiritual significance, of St. Boniface.18
was cut. At the Île-à-la-Crosse school in Saskatchewan, Not only were children renamed, they were assigned
Alphonse Janvier was put on an old barber’s chair. “I numbers that corresponded to their clothes, their bed,
remember my head being shaved and all my long hair and their locker. In some schools, they were expected to
falling on the floor, and the way they dealt with my crying line up according to their numbers. “We were called by
and the hurtful feeling was with a bowl of ice cream.” 10
number all the time. The nuns used to call, ‘39, 3 where
School Days: The Residential School Experience • 23
Girls at the Shingwauk school in Sault Ste. Marie, dressed for church in 1941. The federal government and the churches used posed photographs
to promote the residential school system across Canada. The image that they give of life at the schools was not always accurate. For example, in
1936, a government inspector noted that at the Birtle, Manitoba, school “all the children have good clothes but these are kept for Sundays and
when the children go downtown—in other words when out where they can be seen, they are well dressed.” The General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of
Canada, P2004-09 (63).
are you?’ or ‘25, come here right now!’”19 A student who over and talk to me.’ I asked, ‘Why, I want to talk to you.’
attended the St.-Marc-de-Figuery school in Amos, And he was saying, ‘You’re not supposed to.’ I told him.
Quebec, felt stripped of her identity: “I was number one ‘Why, you are my brother.’ And right away I was taken to
hundred and sixteen. I was trying to find myself; I was the front of the class and I was given the ruler on the palm
lost. I felt like I had been placed in a black garbage bag of my hands.”23
that was sealed. Everything was black, completely black Student life was highly regimented and disciplined.
to my eyes and I wondered if I was the only one to feel “During certain periods of the day we were not allowed
that way.”20 to talk, which only led to hand motions and sneaking
Boys and girls were strictly segregated. After the first around in secrecy.”24 Inez Deiter, who attended the Onion
day of classes, Raphael Ironstand did not see his sister for Lake school in Saskatchewan in the 1930s, recalled, “We
the rest of the year. “I still remember her looking appre- used to have to use this sign language to communicate.”25
hensively over her shoulder as she was led away.”21 At din- A girl from Fort Hope, in northern Ontario, recalled that
nertime on her first day at the Anglican school at Aklavik, in the 1970s, “there seemed to be bells everywhere. There
Alice French, seeing her brother looking lost and lone- was the morning bell at seven, when a nun came into our
some, started over to comfort him, only to be put back dormitory clapping her hands. She would make us say
into line. During the years they spent at the school, they prayers, like Deo Gratias, on our knees beside our beds.
rarely spoke, only shouting out to one another at meal- Then there was a bell for breakfast, one for classes at nine,
time, or on the schoolyard or in the dining hall.22 one for ten when we would play outside, one for lunch,
A girl from the Kamloops school recalled, “I remember and others too. The nun in my class also had a small bell
seeing my brother in the back of the class. I went to talk that she rang to signal us when we should stand up and
to him and he was really nervous. He said, ‘Don’t come sit down.”26
Students outside the school in Shingle Point, Yukon, in approximately 1930. The General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada, P9901-570.
At the Shubenacadie school in Nova Scotia, Rita Joe were fences, beyond which we didn’t set foot. Bells were
was told “when to go to the bathroom, when to eat, when ringing all day long.”33
to do this and that, when to pray. We were even told when Different schools had different policies for family vis-
to yawn and cough. Children can’t help themselves when its. Some had family rooms or porches where parents
they cough, but we were told, ‘Stop your barking!’”27 The could visit their children on weekends. Some parents
feeling of being under constant surveillance continued or grandparents were able to take their children on pic-
for years. It was, former Spanish, Ontario, student Basil nics. However, in other cases, distances were too great,
Johnston concluded, the sort of treatment that would be travel costs too high, and school policy too forbidding for
given to felons. 28
parents to have any contact with their children. In 1919
Children were crushed by loneliness. A note in the Edward Elliot travelled to Kuper Island, British Columbia,
1888 High River school journal said that since he had to see his son. “When I got there I could not see my boy
been enrolled in the school, Lawrence Faber “has done and the priest who was the principal would have noth-
nothing in school for the last few months and cries nearly ing to do with me.”34 Ralph Sandy went to the Kamloops
every day.”29 On arrival at the Onion Lake school, Elise school in the 1940s. To him, “That was the saddest part
Charland had to deal with both her own loneliness and of all, missing your moms and dads. You don’t see them,
that of her younger brother. “There was no one there to maybe, ten months at a time.”35 Letters home—or to any-
help us, to love us, to take us in their arms and take the one else—were read and often censored by teachers.36
hurt and tears away. That loneliness was unbearable. No The Indian Affairs program of studies of 1896 stated:
one cared whether we lived or died.” Former Beauval,
30
“Every effort must be made to induce pupils to speak
Saskatchewan, student Maria Campbell could recall English and to teach them to understand it; unless they
“little from that part of my life besides feeling lonely and do, the whole work of the teacher is likely to be wasted.”37
frightened when I was left with the Sister at the school.”31 The schools had differing language policies over the years,
Another former student said, “Little kids used to be home- but the message most children received was ‘don’t speak
sick for their homes. Oh, yes, they used to cry at night.”32 your own language.’ “If we were heard speaking Shuswap,
Millicent Stonechild felt that living at File Hills was the we were punished. We were made to write on the board
same as being sent to Siberia. “We were so totally isolated one hundred times, ‘I will not speak Indian any more.’”38
in this boarding school. All around the schoolyard, there At Shubenacadie, “The most enduring and unyielding
boys were openly rebellious, many of them stealing or

running away or getting the girls off in some corner alone
with them. Unlike the boys, the female students were
seldom openly rebellious. Instead they were sullen and
depressed.”41
Education: “Lots of copying

and memorizing.”
From the outset, the government’s educational expec-
tations for residential schools were not high. In 1889
Hayter Reed, a future deputy minister of Indian Affairs,
wrote that residential school children should not be edu-
cated to “earn their bread by brain-work rather than by
manual labour.”42 Fifteen years later, Clifford Sifton, the
minister of Indian Affairs, asserted that “the Indian can-
not go out from school, making his own way and com-
pete with the white man.… He has not the physical,
mental or moral get-up to enable him to compete.”43 In
1917 an Indian Affairs official questioned whether the
Fort Providence school in the North-West Territories was
giving students too much education. How much time, he
wondered, was needed to give children “sufficient educa-
tion to fear God, honour the King, and respect the laws of
A mother bringing her children to the St. John’s School in Wabasca,
Alberta, in the 1920s. The General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada,
the country.”44
P75-103 (S8-242). Although students sometimes attended the schools
until well into their teens, it was not until after the Second
law was the one that forbade the speaking of Mi’kmaw World War that the schools began to offer courses at the
even during play.”39 At the St.-Marc-de-Figuery school in high-school level. In 1960 the percentage of First Nations
Amos, Quebec, which did not open until 1955, French was students—in any type of school—who went beyond
the language of instruction. One former student recalled Grade 6 had increased from 3 percent in 1930 to 22 per-
being “forbidden from speaking to my sisters and we were cent. The average for the non-Aboriginal population was
prohibited from speaking our language.”40 37 percent.45 Into the 1960s, the people who ran the sys-
For some, school was exciting, the clothing novel, and tem still saw their goal as overseeing the assimilation of
the food an improvement, but for most students, resi- Aboriginal people, who were viewed as being adrift “in a
dential school was an alien and frightening experience. sea of cultural transition.”46 Nor was there any meaningful
Loneliness and hunger were constants. While many for- Aboriginal curriculum: in 1965 the government acknowl-
mer students point to a teacher who took an interest in edged that any reference to Indians in its curriculum had
them, helping them learn, develop a skill, or excel at a been either romantic or misleading.47
sport, the reality is that, in most schools, there were too few The Lejac, British Columbia, school was typical of
teachers and too many responsibilities. Children rebelled many in the system. Classes were large—between forty
or withdrew into themselves. The schools responded with and fifty students—and included students of all ages.
more rules and more discipline. Given these constraints, teachers fell back on recitation
Mary John’s recollection of the Lejac school captures and drill. Memorization and parroting the “right” answer
the atmosphere that would have been familiar to many were staples of this approach. The school lacked readers,
students: “Within the school itself, the missionaries and textbooks, and a library.48 Florence Bird’s education at
the nuns had to deal with one hundred and eighty Native Holy Angels at Fort Chipewyan in the first decade of the
children who were always hungry, always homesick. The
Sister McQuillan and students at the Fort Resolution, Northwest Territories, school in 1923. Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Archives of Manitoba, 1987/363-I-
47.1/1 (N60-2).
twentieth century was similar: “School in my time was believed the measure was taken because of Raley’s com-
mostly memorizing, not much teaching and talking. Lots mitment to Aboriginal education.53
of copying and memorizing. The sisters were not really The system attracted many idealistic and hard-working
teachers but they did their best.” 49
teachers. Nevertheless, Indian Affairs officials were aware
At Shubenacadie, according to Isabelle Knockwood, that during much of the system’s history, many of the
during tests, “everyone sat at their desks with folded teachers would not have been able to get jobs in the regu-
hands.” Individual students were asked questions that lar school system, and that the churches assigned to resi-
“they answered according to the book. Written tests dential schools people who, as one federal official put it,
or exams were never given.”50 Of her early education at “have not been too successful in other fields of activity.”54
Kamloops, Pauline Arnouse said, “When we couldn’t get For many of the most committed teachers, religion
our additions and subtractions right, I remember her was the fourth “R,” and of greater importance than read-
using the whip on our knuckles. I remember my knuckles ing, writing, or arithmetic. According to Janice Acoose,
being black and blue and sore.”51 At that school, a frus- the daily routine at Cowessess, Saskatchewan, in the
trated Ron Ignace found that the harder he studied, the 1950s was “early rise, prayers, shower and dress, meals
less he learned. “I remember even going to the priest and premised by prayers, school premised by more prayers,
saying, ‘Look father, I really want to learn but my grades rigidly programmed exercise time, catechism instruction
are getting worse, and worse, and worse. I don’t know and bedtime, which was premised by excruciatingly pain-
what to do.’” 52
ful periods of time spent on our knees in prayer circles.”55
George Raley, the principal of the Coqualeetza, British Solomon Pooyak observed, “All we ever got was religion,
Columbia, school, emphasized academic achievement, religion, religion. I can still fall on my knees at seventy-two
ensuring that even under the half-day system, students years of age and not hurt myself because of the training
completed a grade a year. His was the first school to and conditioning I got at Delmas.”56 A former Kamloops
offer Grade 9 on the full-day model. When the govern- student, Cedric Duncan, had a similar memory: “Seemed
ment closed the Coqualeetza school in 1940, many staff like they just wanted us to learn about praying and all that
The message on the blackboard of this Anglican-run school in Lac la Ronge, Saskatchewan, in 1945 is “Thou Shalt Not Tell Lies.” Bud Glunz, National
Film Board of Canada, Photothèque, Library and Archives Canada, PA-134110.
stuff quite a bit. They didn’t really care about our school- prepared lunch for a girl who was returning home for a
work, you know and help us with that.”57 In 1912 a federal funeral. Over the next hour, she woke the rest of the girls,
government Indian agent wrote that teachers tended “to supervised their breakfast, and ensured they took appro-
devote too much time to imparting religious instruction priate medications. By 9:00 she had to get the girls dressed
to the children as compared with the imparting of secular and ready for school, while fitting in a conversation with
knowledge.”58 Attracting and keeping good teachers was two girls who had not been attending scheduled Al-a-
an ongoing problem throughout the system’s history. At teen meetings. With just three and a half hours of break
one point, when public school teachers in the West were scattered throughout the schedule, her workday, which
earning between $500 and $650 a year, Indian Affairs would include two more meals, and the supervision of a
was allowing residential schools $300 a year for teach- study period and of playtime, did not end until the 10:00
ers. In the 1950s, the federal government began hiring
59
p.m. bedtime of the oldest girls.61 In the system’s early days,
and paying teachers directly, leading to long-needed sal- many staff worked year-round without a day off.62
ary improvements. Richard King, who taught at the Choutla school in the
Aside from the low pay, the workloads in the schools Yukon during the 1962–1963 school year, concluded that
were staggering. In the 1920s at Mount Elgin, there were the school’s record-keeping system “would be unaccept-
two teachers and 148 students.60 Sixty years later, the work- able in any well-run stock farm, where at the very least,
day of a childcare worker at the Prince Albert school, who parentage, production records, and performance charac-
was responsible for twenty-four girls ranging in age from teristics of each animal are minimal records to be main-
six to sixteen, started at 6:45 in the morning when she tained.” In the case of one sixteen-year-old girl, who had
Sick student at the Edmonton school (sometime between 1925 to 1935). The United Church of Canada Archives, 93.049P870N.
been at the school for eight years and was still only in the Seven years later, an entry in the school’s journal plain-
fourth grade, her school record consisted of a single page tively read, “A nurse! A nurse! My kingdom for a nurse.”67
of test scores.63 As Bernard Pinay philosophically summed A 1900 report showed that twelve of sixty-six former stu-
up his educational experience, “I have nothing against File dents of the Red Deer school were dead. Three years later,
Hills School. The only thing is I didn’t get much schooling six students at the school died of tuberculosis.68
because I spent a lot of time working on the farm.” 64
Disrupting a people’s relationship with the environ-
ment, and increasing their stress levels, can leave them
susceptible to illness and epidemic. In the 1880s, the
Health: “My kingdom for a nurse.”
Canadian government altered the Aboriginal relationship
During the period the residential schools were in to the environment in western Canada in two profound
operation, no matter how bad health conditions were for ways. First, people who had long been hunters were con-
the general Canadian population, they were worse for fined to reserves where they were expected to become
Aboriginal Canadians. From the outset, death rates at res- peasant farmers. Reserve housing was poor and crowded,
idential schools were high. In the Qu’Appelle school’s first sanitation inadequate, and access to clean water limited.
decade of operation, 174 students (out of a total enrol- Second, many of their children were placed in crowded,
ment of 344) were, to use the school’s term, “discharged.” poorly ventilated residential schools. In these schools,
More than half these students died either at the school students were subjected to the intense stress of separa-
or shortly after being sent home. In 1887 the Battleford tion from their families, and the requirement to learn a
school, down to an enrolment of fifteen, lost two children new language and new culture. The result was tragic: from
to spinal meningitis.65 In 1909, nearly all the High River the 1880s until well into the twentieth century, small-
school’s sixty students were diagnosed with tuberculosis. 66
pox, measles, influenza, dysentery, and tuberculosis cut
a trail of death and suffering through western Canadian said the plan was not realistic.76 Instead of implementing
Aboriginal communities.69 Bryce’s recommendations, Indian Affairs reached an
This trail led to the schools. In 1907 Dr. Peter Bryce, agreement with the churches in 1910 to increase fund-
the chief medical officer for Indian Affairs, published a ing, set standards for diet and ventilation, and ensure that
damning report on the health conditions at boarding sick children were not admitted.77 In 1913 Scott, by then
and residential schools on the Prairies. He was particu- the deputy minister of Indian Affairs, acknowledged in
larly alarmed by the poor air circulation in the thirty-five a review of the department’s first forty-five years that “It
schools he inspected: “with but two or three exceptions is quite within the mark to say that fifty per cent of the
no serious attempt at the ventilation of dormitories or children who passed through these schools did not live
school-rooms has hitherto been made; that the air-space to benefit from the education which they had received
of both is, in the absence of regular and sufficient ven- therein.”78 Yet, shortly after assuming his duties as deputy
tilation, extremely inadequate; that for at least 7 months minister, Scott forced Bryce out of office, and, in 1918, to
in the long winter of the west, double sashes are on the save money, he eliminated the position of medical inspec-
windows in order to save fuel and maintain warmth and tor, leaving the department completely unprepared for
that for some 10 continuous hours children are confined that year’s deadly influenza epidemic.79
in dormitories, the air of which, if pure to start with, has
within 15 minutes become polluted.…”70
“
Bryce asked the principals to conduct surveys on the
health of former students. Only fifteen of the thirty-five
principals submitted the requested information, but the …fifty per cent of the
results painted a devastating picture. According to their
reports, between 1888 and 1905, 1537 students had been children who passed
admitted to their schools. Bryce reported that of this
enrolment, “nearly 25 per cent are dead, of one school through these schools did
with an absolutely accurate statement, 69 percent of ex-
pupils are dead, and that everywhere the almost invari- not live to benefit from the
able cause of death given is tuberculosis.”71 Aside from
the poor condition of the schools, Bryce was alarmed by education which they had
the high number of sick children being admitted to the
schools, where disease, particularly tuberculosis, could received therein.
”
spread quickly to virtually every student.
A 1909 follow-up study of prairie schools was just as
Deputy minister of Indian Affairs, Duncan Campbell Scott, 1913
worrisome: two schools in Alberta, Old Sun and Peigan,
had death rates of 47 percent.72 Similar studies were not
carried out in British Columbia or Ontario, but prob-
lems existed there as well. From 1896 to 1904, as many The 1918–1919 Spanish flu epidemic killed 30,000
as twenty-five children a year were on sick leave at the Canadians, 4000 of whom were Aboriginal.80 Residential
Kuper Island school in British Columbia, which had a schools were hit particularly hard. At the Red Deer school,
maximum enrolment of fifty-eight. By 1905 fifty-five virtually all the staff and students fell ill, and five stu-
of the Coqualeetza school’s 269 former students were dents died. According to the school principal, the lack
dead.73 In 1908 seven of the thirty-one children attending of resources for dealing with the epidemic was “nothing
the Chapleau school in northern Ontario died in a three- less than criminal.”81 To cut costs, the children were
month period, making it all but impossible for the school buried two to a grave.82 At the High River school, where
to recruit new students.74 the entire school was struck down, the principal and three
Bryce recommended that he be given control over cer- students died.83 In British Columbia, all the students at
tain schools, and that there be a significant improvement the Coqualeetza, Kitamaat, and St. Mary’s schools came
in the care given to sick students.75 Duncan Campbell down with the flu.84 Similar tales could be told of most
Scott, the Indian Affairs superintendent of education, other schools.
In his 1907 report on health conditions in residential schools, Dr. Peter Bryce noted that the Red Deer, Alberta, school had the worst mortality rate
of the industrial schools he had examined. In the 1906-07 school year, six children died at the school. These sorts of results led Bryce to title his
1922 booklet on Aboriginal health in Canada The Story of a National Crime. The United Church of Canada Archives, 93.049P843N. (19--?)
Although the death rates fell in the following years, wash the dishes, then sent back to bed as soon as they had
there are no clear records as to how many children died completed their work.”90 As late as 1959, crowded condi-
while attending residential schools, and the total may tions at Stringer Hall, the Anglican residence in Inuvik,
reach into the thousands.85 As at Red Deer, many chil- caused an outbreak of measles to spread quickly through
dren were buried in school cemeteries. In some cases, the dormitories.91
parents never were told what had become of their chil- Aboriginal health care was never a priority. Tuberculosis
dren. The memoirs of former residential school students among Aboriginal people largely was ignored until it
are filled with remembrances of death and disease. In the threatened the general population.92 In 1937 Dr. H.W.
late 1870s, Charles Nowell watched a girl he had fallen in McGill, the director of Indian Affairs, sent out an instruc-
love with die of whooping cough at the Alert Bay school.86 tion that Indian health-care services “must be restricted
In the 1920s, Edward Ahenakew wrote, “Again and again to those required for the safety of limb, life or essential
I have seen children come home from boarding schools function.” Hospital care was to be limited, spending on
only to die, having lost during their time at school all drugs cut in half, and sanatoria and hospital treatment for
the natural joys of the association with their own fami- chronic tuberculosis eliminated.93 Not until the 1940s was
lies, victims of an educational policy, well-meant but not there an improvement in government medical services to
over-wise.”87 Aboriginal people.94
Eleanor Brass attributed the death of one of her Chronic underfunding and overcrowding undermined
brothers in the early twentieth century at the File Hills, the health of students attending residential schools.
Saskatchewan, school to neglect.88 Earl Maquinna George, School principals, doctors, and Indian Affairs officials
who attended the Ahousaht school in British Columbia in regularly ignored regulations prohibiting the admission
the 1930s, recalled “a time when the school had a measles of infected children. Inspections were limited and irregu-
epidemic, and the whole 200 kids except one, a teenage lar, and violations of regulations regarding overcrowding
girl, were put to bed. Miss Reed and this one young girl and poor diet rarely were addressed properly. All these
together looked after all the 200 kids who were in sick circumstances contributed to the spread of infectious
bay.” In the 1940s, every student and staff member at
89
illnesses and diseases.95 Aboriginal children, who were
the St. Phillip’s Anglican school on James Bay was stricken supposed to be protected by the Canadian government,
with influenza. Jane Willis recalled: “The older girls were were, in fact, underfed, poorly housed, and overworked,
dragged out of bed every day to prepare the meals and for decades.
The Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan, school dining room in 1900. In 1891, when the government accused the churches of spending too much on food,
Qu’Appelle school principal Father Joseph Hugonnard responded that, at the end of a meal, students would complain “they had not had enough
to eat and upon enquiry have found that it was never without good reason.” St. Boniface Historical Society Archives: Father Joseph Hugonard, Oblates of Mary
Immaculate Fonds, SHSB 23107.
Hunger: “The first and the last to 1959, was haunted by the same memories as Frederick
Loft and George Manuel. “I always felt hungry. We didn’t
thing I can remember.”
get big helpings of food. There wasn’t much variety.”98
Frederick Loft, who went on to establish the League of Pauline Creeley recalled that at File Hills, “We were
Indians of Canada, one of the first Canadian Aboriginal hungry all the time.” Porridge with skim milk was the
political organizations, attended the Mohawk Institute in standard breakfast. “At dinnertime, we’d have some kind
Brantford, Ontario, in 1873. Many years later, he wrote, of mush, a stew of some sort, a pudding and a slice of
“I recall the times when working in the fields, I was actu- bread, no butter. At suppertime, we’d have the same kind
ally too hungry to be able to walk, let alone work.”96 Fifty of mush, some vegetables.99 Magee Shaw’s memories of
years later, George Manuel, who eventually helped found breakfast at Saskatchewan’s St. Bernard school were of
the National Indian Brotherhood and the World Council “porridge, no milk, no sugar and you were always sitting
of Indigenous Peoples, attended the Kamloops school. in silence in a big room.”100 Theresa Meltenberger, who
Of his time there, he wrote, “Hunger is both the first and spent five years at Lac la Biche in the 1930s and 1940s,
the last thing I can remember about that school.… Every recalled, “The mainstay of our diet was a porridge which
Indian student smelled of hunger.”97 It was a problem was actually cracked wheat that sat on the back of the
that refused to go away. Mabel James, a student at the St. stove all night, ended up with a bunch of lumps and kind
Michael’s school at Alert Bay, British Columbia, from 1951 of slimy. I couldn’t swallow it, so for the most part my
The dining room of the Edmonton residential school (sometime between 1925 and 1936). The United Church of Canada Archives, 93.049P871N.
mornings were spent in front of my bowl of porridge—to Arctic char, “they left the guts in the artic char so that food
this day I can’t look porridge in the face.”101 just tasted horrible. And yet we had to eat it. We had no
Beans were such a staple of residential school meals other choice but to eat the arctic char with guts.”106
that some Métis students in Alberta found themselves At the Fort Alexander school in Manitoba, Phil Fontaine,
being labelled “mission beans.” 102
Geraldine Schroeder the future National Chief of the Assembly of First Nations,
remembered that at Kamloops, the younger students often refused to eat. “As a result of that I started being
cleaned the dry beans and sometimes did not remove all called ‘King’. King was something that wasn’t acceptable
the stones. “You know how you’re eating and all of sudden in there. If kids didn’t like the food it was thrown on the
you’d bite down on a rock and it would crack a tooth.” 103
floor. I was forced to eat off the floor a couple of times
Not only were they hungry, many students had diffi- and the kids were told to watch the King eat, so the King
culty adjusting to a diet that was different from what they ate. I felt horrible and humiliated. Eating became a real
were used to at home. At Lejac, Mary John “missed the psychological terror.”107
roast moose, the dried beaver meat, the fish fresh from a The residential schools were meant to be self-
frying pan, the warm bread and bannock and berries. Oh, supporting. For much of their history, the older boys at
how I missed the food I used to have in my own home.”104 the schools spent a good part of each day farming. In
The children coming to residential school had little expo- some cases, the land was poor, the weather was bad,
sure to cooked vegetables, macaroni, eggs, cheese, or pro- and the boys simply too young to farm successfully. But
cessed meats. As a student at the Roman Catholic school in other cases, to raise money, the schools sold a portion
at Aklavik, six-year-old Anthony Thrasher was not used of the food the students had raised. At the Lytton school
to cooked food, and, along with other boys, would sneak in British Columbia, butter from the creamery was sold
into the kitchen to steal frozen meat to eat. When one of with the vegetables and fruit the school farm produced,
the nuns realized that the boys liked raw frozen meat, she and at Carcross school, milk and eggs were sold to the
used to give it to them as treats. 105
local community.108 In many schools, milk was separated
Peter Irniq (who became the Commissioner of and the cream was sold, leaving the students to drink the
Nunavut), originally from Repulse Bay (now Naujaat), skimmed milk. One government inspector thought stu-
recalled the food at Turquetil Hall in Chesterfield Inlet dent health would be improved by simply banning cream
on Hudson Bay as “terrible.” Although school staff served
Staff and students making butter at the Old Sun School in Alberta, in 1945. The General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada, P7538 (1006).
separators from the schools and allowing the children to home-made blueberry pies—and we’d get to be a family
drink whole milk.109 for an hour.”115 At Christmas and Easter, George Manuel’s
Not surprisingly, students began to fend for themselves. grandparents would visit, bringing “deer meat and ban-
At prairie schools such as File Hills, the boys would trap nock and other real food you could get full on.”116
gophers and roast them over open fires to supplement their Memories of illicitly taking food from the kitchen, the
diets, occasionally sharing these treats with the girls.110 At storeroom, or the garden run through residential school
the Anglican school at Aklavik, students were given musk- memoirs. In the 1910s, File Hill students discovered bar-
rat traps. They were allowed to keep the money they raised rels of apples in the school attic that were meant for the
from selling the furs, while the meat was served, roasted, at staff. Over time, the students worked their way through
the school.111 Kamloops was one of the schools where stu- the barrel. When the deed was discovered, the students
dents supplemented their diets with dandelion roots, rose- were strapped and sent to bed without a meal.117 William
buds, and green leaves. These were acts of desperation, not Brewer could recall risking a strapping by going down to
a return to traditional diets. 112
If they were burning weeds the root cellar to take apples at Kamloops. “They were
and leaves, students might throw a few potatoes in the good. When you’re hungry, anything’s good.”118 Ralph
bonfire on the sly, in hopes of getting a half-cooked potato Sandy echoed this sentiment: “In order to survive in that
when the fire burned down.113 At the United Church school school we had to learn how to steal, too. If you didn’t steal,
in Edmonton, prairie boys taught Art Collison, who was boy I’m telling you, you’d starve.”119 In the 1960s, a group
from British Columbia, to hunt with homemade slingshots. of older boys began to take food from the kitchen and
“When we were hungry we would hunt for rabbits and later distribute it to other students at the Kamloops school.
roast them over an open fire before eating them. We also According to a former Kamloops student, “We would
boiled the rabbits and porcupine in a one-gallon pail on an break into that kitchen and lock it up the same way we
open fire and this was our Indian treat.”114 broke in. We would get oranges, apples, and all these
For many students, the only memories they have of other goodies. We would sneak down to those kids, give
being well fed are associated with visits from their parents. them an apple and tell them to eat everything right to the
Isabelle Knockwood, at the Shubenacadie school in Nova core.”120 Even at far northern Aklavik, the principal kept a
Scotia, recalled the relief she felt “every Sunday when vegetable garden the students would raid, at the risk of a
Mom and Dad came to see us and brought food—mostly spanking.121
The Elkhorn, Manitoba, school kitchen staff in the 1930s. The General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada, P7538 (902).
In 1904 an Indian Affairs study showed that students According to Christine Haines, “they gave me rotten food
at the Regina school were not being fed according to the to eat and punished me for not eating it—the meat and
government’s allowance, while the principal was buying soup were rotten and tasted so bad they made the girls
luxury foods including sardines, lemons, oranges, choco- sick.”127 The dead boy’s father said his son had run away
lates, and canned salmon. 122
Although most staff did not the previous year because “he did not get sufficient food
eat luxury food, many students recalled that the staff was and that they whipped him too much.”128
better fed than the students. John PeeAce, a former stu- These are not just childhood memories of children sick
dent at the Lestock school in Saskatchewan, remembered for home and their mothers’ cooking. Dietary studies car-
“walking past the staff dining room and noticing that they ried out by agencies such as the Red Cross in the 1940s
were having steak and chicken. It looked like a king’s feast. confirm the students’ recollections.129 Furthermore,
We had baloney sandwiches.” 123
the inadequate quality and amount of food available
The quality of the food improved when outside inspec- at the residential schools was an acknowledged prob-
tors and other visitors were present. A Métis student lem from the very beginning. In 1897 Indian Affairs offi-
from Alberta recalled, “The welfare was coming this one cial Martin Benson described the food at one school as
time, they used to put tablecloths on the table and give “monotonous,”130 and fifty years later, another inspector,
us bacon and eggs to make it look like it was really good A. McCready, found the food at eight schools inadequate
food, you know.”124 In his memoir of his days at the boys’ in both quantity and quality.131 In 1918 an Indian agent,
school in Spanish, Ontario, Basil Johnston wrote of how, J. Smith, described the meal at the Kamloops school as
in the presence of outside inspectors, the boys got but- “very slim for growing boys.”132 The government not only
ter rather than lard, the soup seemed thicker, and boiled was aware of the problems, it was aware of their conti-
eggs accompanied the mush. When they explained to the nuity. A 1945 nutritional study of the Spanish, Ontario,
inspectors that this was not their regular fare, they were school commented on the “unusually large quantities of
not believed.125 beans which they consumed every other day.”133 During
At the 1902 inquest into the case of a boy who froze the 1940s, the Canadian Red Cross conducted a number
to death after running away from the Williams Lake, of surveys of food quality at the residential schools, and
British Columbia, school, several students testified they concluded the food at the Chapleau school in northern
had run away because the food at the school was poor. Ontario was “distinctly unpalatable,”134 while at Mount
Ellen Charlie described the food as being “fit only for pigs, Elgin, meals were “simply appalling.”135 In 1956 limited
the meat was rotten, and had a bad smell and taste.” 126
rations at the Moose Fort school in northern Ontario had
Students at All Saints School in Lac la Ronge, Saskatchewan, carrying wood in the 1920s. The General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada, P7538 (231).
led to embarrassing reports of children scavenging for Work: “Worked too hard
food in garbage cans.136
and taught too little.”
Some students had more positive memories. Edna
Gregoire, who went to the Kamloops school in the 1930s, For most of their history, residential schools depended
said “the food was nice, we had home-baked bread, and on student labour to survive. Until the 1950s, the schools
they would make toast out of it, and they had cereal in ran on what was called the “half-day system.” Under this
the morning with nice fresh milk, because they had milk system, the older students spent half a day in class, while
cows there. So I was happy with the food.”137 At times, the other half was supposed to be spent in vocational
improvements were made. In Alice Blondin-Perrin’s opin- training. In reality, this training often simply amounted to
ion, the meals improved dramatically when the students free labour for the school. The girls prepared the meals, did
were transferred from the dilapidated St. Joseph’s school the cleaning, and made and repaired much of the student
at Fort Resolution to the brand-new Breynat Hall at Fort clothing. The boys farmed, raised animals, did repairs,
Smith in the Northwest Territories in 1957. “The din- ran tailor shops, and made and repaired shoes. In many
ners were always delicious, with mashed potatoes, meat, cases, the students were not learning, but performing the
meatloaf, or fish, and vegetables. I could now eat cooked same laborious tasks again and again.
carrots, beets, turnips, and peas which I used to hate the Government inspectors were well aware of this prob-
taste of, but now loved.” 138
In the 1970s, Nathan Matthew, lem. An 1893 report on the Rupert’s Land school in
a Secwepemc (Shuswap) man, became a senior admin- Middlechurch, Manitoba, describes the students as being
istrator of the Kamloops residence, and initiated what simply “drudges to the staff.”140 Four years later, an inspec-
former students recalled as a “revolution” in the dining tor said the half-day system was “very tiring for any but the
hall. According to Eddy Jules, “In three days he changed grown up pupils.”141 In 1918 the same official said students
that place just like you would snap your fingers. We were were “worked too hard and taught too little.”142 In 1902
having waffles and boiled eggs, bacon and eggs, you name it was observed that while the students at Mount Elgin
it. We thought we had just died and went to heaven. Milk were working hard, they were not learning any skills.143 At
was real milk, you know. It was wild, it was totally wild, Coqualeetza, British Columbia, in 1906, the school matron
he was a godsend. To this day I have so much respect for complained that due to a lack of staff, the children were
that man.” 139 being taken out of class to do drudge work.144
The laundry room of the Brandon, Manitoba, school in 1946. National Film Board of Canada, Photothèque, Library and Archives Canada, PA-048572.
In Saskatchewan, Indian Commissioner W.A. Graham work. In 1945 Mount Elgin principal Reverend S.H. Soper
concluded that by 1916, the Qu’Appelle school had pointed out that most of the students were under ten years
become little more than a workhouse. Over a forty-two- of age. It was impossible, he wrote, “for these wee children
day period, the boys had attended class for only nine days, to earn” what was needed to feed and clothe and warm
spending the rest of their time in the field.145 Fourteen themselves, and pay for repairs to farm equipment.149
years later, he observed that at two Alberta schools, “The The limited farm training the students received often
boys are being made slaves of, working too long hours and was not appropriate for finding work when they returned
not receiving the close supervision they should have.”146 home. For example, schools in British Columbia provided
The students were aware they were being worked, little training in fishing, even though many Aboriginal
not trained. Of his days at the Kamloops school, George communities had active fisheries. Parents from north-
Manuel said, “Industrial training consisted of doing all the ern Manitoba complained their children were not getting
kinds of manual labour that are commonly done around the training they would need to hunt and trap. As Martin
a farm, except that we did not have the use of the equip- Benson, an Indian Affairs education official, observed,
ment that even an Indian farmer of those days would the schools were actually making it harder for students to
have been using.”147 Clayton Mack attended the Alert Bay earn a living.150 At some schools, it was not uncommon to
school in the 1920s. In addition to caring for the livestock, keep female students on after they had graduated, until a
he “also helped look after the farm, helped with the pota- suitable marriage had been arranged. During this period,
toes, and helped cut the hay. I tried to go to school but they became full-time unpaid staff.151
there was not enough time. I worked most of the time. I The girls were worked hard as well. At the Lejac School,
went to Alert Bay for school and instead they put me in a the girls spent most of the afternoons in the sewing room.
job!”148 Schools often competed for older students. When In the 1927–1928 school year, they made 293 dresses, 191
they could not get them, they put the younger students to aprons, 296 pairs of drawers, 301 chemises, and 600 pairs
In 1924 an Indian Agent in northern Manitoba said that a boy at the Mackay school in The Pas had been beaten “black from neck to his buttocks.”
The General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada, P7538-954.
of socks.152 From the age of fourteen, Rita Joe spent much Despite the fact that the half-day system was brought
of her time working in the kitchen at the Shubenacadie to an end in the 1950s, many schools retained their farm
school. “For that, you had to get up at four in the morn- operations for several years. Its legacy was lasting: poorly
ing. We’d bake bread and—oh my God—every second day housed and poorly nourished young students spent their
we’d bake about thirty-five or forty loaves. Holy Lord! And time doing back-breaking, monotonous work to support
we made soup in a huge pot that was very high and very schools that could not afford to educate them or train
round. We’d make porridge in the morning, in a big, big them. The experience of one former student, Solomon
porridge pot and we’d boil over two hundred eggs. It was Johnston, speaks for thousands: “We cut wood, picked
a lot of hard work that we did in the kitchen and the cook stones—all the worst jobs. We didn’t learn anything. We
could be cruel.”153 Domestic work could be dangerous. At didn’t know anything. I read only a little now.”157
Shubenacadie in 1930, two girls were taken to hospital
when a dough mixer they were cleaning was started. In
Discipline: “He never should have
1941 a girl at the same school was hospitalized when her
hand was caught in a laundry wringer.154 gotten a licking like that.”
For boys, the one advantage of fieldwork was that In 1887 High River school principal Father Charles
they were not supervised closely. They could speak their Claude reported that to impose order at the school, he
own language and be with their friends.155 Arthur Ledoux had resorted to a system of military discipline, under
recalled that during the planting and harvest seasons in which no breach of regulations went unpunished.158
Saskatchewan, “we were often obliged to spend the whole Those who violated the rules were subject to solitary
day at our work place, usually a welcome relief from the confinement, the withholding of food, and, if necessary,
drudgery of classroom studies. Some of my fondest mem- beatings.159 This regime was not out of step with an 1899
ories to this day are from the time spent working with my federal government directive that “corporal punishment
friends at the residence.”156
In 1934 the Shubenacadie principal had nineteen students flogged following a theft at the school. A judicial inquiry supported the principal’s
actions. Nova Scotia Museum: Ethnology Collection.
should only be resorted to in extreme cases. In ordinary However, the residential schools bore a closer resem-
cases the penalty might be solitary confinement for such blance to schools for neglected, truant, or incorrigible
time as the offence may warrant, or deprivation of certain children than to public schools. In the early twentieth
articles of food allowed to other pupils.”160 A similar 1895 century, boys who ran away from the Vancouver industrial
guideline had warned that corporal punishment should school were flogged. Runaways from the Halifax school
be administered only by the principal, should not include were strapped, and repeat offenders were placed in cells,
blows to the head, and should not result in bodily harm. 161
and fed bread and water.163 In the 1890s, there was a pun-
Over the system’s history, several directives on disci- ishment room at the Mohawk Institute that measured
pline were issued. Despite this, the federal government six feet by ten feet, with one small light over the door.164
showed limited interest in enforcing these guidelines. As In 1902 students at the Williams Lake residential school
a result, discipline in schools often exceeded the govern- might be placed in a small room, and put on a bread-and-
ment’s guidelines. water diet for a few hours or up to twelve days.165
Corporal punishment was not uncommon in the nine- Even in an era when it commonly was held that to
teenth-century and even twentieth-century Canadian spare the rod was to spoil the child, many people consid-
school system. In the 1880s, there were sixty strappings ered the residential schools’ discipline to be unnecessar-
a month at Ottawa’s Central School East. At the Jesse ily harsh. In 1896 an Indian agent said the behaviour of a
Ketchum public school in Toronto, “fighting, misbehaving teacher at the Red Deer school “would not be tolerated in
in line, lying, eating in school, neglecting to correct wrong a white school for a single day in any part of Canada.” The
work, shooting peas in the classroom, going home when agent was so alarmed by the teacher’s behaviour that he
told to remain, long continued carelessness and general kept a boy out of the school for fear he would be abused.166
bad conduct” could fetch a student between four and In 1914 a court in Brantford fined the principal of the
twelve strokes on the palm of the hand.162 Mohawk Institute $400 for confining two runaway girls in
a cell for two days, and whipping one of them.167
These were not isolated events. A nurse found boys were shackled to their beds.174 In 1941 a boy who had run
chained to benches for punishment at the Crowfoot away from the Gordon’s school in Saskatchewan, for fear
school in 1921,168 and at the Ahousaht school in the 1930s, of the principal, died of exposure.175
an inspector reported that each member of the staff car- Upon their return, runaways often had their heads
ried a strap.169 At the Calgary school, all the students were shaved. At the Shubenacadie school, girls checked at
put on bread and water in the early twentieth century mealtimes to see if their brothers or cousins had been
when a laundress’s moccasins disappeared (only to be punished. According to Isabelle Knockwood, “You should
found under a pile of magazines in her room a few days have seen the look on the faces of the sisters and cousins
later).170 of the boys who walked in that refectory with bald heads.
In 1934 a group of boys stole some money from a cash- It was awful having to watch them holding back the tears
box at the Shubenacadie school in Nova Scotia. Following and the hurt of not being able to help—or even talk to
a school investigation, nineteen boys were flogged with them.”176 Raphael Ironstand recalled the shame of those
whose heads had been shaved for speaking Cree in the
1950s. “Even though they wore scarves and toques to hide
“
their heads, the tears were streaming down their faces.
They were so embarrassed, they kept their heads bowed
It was awful having to watch and eyes looking at the floor.”177

Bedwetting was treated cruelly. In 1907 a boy who had
them holding back the tears been beaten for bedwetting ran away from the Norway
House school. According to an Indian Affairs official, his
and the hurt of not being feet were badly frozen, and it might have been necessary
to amputate some toes.178 Abraham Ruben had terrible
able to help—or even talk nightmares on his first night at the Grollier Hall Residence
in Inuvik. In the morning, he found he had wet his bed.
to them. When a nun discovered what he had done, Ruben said

she slapped him in the face, and called him “a dirty pig.”179
”
Isabelle Knockwood, former student
Mabel James’s saddest memory of St. Michael’s school
“was to watch my cousin Mary and others get a spank-
ing because of wetting the bed. They stood in line for a
spanking with a hairbrush. They held their bundle of wet
a seven-thonged strap made from harness leather. Most sheets under their arm.”180 These punishments continued
were then put on a bread-and-water diet for three days. A through the system’s history. One boy recalled that when
judicial inquiry, appointed in response to parental com- he came to the Kamloops school in 1969, “I started wet-
plaints, excused the principal’s behaviour, even though, ting the bed. What was really bad about it was I couldn’t
months later, many of the boys still bore bruises on their stop. I wanted to. I tried everything. They would take our
backs. 171
sheets and wrap them around our heads and make us
Harsh discipline prompted children to run away, often walk past all the other kids.”181
at great risk to themselves. The coroner investigating the There are also many accounts of teachers striking
deaths of four boys who ran away from the Lejac school in students with rulers and pointers in the classroom. One
British Columbia in 1937 called for an end to the school’s Métis student from Alberta was daydreaming when “I was
“excessive corporal punishment.”172 brought to my senses with a yardstick smashed across
Runaways were subject to punishment and humili- my back, just right about where my shoulders are.”182 At
ation. In 1907 the principal of the Crowstand school in St. Philip’s School in Fort George, Quebec, a frail-looking
Saskatchewan caught a group of runaway boys, tied their teacher was adept at rousing inattentive students with a
hands together, and forced them to run behind his buggy quick rap on the knuckles with her ruler.183 At Kamloops,
back to the school.173 Runaways from St. George’s in British Janie Marchand recalled how a beloved teacher was
Columbia were chained together and forced to run back replaced with one who “was mean, you couldn’t do any-
to school ahead of the principal. In other cases, runaways thing, she’d whack you. Oh, she always had a little stick.”184
Simon Baker and his friends ran away from the Lytton, British Columbia, school after witnessing a friend being beaten with a leather strap.
According to Baker, “Maybe he did a naughty thing, but he never should have gotten a licking like that.” Department of Mines and Technical Surveys, Library
and Archives Canada, PA-020080.
Ear pulling was another common form of discipline; agent reported that a boy at the Anglican school in The
according to a former Shubenacadie student, “Jesus! I Pas had been beaten “black from neck to his buttocks.”189
used to hate them earpulls—your ear would feel like it The lack of support from Ottawa led Graham to complain
was going to pop off—it would hurt right in the centre that there was no point in reporting abuses since the
core. They used to like to pull ears and twist.”185 In 1912 at department was too willing to accept whatever excuses
Round Lake school, the principal’s wife, who was working the principals offered up.190
as the matron, struck a girl so hard in the ear she was In the 1940s, discipline at the Brandon school was a
knocked to the floor. A church investigation concluded constant source of complaint. On one occasion, four girls
that neither the principal nor his wife could control their froze their feet in an attempt to escape the school. Parents
tempers. 186
in Saskatchewan, alarmed by reports of harsh discipline
For much of the period the schools operated, the fed- at the school, stopped sending their children there in
eral government did not provide clear direction on dis- protest. When the department sent out an inspector to
cipline. By the 1930s, when a principal wrote to Indian discover why children kept on running away from the
Affairs looking for such direction, the department was school, the principal prevented him from speaking to
forced to admit that while it had issued a circular on dis- staff members in private, and allowed him to speak only
cipline several years earlier, it could not find a current to handpicked students. An Indian Affairs inspector even-
copy of it.187 On occasion, Indian Affairs officials thought tually concluded that the principal was an aggressive,
their superiors were not prepared to take on the churches aloof disciplinarian. Even as the complaints continued to
when principals were found to be using too much force. pile up, the principal, who had been the subject of com-
In 1919, when a boy who ran away from the Anglican plaints when he was principal of the Mount Elgin school,
Old Sun school was shackled to his bed and beaten with remained in office until 1955—when the church simply
a horsewhip until his back bled, Indian Commissioner transferred him to a new school.191
W.A. Graham tried, without success, to have the princi- Such policy as existed was usually reactive. In 1947 a
pal fired. 188
In 1924 no action was taken when the Indian serious beating given to a student at the Morley school
In the 1940s parents in Saskatchewan refused to send their children to the Brandon school because they felt their children were being mistreated
at the school. National Film Board of Canada, Photothèque, Library and Archives Canada, PA-048560.
in Alberta led Indian Affairs to issue a policy directive on Abuse: “I felt so dirty.”
corporal punishment, which set out the type of strap that
In October 1990, Phil Fontaine, the Grand Chief of the
could be used, the number of blows that could be admin-
Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, called for a national inquiry
istered (no more than four per hand for students over
into the residential school system. His call garnered
fourteen), who could strap students, and a requirement
national attention, particularly because he spoke of the
that punishment be recorded.192
sexual abuse he had experienced as a student at the Fort
This new policy did not prevent continued abuses. In
Alexander school in Manitoba. When asked how extensive
1953 two boys who ran away from the Birtle school were
that abuse had been, he replied, “If we took an example,
beaten badly. The Indian Affairs inspector of schools
my Grade 3 class, if there were twenty boys in this particu-
thought the principal had overstepped his bounds, but
lar class, every single one of the twenty would have expe-
his behaviour was excused on the grounds that he had
rienced what I experienced.” Chief Fontaine also spoke
to make an example of the boys, since they had been
of the physical abuse many students had undergone, and
caught running away.193 A decade later, the principal at
the way the schools deprived children of their culture.
Cecilia Jeffrey school in northwestern Ontario was lock-
Most tellingly, he spoke of how that abuse had had last-
ing runaways in a room with only a mattress, taking away
ing impacts on his life and the lives of all other former
all their clothing (save their underwear), and putting
students. His coming forward, he hoped, would make it
them on a bread-and-milk diet. Students such as Pearl
easier for others to talk about their experiences.195
Achneepineskum have strong memories of corporal pun-
Aboriginal people had been raising concerns about
ishment at Cecilia Jeffrey during this period: “I knew the
residential schools since the Canadian government and
strap, because a man strapped me with the same one
the leading Christian churches of the day established
across my bare buttocks ten times because I made a noise
the schools in the nineteenth century. However, until
after the lights were out.”194
Chief Fontaine spoke out, that criticism largely had been
ignored. His statement also gave support to an Aboriginal
movement for justice that had been building since the
1980s. In 1994 the Assembly of First Nations released
In 1990 Phil Fontaine, the Grand Chief of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs, drew national attention to the residential school issue by speaking of
the abuse he and his fellow students had undergone at the Fort Alexander, Manitoba, school. Provincial Archives of Manitoba, N14950.
Breaking the Silence: An Interpretive Study of Residential despite the fact they had forced him earlier to leave one of
School Impact and Healing as Illustrated by the Stories of their missions due to sexual misbehaviour. An Anglican
First Nation Individuals. Starting in the mid-1990s, for- pastor accused L’Heureux of “practicing immorality of a
mer students began making legal claims for compensa- most beastly type” while he was the school recruiter.199
tion for abuse experienced while they were at the schools. In 1899 the principal of the Rupert’s Land school was
By 2002 over 12,000 former students had filed claims.196 dismissed following complaints from members of the
Until recently, public discussion of the sexual abuse St. Peter’s Band in Manitoba that he was kissing the girls
of children, particularly of vulnerable children in institu- (as well as beating other students).200 Fifteen years later,
tions such as orphanages, residential schools, or jails, has Oblate official Henri Grandin accused High River princi-
been rare. The official records of the residential school pal George Nordmann of neglecting his duties “in order to
system make little reference to incidents of such abuse. play with little girls in your room, or to read magazines.”201
The victims often had no one to turn to, and the perpetra- Although the Crowstand school principal fired the
tors were the very people who held authority over every farm instructor in 1914 for having sexual intercourse with
aspect of their lives. In many cases, their parents either female students in his room and the dormitory, there were
feared or respected the church officials who ran the other cases where abuse was tolerated.202 At the Cecilia
schools. For example, after his first year at Grollier Hall in Jeffrey school in northwestern Ontario, in 1922, students
Inuvik, Abraham Ruben told his mother about the abuse complained to the assistant matron that the principal
and beatings there. Outraged, she took her concerns had “put their hands under his clothing” and was in the
to the local priest, who reassured her the children were habit of kissing them.203 Following complaints from the
being well taken care of at the school. 197
local First Nation, Indian Affairs concluded the principal
Evidence of the problem was there from the beginning. should be replaced. The Presbyterian Church argued that
In 1868 charges of sexually violating two students were to dismiss him at that point would be seen by the band
laid against the principal of the Anglican orphanage at as a “direct result of their appeal to the Department.” To
Great Bear Lake in Rupert’s Land, leading to the orphan- allow the church to save face, the principal continued in
age’s closure. 198
In 1884 the Oblates hired Jean L’Heureux the job for another six months.204
to recruit the first students to attend the High River school,
The principal of the Rupert’s Land school in Manitoba was fired in 1899 after he was accused of kissing female students. Provincial Archives of
Manitoba, N16969.
It was difficult for students to have their concerns Not all students report such abuse. Ben Stonechild
taken seriously. When Rita Arey complained that a well- attended the File Hills school in Saskatchewan until its
liked priest in the Northwest Territories had been grab- closure in 1949. According to him, “We weren’t molested
bing her and rubbing up against her when he passed by, in any way at the schools. It wasn’t like the stories you
she was told “it was just his way.”205 When a female stu- hear at other places.”208
dent who had been sexually assaulted by a staff member The church and government preferred to deal with
at the Kamloops school reported the matter to a supervi- these matters as quietly as possible. When they took
sor, she met with a priest who, she recounts, told her to action, dismissal—or, in some cases, transfers—rather
keep quiet about the assault. When the abuse resumed than prosecution of individuals was the norm. The lack of
several months later, she and a number of girls banded publicity often made it possible for a dismissed abuser to
together. “We made a plan that all ten of us would stick find work at another school in another part of the country.
together and not leave each other anymore. If we hung If the abuser held a position of authority in the school, he
out together no one would bother us, so that’s what we or she might preside over a reign of terror. For example,
did, because none of us were allowed to speak.” 206
At Fort as the director of the Gordon residential school from 1968
Alexander in the 1950s, younger boys were sent to one of to 1984, William Penniston Starr instituted a system of
the priests for what was termed “ménage,” during which rewards and punishments as part of his systematic sexual
he would wash their genitals. Ted Fontaine recalled that abuse of boys between the ages of seven and fourteen. In
the practice did not end until “we became older and big- 1993 he was convicted on ten counts of abuse.209
ger, and our determination to threaten, maim, hurt or Although there had been the occasional prosecu-
even kill our tormentors gave us the power to refuse the tion in the past, it was not until the late 1980s that the
treatment.”207 courts caught up with many predators. In 1988 Derek
In 1998 three Grollier Hall staff members in Inuvik, Northwest Territories, were convicted of sexually abusing students. Northwest Territories Archives,
Jerome, N-1987-017: 2241.
Clarke, a former employee of the Lytton residential school from bullying and beating to sexual abuse. The extent
in British Columbia, pleaded guilty to sexual abuse of such abuse in the residential school system has yet to
charges. In 1995 the Royal Canadian Mounted Police be explored.
initiated an investigation into all residential schools in In some schools, a culture of abuse permeated the
British Columbia. By 2003, it had investigated over 900 entire institution. Within a week of his arrival at residen-
abuse claims. Fourteen charges were laid, and jail sen- tial school, seven-year-old Greg Murdock from Fisher
tences were imposed on eight former staff.210 The staff River, Manitoba, was raped by a group of older boys. When
had worked at the Roman Catholic schools at Williams he reported the assault to the school staff, the boys beat
Lake, Kuper Island, and Lower Post; the Anglican school him, and subjected him to another assault. Concluding
at Lytton; and the United Church school at Port Alberni. that the school could not protect him, he simply stopped
In addition, former staff at the Roman Catholic Grollier reporting further abuse.212 Where a climate of abuse
Hall in Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, the Anglican existed, bullying was another common problem. Simon
school at Pelican Lake, the Roman Catholic school at St. Baker, who went to the Lytton school in British Columbia,
Anne in Ontario, and the Roman Catholic Coudert Hall wrote: “When I was young, I sometimes got beat up by the
in Whitehorse, Yukon, also have been convicted on inde- older boys for something they said I did wrong.”213 Shirley
cent assault charges. 211
In many other instances, cases did Bear remembered the All Saints school in Prince Albert as
not proceed because the alleged perpetrators had died or an unhappy place. “I was shocked by all the fighting and
because, with the passage of time, government lawyers bullying that went on. I learned to keep my mouth shut
concluded there was insufficient evidence on which to when I knew who did things they were not supposed to
base a prosecution. do.”214 One seven-year-old student at Williams Lake was
Overall, the residential school system often amounted beaten and assaulted by other students in a toilet stall. “I
to a system of institutionalized child neglect, com- remember feeling the ugliness. I guess at that time I didn’t
pounded by the behaviour of specific individuals who understand what it was, but it hurt and I felt so dirty.”
used their authority and the isolation of the schools to Upon telling the principal what happened, the student
physically and sexually abuse those in their care. Within was told to ask for forgiveness.215 At the Grouard school
this context, students could be prey not only to abuse in Alberta, it seemed to one student that everyone always
from staff, but also from older or better organized stu- was fighting. “You were always caged around by a big ten-
dents. Abuse of students by other students could range foot-high fence. You’re sort of caged animals, I guess.”216
Following the conviction of a former dormitory supervisor at the Port Alberni, British Columbia, school, former students successfully sued both
the Canadian government and the United Church. The United Church of Canada Archives, 93.049P510. (1941).
In many schools, food was used to buy friendship or Accomplishment: “My experience at
protection. Phil Fontaine recalled, “Some kids never got
the residential school was good.”
to eat any lard because they had to be protected during
their entire time in school. Fruit was the same, you could Although the residential school system was a destruc-
buy protection with an apple.” 217
At the Kamloops school, tive system, the schools were not absolutely destruc-
Andrew Amos “learned to cope with the resident bullies tive. Between 2009 and 2011, many students have come
who always picked on us and took our extras, such as forward to express their gratitude to former teachers at
apples, oranges, even slices of bread.” 218 the Truth and Reconciliation Commission events. Their
The sexual and physical abuse of students by staff and testimony is a reminder that not all residential school
other students represents the most extreme failings of experiences are identical. Although few students went
the residential school system. In an underfunded, under- to residential school willingly, once they were there,
supervised system, there was little to protect children there were activities—sports, arts, reading, dancing,
from predators. The victims often were treated as liars or writing—that many students came to enjoy. Even after
troublemakers. Students were taught to be quiet to pro- they were old enough to leave, some chose to stay in
tect themselves. school and complete their education. In certain cases,
The impacts were devastating, and continue to be felt students developed lifelong relationships with their
today. Long after abuse stops, people who were abused former teachers. Others not only finished high school,
as children remain prey to feelings of shame and fear, they pursued post-secondary education. Some went
increased susceptibility to a range of diseases, and emo- on to take leadership positions in Aboriginal organiza-
tional distress. Those who have been abused run a greater tions, the churches, and in society at large. Despite the
risk of abusing, and have difficulty forming healthy emo- shortcomings of the system, some students were able to
tional attachments. 219 adjust to it, and others achieved significant accomplish-
ments. These positive experiences stand in the shadow of
The Battleford, Saskatchewan, school cricket team in 1895. In 1899, an Indian Affairs official wrote of the Battleford school, “A noticeable feature
of this school is its games. They are all thoroughly and distinctly ‘white’. The boys use the boxing gloves with no little science, and excellent
temper and play good games of cricket and football with great interest and truly Anglo-Saxon vigor.” Canada, Ernest Maunder, David Ewens collection,
Library and Archives Canada, PA-182265.
the system’s overall failings, but they are also part of the you get plenty to eat. If you were home you would get
residential school story. hungry many days.”224
Children who faced difficult home situations some- Florence Bird was born to Métis parents in Fort
times have more positive assessments of residential Chipewyan in 1899. After the death of her father Joseph
schools. In 1944 twelve-year-old Rita Joe, an orphan, was in 1909, she was raised in the Holy Angels Convent at
living with relatives who alternately abused and neglected Fort Chipewyan. A sickly child, she thought she would
her. Fearful, she called the Indian agent and asked if he not have survived without the convent. “There were lots
could arrange to have her admitted to the Shubenacadie of pitiful kids in those days. The orphans were more piti-
school in Nova Scotia. 220
Joe acknowledged that many ful than everybody else because they were badly treated
negative things happened at the school, but she never by the people and even by the relatives sometimes.”
regretted going there. 221
In 1956, as a young mother with Although the nuns were strict, she thought that with
four children under six years of age, she and her hus- so many children to supervise, they had few options. 225
band Frank decided to send their oldest daughter to Martha Mercredi was another orphaned Métis child who
Shubenacadie. “We knew she would get an education was raised in Holy Angels. “I was never lonely because I
there, and would be cared for until we were better off.” 222
took to the nuns as my own relatives. Sister Superior was
Like Rita and Frank Joe, many other parents used resi- my grandmother and Sister Lucy was the teacher and she
dential schools as part of a family survival strategy. Louis was like my momma, she’s the one that’s my guardian. So
Calihoo, a Métis man who went north to the Klondike in I have no complaint about the convent. I am very glad
1898 to make money during the Gold Rush, placed his sons that they showed me how to read and write.”226
in the Grouard school.223 During the Great Depression of Students involved in sports, music, drama, and dance
the 1930s, a Chilcotin father wrote his son in residential found that these activities helped them maintain a
school, “I didn’t make much money this year, just enough sense of their own value, and were sources of strength in
to buy grub to live on. You are lucky to be in school where later life.227 Andrew Amos recalled that at the Kamloops
The Old Sun school School softball team in the 1940s. The General Synod
Archives, Anglican Church of Canada, P75-103 (S7-202).
when I wasn’t happy. I learned to get along and talk with

people and that was good. I learned a lot through that
Irish nun.”230
Some students were grateful for the religious instruc-
tion they received. Edna Gregoire, who attended the
A student at the All Saints School in Aklavik, Northwest Territories, Kamloops school, for example, said, “My experience at the
taking his Cub Scout oath. The General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of residential school was good. That’s one thing I’ll tell you,
Canada, P7538-832.
it was really good to be able to go to school and to learn
school, “The treatment was good as long as you excelled how to read and write. And the other thing, the best of all,
in sports.” He went on to become a provincial boxing I was happy to learn about God.”231 Margaret Stonechild
champion. Travelling to fights and games allowed stu- recalled the File Hills, Saskatchewan, principal as a very
dents to leave the school and see other parts of the prov- good religious instructor. “I am eternally grateful for that
ince. Amos recalled, “It was through competitive sports, because I have a firm standing in Christian beliefs to this
and the girls with their dancing and travel, that we were day.”232 Bernard Pinay said that at File Hills, he never felt
able to cope and survive the daily routine of life at the religion was being forced down his throat.233 Some par-
residential school.”228 Even if they were poorly equipped, ents, at the urging of missionaries, sent their children to
residential school hockey, football, and baseball teams residential school specifically for a religious education.234
provided many students with a refuge and a source of In some cases, strong personal relationships devel-
pride. Alex, a student at the St.-Marc-de-Figuery school in oped between students and staff. Eleanor Brass’s parents,
Amos, Quebec, said, “At the residential school, if it wasn’t Fred and Marybelle Dieter, were married at the File Hills
for hockey, I would have gone crazy. Sport became my boarding school where Kate Gillespie, the principal, and
support. Until I was thirty years old, I played and when her sister Janet (the school matron) made the wedding
I was on the ice, I would let it all out.” 229

The prejudices arrangements, and baked the wedding cake.235 Shirley
of the day meant that girls enjoyed fewer athletic oppor- Bear recalled one principal of the Prince Albert school as a
tunities. The Kamloops school was known for its dance tyrant. However, “The next principal, Rev. A.J. Serase, was
program. Vivian Ignace, one of the dancers, had mixed an angel. After he came, the whole system changed. He
feelings about her experience, noting that dancers were was just like a father to the students. He was the minister
not allowed to participate in sports for fear of injury. who married my husband and me.”236
Despite this, she concluded that “through that experience Many students, either on their own or with the encour-
with the Kamloops Indian Residential School Dancers, I agement of a well-remembered teacher, developed a love
learned some assertiveness skills. I learned to smile even of learning. Jane Willis, at the Anglican school at Fort
George on James Bay, credits her decision to complete
The girls’ marching band at the Cardston, Alberta, school, 1952. The General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada, P2004-09 (143).
her education to one of her teachers, who worked hard interpreter for Indian Affairs. In 1906 he helped local First
to develop students’ self-confidence. “Learning was a Nations overcome the opposition of local Indian Affairs
pleasure with Mr. Woods as our cheerleader and coach. officials and successfully petition the federal government
He urged us to ask questions, to take an active part in to be allowed to hold feasts and sports days.240
class instead of sitting back and taking his word for every- Kennedy did not enter the priesthood, but other resi-
thing.” 237
At the Moose Factory School in Ontario, Billy dential school students did pursue religious careers.
Diamond became a voracious reader. When the time Edward Ahenakew, who attended Emmanuel College
came for him to move on to high school in Sault Ste. in Prince Albert, was ordained as an Anglican minis-
Marie, he saw it as an opportunity for adventure, learn- ter in 1910.241 Peter Kelly, a graduate of the Coqualeetza
ing, and meeting new friends. Once there, he helped form Institute in Sardis, British Columbia, became a United
an Indian student council. Diamond went on, as leader Church minister, eventually serving as president of the
of the James Bay Cree, to negotiate the 1975 James Bay British Columbia Conference of the United Church of
and Northern Quebec Agreement, Canada’s first compre- Canada. He also played an important role in presenting
hensive land-claims agreement. 238
While the residential First Nations land concerns to the federal government
school experience left him feeling embarrassed about his in 1911 and 1927. Kelly was not uncritical of the church’s
culture, Peter Irniq described the education he received Aboriginal work, noting in 1958 that in too many cases,
in Chesterfield Inlet as “top-notch.” “As much as that par- the church was sending misfits, who did not make the
ticular teacher used to call us bloody dodos and no good grade elsewhere, to work as ministers and teachers in
for nothing, a bunch of hounds of iniquity, he taught us Aboriginal communities.242 Stan McKay, who attended the
pretty good in terms of English.” 239
Brandon school, became the first Aboriginal moderator of
The system’s overall educational success was lim- the United Church of Canada in 1992.
ited, but throughout its history, numerous determined Ahab Spence’s career bridged religion, govern-
individuals pursued their education beyond residential ment service, and First Nations politics. After attending
school. Daniel Kennedy, who described his introduc- Anglican schools at Elkhorn and The Pas, Manitoba, he
tion into residential schooling as being “lassoed, roped became an Anglican archdeacon, an employee of both
and taken to the Government School at Lebret,” went the Saskatchewan and federal governments, and, in 1974,
on to study at Saint Boniface College. By 1899 he was an the president of the Manitoba Indian Brotherhood.243
The student cast of the play Isle of Jewels at the Coqualeetza, British Columbia, school. The United Church of Canada Archives, 93.049P424N. (19--?)
Many other Aboriginal leaders attended residential Resistance: “I don’t ever want to
schools, and while they may have developed leadership
see cruelty like this again.”
skills in the schools, they often also became the system’s
harshest critics. It was at Aboriginal insistence that provisions for
The Roman Catholic Grandin College in Fort Smith, schools were included in the treaties. They wanted on-
Northwest Territories, had one of the best reputations of reserve schools that would give young people the skills
any school. Established in 1960 as a preparatory school to help their people in their dealings with settler society.
for Aboriginal priests and nuns, Grandin College’s first They never envisioned a school system that separated
director decided to turn it into a leadership training children from their parents, their language, and their cul-
centre. The use of Aboriginal languages was common tural and spiritual practices. In some cases, they bluntly
throughout the school, and students were encouraged told Indian Affairs officials they did not want their chil-
to excel. Ethel Blondin-Andrew, the first Aboriginal dren to become like white people.246 Not surprisingly,
woman to serve as a federal cabinet minister, said she many Aboriginal parents opposed residential schooling
was “saved” by Grandin College, where she “learned that from the outset.
discipline, including physical fitness, was essential.” 244 First, they simply refused to send their children to resi-
She was just one of a number of Grandin graduates who dential school. An 1897 Indian Affairs official’s report said
went on to play leading roles in public life in the North. a Saulteaux-Cree chief “will not allow his children to be
Others include former Northwest Territories premiers, sent to school, says he would sooner see them dead, and
ministers, Dene Nation presidents, and official language on every chance he gets speaks against education and
commissioners. 245 the Industrial Schools provided by the Government.”247
The individual student’s ability to succeed within the For much of the system’s early years, principals spent
residential school system, and the positive difference that much of their time and energy recruiting students. Father
individual teachers and school staff made in some stu- Albert Lacombe, the founding principal of the High River
dents’ lives, are important parts of the history and legacy school in Alberta, lamented his difficulties in recruiting
of the schools and deserve recognition. students.248 The principal of the Shingwauk school com-
plained in 1888 that it should not be necessary for him
“to be going around seeking, and in many cases, begging, was because my sister died there, so my father blamed
and often begging in vain, for pupils from indifferent, and the school because they didn’t get help soon enough.”255
often opposing parents.” 249
Over sixty years later, in the When a child from the Old Crow community died at
fall of 1948, the principal of the school in Prince Albert, Choutla in the 1920s, the community stopped sending
Saskatchewan, travelled over 1600 miles, recruiting children to the school for twenty-five years.256
students.250 In 1922 the Mounted Police and the local Indian agent
Often the only way principals could recruit children were drawn into a conflict between anxious Haisla par-
was to pay parents. In the 1880s, Father Lacombe offered ents and the administrators of the Elizabeth Long Home
gifts and presents.251 In 1906 Brandon school principal in Kitimaat, British Columba. The death of a young girl
Thompson Ferrier was giving parents gifts if they sent had prompted the parents, already concerned by previ-
ous deaths and illnesses at the school, to pull their chil-
dren from the school. The walkout ended only when the
“
parents succeeded in getting a written assurance from the
matron that “the children got all the food they wanted,
He sent me to hide in the that they would be well cared for, and be supplied with
sufficient clothing.”257
woods. He told the Indian In 1959, eighty years after Charles Nowell’s grandfather
protected him from the Alert Bay principal, Mabel James’s
agent I wasn’t home which grandfather rescued her from the same school. When
the plane came to her community to collect students to
was true. I was hiding in a return to school at the end of summer, she told her grand-
father she hated the school. “He sent me to hide in the
hollow stump. I waited until woods. He told the Indian agent I wasn’t home which was
true. I was hiding in a hollow stump. I waited until the
the plane left. plane left.”258
”
Sometimes parents fought back. When visiting his
daughter at the File Hills school in Saskatchewan in the
Mabel James, former student
early twentieth century, Fred Dieter noticed that a girl’s
legs had been shackled together to prevent her running
away. He bounded up the stairs to the principal’s office,
their children to the school. 252

Fred Dieter’s parents took grabbed him, and ordered him to “Take those chains off
money from the principals of both the File Hills and that child.” He left with the warning that the principal was
Qu’Appelle schools in Saskatchewan, before deciding to lucky to get off with a good shaking. “These are children,
send their son to the closest school.253 not criminals, and I don’t ever want to see cruelty like this
Parents and grandparents often withdrew children again.”259
from school if they thought they were not being well Parents also resisted by campaigning for the establish-
treated. When, in the 1870s, Charles Nowell ran away from ment of a local day school. In 1921 all the school-aged
the Alert Bay, British Columbia, school after being beaten children in the Whitefish River Reserve in Ontario were
and locked up for swearing at the principal’s wife, the sent to residential school. The following year, the band
principal followed him to his grandfather’s home. There, petitioned to have a day school on the reserve. After being
his grandfather, alerted by Charles that he was facing initially turned down, the request was granted in 1924.260
another beating, grabbed a piece of wood and chased the When the Delmas, Saskatchewan, school burned down in
principal away. Charles returned to school only after his 1948, there was local controversy as to whether it should
grandfather extracted a promise from the principal that be rebuilt or replaced with day schools. John Tootoosis
the boy could be physically punished only if he had been collected names on a pro-day-school petition, and the
very disobedient.254 Angela Sidney’s father took her out of local priest, who had already threatened to excommuni-
the Choutla school in the Yukon in its early years. “That cate him for his criticism of residential schools, accused
Tootoosis of doing the devil’s work.261
Pupils and staff of the Elizabeth Long Memorial House in Kitimaat, British Columbia, in 1922. In that year, parents pulled their children out of the
school following the death of a student. The United Church of Canada Archives, 93.049P458.
Parents also wrote letters of complaint to Ottawa about being punished cruelly and worked too hard.267 A former
food and health in residential schools, starting as early as Shubenacadie student used a lawyer to lobby, success-
1889.262 In voicing these complaints, parents had to over- fully, to prevent his siblings from being sent to the school
come their worries that by speaking out, they would be in 1936.268 Parents of students at the Birtle school hired a
making matters worse for their children.263 lawyer in 1938 because they believed their children were
When Aboriginal people began to organize politically, not learning practical skills at school.269 In 1943 parents of
criticism of residential schooling always emerged as a key children at Mount Elgin brought their concerns over the
issue. In Brantford, the Six Nations formed the Indian’s behaviour of the school principal before the local justice
Rights Association, which hired inspectors to ensure of the peace.270
the public school curriculum was taught in the Mohawk Students expressed their resistance in a variety of
Institute in the early twentieth century.264 In 1909 F.O. Loft, ways. Some, like Billy Diamond at the school at Moose
a former residential school student and future founder of Factory, Ontario, protested the change from a traditional
the League of Indians of Canada, wrote a series of arti- to Euro-Canadian diet by not eating.271 Others supple-
cles in Saturday Night magazine, in which he described mented their diets with kitchen raids. At the Lytton school
the residential schools as death traps, and recommended in British Columbia, Simon Baker convinced a group of
their replacement with day schools. 265
At its 1931 meeting, hungry and overworked boys that the only way they could
the League of Indians of Western Canada passed a resolu- improve their rations was to threaten a strike. Baker told
tion calling for the creation of more day schools to replace the principal that since they were being worked like men,
the residential schools. The following year, delegates they should be fed like men. If the students did not get an
called for improvements in the qualifications of residen- improvement in diet, Baker warned, they would steal the
tial school teachers.266 food. The principal complimented Baker on his honesty,
Parents also sought legal help in their conflicts with and agreed to their demands.272
the schools. In 1921 the Grand General Indian Council In some cases, students lobbied for changes. When
of Ontario hired a lawyer to act on behalf of parents supervisors at the Edmonton Methodist school refused
who claimed that children at the Chapleau school were to listen to student demands for change in the school
Parents brought their complaints about the principal of the Mount Elgin, Ontario, school before a justice of the peace in 1943. The United Church of
Canada Archives, 90.162P1167N. (n.d.)
routine, the students rebelled. According to Rosa Bell, Wenjack died trying to make his way back to his home
“They broke into the kitchen and threw pork everywhere. community from the Cecilia Jeffrey school in Kenora.279
They also destroyed the supervisor’s supply of food, which Joseph Commanda died when he was hit by a train in
was different from the food given to us. Some older boys Toronto after running away from the Mohawk Institute
brought us ice cream during the raid. We had never tasted in 1968.280 In 1970 two more boys who ran away from the
ice cream! The rebellion was successful and a meeting Cecilia Jeffrey school died.281
was held to discuss the changes.”273 Almost every child dreamed of going home. Some,
From the very beginning of the residential school such as Raphael Ironstand at the Pine Creek school in
system, children ran away. During the 1885 Northwest Manitoba, stayed only because they were too far from
Rebellion, all the students left the Battleford and High home.282 Others thought about running away, but were
River schools. In 1900 Tom Longboat, perhaps Canada’s too frightened by the punishments given to runaways.
most well-known runner, ran away from the Mohawk Donna Roberts, a Métis student at the St. Henri school in
Institute twice. After the second time, he never returned. 274
Alberta, said all the students were required to witness the
Sometimes, students engaged in mass escapes: in 1953 punishment that was given to two runaway boys. “After
thirty-two boys ran away from a Saskatchewan school; a that, people didn’t run away because they knew what they
decade later, a dozen ran away from a school in north- were going to get.”283 Geraldine Sanderson, who attended
western Ontario.275 the Gordon’s school in Saskatchewan in the 1960s,
Runaways often took tremendous risks. In 1902 nine recalled that she and some other students “took a pony
boys ran away from the Williams Lake, BC, school. Eight from a farmer’s yard and rode it for several nights trying to
were captured, but the ninth, Duncan Sticks, an eight- get home. We hardly ever made it home, we were usually
year-old boy from Alkali Lake, froze to death. 276
In 1941 caught.” Once caught, the students’ heads were shaved.
John Kicki, Michael Sutherland, and Michael Matinas “It was awful. I felt very ashamed. We also had to scrub the
ran away from the Fort Albany school; they were never stairs with a toothbrush.”284
found. 277
Two girls drowned trying to get away from the One of the most dramatic forms of resistance was to
Kuper Island school. 278
In 1966 twelve-year-old Charlie burn the school down. There were over fifty major fires
Charlie Nowell ran away from the Alert Bay school in the 1870s after he was beaten by the principal. This photo was taken at the school in 1885.
George M. Dawson, Geological Survey of Canada collection, Library and Archives Canada, PA-037934.
at residential schools. Students were responsible for fires treated more fairly. “That year I learned to stand up for
at Saint-Paul-des-Métis, Alert Bay, Kuper Island (students myself and the other girls.”287
burned the school down when holidays were cancelled), Resistance was continuous throughout the life of the
the Mohawk Institute, Mount Elgin, Delmas, and Lac la system. Parents lobbied for day schools, for on-reserve
Ronge. In commenting on the safety of the St. Alban’s boarding schools, for better food, less discipline, more
school in Prince Albert, an inspector wrote, “More than education, and less drudgery. Students looked for ways
one disastrous Indian school fire has been started by the to frustrate their teachers, get more to eat, ease their
pupils themselves in an effort to obtain their freedom workloads, and get back to their families. Much of their
from a school which they did not like.” Given the large resistance was passive, ranging from dawdling when
number of students who were running away from the returning from chores to refusals to do assignments.
school, he worried that a dissatisfied student might try to But it could also be aggressive, as students and parents
set the school on fire.285 physically confronted staff, and even, at times, destruc-
Some students fought back. In 1902 a federal govern- tive and dangerous, such as those occasions when stu-
ment inspector said that at the Red Deer, Alberta, school, dents burned down the school. Resistance may have led
the older students swore, disrupted prayers, and threat- to improvements in the system, but never overturned
ened teachers. The situation was so out of control that one the balance of power. This resistance—the refusal to be
teacher successfully prosecuted a student for assault. 286
assimilated—was shown in the community, in the class-
Near the end of her stay in a Roman Catholic residence room, in the playground, in the kitchen, and in the fields.
in the Northwest Territories, Alice Blondin-Perrin found It was a central force in driving federal officials finally to
herself in a conflict with a nun, who was demanding that recognize that residential schooling had been an irre-
she and a fellow student get down on their knees and beg deemable failure.
God for forgiveness. As the confrontation heightened,
she grabbed a broom and swung it at the nun, narrowly
missing her. From that point on, she felt that the girls were
55
Chapter Three
Residential Schools in the
North and the Arctic
The Sacred Heart School at Fort Providence in the Northwest Territories was established in 1867. This photograph shows children playing at the
school in the 1920s. F.H. Kitto, Canada. Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, Library and Archives Canada, PA-101548.
In Canada, the North has been an ever-shifting con- The Canadian government’s policy of assimilating
cept. In 1876 the North-West Territories included all of Aboriginal peoples was not applied in a uniform man-
present-day Alberta, Saskatchewan, and the Yukon and ner. In the North, as long as there was no demand for
Northwest Territories, as well as most of present-day Aboriginal land, the federal policy was to delay taking
Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec, and Nunavut. As settle- on the financial obligations that came with treaties. The
ment increased, new provinces were created out of the ter- expectation was that Aboriginal people would continue
ritories, portions of the territories were added to existing to trap, trade, and live off the land.1 In 1909 Indian Affairs
provinces, and the territories were subdivided. Today, minister Frank Oliver said, in response to a request to
northern Canada is made up of three territories—Yukon establish a residential school in the Yukon, “I will not
(created in 1898), the Northwest Territories (the name undertake in a general way to educate the Indians of the
was changed from the North-West Territories in 1912), Yukon. In my judgement they can, if left as Indians, earn
and Nunavut (created in 1999)—and portions of Quebec a better living.”2
and Newfoundland and Labrador that extend into the The residential schooling experience in the North can
Ungava peninsula. The Quebec portion of the Canadian be divided into two periods: the missionary period, which
North is known as Nunavik, while the Newfoundland and ended in the mid-1950s; and the modern period, which
Labrador portion is known as Nunatsiavut. Residential was initiated by the federal government in the 1950s.
schools operated throughout the North.
The Choutla school at Carcross in the Yukon was the first government-funded Anglican residential school in the North. The General Synod Archives,
Anglican Church of Canada, 7538 (892).
The Missionary Period Catholic Society for the Propagation of the Faith in France,
the cash-strapped Oblates would have had to close the
During the missionary period, residential schooling
school.4 The school’s financial situation was eased some-
was limited to the Yukon and the Mackenzie Valley in the
what in 1896 when the federal government began to pro-
Northwest Territories, the shore of James Bay in Quebec,
vide funding.5
and Labrador. No residential schools were established in
Education was central to the ongoing contest between
the eastern regions of present-day Nunavut during this
the Anglican and Roman Catholic missionaries for
period, which ended in the 1950s. The Sacred Heart School
Aboriginal converts in the Northwest Territories. While
at Fort Providence (on the Mackenzie River, near Great
the Roman Catholics established their dominance in the
Slave Lake) was the first residential school in what is now
Mackenzie Valley, the Anglicans enjoyed more success in
the Northwest Territories (NWT). The school, which took
the eastern and central Arctic, and the Yukon Territory.
in its first students in 1867—the same year as Canadian
There were no Methodist, Presbyterian, or United Church
Confederation—was founded by Oblate missionaries, but
residential schools in the North.
its daily operations depended on the work of Grey Nuns,
The first successful Anglican school in the North
who served as teachers and nurses. Originally intended for
started in a modest way at the Forty Mile Mission in the
the children of Hudson’s Bay Company (HBC) managers
Yukon, when Bishop William Carpenter Bompas began
and their employees, most of whom were Métis, it also
boarding Aboriginal children in his home in 1891.6 By
served as a home for orphaned Dene children. By 1889 the
1894 there were six students, four of whom were Métis.7
number of orphaned Aboriginal students at the school at
In 1903 Bompas transferred the students to his new mis-
Providence exceeded the children of the HBC employees.3
sion in Carcross. There, he commenced a decade-long
Life was not easy at Sacred Heart. During the school’s
campaign for the establishment of a government-funded
second year, there was no meat, no flour, no potatoes,
residential school that led, in 1911, to the opening of the
no butter, and no grease, causing many Métis parents to
Choutla school.8
worry about the treatment their children were receiving.
In 1881, were it not for a 15,000-franc donation from the
Residential Schools in the North and the Arctic • 57
Students at the Shingle Point, Yukon, school playing at recess in the 1930s. The General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada, P9901-543.
The Choutla school quickly developed a reputation religion and ethnicity. Anthony Thrasher, a student at the
for poor health (four students died of influenza in 1920, Catholic school in Aklavik, was often in fights with stu-
and more would die of tuberculosis and other diseases in dents from the local Anglican school. “They picked on
coming years), harsh discipline, meagre diet, and unpleas- me for two things, because I was a Roman Catholic and
ant living quarters. In 1923 Anglican Bishop Isaac Stringer
9
because I was a damn Eskimo.”12
wrote that “some of our best and most influential Indians The trip to a northern residential school could be
object to sending their children away to school.” Not sur- 10
long and lonely. In 1928 three children travelled from
prisingly, orphans and children from destitute families Herschel Island to the Anglican school at Hay River in
made up close to a third of the enrolment in most years. 11
the NWT. Ethel Catt, the missionary who accompanied
The church-run residential system grew slowly in the them for part of the journey down the Mackenzie River,
North, since the federal government resisted funding was distressed to discover that, when the time came
northern schools if there was no treaty obligation to pro- to board the boat to take them down the river, one boy
vide schooling. By 1927 there were three Roman Catholic had run away and another refused to board. When they
schools and one Anglican school in the Northwest were all collected and put to bed, they burst into tears.
Territories, a balance that did not change until the Despite her best efforts, Catt was unable to comfort them.
1950s. In the Yukon, aside from the school at Carcross, “I tried talking, singing, coaxing, but nothing would do &
the Anglicans opened a residence for Métis children in of course they did not know a word I said.”13 Travel was
Dawson City in 1920, and ran a school for Inuit children at so difficult and arduous that parents of children sent to
Shingle Point from 1929 to 1936. When this school closed, Carcross from more remote communities might not see
the students were transferred to the Anglican boarding them for a decade.14
school in the Northwest Territories. Angela Sidney was one of the first students to attend
In the Northwest Territories, the Catholics enjoyed Choutla. “When we first went over to that Choutla school,
more success among the Dene, while the Anglicans con- all those kids got off the cars, horse teams—we all started
centrated their efforts among the Inuit. There were con- running around the Choutla school first. Oh, boy, lots of
flicts within and between the schools on the basis of fun! We thought it was a good place we’re going to stay.
Moravian Church and Mission School, Makkovik, Labrador. September 1926. L.T. Burwash, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development collection,
Library and Archives Canada, PA-099500.
But that’s the time we found out we couldn’t even talk to of work the Oblates required of students at schools in the
our brothers! We got punished if we did. And we weren’t NWT.19 At both the Anglican and Catholic schools, boys
supposed to talk Indian, Tlingit.” 15
spent a half day gardening, fishing, or woodworking,
Curriculum was left largely in the hands of the and the girls prepared meals, cleaned the schools, and
churches, and usually was limited to religious instruc-
tion, coupled with an introduction to reading and arith-
metic. In 1913 federal inspector H.B. Bury worried that
students left the schools poorly equipped for either white
society or a return to their home communities. Parents
and grandparents complained they had little control over
We couldn’t even talk “
returned students who had received little training in how to our brothers! We got
to live on the land. For their part, many of the students felt
ashamed of their home communities.16 punished if we did. And we
Discipline could be harsh: in response to the theft
of food in 1940, Choutla principal H.C.M. Grant had an weren’t supposed to talk
offender beaten as an example. The boy, dressed in his
pajamas, had to be held down on a desk by the matron and Indian, Tlingit.
”
the farm instructor in front of all the other students. Grant
said he then subjected the boy to a severe strapping.17
Angela Sidney, former student
Twenty years later, in the early 1960s, the entire boys’ dor-
mitory at Choutla was put to bed immediately after dinner
for a month because no one would reveal which of the boys
made and repaired clothing. The demand for fuel to feed
had been telling stories after lights out.18
the wood-burning stoves was constant during the long,
Student labour was needed to operate the schools. In
cold winters, and wore out many children. Every fall, a
1882 the Grey Nuns expressed concern over the amount
The girls’ dormitory, Turquetil Hall, Chesterfield Inlet, Northwest Territories, 1958. Library and Archives Canada, Charles Gimpel, Charles Gimpel fonds,
PA-210885.
barge would arrive in Aklavik, loaded with kindling for largely for Inuit students, in 1901.25 In the 1920s, the
the school furnace. The students would form a long chain International Grenfell Association, a Protestant mission-
from the barge to the furnace room, and, with the assis- ary organization, opened the first of its boarding schools
tance of the school staff, unload the barge. 20
for children of all ancestries orphaned by the 1919 influ-
During the missionary period, enrolment in the enza epidemic.26
northern residential schools was low. In a region with
2000 school-aged children, there were only fifty-nine
The New North
students at Sacred Heart in Fort Providence in 1918.21 By
1939 the federal government subsidized the education of The creation of the department of Northern Affairs and
approximately 30 percent of the school-aged First Nations National Resources in 1953 marked the beginning of the
children in the Mackenzie District of the NWT. Most of the end of the period of direct missionary control over edu-
students had been placed in residential schools because cation in the North. At the time, there were eight differ-
they were orphans or their families were judged to be ent educational agencies in operation in the NWT alone,
destitute. 22
Although girls tended to remain in school providing a very uneven patchwork of service. Some
for longer periods, for most students, schooling lasted schools were open only for a few hours a day, and a third
only four or five years. 23
In 1948, while there were four of the teachers lacked certification. The former federal
residential schools in the NWT and three in the Yukon, Director of Northern Administration for Northern Affairs,
most Aboriginal children in the North were not attending R.A.J. Phillips, concluded there was “No policy, no cur-
school regularly. In the NWT, 200 of the 300 students in riculum for northern needs, and no training for northern
residential schools were in the first or second grade. 24
teachers.”27
No residential schools were built in the Quebec por- Education was to be the new department’s prior-
tion of the Ungava peninsula. However, Moravian mis- ity. There was concern that since the Aboriginal popula-
sionaries had been active in Nunatsiavut in Labrador tion in the North was growing, while fur revenues were in
since 1752. They established a boarding school, intended decline, coming generations of northerners would become
At the Coppermine Tent Hostel, which opened in 1955 in what is now Nunavut, students lived in wood-framed field tents. The General Synod Archives,
Anglican Church of Canada, P7530 (229).
dependent on government assistance.28 Education, it was During the missionary period, the federal govern-
argued, would give children the skills needed to succeed ment had turned down Roman Catholic proposals to
in the new North that government officials sought to bring establish a residential school in the Yukon. However, in
into being. The fact that the family allowance, introduced 1950 it agreed to support a school in Lower Post, British
during the Second World War, was paid only if school-aged Columbia, which was just below the Yukon-BC border,
children were in school provided an additional incentive and drew many of its students from the territory. The
for parents to enrol their children.29 The federal govern- Anglican school at Carcross was rebuilt and expanded in
ment’s goal was to provide every school-aged child in the 1953. In 1960 the federal government built Anglican and
North with the opportunity to go to school by 1968. To do Catholic residences for students attending day schools in
this, it made a major investment in residential schooling. Whitehorse, which had become the capital of the Yukon
This decision by Northern Affairs to expand the residen- in 1953. In addition, from the late 1940s until the early
tial school system in the North so dramatically was taken a 1960s, a Baptist missionary society that originated in
decade after Indian Affairs officials had begun to wind down Alaska ran a small boarding school in Whitehorse.
the system in southern Canada. Just as on the Prairies, resi- From 1954 to 1964, Northern Affairs (rather than Indian
dential school expansion in the North went hand-in-hand Affairs, which was part of a different department at that
with intensified resource development and speculation, time) opened four, large, day schools in the Northwest
and an enhanced military presence. Territories: Chesterfield Inlet (1954), Yellowknife (1958),
Not only was the expansion of residential school- Inuvik (1959), and Fort Simpson (1960). In addition, it
ing in the North undertaken with virtually no consulta- opened a vocational training school for Inuit in Churchill,
tion with Aboriginal people, according to J.G. Wright, Manitoba, in 1964. Most of the students who attended
Superintendent of Eastern Arctic Patrol, those northerners these schools were housed in new government-built
the government had spoken with had all agreed “it would residences (usually called “Halls”). These residences were
be a grave mistake to transport native children any dis- to be managed by the Anglican and Catholic churches,
tance from their homes for education.” 30
Government which closed their old, run-down, residential schools. As
officials had not intended initially to replicate the church- a result, there were often two residences, one Anglican
run residential school system in the North. However, and one Catholic, in each community. In some cases, the
church opposition, coupled with the belief that residen- school also had two wings—one for Catholics and one
tial schools would be cheaper, led them to abandon plans for Protestants. The exceptions were the Akaitcho Hall
to rely solely on government-run community schools.31 and the Sir John Franklin school in Yellowknife, and the
Churchill Vocational Centre, which were operated by the
Yukon Hall, the Anglican residence in Whitehorse, Yukon. Yukon Archives, Edward Bullen fonds, 82-354 #25.
federal government on a non-denominational basis. All children, giving the food and clothing intended for the hos-
the schools were intended to be non-denominational, but tel children to her own family. “Every weekend we used to
it was decided to allow the Roman Catholics to operate go to different relatives to do housecleaning, get water, like
the Sir Joseph Bernier school and Turquetil Hall residence they used to have tanks for water, and getting water, carry-
in Chesterfield Inlet on Hudson Bay.32 ing water until it was full, all day. We had different chores;
Following a brief period of experimentation with tent one just to clean up the house, one just to get water, for
hostels in 1951, the Coppermine Tent Hostel opened in different relatives, in different houses.”35
1955 in what is now Nunavut. The hostel was owned and Most students living in the residences were Aboriginal,
funded by the federal government, and operated by the but the northern schools and residences were not
Anglican Church. The students lived in wood-framed restricted to Aboriginal students.36 Albert Canadien, who
field tents, and attended a federally funded day school attended mission schools at Fort Providence and Fort
in Coppermine. These tents were easy to build, but they Resolution, appreciated the diversity of students living
were drafty, easily damaged by high winds, and difficult to in Yellowknife’s Akaitcho Hall. “There, I lived and went
heat. The hostel operated five months a year, and housed to school with Inuit, Métis, white, and even Chinese stu-
twenty to thirty students, most of whom were from the dents. This was quite a change for me from the residential
Coppermine area. In 1959 the hostel closed, and most school days. Living at [Akaitcho Hall] at that time proved
students were transferred to Inuvik. to be a good experience for me in later life. It taught me to
A series of smaller residences, usually referred to get along with and respect people from other cultures, to
as “hostels,” were established near settlements in the treat them like you would anyone else.”37
Northwest Territories and northern Quebec. At the hos- From 1956 to 1963, there was a major increase in the
tels, the children lived with Inuit adults, who were often number of Inuit youth attending both residential and
family members.33 These smaller hostels could accom- day schools. In the eastern Arctic, for example, atten-
modate between eight and twenty-four students, who dance rose from 201 to 1173, and from 1755 to 3341 in the
attended local federal day schools established through- western Arctic. In the Ungava district of northern Quebec,
out the North. Not all these hostels operated every year, it jumped from 39 to 656.38 This increase could not be
and most were closed by the end of the 1960s. Carolyn 34
accomplished without a dramatic intervention into the
Niviaxie was an Inuit student from Sanikiluaq in what is lives of Aboriginal people. In many communities, the
now Nunavut, who went to a small hostel in Great Whale arrival of a government-chartered airplane was the pre-
River (now Kuujjuarapik), Quebec. Niviaxie said that the lude to a traumatic scene in which intimidated parents
hostel mother at Kuujjuarapik did not take good care of the
The Stringer Hall dining hall in 1970. Stringer Hall, in Inuvik, was one of the church-operated student residences the federal government built in
the 1950s and 1960s. Northwest Territories Archives, Wilkinson, N-1979-051: 0400s.
bid farewell to frightened children, who were flown away was the language of instruction, children at his school
to school. 39
were not punished for speaking their language. However,
Unlike the missionaries, many of whom had learned he thought the best solution would be for the mother to
to speak Aboriginal languages, most of the new teachers learn English.44
came from the South, spoke no Aboriginal language, and In 1958 two Inuit teaching assistants were hired. By
usually had no more than one or two days of orientation for 1968 thirty-seven assistants worked in the system.45 A
living in the North. Few stayed for more than two years. At 40
plan to educate Inuit children in their own language from
Inuvik, seventeen of thirty-four teachers resigned in 1960. Kindergarten to Grade 3 was not in place until the early
The following year, fifteen of thirty-five teachers resigned, 1970s.46
and in 1962 sixteen of thirty-four resigned.41 Like the teachers, the curriculum came from the South:
Director of Northern Administration for Northern most schools used the Alberta, Manitoba, or Ontario
Affairs R.A.J. Phillips said that the department, which curricula. For many students, the resulting education
viewed itself as the most effective protector of Eskimo (the was difficult, irrelevant, and frustrating. At the Catholic
term used at that time) culture, was prepared to use local School at Akalavik, Lillian Elias could not relate to the
languages in the lower grades. But, because a liberal edu- world presented in her readers. “When I looked at Dick
cation could be achieved only through the use of a major and Jane, I thought Dick and Jane were in heaven when
language, the department was committed to using English I saw all the green grass. That’s how much I knew about
as the language of instruction. Indeed, since few teachers
42
Dick and Jane.”47
spoke anything but English, it could hardly be otherwise. 43
Jack Anawak, an Inuk who attended school at
Languages did not have to be banned to be lost. In 1959 Chesterfield Inlet, and who went on to become a Member
the father of an Inuit boy wrote to the Inuvik school that of Parliament, recalled, “We were dealt with in a herd,
his son had gone to school with a fluent command of his never as individuals, never being able to speak the only
native language. But, in a recent letter home, he had writ- language we ever knew. Punishments were inflicted that
ten, “I am forgetting how to write in Eskimo now as we were beyond anything Inuit could have ever imagined
are only taught in English.” This news, he said, had left could be done to a child. Our way of life was denigrated;
his mother, who only knew Inuktitut, heartbroken. The our beliefs and values were constantly trashed; our spiri-
Anglican hostel director responded that while English tuality was challenged only to be replaced by the God
people, with a consistently cruel, unrelenting depravity, schools, the residences, and responsibility to the territo-
the likes of which other Canadians cannot imagine.” 48
rial governments.
The students often came from thousands of kilometres Until the 1960s, the Yukon and NWT were governed by
away. It was not uncommon for Inuit children from north- appointed officials, most of whom lived in Ottawa. For
ern Quebec to travel for over a week by train and plane to example, it was not until 1967 that the NWT’s administra-
get to school in Yellowknife in the Northwest Territories. tive offices were moved from Ottawa to Yellowknife. The
Often, neither the parents nor the children knew where creation of a fully elected assembly came even later.58 As
they were going. There was no way for parents to visit, or northerners gained control over their governments, sup-
for students to return home for holidays. Two of the sons port for residential schooling declined, and support for
of Apphia Agalakti Siqpaapik Awa, an Inuit woman from local schooling increased.59
the eastern High Arctic, were sent to school in Churchill. In Yukon, the Carcross school closed in 1969. The
“We couldn’t communicate with them because there were Roman Catholic Coudert Hall in Whitehorse merged with
no phones, and since we were in the camp, we didn’t the Anglican Yukon Hall two years later, and Yukon Hall
get any letters from them. We didn’t hear from them for
a long, long time. We didn’t know how they were down
there. I remember being so worried about them.”49 The
impact on the communities remained disruptive. In 1972
Nashook, an Inuit man from Pond Inlet, said the children
who returned from the schools “loathe their culture and
We didn’t hear from them for“
look down on the old ways of their parents.”50 a long, long time. We didn’t
Overcrowding was common in the new residences. Not
long after it opened, the Chesterfield Inlet facility, built for know how they were down
eighty, had a population of one hundred. Efforts to ease
51
overcrowding by sending children to other schools were there. I remember being so

complicated by the principal’s insistence that Catholic
children not be housed with Protestant children.52 After worried about them.
”
giving consideration to an expansion, federal officials
solved crowding problems in Yellowknife by tightening
Apphia Agalakti Siqpaapik Awa, parent
admission requirements.53 In Inuvik by 1962, 850 students
were attending a facility designed for 600. The students
slept in open-area dormitories with no privacy. Parents
itself remained in operation until 1985. The Lower Post,
petitioned Ottawa for improvements, administrators
British Columbia, school closed in 1975.
warned that enrolment was expected to hit 960 in 1965,
In the Northwest Territories, the three Anglican resi-
but the federal government simply added makeshift class-
dences all were closed by the mid-1970s. Roman Catholic
rooms.54 In these crowded conditions, staff were stressed
involvement with Grollier Hall in Inuvik continued until
and overworked. In 1964 problems such as understaffing
1987. The residence was operated for another nine years
and a lack of time off caused the entire staff in Churchill to
by the territorial government. After being transferred to
threaten to quit en masse.55 The domestic education the
the government in 1972, Lapointe Hall in Fort Simpson
students received was of limited use, since the foods they
was turned over to the Aboriginal Koe Go Cho society, and
were taught to prepare often were not available in the
eventually taken over by the Deh Cho Aboriginal Council.
North or were very expensive. Similarly, at a time when
Breynat Hall in Fort Smith was closed in 1975 after a fire.
most families were using oil-fired stoves, students were
The non-denominational Akaitcho Hall closed in 1994.
taught to cook on electric stoves.56
In the eastern Arctic (now Nunavut), most of the hos-
Overall, the federal system never met its goals. As late
tels had closed by the end of the 1960s. The exceptions
as 1967, 20 percent of the Inuit population was with-
were in Cambridge Bay and Iqaluit. The Iqaluit school
out educational opportunity.57 In the last part of the
and residence were proposed first in 1961, but the plans
1960s, the federal government transferred most of the
were dropped, only to be revived, without community
Students in a dormitory room in Akaitcho Hall in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. Northwest Territories Archives, Northwest Territories. Department of Public
Works and Services, G-1995-001: 1605.
consultation, in 1967. Construction began in 1969. At practices. Facilities were crowded, the lessons were inap-
the time, teachers in smaller northern communities cir- propriate, teachers poorly prepared, and educational
culated petitions opposing the project. The project went goals unclear.
ahead with both the school and residence—which had a As Salamiva Weetaluktuk reflected, the legacies were
capacity of 200—opening in 1971. In its early years, the similar as well: “Nobody is making the connection. Bad
school and the residence had difficulty attracting and Indians, Bad Inuit. Drunken Inuit. Drunken Indians.
keeping students. In 1973 school enrolment was one That’s all they think. But we would not be drunken Inuit
hundred, and only sixty students were in residence. The 60
or drunken Indians had we not been abused when we
hostel remained in operation until 1996, when it and the were children, had we not been exposed to assault and
Cambridge Bay hostel both closed. stuff like that.”62
By the 1990s, former students had begun to speak out While the system was late in coming to the North, its
about the abuse they had experienced at a number of impact was significant, and continues to the present. A far
residential schools. Former employees of Coudert Hall in higher percentage of the Aboriginal population in north-
the Yukon, Lower Post in northern British Columbia, and ern Canada attended residential schools than was the
Grollier Hall in the Northwest Territories were convicted case in the rest of Canada. According to the 2001 Statistics
of a variety of offences, including indecent assault. A 1994 Canada Aboriginal Peoples Survey, over 50 percent of
territorial government report concluded that students at Aboriginal people forty-five years of age and older in
Turquetil Hall in Chesterfield Inlet had been subjected to Yukon and the Northwest Territories attended a residen-
serious sexual and physical abuse. Due in large measure tial school. In Nunavut 40 percent of those fifty-five and
to the passage of time, no charges ever were laid. 61
older attended residential school as did over 50 percent
While there were a number of successful schools, of those aged forty-five to fifty-four.63 The impact is com-
particularly Grandin College, overall, the federal govern- pounded by the fact that Aboriginal people constitute a
ment’s record in running residential schools in northern majority or near majority throughout northern Canada.
Canada suggests it had learned little from its failures in
the South. Children were separated from their parents,
their communities, their languages, and their cultural
65
Chapter Four
The Experience of the Métis
and Residential Schools
Two Métis children with an Inuit child at the Shingle Point, Yukon, school, 1930. J.F. Moran, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development fonds, Library
and Archives Canada, 1973-357; a102086.
During his inspection of the Native American boarding the Métis as a bridge between the two cultures. This was
school system in the United States in 1879, Nicholas one reason why Bishop Alexandre Taché sent Louis Riel
Flood Davin had been impressed by the role that people and two other young Métis to Montreal for additional
of mixed ancestry played in the operation of the schools. education at a seminary in 1858.2 Riel never taught at a
He concluded that Métis could serve as the “natural Canadian residential school, but he did teach Métis chil-
mediator between the Government and the red man, and dren at a Jesuit boarding school in Montana in the 1880s.3
also his natural instructor.” He recommended that the Riel’s sister Sara was a Grey Nun who taught at a residen-
federal government educate the Métis along with First tial school in Île-à-la-Crosse in what is now Saskatchewan
Nations people in “self-reliance and industry” in indus- from 1871 until her death in 1883.4 This, however, was not
trial schools.1 The Oblate missionaries also sought to use the normal residential school experience for Métis people.
The Métis nation emerged out of the fur trade when

traders and Aboriginal women established long-lasting
relationships, and raised families. Early Métis communi-
ties appeared around the Great Lakes, and moved west
with the fur trade.5 When the Hudson’s Bay Company and
the North-West Company merged in 1821, numerous
trading posts closed, and many of their Métis employ-
ees moved to Red River, which evolved into a centre for a
Métis culture with distinct values, forms of organizations,
arts, and language.6
The Métis played central roles in both the Red River
Resistance of 1870 and the Northwest Rebellion of 1885.
In 1870 their efforts led to the creation of Manitoba as a
province, and the provision of 1.4 million acres of land to
be distributed to the children of Métis families. The gains
were short-lived: speculators dispossessed many of the
Métis; and settlers from Ontario treated the Manitoba
Métis with disdain, sometimes subjecting them to violent
attacks. By 1885 over three quarters of the Métis popula-
tion of Manitoba had left for what is now Saskatchewan
and Alberta.7 Métis communities also developed in the
North and the West in places such as the Mackenzie River
Valley.8 Following the defeat of the 1885 rebellion, which
was sparked by government failure to address Métis con-
cerns over land, the federal government executed Riel,
and much of the Métis leadership was dispersed.
The churches often accepted Métis children into resi- In 1884 Louis Riel worked as a teacher at the Jesuit St. Peter’s Mission
dential schools, but the federal government preferred to boarding school for Métis in Sun River, Montana. In June 1884, he
wrote that “My health suffers from the fatiguing regularity of having
limit its support to status Indians. Funding Métis stu- to look after children from six in the morning until eight at night, on
dents, from Ottawa’s perspective, was too costly, unneces- Sunday as well as on the days of the week.” Saskatchewan Archives Board,
R-A2305.
sary (since the Métis often were Christian and considered
“sufficiently civilized”), and, ultimately, not the federal
1936 commission on Métis people in Alberta concluded
government’s responsibility. The policy was not applied
that 80 percent of Métis children were not in school.13 For
consistently. Initially, schools were allowed to take in
those parents who wanted to see their children educated,
Métis children when there were empty beds, if parents
the only option was to try to have them accepted in a resi-
were prepared to pay, or if Indian Affairs had determined
dential school.14
that the parents were living “as Indians.”9 This term was
Anglican and Catholic missionaries sometimes were
broad enough to include living on a reserve, hunting and
moved to establish schools in an effort to convert Métis
trapping, or living in conditions of severe poverty.10
parents and children to their faith. The Oblates, for
After 1885, as Euro-Canadian immigrants settled
example, established schools in Fort Providence and Fort
the West, the Métis were increasingly marginalized, liv-
Chipewyan, Alberta, to provide Métis fur-trade employees
ing in shantytowns on the edges of town or just outside
with an alternative to sending their children to Anglican
reserves. Few had the money to take up farming, and
schools.15 In some cases, Catholic Métis parents who
many relied on manual labour, such as freighting, lum-
sent their children to Anglican schools were excommu-
bering, collecting buffalo bones, harvesting roots, and
nicated.16 When Treaty 8 was negotiated in 1899, Oblate
hunting and trapping, to survive.11 Most of their com-
missionaries encouraged Métis parents to declare them-
munities lacked the finances to build schools, and public
selves Indians rather than Métis. This would allow them
schools often were unwilling to admit Métis children.12 A
The Experience of the Métis and Residential Schools • 67
Students with Bishop Isaac Stringer in front of St. Paul’s Hostel in Dawson, Yukon, 1923. Most of the students living at the hostel were Métis.
Yukon Archives, Isaac and Sadie Stringer fonds, 82/332, #28.
to send their children to residential school—and the would become a public menace. For example, in 1899,
church to collect a subsidy from the federal government.17 Indian Affairs minister Clifford Sifton argued in favour of
Oblate Father Albert Lacombe at the High River admitting all children who lived on reserves to the resi-
school in Alberta, and Father Joseph Hugonnard at the dential schools, since the schools had been “instituted in
Qu’Appelle, Saskatchewan, school were among the many the public interest, so that there should not grow up upon
residential school principals who recruited Métis stu- reserves an uneducated and barbarous class.”21 Arguing in
dents. They were acting both out of concern for the edu- the same vein, Qu’Appelle principal Hugonnard warned
cational needs of Métis children and in response to the that the Métis could become a danger to the commu-
problems they were having in convincing First Nation nity if they were not educated, and he attempted to have
parents to send their children to residential school. The potential students added to band lists.22
federal government insisted that Métis parents pay $155 a By the 1920s, the federal admissions policy for Métis
year to send their children to High River.18 In 1912, much began to tighten permanently. In 1924 Indian Affairs
to the frustration of the deputy minister of Indian Affairs, Commissioner W.A. Graham reported that with hard work,
sixty-six Métis students were admitted to the school.19 he had “got every child out of the Qu’Appelle school who
In 1913 Indian Affairs gave the Qu’Appelle school a had no right to be there.”23 In 1934 the word from Ottawa
year to replace fifty-one Métis students with First Nation was that “absolutely no half-breed children can be admit-
students. Two years later, thirty of the Métis students ted to our schools.”24 In practice, the churches might still
were still there. In following years, Indian Affairs refused admit Métis children, but the federal government would
to admit Métis students who did not have status under subsidize them only in extreme cases.
the Indian Act.20 The Roman Catholic and Anglican churches operated
The federal government regularly tightened and loos- at least three residential schools largely for Métis children:
ened its Métis admission policy in the system’s early Île-à-la- Crosse in Saskatchewan, Saint-Paul-des-Métis in
years. Concerns about costs were constantly being bal- Alberta, and St. Paul in the Yukon.
anced against worries that the Métis, without education,
Life was difficult for the teachers and the Métis students at the Île-á-la-Crosse school in the 1870s. The school matron slept on a pallet in the
classroom, the female students slept on the floor, while the male students slept in the Oblate residence. Glenbow Archives; PD-353-22 [ca. 1913-1914]
Photographer, Thomas Waterworth.
In 1846 an Oblate mission had been established at In 1896 Saint-Paul-des-Métis was established by Father
Île-à-la Crosse, in what is now Saskatchewan. From 1860 Lacombe as a colony for landless Métis in what is now
to 1996, Grey Nuns provided a range of educational and Alberta. The federal Department of the Interior provided
health services there, including a residential school for a one-time grant of $2000. When Indian Affairs refused to
Métis children. Non-Métis children were sent to the fund a residential school, the Oblates held a fundraising
Roman Catholic residential school at nearby Beauval.25 campaign for a three-storey school that opened in 1903.
By 1871 there were twenty-six students in their boarding Angered by what they saw as the school’s harsh discipline,
school, along with five orphans who were being cared for students set the school on fire in 1905. The fire destroyed
by the Grey Nuns. Initially, the education at the school
26
the entire school, and left one child dead. The school’s
was in French, but on her arrival in the early 1870s, Sara destruction marked the beginning of the end of Saint-
Riel introduced English lessons. The Métis opposed the Paul as a Métis community. By 1908 the federal govern-
education of their children in English, and demanded ment decided to terminate the colony, with the blessing
that the school be closed. Instead, the English classes of the Board of Management of Saint-Paul-des-Métis, but
were dropped.27 In 1874 conditions at the school were so without consultation with the Métis.30 In the following
dire that the Grey Nuns had to ask parents to take their years, most of the Métis who had settled there were dis-
children back temporarily because they could not feed placed by non-Aboriginal settlers.
them. 28
The Anglican Church established the St. Paul’s resi-
Alphonse Janvier, who attended Île-à-la Crosse for five dence for Métis children in a private home in Dawson
years, described it in terms very similar to those used by City, Yukon, in 1920. Their parents paid fees to support the
students of other residential schools. For example, the residence, and the church and local businesses also made
sexes were strictly segregated. “We were not allowed to financial contributions. The residence was relocated to a
intermingle with the females, and many of them that were former hospital in 1923 and closed in 1952.31
there had some nieces or nephews. You were not allowed Aside from these three, in the 1950s the Alberta gov-
to talk to them because this playground had an imaginary ernment began placing (and paying for) Métis children
boundary that we could not cross.”29 who had been apprehended by child welfare authorities
The Experience of the Métis and Residential Schools • 69
in residential schools. The Grouard school, in particu- year because a day school had opened near her parents’
lar, took in a large number of Métis students during this home.35
period.32 The results of an inspection of the Grouard Raphael Ironstand, a Métis boy from western
school by a provincial government psychiatrist in 1958 Manitoba, attended the Pine Creek school, where he was
was so disturbing that the province stopped sending chil- bullied by Cree boys. “They called me ‘Monias,’ while
dren to the school. 33
telling me the school was for Indians only. I tried to tell
them I was not a Monias, which I now knew meant white
man, but a real Indian. That triggered their attack, in uni-
“
son. I was kicked, punched, bitten, and my hair pulled out
by the roots. My clothes were also shredded, but the Crees
We weren’t allowed to speak suddenly disappeared, leaving me lying on the ground,
bleeding and bruised.” According to Ironstand, the nuns
Cree, only French and refused to believe his story, and forced him to mend his
clothing.36
English, and for disobeying While it was not unusual for many students to spend
a decade in the schools and emerge with only a Grade 2
this, I was pushed into standing, Archie Larocque, who did not start school at
Fort Resolution until his late teens, was grateful for the
a small closet with no opportunity to get any education. “They knew I was only
going to be there for that one term because I was over the
windows or light, and age limit. So they drove all they could into me.”37 In some
cases, Métis parents placed their children in residential
locked in for what seemed school because they could not afford to care for them. But
there were also instances of parents undergoing consider-
like hours. able sacrifice to pay for their children’s education. James
”
Thomas, who went to the St. Bernard school for ten years,
recalled that it took all the money his father earned to
Maria Campbell, former student
send his children to school.38 Angie Crerar, who attended
Fort Resolution, said the only positive memories she had
of residential school were the friendships she formed with
other students. “We tried to look after the little ones and
The Métis experience in the residential schools was
tried to avoid some of the beatings that were not neces-
similar to that of other Aboriginal children: poor food,
sary. There was no such thing as respect but we taught
harsh discipline, hard work, and a limited education. In
ourselves to have respect.”39
1914 a Métis woman complained that her children at the
As is the case with many aspects of the residential
High River residential school had gone without boots for
school story, there is still much to be learned about the
three months. That same year, a Saskatchewan lawyer,
experience of Métis people in the residential schools. In
Arthur Burnett, wrote the department on behalf of a Métis
particular, there is more to be learned about the degree to
man who complained the High River principal would not
which their experiences, and the legacy of those experi-
let him take his children out of the school for the sum-
ences, differ from those of First Nations and Inuit students.
mer.34 Métis writer Maria Campbell was seven years old
when she was sent to the Beauval residential school in
Saskatchewan, largely at the instigation of her grand-
mother. “We weren’t allowed to speak Cree, only French
and English, and for disobeying this, I was pushed into a
small closet with no windows or light, and locked in for
what seemed like hours.” She did not return after that first
71
Chapter Five
The Staff Experience
Staff and students of the Coqualeetza, British Columbia, school in the late nineteenth century. The United Church of Canada Archives, 93.049P411N. (18--?)
For most of the system’s history, residential school Quebec. The world these young women entered was gov-
staff worked long hours for low pay, in locations isolated erned by rules and the need for obedience. They had to
from their families and home communities. Just as the give up their names, their clothing, and personal belong-
students were denied holidays, they often were denied ings (as one sister recalled, even a little thimble given to
holidays. Just as the students put up with unhealthy living her as a present had to be sacrificed). They were discour-
conditions, the teachers lived in comparatively spartan aged from developing close friendships (which could be
settings. They rarely were given the tools to care for chil- divisive within a small organization), and encouraged to
dren properly, let alone teach them. Many of the positive take their religious direction from priests. Relations with
aspects of the residential school system, then, were the people outside the order were regulated, and the direc-
result of their creativity and ingenuity. As a group, they tress read any letters they sent or received. Meals could be
were part of a colonial process that employed a harsh dis- skimpy. Asking for more food was frowned upon, but, at
cipline to suppress Aboriginal culture. On the individual the same time, one was expected to eat everything put on
level, many were dedicated and made real contributions. one’s plate.1 It was from this experience of personal sacri-
Many were young people in search of employment and fice, intense commitment, and obedience that they went
adventure, with little idea of what lay ahead of them. forward to teach in residential schools.
Until the 1950s, the churches took the primary respon- The Protestant churches hired staff on the basis of
sibility for hiring school staff. For teachers, the Catholics their Christian zeal.2 One applicant for a position with
drew from a number of female religious orders, whose a Presbyterian school wrote, “I have for four years felt
recruits were often young women from rural backgrounds. called to devote my life, for the extension of His kingdom
The Missionary Oblate Sisters, based in St. Boniface, for amongst the heathen, and He has especially given me a
example, taught in prairie schools. More than half the strong desire to spend all the rest of my years amongst the
Oblate sisters recruited between 1904 and 1915, a period heathen here in my own beloved native land.”3
of considerable growth for the small order, came from
T.B. Marsh, the principal of the Hay River, Northwest Territories, school, with school staff and students. The General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of
Canada, P8001 (29).
It would be a mistake to think that all the teachers were matron for fifteen years. Reverend W.A. Hendry was prin-
unqualified. There were, for example, a number of well- cipal of the Portage la Prairie school for over thirty years.7
trained women who worked at schools in the North in But these examples of long service were the exception.
the early twentieth century. Among the Anglicans, Louise A study of four prairie schools showed that from 1888 to
Topping had trained as a teacher and a nurse; Adelaide 1923, the average stay of a teacher was three years, and
Butler had taught for nine years in England before going for principals, it was five and a half years.8 In 1963, of the
to work in Shingle Point; Mabel Jones, another Shingle five teachers at the Carcross school in the Yukon, only one
Point teacher, had a degree in theology; and Margaret had been there for more than a year.9 As late as 1964, the
Peck, who taught in Aklavik, had a degree from Oxford. 4
annual staff turnover rate for all government-run Indian
A study of the staff at four Presbyterian schools in schools was 29.3 percent.10
Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and northwestern Ontario The Catholic schools had lower turnover rates, due
from 1888 to 1923 found that a third of the twenty-four in some measure to the vows of obedience taken by the
principals who worked at the schools during that period members of religious orders. Paul Bousquet, the principal
had university degrees. In the 1954–1955 school year,
5
of the Fort Alexander school, discouraged by a continuing
eighty teachers at all government-funded Indian day and problem with runaways and ongoing conflicts with par-
residential schools had university degrees. A decade later, ents, tried unsuccessfully to resign in 1919. Even though
the number had increased to 228 (or 15.5 percent of the he repeated the offer two years later, saying he was tired
total teaching staff). 6
of working with Aboriginal children, the Oblates kept him
There were people who committed much of their on the job for another fourteen years, during which he
lives to residential school work. Annie McLaren was the served as principal at Fort Alexander, Fort Frances, and
matron of the Birtle, Manitoba, school for twenty-five Camperville.11
years. Jeanie Gilmour was the Crowstand, Saskatchewan,
The Staff Experience • 73
Pupils and staff of the Fort Albany, Ontario, school in 1929. Library and Archives Canada, Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development fonds, C-068966.
There were few limits on what might be required of the sleeping in a fire trap.”14 Within a year of the opening of
early school employees. The principal of a Presbyterian Lejac, Allard had a nervous breakdown, and had to resign
school in northwestern Ontario also served as missionary, as principal.15
steamboat captain, and farm instructor.12 One Catholic Attitudes towards Aboriginal people and students
principal could “run the farm, the plant, and all the out- changed over time. Furthermore, it is apparent that at any
side work,” but was judged as inadequate, because “the given time, different teachers took different approaches
inside drudgery of cooking, mending, sewing, laundry to their students. A change in principal could lead to a
work, taking care of the sick and a thousand other details dramatic change in the school atmosphere.16 While the
do not register with him.” 13
comments of the teachers, particularly in the system’s
Hours were long, days off rare, and responsibilities early years, reflected the stereotypes of the day regarding
continuous. When the large and—for its time—mod- Aboriginal culture, they also expressed the view that their
ern Lejac school opened in 1922, Father Joseph Allard, students were bright and capable.17
who had been in charge of the much smaller Stuart Lake Many teachers were disheartened by their experience.
school, wrote of how relieved he was to have “finished the Sarah LeRoy, who worked at Hay River in the Northwest
processions for half an hour every morning, rain, cold or Territories, commented, “The fight against the evil one
shine, of 15 little boys, each one carrying pitchers of water has been hard, but still the joys of service have overbal-
for all the needs of a house filled with 80 people … fin- anced the discouragements and disappointments.”18
ished the packing of wood for 14 stoves … finished the Another teacher, writing from Carcross in the late 1920s,
stove pipes that dripped soot on the floors and beds … lamented she had “36 children to teach—from those
finished the midnight errands with a stick in hand hit- who do not know one word of English and scream at the
ting the stove pipes red with heat to see if they held good oppressiveness of a roof over their heads for the first time,
together, fearing for the lives of 75 souls, his little ones, to seniors in Grade Six.”19
Nuns working on crafts at Immaculate Conception School in Aklavik, Northwest Territories, 1955. Northwest Territories Archives, Wilkinson, N-1979-051: 1205.
Teachers also spoke up on behalf of students. In 1911 Because the staff members were supposed to be moti-
a teacher at the St. George’s school in Lytton, British vated by religious commitment, they were expected to
Columbia, quit without giving notice, complaining in his work for less money than other teachers. According to
letter of resignation of the way the principal was treating Hayter Reed, the deputy minister of Indian Affairs, the
the students. The Anglican Church investigated, and fired government expected that the churches would “engage
the principal. Unfortunately, his replacement had a repu- employees at less wages than the Department and that
tation for dictatorial behaviour.20 Jennie Cunningham, they would keep within the allowance and reduce wages
a teacher at File Hills in Saskatchewan, wrote letters when necessary.”24 Payment was not always prompt: in the
of complaint to both the federal government and the 1900s, a teacher at the Metlaktla school had not been paid
Presbyterian Church Foreign Mission Committee, point- for two years.25 In addition, teachers often were expected
ing out that overcrowding was so bad that boys had been to donate a portion of their wage back to the schools.
sleeping in tents for two years. 21
From 1901 to 1904, Kate and Janet Gillespie donated a
While the teachers may have enjoyed better meals and third of their income to the File Hills school.26 The mem-
more privacy than the students, theirs was a life of only bers of the Roman Catholic orders had taken vows of pov-
comparative luxury. Sometimes, they were stricken with erty and obedience. In some cases, their orders required
the same diseases that swept through the schools. Living them to work for room and board only. In other orders,
in isolation with colleagues who were not necessarily such as the Sisters of Providence, who worked in Oblate-
of their own choosing could give rise to long-standing managed schools in the Athabasca region of Alberta, the
tensions. The principal of the Regina school had such a sisters were paid $25 a year, plus room and board, by the
strong grip on his staff that he was able to forbid them to Oblates.27 The arrangement, struck in 1893, remained in
visit town. For the Catholics, relations between religious
22
place until 1955, when the sisters were allowed to receive
orders were not always smooth: in 1890 a dispute with the the same salaries paid to Indian Affairs teachers. In
Oblates led the Sisters of St. Ann to withdraw temporarily exchange, the Oblates charged the sisters $40 a month for
from the Kamloops school. 23
The Staff Experience • 75
In 1901 Kate Gillespie was appointed principal of the File Hills A class at the Alberni, British Columbia, school in the 1950s. The
residential school. From 1901 to 1904, she donated a third of her United Church of Canada Archives, 93.049P428.
income to the school. Saskatchewan Archives Board, R-A4801.
room and board, and required them to pay for all their Institute, the move was opposed successfully by the
clothing, health, travel, and education costs. 28
Anglican bishop, who suggested the difficult job of man-
Friendships also developed between former students aging the school would be carried out more successfully
and school staff, and many students retained positive
29
“in hands other than those of an Indian, however well
memories about the impact of specific teachers.30 Father qualified he might be.”37
Jean-Marie Pochat, the long-time principal of Grandin Aboriginal people worked as the cleaning and main-
College in Fort Smith,31 and Ralph Ritcey, the founder tenance staff in many schools, particularly after the half-
of the Churchill vocational school, for example, left day system was ended. Richard King, who taught at the
lasting impressions. On the basis of a nomination from Carcross school in the 1960s, wrote that these workers
his former students, in 2005 Father Pochat was invested were usually former students, who, despite their interest
as a Member of the Order of Canada. Peter Irniq, then in and knowledge of the students, were given few oppor-
the Commissioner of Nunavut and a former student of tunities to interact with them.38
Ritcey’s, delivered the eulogy at Ritcey’s funeral in 2003. By the system’s final years, some Aboriginal staff mem-
Irniq described Ritcey as a man who “cared greatly about bers were able to make a number of positive contributions
the future of Inuit, defended their rights and played a big to the retention and development of Aboriginal culture.
part in eventually dismantling colonialism in the Arctic.” 32
Jose Kusugak, an Inuit leader who played a central role in
There were a small number of Aboriginal teachers the creation of Nunavut, was not only a former residen-
throughout the system’s history. By 1858 three school tial school student but a former teacher as well. While
graduates were teaching at the Alderville School at attending the Churchill vocational school, he concluded
Alnwyck, Ontario. Isaac Barefoot was hired to teach at
33
that education was central to Inuit cultural survival. Upon
his former school, the Mohawk Institute, in 1869.34 In 1903 his graduation, he returned to the school as a cultural and
a Miss Cornelius, an Oneida woman who had attended language advisor. Eva Aariak, the premier of Nunavut,
industrial schools and teacher-training institutes in the had Kusugak as a teacher in Churchill, and credits him for
United States, was teaching at the Regina school.35 inspiring her “love of Inuit language and culture.”39
Aboriginal staff members were not always made to
feel welcome. When the principal of the Birtle, Manitoba,
school married an Aboriginal woman who worked for the
school, the couple faced opposition from other staff and
the church, which transferred him to a different school.36
In the 1940s, when the government attempted to have
an Aboriginal man appointed principal of the Mohawk
77
Chapter Six
The Continuing Legacy
of Residential Schools
On her first sight of the Shingwauk school building in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Jane Willis thought, “Nothing could ever go wrong in such
beautiful surroundings.” But a few months “was all it took to make me ashamed of the fact that I was Indian.” Feelings of shame and inadequacy
were part of the residential school system’s ongoing legacy. David Ewens Collection, Library and Archives Canada, PA-182262.
Residential schools began to have an impact on families, and to healers and elders, for assistance in deal-
Aboriginal people from the day the first child was enrolled. ing with the trauma of residential schooling. As time went
At the personal level, parents lost their children and chil- on, those elders and healers passed on. Some were not
dren lost their parents. Parents and grandparents found replaced, and in other cases, missionaries had under-
that once they had been stripped of their responsibilities, mined their role and position in society. Parents who had
their role in life was greatly diminished. gone to residential school had themselves been damaged
If the schools had operated for only one or two gen- by the system. As a result, each generation of return-
erations, the system’s impact would have been far less ing children had fewer and fewer resources upon which
destructive. Aboriginal people had been on this continent to draw.
for thousands of years. They had developed their own dis- The impacts began to cascade through generations,
tinct cultures, belief systems, laws, economies, and social as former students—damaged by emotional neglect
organizations. These had allowed them to deal success- and often by abuse in the schools—themselves became
fully with all manner of catastrophe. Initially, children parents. Family and individual dysfunction grew, until
returning from the schools could look to their extended eventually, the legacy of the schools became joblessness,
Saskatchewan Aboriginal leaders John Tootoosis (left) and Edward Ahenakew (right) were among the many Aboriginal people who recognized
early on the impact that residential schools were having on their students. Saskatchewan Archives Board, R-A7662; R-B11359.
poverty, family violence, drug and alcohol abuse, family the system’s history, many bureaucrats, church lead-
breakdown, sexual abuse, prostitution, homelessness, ers, and staff drew attention to the system’s failings. In
high rates of imprisonment, and early death. 1
1908 Samuel Blake, after conducting an investigation on
Aboriginal observers were aware of the problems from behalf of the Anglican Church into its Aboriginal mis-
the outset. Edward Ahenakew, who was born in 1885 sionary work, concluded that day schools were prefer-
and attended the Emmanuel College boarding school able to boarding schools.4 In 1923 Indian Commissioner
in Prince Albert, said that on leaving school, a student W.A. Graham complained that former pupils were
was “in a totally false position. He does not fit into the “more careless of their property and less able to manage
Indian life, nor does he find that he can associate with their affairs and work than those Indians who have not
the whites. He is forced to act a part. He is now one thing, attended school.”5 The government was aware that, even
now another, and that alone can brand him as an erratic on its own terms, the system had been a failure from the
and unreliable fellow.”2 John Tootoosis, who went to the outset. It failed to assimilate Aboriginal people, it failed
Delmas school in Saskatchewan from 1912 to 1916, said to educate them in ways that would allow them to take
that “when an Indian comes out of these places it is like control over their economic future, and it robbed them of
being put between two walls in a room and left hanging in their traditional skills. Samuel Gargan, a Dene man who
the middle. On one side are all the things he learned from went to residential schools in the 1950s and 1960s, went
his people and their way of life that was being wiped out, on to become Grand Chief of the Dehcho region of the
and on the other side are the whiteman’s ways which he Northwest Territories and a member of the NWT legisla-
could never fully understand since he never had the right ture. Despite these accomplishments, he regretted that “I
amount of education and could not be part of it.”3 was never able to reach my full potential as a hunter or
These observations would not have been news to trapper, an occupation that was supposed to be passed on
the federal government or the churches. Throughout to me by my father and mother.”6
The Continuing Legacy of Residential Schools • 79
Tragically, the system was far more effective in accom- I never gave them hugs and I never told them I loved
plishing the destructive side of its mandate: the separa- them.”16 Allan Mitchell said residential school taught him
tion of children from their parents, their community, their how not to love. “Because there was no affection shown.
language, their culture, and their spirituality. There was a lot of discipline. No affection, none whatso-
Children missed their parents, but many also blamed ever. I don’t ever remember getting hugs from them, even
them for sending them to residential school. One former on my birthdays or anything.”17 George Amato, who went
student hated her parents for years “for abandoning me to the St. Bernard school in Alberta for nine years, asked,
at the Indian school.” To one student, the most hurtful
7
“How are we supposed to know how to be a parent when
long-term effect was “the inability to show love to my you don’t have any guidance from anybody? All I had in
mom, brothers, and sisters.” Although visits home pro-
8
me all my life was anger.”18 Former Blue Quills student
vided a longed-for escape from the school, they were not
without tension. In 1919 Sarah-Jane Essau, an Aboriginal
“
woman from Moosehide in the Yukon, wrote that when
children returned from residential school, “they won’t
have anything to do with us; they want to be with white
It visited us every day of
people; they grow away from us.” 9
Marius Tungilik felt he had been taught “to hate our

our childhood through the
own people, basically, our own kind” while at school in
Chesterfield Inlet. When he returned to Repulse Bay, he
replaying over and over
saw his community differently: “you begin to think and
see your own people in a different light. You see them
of our parents’ childhood
eating with their hands. You think, ‘Okay, primitive.’”10
Espérance, a woman who attended the Maliotenam
trauma and grief which they
school in Sept Isles, Quebec, found that “because we
spoke so much French, when we returned home for the
never had the opportunity to
holidays, we couldn’t speak our language anymore. That
really isolated us from each other.”11
resolve in their lifetimes.
Those who did graduate with employable skills often
were excluded from work by employers who discrimi-
nated on the basis of race.12 In other cases, their training
did not meet existing needs, either because certain trades
such as blacksmithing or typesetting were becoming
”
Vera Manuel, child of former students
Elise Charland said she was a terrible parent. “My chil-

obsolete, or because there was no regional demand for
dren were growing up with my abusive behaviour of slap-
them.13 The results were often poverty, frustration, and
ping, whipping, and screaming at them for everything
self-doubt. As Edward Ahenakew noted, the schools
they did. I loved them in a very sick way.”19 Although Vera
trained students to be obedient, rendering them passive.
Manuel and her brother did not attend residential school,
Harold Greyeyes said that while there was much that was
“We didn’t really escape it either as it visited us every day
positive about the Lebret school, “the one thing a student
of our childhood through the replaying over and over of
never questioned was a ruling of one of the staff. It just
our parents’ childhood trauma and grief which they never
wasn’t done and even after I left the school I found it very
had the opportunity to resolve in their lifetimes.”20
hard to question anything that came from an authority
This massive disruption of Aboriginal families contrib-
figure.”14
uted to the “Sixties scoop”—the dramatic increase in the
The schools lacked the resources and capacity to pro-
number of Aboriginal children apprehended by child wel-
vide children with affection. Alphonse Janvier could not
fare agencies in the 1960s and 1970s. By 1970 between 30
recall “ever being hugged or ever being told that I was
and 40 percent of the children in care were of Aboriginal
loved.”15 Deprived of affection and of their parents, many
status, even though Aboriginal people counted for only
former students experienced tremendous difficulties
4 percent of the population. Under this system, children
in raising their own families. “When I had my four kids,
not only were taken out of their families and home com- ended abruptly in some disastrous way or I may never
munities, but, to a significant extent, they were shipped have begun the work toward healing.”27
out of the country. Many of the children responded to From the early 1990s onward, former students have
fostering and adoption in the same manner that previ- been working collectively to support each other, and
ous generations had responded to residential schools: to seek justice from the federal government and the
they ran away, they did poorly in school, and they grew up churches. In 1991 the Caribou Tribal Council of Williams
ashamed and confused about their heritage. Some were Lake, British Columbia, organized the First National
abused by their foster and adoptive parents; many turned Conference on Residential Schools. At that event, Bev
to drugs, alcohol, crime, and suicide. In Manitoba, Edwin Sellars, a former student, spoke of the need to break the
Kimmelman, the judge heading a provincial inquiry into cycle of pain and suffering the residential schools had
Aboriginal child welfare, termed it “cultural genocide.”21 initiated. She told delegates, “We cannot allow another
The separation of the sexes and the strong empha- generation to suffer from the past programming we
sis on sin left many students confused about sexuality. received at the schools.”28 In British Columbia, the Indian
As one woman put it, “We were never allowed to talk to Residential School Survivors Society was founded in
boys because it was bad to talk to boys.”22 Another stu-
dent said, “I believed sex was a sin so I couldn’t enjoy the
act, but I learned to be submissive, as I thought that’s
what I should be doing.23 The confusion sometimes led
to self-destructive behaviour. One former student said,
“Girls became promiscuous, thinking this was the only
We cannot allow another “
way they could feel close to another person.”24 generation to suffer from
Other students turned to alcohol and drugs. A former
student said, “I was frustrated about how we were treated, the past programming we
humiliated, and degraded, so I drank and took drugs to
numb the frustrations of how my life had turned out.”25 received at the schools.
”
For many students, the problems compounded one
on another.
Bev Sellars, former student
Referring to one abusive principal, Salamiva
Weetaluktuk, a former student from northern Quebec,
said, “There are a few homeless people in Montreal
1994.29 The National Residential School Survivors’ Society,
because of that teacher, that principal.”26
founded in 2005, grew out of an informal gathering of
Those who were sexually and physically abused in
residential school survivors groups in August 2003.30 A
the schools bore a particularly heavy burden. Just as
community-based Aboriginal movement for healing and
the legacy of residential schooling continued long after
justice developed from the work of such groups.
the schools closed, the impact of abuse continues long
In the 1990s, a series of class-action lawsuits were
after the abuse stops. Children recover best if they have
launched, leading in 2006 to the Indian Residential
the support of their family and community, something
Schools Settlement Agreement, the largest class-action
that was denied to residential school students. Many
settlement in Canadian history. Ratified in 2007, the set-
felt ashamed and isolated, some were prone to violence,
tlement included a compensation payment for any for-
and others went on to perpetuate the violence. For Ted
mer residential school residents, based on verifying their
Fontaine, an important moment came when he con-
attendance at a school listed in the settlement agreement.
nected with a cousin who had been a few years ahead of
It also established an independent process under which
him at the Fort Alexander school, and the two began to
those who suffered sexual or serious physical abuses, or
speak of their experiences. “When you live your whole life
other abuses that caused serious psychological effects,
with the idea that you experienced something unnatural,
can receive additional compensation. Funding also was
and if you don’t have an outlet or place to dump the gar-
provided to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation to support
bage, you begin to wonder if it happened at all. I’m thank-
initiatives that address the residential school legacy. The
ful that I found Chubb again. Otherwise my life may have
Robert Joseph, an hereditary chief of the Gwa wa enuk First Nation, In 1945, nine-year-old Nora Bernard, a Mi’kmaq child from
attended the Alert Bay, British Columbia, residential school for Nova Scotia, was sent to the Shubenacadie school. She attended
eleven years. Joseph was for many years the executive director of the the school for five years. In 1995 she began organizing former
BC-based Indian Residential School Survivors Society. The society residential school students. The class action lawsuit that arose
supported former students and campaigned for public recognition from her work played an important role in leading to the Indian
of the history and impacts of the residential school system. Fred Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. The Halifax Herald Ltd.
Cattroll.
settlement agreement also established a commemoration families in order to assimilate them better into the domi-
initiative, and the Indian Residential Schools Truth and nant culture. Harper said, “These objectives were based
Reconciliation Commission. on the assumption Aboriginal cultures and spiritual
In the 1960s, Canadian churches began to examine beliefs were inferior and unequal. Indeed, some sought,
their historical relationship with Aboriginal people. That as it was infamously said, ‘to kill the Indian in the child.’
led to their involvement in several campaigns in support Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was
of Aboriginal rights. In 1986 the United Church of Canada wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our
issued an apology for its attempts to impose European country.”31
culture and values on Aboriginal people. As the Aboriginal The prime minister was joined by the leaders of the
survivor movement grew, apologies specific to the opera- other parties represented in the House of Commons, who
tion of residential schools came from the Roman Catholic also offered apologies for the role that the federal govern-
Oblate Conference of Canada in 1991, from the Anglican ment had played in this shared history. The Liberal Leader
Church of Canada in 1993, the Presbyterian Church in of the Opposition, Stéphane Dion, acknowledged that the
Canada in 1994, and the United Church in 1998. government’s policy had “destroyed the fabric of family in
On June 11, 2008, the Conservative Prime Minister of First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities. Parents and
Canada, Stephen Harper, issued an apology to former children were made to feel worthless. Parents and grand-
residential students on behalf of all Canadians. Present parents were given no choice. Their children were sto-
on the floor of the House of Commons for this historic len from them.”32 Bloc Québecois leader Gilles Duceppe
event were the Aboriginal leadership of Canada along asked Canadians to “picture a small village, a small com-
with a number of former students. In his statement, the munity. Now picture all of its children, gone. No more
prime minister recognized that the primary purpose of children between seven and sixteen playing in the lanes
the schools was to remove children from their homes and
Canada’s Aboriginal leaders along with a number of former residential school students were present on the floor of the House of Commons for
the 2008 Residential School Apology. Clockwise from the left: former student Don Favel; former student Mary Moonias; former student Mike
Cachagee, President of the National Residential School Survivors Society; former student Crystal Merasty; former student Peter Irniq; Patrick
Brazeau, National Chief of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples; Mary Simon, President of the Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami; Phil Fontaine, National Chief
of the Assembly of First Nations; Beverley Jacobs, President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada; Clem Chartier, President of the Métis
National Council. Former student Marguerite Wabano is obscured by Phil Fontaine’s headdress. Canadian Press: Fred Chartrand.
or the woods, filling the hearts of their elders with their else, the recognition that we all own our own lives and
laughter and joy.” 33
destinies, the only true foundation for a society where
New Democratic Party leader Jack Layton pointed to peoples can flourish.”35 Patrick Brazeau, National Chief
the fact that the country was still living with the residential of the Congress of Aboriginal Peoples, spoke of what he
school legacy, and called on Canadians to help “reverse had learned from the former students, saying, “Because
the horrific and shameful statistics afflicting Aboriginal of your resiliency, your courage and your strength, you
populations, now: the high rates of poverty, suicide, the have made me the strong Aboriginal Algonquin Canadian
poor or having no education, overcrowding, crumbling that I am today, as you have others across this great land
housing, and unsafe drinking water. Let us make sure that of ours.”36 Mary Simon, President of the Inuit Tapiriit
all survivors of the residential schools receive the recogni- Kanatami, pointed out that in tackling the hard work that
tion and compensation that is due to them.”34 remained to be done, “We need the help and support of
In his response, Phil Fontaine, National Chief of the all thoughtful Canadians and our governments to rebuild
Assembly of First Nations, said the apology marked a strong and healthy families and communities.”37 Clem
new dawn in the relationship between Aboriginal peo- Chartier, President of the Métis National Council, noted
ple and the rest of Canada. Together, he said, Canadians that he had attended a residential school, and pointed
could “achieve the greatness our country deserves. The out that many issues regarding the relationship between
apology today is founded upon, more than anything Métis people and residential schools still are not resolved.
He said, “I hope and I do believe sincerely in the words of

the minister that we will address this.”38 Beverley Jacobs,
President of the Native Women’s Association of Canada,
spoke of how Aboriginal communities were recovering
their traditions. “Now we have our language still, we have
our ceremonies, we have our elders, and we have to revi-
talize those ceremonies and the respect for our people
not only within Canadian society but even within our own
peoples.”39
Given that for most of the last century, the residential
school story was perhaps the least-known dimension of
Canadian history, these apologies are of historic impor-
tance. In the same month they were issued, the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission took office. The Commission’s
mandate is extensive (and is reproduced in Appendix A
of this document), but its overarching mission is to tell
Canadians about the history of residential schools and
the impact those schools have had on Aboriginal peoples,
and to guide a process of national reconciliation. The
appointment of this Commission marks not the end of
the residential school story, but recognition by a growing
number of Canadians of the need to address the relation-
ship between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canada.
Most importantly, it marks a growing understanding of
the opportunities that such a relationship can create for
the whole country.
85
Conclusions
The information in this book is based largely on • Due to this lack of care and supervision, the schools
published material. Future Truth and Reconciliation often were sites of institutionalized child neglect,
Commission reports will make more extensive use excessive physical punishment, and physical, sex-
of statements that Canadians are providing to the ual, and emotional abuse.
Commission on their involvement and understanding of • Persistent underfunding left the schools dependent
residential schools. The Commission also will make use on student labour.
of new research. That work will provide all Canadians • Several generations of children were traumatized by
with a fuller and deeper understanding of the schools and their residential school experience: by having been
their legacy. It also will outline the Commission’s recom- abused, by having witnessed abuse, or by having
mendations on how the ongoing process of reconciliation been coerced to participate in abuse.
should continue. • All these factors contributed to high mortality rates,
There can be no movement toward reconciliation, poor health, and low academic achievement.
however, without an understanding of the rationale,
operation, and overall impact of the schools. Through its 2) Residential schools constituted an
work, the Commission has reached certain conclusions
assault on Aboriginal families.
about the residential school system. As stated in the intro-
duction, the truth about the residential school system will • The residential school system was established with
cause many Canadians to see their country differently. the specific intent of preventing parents from exer-
These are hard truths, but only by coming to grips with cising influence over the educational, spiritual, and
these truths can we lay the foundation for reconciliation. cultural development of their children.
The Commission has concluded that: • The schools not only separated children from their
1) Residential schools constituted an assault on parents and grandparents, but because of the strict
Aboriginal children. separation of girls from boys, they also separated
2) Residential schools constituted an assault on sisters from brothers. Older siblings were also sepa-
Aboriginal families. rated from younger siblings.
3) Residential schools constituted an assault on • As each succeeding generation passed through the
Aboriginal culture. system, the family bond weakened, and, eventu-
4) Residential schools constituted an assault on ally, the strength and structure of Aboriginal family
self-governing and self-sustaining Aboriginal bonds were virtually destroyed.
nations. • Given the high mortality rates that prevailed for
5) The impacts of the residential school system much of the system’s history, many parents spent
were immediate, and have been ongoing since their lives grieving, never having been given a
the earliest years of the schools. proper description of how their child died or where
6) Canadians have been denied a full and proper they were buried, and not being able to hold an
education as to the nature of Aboriginal societ- appropriate ceremony of mourning.
ies, and the history of the relationship between
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples. 3) Residential schools constituted an
assault on Aboriginal culture.
1) Residential schools constituted an
• The residential school system was intended to
assault on Aboriginal children. “civilize” and “Christianize” Aboriginal children,
• The residential school system separated children replacing Aboriginal cultural values with Euro-
from their parents without providing them with Canadian values.
adequate physical or emotional care or supervision. • The residential school system belittled and
repressed Aboriginal cultures and languages. By
making students feel ashamed of who they were, 6) Canadians have been denied a full and
the system undermined their sense of pride and
proper education as to the nature of
self-worth. This deprived them of the cultural and
Aboriginal societies, and the history of
economic advantages and benefits that come from
knowing two languages. the relationship between Aboriginal
and non-Aboriginal peoples.
4) Residential schools constituted an • Canadians generally have been led to believe—by
assault on self-governing and self- what has been taught and not taught in schools—
sustaining Aboriginal nations. that Aboriginal people were and are uncivilized,
primitive, and inferior, and continue to need to be
• The residential school system was intended
civilized. Canadians have been denied a full and
to assimilate Aboriginal children into broader
proper education as to the nature of Aboriginal
Canadian society. With assimilation would come
societies. They have not been well informed about
the breaking up of the reserves and the end of treaty
the nature of the relationship that was established
obligations. In this way the schools were part of a
initially between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
broader Canadian policy to undermine Aboriginal
peoples and the way that relationship has been
leaders and Aboriginal self-government.
shaped over time by colonialism and racism. This
lack of education and misinformation has led to
5) The impacts of the residential school system misunderstanding and, in some cases, hostility
were immediate, and have been ongoing between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Canadians
on matters of importance.
since the earliest years of the schools.
It will take time and commitment to reverse this legacy.
• The damage extended far beyond the numbers of
The schools operated in Canada for well over a century.
children who attended these schools: families, com-
In the same way, the reconciliation process will have to
munities, and cultures all suffered. Students were
span generations. It will take time to re-establish respect.
estranged from their families and communities;
Effective reconciliation will see Aboriginal people regaining
cultural, spiritual, and language transmission was
their sense of self-respect, and the development of relations
disrupted; education did not prepare children for
of mutual respect between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
traditional lifestyles or emerging economic oppor-
people. In future reports, the Truth and Reconciliation
tunities (which often were limited); parenting skills
Commission will be making specific recommendations as
were lost; and patterns of abuse were developed that
to how reconciliation can be furthered.
continue to have an impact on communities today.
• The schools’ legacy shaped people’s whole life
There are three points we would like to leave with
experience, including their employment and their
all readers.
interactions with social service agencies, the legal
The first is that this story has heroes. The work of truth
system, and the health care system. The system’s
telling, healing, and reconciliation was commenced well
impact does not stop with the survivors; it affects
over two decades ago by the people who, as children,
their interactions with their children and grandchil-
had been victimized by this system. They continue to
dren—the intergenerational survivors. The impact
do the heavy labour of sharing their stories, and, by so
of the schools is felt in every Aboriginal community
doing, educating their children, their communities, and
in the country.
their country.
The second is obvious: a commission such as this can-
not itself achieve reconciliation. Reconciliation implies
relationship. The residential schools badly damaged
relationships within Aboriginal families and communi-
ties, between Aboriginal peoples and churches, between
Aboriginal peoples and the government, and between
Conclusions • 87
Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples within Canadian

society. The Commissioners believe these relationships
can and must be repaired. The Indian Residential Schools
Settlement Agreement is a positive step in this process
since it formally recognized the need to come to terms
with the past. The process of reconciliation will require
the passionate commitment of individuals and the genu-
ine engagement of society. There are people today who
are living with the direct impacts of the schools: the sur-
vivors and their families. Specific attention will have to be
paid to their needs. The conflicts that have arisen within
communities as a result of the school system must be
recognized and addressed. Churches have to define their
role in this process as Aboriginal people reclaim what is of
value to them.
Reconciliation also will require changes in the rela-
tionship between Aboriginal people and the government
of Canada. The federal government, along with the pro-
vincial governments, historically has taken a social wel-
fare approach to its dealings with Aboriginal people. This
approach fails to recognize the unique legal status of
Aboriginal peoples as the original peoples of this country.
Without that recognition, we run the risk of continuing
the assimilationist policies and the social harms that were
integral to the residential schools.
Finally, there is no reason for anyone who wants to
contribute to the reconciliation process to wait until the
publication of the Commission’s final reports. There is
an opportunity now for Canadians to engage in this work,
to make their own contributions to reconciliation, and
to create new truths about our country. As Assembly of
First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine observed when
he accepted Canada’s apology in June 2008, “Together
we can achieve the greatness our country deserves.” Our
challenge and opportunity will be to work together to
achieve that greatness.
Appendix A • 89
Appendix A
The Mandate of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
Schedule N of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement
There is an emerging and compelling desire to put Canada. Reconciliation may occur between any of the
the events of the past behind us so that we can work above groups.
towards a stronger and healthier future. The truth telling
and reconciliation process as part of an overall holistic
Terms of Reference
and comprehensive response to the Indian Residential
School legacy is a sincere indication and acknowl-
edgement of the injustices and harms experienced by 1. Goals
Aboriginal people and the need for continued healing. The goals of the Commission shall be to:
This is a profound commitment to establishing new rela- (a) Acknowledge Residential School experiences,
tionships embedded in mutual recognition and respect impacts and consequences;
that will forge a brighter future. The truth of our com- (b) Provide a holistic, culturally appropriate and safe
mon experiences will help set our spirits free and pave setting for former students, their families and com-
the way to reconciliation. munities as they come forward to the Commission;
(c) Witness1, support, promote and facilitate truth and
reconciliation events at both the national and com-
Principles
munity levels;
Through the Agreement, the Parties have agreed (d) Promote awareness and public education of
that an historic Truth and Reconciliation Commission Canadians about the IRS system and its impacts;
will be established to contribute to truth, healing (e) Identify sources and create as complete an historical
and reconciliation. record as possible of the IRS system and legacy. The
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission will build record shall be preserved and made accessible to the
upon the “Statement of Reconciliation” dated January 7, public for future study and use;
1998 and the principles developed by the Working Group (f) Produce and submit to the Parties of the Agreement2
on Truth and Reconciliation and of the Exploratory a report including recommendations3 to the
Dialogues (1998-1999). These principles are as follows: Government of Canada concerning the IRS system
accessible; victim-centered; confidentiality (if required and experience including: the history, purpose,
by the former student); do no harm; health and safety operation and supervision of the IRS system, the
of participants; representative; public/transparent; effect and consequences of IRS (including systemic
accountable; open and honourable process; compre- harms, intergenerational consequences and the
hensive; inclusive, educational, holistic, just and fair; impact on human dignity) and the ongoing legacy of
respectful; voluntary; flexible; and forward looking in the residential schools;
terms of rebuilding and renewing Aboriginal relation-
ships and the relationship between Aboriginal and non-
1 This refers to the Aboriginal principle of “witnessing.”
Aboriginal Canadians.
2 The Government of Canada undertakes to provide
Reconciliation is an ongoing individual and col-
for wider dissemination of the report pursuant to the
lective process, and will require commitment from
recommendations of the Commissioners.
all those affected including First Nations, Inuit and
3 The Commission may make recommendations for
Métis former Indian Residential School (IRS) students,
such further measures as it considers necessary
their families, communities, religious entities, for-
for the fulfillment of the Truth and Reconciliation
mer school employees, government and the people of
Mandate and goals.
(g) Support commemoration of former Indian findings or information has already been estab-
Residential School students and their families lished through legal proceedings, by admission, or
in accordance with the Commemoration Policy by public disclosure by the individual. Further, the
Directive (Schedule “X” of the Agreement). Commission shall not make any reference in any of
its activities or in its report or recommendations to
2. Establishment, Powers, Duties and the possible civil or criminal liability of any person
Procedures of the Commission or organization, unless such findings or information
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission shall be about the individual or institution has already been
established by the appointment of “the Commissioners” established through legal proceedings;
by the Federal Government through an Order in Council, (g) shall not, except as required by law, use or permit
pursuant to special appointment regulations. access to statements made by individuals during any
Pursuant to the Court-approved final settle- of the Commissions events, activities or processes,
ment agreement and the class action judgments, except with the express consent of the individual
the Commissioners: and only for the sole purpose and extent for which
(a) in fulfilling their Truth and Reconciliation Mandate, the consent is granted;
are authorized to receive statements and documents (h) shall not name names in their events, activities,
from former students, their families, community public statements, report or recommendations, or
and all other interested participants, and, subject make use of personal information or of statements
to (f), (g) and (h) below, make use of all documents made which identify a person, without the express
and materials produced by the parties. Further, consent of that individual, unless that information
the Commissioners are authorized and required in and/or the identity of the person so identified has
the public interest to archive all such documents, already been established through legal proceed-
materials, and transcripts or recordings of state- ings, by admission, or by public disclosure by that
ments received, in a manner that will ensure their individual. Other information that could be used
preservation and accessibility to the public and in to identify individuals shall be anonymized to the
accordance with access and privacy legislation, and extent possible;
any other applicable legislation; (i) notwithstanding (e), shall require in camera
(b) shall not hold formal hearings, nor act as a public proceedings for the taking of any statement that
inquiry, nor conduct a formal legal process; contains names or other identifying information of
(c) shall not possess subpoena powers, and do not persons alleged by the person making the statement
have powers to compel attendance or participa- of some wrong doing, unless the person named or
tion in any of its activities or events. Participation identified has been convicted for the alleged wrong
in all Commission events and activities is doing. The Commissioners shall not record the
entirely voluntary; names of persons so identified, unless the person
(d) may adopt any informal procedures or methods named or identified has been convicted for the
they may consider expedient for the proper conduct alleged wrong doing. Other information that could
of the Commission events and activities, so long as be used to identify said individuals shall be anony-
they remain consistent with the goals and provisions mized to the extent possible;
set out in the Commission’s mandate statement; (j) shall not, except as required by law, provide to any
(e) may, at its discretion, hold sessions in camera, or other proceeding, or for any other use, any personal
require that sessions be held in camera; information, statement made by the individual or
(f) shall perform their duties in holding events, in activ- any information identifying any person, without
ities, in public meetings, in consultations, in making that individual’s express consent;
public statements, and in making their report and (k) shall ensure that the conduct of the Commission
recommendations without making any findings and its activities do not jeopardize any
or expressing any conclusion or recommendation, legal proceeding;
regarding the misconduct of any person, unless such (l) may refer to the NAC for determination of disputes
involving document production, document disposal
Appendix A • 91
and archiving, contents of the Commission’s Report (a) the unique experiences of First Nations, Inuit and
and Recommendations and Commission decisions Métis former IRS students, and will conduct its
regarding the scope of its research and issues to be activities, hold its events, and prepare its Report and
examined. The Commission shall make best efforts Recommendations in a manner that reflects and
to resolve the matter itself before referring it to recognizes The unique experiences of all former
the NAC. IRS students;
(b) that the truth and reconciliation process is commit-
3. Responsibilities ted to the principle of voluntariness with respect to
In keeping with the powers and duties of the individuals’ participation;
Commission, as enumerated in section 2 above, the (c) that it will build upon the work of past and existing
Commission shall have the following responsibilities: processes, archival records, resources and documen-
(a) to employ interdisciplinary, social sciences, histori- tation, including the work and records of the Royal
cal, oral traditional and archival methodologies Commission on Aboriginal Peoples of 1996;
for statement-taking, historical fact-finding and (d) the significance of Aboriginal oral and legal tradi-
analysis, report-writing, knowledge management tions in its activities;
and archiving; (e) that as part of the overall holistic approach to
(b) to adopt methods and procedures which it deems reconciliation and healing, the Commission should
necessary to achieve its goals; reasonably coordinate with other initiatives under
(c) to engage the services of such persons includ- the Agreement and shall acknowledge links to other
ing experts, which it deems necessary to achieve aspects of the Agreement such that the overall goals
its goals; of reconciliation will be promoted;
(d) to establish a research centre and ensure the preser- (f) that all individual statements are of equal impor-
vation of its archives; tance, even if these statements are delivered after
(e) to have available the use of such facilities and equip- the completion of the report;
ment as is required, within the limits of appropriate (g) that there shall be an emphasis on both information
guidelines and rules; collection/storage and information analysis.
(f) to hold such events and give such notices as appro-
priate. This shall include such significant ceremo-
5. Membership
nies as the Commission sees fit during and at the The Commission shall consist of an appointed
conclusion of the 5 year process; Chairperson and two Commissioners, who shall be per-
(g) to prepare a report; sons of recognized integrity, stature and respect.
(h) to have the report translated in the two official (a) Consideration should be given to at least one of the
languages of Canada and all or parts of the report three members being an Aboriginal person;
in such Aboriginal languages as determined by (b) Appointments shall be made out of a pool of can-
the Commissioners; didates nominated by former students, Aboriginal
(i) to evaluate commemoration proposals in line with organizations, churches and government;
the Commemoration Policy Directive (Schedule “J” (c) The Assembly of First Nations (AFN) shall be con-
of the Agreement). sulted in making the final decision as to the appoint-
ment of the Commissioners.
4. Exercise of Duties
As the Commission is not to act as a public inquiry or 6. Secretariat
to conduct a formal legal process, it will, therefore, not The Commission shall operate through a cen-
duplicate in whole or in part the function of criminal tral Secretariat.
investigations, the Independent Assessment Process, (a) There shall be an Executive Director in charge of the
court actions, or make recommendations on matters operation of the Commission who shall select and
already covered in the Agreement. In the exercise of its engage staff and regional liaisons;
powers the Commission shall recognize:
(b) The Executive Director and the Secretariat from a pool of eligible candidates developed by
shall be subject to the direction and control of the stakeholders;
the Commissioners; (c) Committee members are responsible for providing
(c) The Secretariat shall be responsible for the activities advice to the Commissioners on:
of the Commission such as: (i) the characteristics of a “community” for the
(i) research; purposes of participation in the Commission
(ii) event organization; processes;
(iii) statement taking/truth-sharing; (ii) the criteria for the community and national
(iv) obtaining documents; processes;
(v) information management of the (iii) the evaluation of Commemoration Policy
Commission’s documents; Directive proposals;
(vi) production of the report; (iv) such other issues as are required by the
(vii) ensuring the preservation of its records; Commissioners.
(viii) evaluation of the Commemoration Policy
Directive proposals. 8. Timeframe
(d) The Executive Director and Commissioners The Commission shall complete its work within five
shall consult with the Indian Residential School years. Within that five year span, there are two timelines:
Survivor Committee on the appointment of the
Regional Liaisons. Two Year Timeline
(e) Regional liaisons shall: (a) Preparation of a budget within three months from
(i) act as knowledge conduits and promote being launched, under the budgetary cap provision
sharing of knowledge among communities, in the Agreement;
individuals and the Commission; (b) Completion of all national events, and research
(ii) provide a link between the national body and and production of the report on historic findings
communities for the purpose of coordinating and recommendations, within two years of the
national and community events; launch of the Commission, with the possibility of a 6
(iii) provide information to and assist commu- month extension, which shall be at the discretion of
nities as they plan truth and reconciliation the Commissioners.
events, coordinate statement-taking/truth-
Five Year Timeline
sharing and event-recording, and facilitate
(a) Completion of the community truth and reconcilia-
information flow from the communities to
tion events, statement taking/truth sharing, report-
the Commission.
ing to the Commission from communities, and
closing ceremonies;
7. Indian Residential School Survivor
Committee (IRSSC) (b) Establishment of a research centre.
The Commission shall be assisted by an Indian 9. Research

Residential School Survivor Committee (IRSSC).
The Commission shall conduct such research, receive
(a) The Committee shall be composed of 10 represen-
and take such statements and consider such docu-
tatives drawn from various Aboriginal organiza-
ments as it deems necessary for the purpose of achieving
tions and survivor groups. Representation shall
its goals.
be regional, reflecting the population distribution
of Indian Residential Schools (as defined in the
10. Events
Agreement). The majority of the representatives
shall be former residential school students; There are three essential event components to the
(b) Members of the Committee shall be selected by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: National Events,
Federal Government, in consultation with the AFN, Community Events and Individual Statement-Taking/
Truth Sharing. The Truth and Reconciliation process will
be concluded with a final Closing Ceremony.
Appendix A • 93
(A) National Events (l) health supports and trauma experts during and
The national events are a mechanism through which after the ceremony for all participants.
the truth and reconciliation process will engage the
(B) Community Events
Canadian public and provide education about the IRS
It is intended that the community events will be
system, the experience of former students and their
designed by communities and respond to the needs of
families, and the ongoing legacies of the institutions.
the former students, their families and those affected by
The Commission shall fund and host seven national
the IRS legacy including the special needs of those com-
events in different regions across the country for the
munities where Indian Residential Schools were located.
purpose of:
The community events are for the purpose of:
(a) sharing information with/from the communities;
(a) acknowledging the capacity of communities to
(b) supporting and facilitating the self empower-
develop reconciliation practices;
ment of former IRS students and those affected
(b) developing collective community narratives
by the IRS legacy;
about the impact of the IRS system on former
(c) providing a context and meaning for the
students, families and communities;
Common Experience Payment;
(c) involving church, former school employees and
(d) engaging and educating the public through
government officials in the reconciliation pro-
mass communications;
cess, if requested by communities;
(e) otherwise achieving its goals.
(d) creating a record or statement of community
The Commission shall, in designing the events,
narratives – including truths, insights and recom-
include in its consideration the history and demograph-
mendations–for use in the historical research
ics of the IRS system.
and report, national events, and for inclusion in
National events should include the following com-
the research centre;
mon components:
(e) educating the public and fostering better rela-
(f) an opportunity for a sample number of former
tionships with local communities;
students and families to share their experiences;
(f) allowing for the participation from high level
(g) an opportunity for some communities in the
government and church officials, if requested
regions to share their experiences as they relate
by communities;
to the impacts on communities and to share
(g) respecting the goal of witnessing in accordance
insights from their community reconcilia-
with Aboriginal principles.
tion processes;
The Commission, during the first stages of the process
(h) an opportunity for participation and sharing
in consultation with the IRSSC, shall develop the core
of information and knowledge among former
criteria and values consistent with the Commission’s
students, their families, communities, experts,
mandate that will guide the community processes.
church and government officials, institutions and
Within these parameters communities may submit
the Canadian public;
plans for reconciliation processes to the Commission
(i) ceremonial transfer of knowledge through
and receive funding for the processes within the limits of
the passing of individual statement tran-
the Commission’s budgetary capacity.
scripts or community reports/statements. The
Commission shall recognize that ownership over (C) Individual Statement-Taking/Truth Sharing
IRS experiences rests with those affected by the The Commission shall coordinate the collection of
Indian Residential School legacy; individual statements by written, electronic or other
(j) analysis of the short and long term legacy of the appropriate means. Notwithstanding the five year man-
IRS system on individuals, communities, groups, date, anyone affected by the IRS legacy will be permitted
institutions and Canadian society including the to file a personal statement in the research centre with
intergenerational impacts of the IRS system; no time limitation.
(k) participation of high level government and
church officials;
The Commission shall provide a safe, supportive and may be transferred to the Commission for research and
sensitive environment for individual statement-taking/ archiving purposes.
truth sharing.
The Commission shall not use or permit access to an 12. National Research Centre
individual’s statement made in any Commission pro- A research centre shall be established, in a manner
cesses, except with the express consent of the individual. and to the extent that the Commission’s budget makes
possible. It shall be accessible to former students, their
(D) Closing Ceremony
families and communities, the general public, research-
The Commission shall hold a closing ceremony at the
ers and educators who wish to include this historic
end of its mandate to recognize the significance of all
material in curricula.
events over the life of the Commission. The closing cer-
For the duration of the term of its mandate, the
emony shall have the participation of high level church
Commission shall ensure that all materials created or
and government officials.
received pursuant to this mandate shall be preserved
11. Access to Relevant Information and archived with a purpose and tradition in keeping
with the objectives and spirit of the Commission’s work.
In order to ensure the efficacy of the truth and
The Commission shall use such methods and engage
reconciliation process, Canada and the churches will
in such partnerships with experts, such as Library and
provide all relevant documents in their possession or
Archives Canada, as are necessary to preserve and main-
control to and for the use of the Truth and Reconciliation
tain the materials and documents. To the extent feasible
Commission, subject to the privacy interests of an indi-
and taking into account the relevant law and any recom-
vidual as provided by applicable privacy legislation, and
mendations by the Commission concerning the con-
subject to and in compliance with applicable privacy and
tinued confidentiality of records, all materials collected
access to information legislation, and except for those
through this process should be accessible to the public.
documents for which solicitor-client privilege applies
and is asserted. 13. Privacy
In cases where privacy interests of an individual
The Commission shall respect privacy laws, and
exist, and subject to and in compliance with applicable
the confidentiality concerns of participants. For
privacy legislation and access to information legislation,
greater certainty:
researchers for the Commission shall have access to
(a) any involvement in public events shall be voluntary;
the documents, provided privacy is protected. In cases
(b) notwithstanding 2(i), the national events shall be
where solicitor-client privilege is asserted, the asserting
public or in special circumstances, at the discretion
party will provide a list of all documents for which the
of the Commissioners, information may be taken
privilege is claimed.
in camera;
Canada and the churches are not required to give
(c) the community events shall be private or pub-
up possession of their original documents to the
lic, depending upon the design provided by
Commission. They are required to compile all relevant
the community;
documents in an organized manner for review by the
(d) if an individual requests that a statement be taken
Commission and to provide access to their archives for
privately, the Commission shall accommodate;
the Commission to carry out its mandate. Provision
(e) documents shall be archived in accordance
of documents does not require provision of original
with legislation.
documents. Originals or true copies may be provided
or originals may be provided temporarily for copying
14. Budget and Resources
purposes if the original documents are not to be housed
with the Commission. The Commission shall prepare a budget within
Insofar as agreed to by the individuals affected the first three months of its mandate and submit it to
and as permitted by process requirements, informa- the Minister of Indian Residential Schools Resolution
tion from the Independent Assessment Process (IAP), Canada for approval. Upon approval of its budget, it
existing litigation and Dispute Resolution processes will have full authority to make decisions on spending,
Appendix A • 95
within the limits of, and in accordance with, its Mandate,

its establishing Order in Council, Treasury Board policies,
available funds, and its budgetary capacity.
The Commission shall ensure that there are suffi-
cient resources allocated to the community events over
the five year period. The Commission shall also ensure
that a portion of the budget is set aside for individual
statement-taking/truth sharing and to archive the
Commission’s records and information.
Institutional parties shall bear the cost of participa-
tion and attendance in Commission events and com-
munity events, as well as provision of documents.
If requested by the party providing the documents,
the costs of copying, scanning, digitalizing, or oth-
erwise reproducing the documents will be borne by
the Commission.
Endnotes
Chapter One 25. Barman, Hébert, and McCaskill 46. Library and Archives Canada, RG
1986, 3; Jaenen 1973, 88. 10, Volume 6810, File 470-2-3,
1. Miller 1996, 103.
26. Brody 1987, 141. volume 7, Evidence of D.C. Scott
2. Hansard, 22 May 1883, 1377.
27. MacLean 2005, 107. to the Special Committee of the
3. Jaenen 1986.
28. Miller 1996, 85. House of Commons Investigating
4. Miller 1996, 125–126.
29. Shingwauk 1872, 14. the Indian Act amendments of
5. Milloy 1999, 30.
30. Morris 1880, 96. 1920, 63 (N-3), quoted in Moore,
6. Miller 1996, 125; Tobias 1991,
31. Henderson 1995, 247–249. Leslie, and Maguire 1978, 114.
221–223.
32. Morris 1880, 292. 47. Report of the Department of
7. Miller 2009, 156.
33. Adams 1995; Fear-Segal 2007. Indian Affairs for the Year ended
8. Carter 1999, 113; Friesen 1999,
34. Davin 1879, 5-7. 31 December 1889, 165, quoted in
207–212; Tobias 1991, 213–225.
35. Davin 1879, 9. Titley 1993, 119–120.
9. Miller 2009, 156.
36. Davin 1879, 11. 48. Department of Indian Affairs,
10. Carter 1990, 50–78; Friesen 1999,
37. Davin 1879, 11. Annual Report 1897, Canada,
207–212; Taylor 1999, 5–6; Tobias
38. Davin 1879, 10. Sessional Papers (14) 1898, xxvii,
1991, 211–232.
39. Davin 1879, 10. quoted in Miller 1996, 158.
11. McMillan and Yellowhorn 2004;
40. Davin 1879, 14. 49. Debates 1897, column 4076, 14
Fear-Segal 2007, xx.
41. Davin 1879, 15. June 1897, quoted in Hall 1977,
12. McMillan and Yellowhorn 2004,
42. Indian and Northern Affairs 134.
23, 152; Barman, Hébert, and
Canada, File 1/25-1 Volume 15, 50. Library and Archives Canada, RG
McCaskill 1986, 2.
L. Vankoughnet to Sir John A. 85, Volume 1507, File 600-1-1 part
Macdonald, 26 August 1887, 7, Report on Education in Canada’s
118, 152.
quoted in Milloy 1999, 26. Northland, 12 December 1954,
43. Library and Archives Canada, quoted in King 1998, 66.
58–62, 153; Pettipas 1994, 43–61.
RG 10, Volume 6039, File 160—1 51. Library and Archives Canada,
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Archbishop of St. Boniface to Sir MR C 10113, J.A. Macrae to
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112–114.
1999, 27. December 1886, quoted in Milloy
17. Cruikshank 1991, 73.
44. An Act for the Gradual 1999, 32.
18. Canadien 2010, 25.
Enfranchisement of Indians, the 52. D.C. Scott, “Report of the
19. Knockwood 2001, 17.
Better Management of Indian Superintendent of Indian
20. Moran 1997, 35–36.
Affairs, and to Extend the Education, 1910,” in Report of the
21. French 1976, 60–61.
Provisions of the Act, 31st Victoria, Department of Indian Affairs for
22. Dickson 1993, 32.
Chapter 42, Statutes of Canada the year ended 31 March 1910, 273.
23. McMillan and Yellowhorn 2004, 82,
1869. 53. Peikoff and Brickey 1991, 40.
112–114; Smith 1987, 15.
45. Milloy 1983, 61. 54. Sutherland 2000, 107.
24. Miller 1996, 44.
55. Huel 1996, 119–120.
Endnotes • 97
56. Bullen 1991, 139–140. 95. Hawthorn 1967, 88. 31. Campbell 1973, 44.
57. Choquette 1995; Huel 1996; Usher 96. Milloy 1999, 226. 32. Speare 1973, 19.
1974. 97. Miller 1996, 393. 33. Callahan 2002, 78.
58. Choquette 1995, 1–20. 98. Milloy 1999, 227. 34. Library and Archives Canada, RG
59. Choquette 2004, 192–194. 99. Milloy 1996, 214. 10, Volume 6455, File 885-1, part
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61. Moorhouse 1973, 274. 101. Indian and Northern Affairs Deputy Superintendent General
62. Henry Venn, to James Quaker, Canada, File 40-2-185, Volume of Indian Affairs, 20 October 1919,
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Knight, The Missionary Secretariat and State in Indian Education, 26 35. Sandy 2006, 133.
of Henry Venn, B.D. (London: September 1966, quoted in Milloy 36. Schmalz 1991, 187; Willis 1973,
Longmans, Green, 1880, p. 53), 1999, 214. 186.
quoted in Usher 1974, 22. 102. Johnston 1983, 57. 37. Department of Indian Affairs,
63. Hare and Barman 2006; 103. Milloy 1999, 215. Annual Report 1896, 398–399,
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64. Huel 1996, 69–71. 151. 38. Speare 1973, 7.
65. Morantz 2002, 213. 105. Persson 1986, 164–167. 39. Knockwood 2001, 98.
66. Choquette 2004, 56. 106. Dyck 1997, 120. 40. Harry 2010, 37
67. William Duncan, Journal number 41. Moran 1997, 60–61.
2 1857, reel 2154, William Duncan 42. Library and Archives Canada,
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quoted in Higham 2000, 56. 2. Baker 1994, 28. quoted in Gresko 1992, 88.
68. Pettipas 1994, 87–125. 3. Dickson 1993, 119. 43. Debates, 1904, columns 6946–
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70. Grant 1985, 242. 5. Knockwood 2001, 27. 1977, 134.
71. Miller 1996, 126. 6. Thrasher 1976, 3–4. 44. Library and Archives Canada,
72. Miller 1996, 157. 7. Mountain Horse 1979, 15. RG 10 Volume 4042, File 336877,
73. Milloy 1999, 72. 8. Blondin-Perrin 2009, 12–13. 4-7, H.B. Bury, 7 November
74. Milloy 1999, 77. 9. Mountain Horse 1979, 15. 1917, “Report on Indian Affairs –
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2-14, Missionary Society of the 12. Brass 1987, 22. 45. Barman, Hébert, and McCaskill,
Church in Canada, Frank Oliver to 13. Elias 2010, 52. 1986, 9; Jamplosky 1965, 54.
the Anglican Church of Canada, 28 14. Stevenson 1988, 137. 46. Jamplosky 1965, 49.
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76. Grant 1985, 192–195. 16. Ford 1971, 93–94. 48. Fiske 1989, 261–262.
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78. Milloy 1999, 94–95. 18. Gresko 1992, 80. 50. Knockwood 2001, 53–54.
79. Milloy 1999, 70–71. 19. Blondin-Perrin 2009, 17. 51. Arnouse 2006, 129.
80. Coccola 1988, 175. 20. Marguerite 2010, 57. 52. Ron Ignace 2006, 7.
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90. Milloy 1999, 332. Oblates of Mary Immaculate, école Annual Report, 1912, 399, quoted
91. Barman, Hébert, and McCaskill Dunbow, Boîte 80, #3381, Journal in Barman 2003, 63.
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99. Callahan 2002, 109. 1999, 264. 161. Milloy 1999, 45.
Endnotes • 99
162. Axelrod 1997, 59–60. 196. Indian and Northern Affairs 210. Ethan Baron, “Residential
163. Sutherland 2000, 138. Canada, Information Sheets – School Abuses: ‘Trauma and
164. Pettit 1997, 262. Resolution Framework, Resolution Loss Exposed.’” The Province, 16
165. Pettit 1997, 262. Framework to resolve Indian June 2006. http://www2.canada.
166. Library and Archives Canada, Residential Schools Claims, http:// com/theprovince/news/story.
RG 10, Volume 3920 File 116818, www.ainc-inac.gc.ca/ai/rqpi/info/ html?id=d8c423e9-76b6-4ff5-bf4d-
MR C 10161, D.L. Clink to Indian nwz/2002/20021212_is-eng.asp a291bbbb939d&p=3 (accessed 28
Commissioner, 4 June 1896, (accessed 3 March 2011). February 2011).
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261. Goodwill and Sluman 1984, 8. Coates 1989, 154; Coates 1991, 46. Duffy 1988, 118.
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270. Graham 1997, 12. Message, 12 May 1928, 149, quoted 51. King 1998, 86.
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274. Batten 2002, 12–13. 16. Coates 1989, 161; Crowe 1991, 198; 55. King 1998, 105–106.
275. Milloy 1999, 285. McCarthy 1995, 163. 56. King 1998, 145–146.
276. Furniss 1995, 62–63. 17. Coates 1991, 151. 57. Phillips 1967, 236.
277. Milloy 1999, 285. 18. King 1967, 77–78. 58. Coates 1985, 214.
278. Milloy 1999, 286. 19. McCarthy 1995, 162. 59. Hamilton 1994, 110–111.
279. Milloy 1999, 286. 20. Elias 2010, 54–55. 60. Brody 1991, 210–212.
280. Milloy 1999, 375. 21. Abel 1993, 182. 61. Peterson 1994, 5, 7, 12–13.
281. Milloy 1999, 286. 22. Carney 1981, 68. 62. Weetaltuk 2010, 162.
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27. Phillips 1967, 233.
28. Dickerson 1992, 39.
Chapter four
29. Coates 1991, 203. 1. Davin 1879, 9.
2. Huel 1996, 100.
Endnotes • 101
3. Stanley 1963, 237. 38. Thomas 2004, 86. 27. McGovern 1994, 95.
4. Erickson 2005, 17–38. 39. Crerar 2004, 126. 28. McGovern 1994, 104.
5. McMillan and Yellowhorn 2004, 29. Kennedy 1972, 54–56.
300. 30. Brass 1987, 27; Blondin-Perrin
6. Harrison 1985, 20.
Chapter five 2009, 89.
7. Carter 1999, 109–110. 1. Bruno-Jofre 2005, 13–14, 23–43, 77, 31. CBC News. N.W.T. Priest Pochat
8. Brody 1987, 197. 94–95. Honoured at Funeral. 6 December
9. Chartrand 2006, 19; Daniels 2006, 2. Hildebrand 2003, 52. 2010, http://www.cbc.ca/news/
117. 3. United Church Central Archives, canada/north/story/2010/12/06/
10. Daniels 2006, 118–119. Presbyterian Church in Canada, nwt-pochat-funeral.html
11. Harrison 1985, 61–65. Board of Foreign Missions, (accessed 8 May 2011).
12. Logan 2007, 67. Records Pertaining to Missions 32. Irniq 2003.
13. Chartrand 2006, 41. to Aboriginal People in Manitoba 33. Pettit 1997, 38.
14. Carney 1992, 121–122. and the North West, Box 2, File 4, 34. Graham 1997, 14.
15. McCarthy 1995, 159–160. McKitrick to Dr. Wardrop, 18 May 35. ChiefCalf 2002, 117.
16. McCarthy 1995, 236. 1891, quoted in Hildebrand 2003, 36. Bush 2000, 106–107.
17. McCarthy 1995, 175. 48–49. 37. Seager to Hoey, 21 June 1945,
18. Gresko 1992, 79; Huel 1996, 130; 4. Rutherdale 2002, 24–25. quoted in Graham 1997, 178.
Titley, “Dunbow Indian Industrial 5. Hildebrand 2003, 58. 38. King 1967, 63.
School,” 1992, 99. 6. Moore 1965, 41. 39. Aariak 2011.
19. Daniels 2006, 132. 7. Hildebrand 2003, 249.
20. Huel 1996, 161. 8. Hildebrand 2003, 248–250.
21. Library and Archives Canada, RG 9. King 1967, 59.
Chapter Six
10, Volume 6031, File 150-9, part 10. Moore 1965, 40. 1. Dion Stout and Kipling 2003, i.
1, C. Sifton to Smart, 13 October 11. Huel 1996, 154–155. 2. Ahenakew 1973, 133.
1899. 12. Hildebrand 2003, 69. 3. Goodwill and Sluman 1984, 106.
22. Chartrand 2006, 44; Gresko 1992, 13. Library and Archives Canada, RG 4. Grant 1985, 192–193.
79. 10, Volume 6446, File 882-1, part 2, 5. Library and Archives Canada, RG
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W. Graham, Indian Commissioner, 275. March 1923, quoted in Milloy 1999,
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2006, 72. Cronin 1960, 221–222. 6. Samuel Gargan, to the Truth and
24. Provincial Archives of Alberta, 15. Fiske 1989, 244. Reconciliation Commission, Fort
Oblates of Mary Immaculate, 16. Brass 1987, 20–21. Providence, Northwest Territories,
Paroisses noninventoriées: 17. Hildebrand 2003, 103–109, 115. 27 April 2011.
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1934, quoted in Huel 1996, 162. 2002, 130. 9. Anglican Church Records,
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30. Stanley 1978, 90–105. 22. Pettit 1997, 149. 11. Espérance 2010, 88.
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Yukon Hostels—Dawson City and 24. Library and Archives Canada, RG 13. King 1967, 18.
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22. Anonymous, Jack, ed. 2006, 52.
23. Charland 1995, 31.
24. Guss 1995, 85.
25. Collison 1995, 39.
26. Weetaltuk 2010, 169.
27. Fontaine 2010, 165.
28. Sellars 1995,125.
29. Indian Residential Schools
Survivor Society, “About Our
Society,” http://www.irsss.ca/
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January 2011).
30. National Residential Schools
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nrsss.ca (accessed 23 January
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31. Hansard, June 11, 2008, 6850.
32. Hansard, June 11, 2008, 6851.
33. Hansard, June 11, 2008, 6852.
34. Hansard, June 11, 2008, 6853.
35. Hansard, June 11, 2008, 6855.
36. Hansard, June 11, 2008, 6855.
37. Hansard, June 11, 2008, 6855.
38. Hansard, June 11, 2008, 6856.
39. Hansard, June 11, 2008, 6856.
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Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2006, 8. New Press, 1973, 136; 161.
Page 23: Library and Archives Canada, RG 10, Volume 8449,
File 511/23-5-014, MR C 13800, Inspection Report, Birtle
School, by A.G. Hamilton, 4 December 1936, quoted
in John Milloy, A National Crime: The Canadian
Government and the Residential School System, 1879
to 1986. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999,
123.
KALAALLIT NUNAAT
(DENMARK)
Residential Schools of Canada

Federal Hostel -
Pensionnats du Canada
Pond Inlet/
Mittimatalik
ALASKA Shingle
Point
(U.S.A. / É.-U. d'A.) Inuvik Grollier Hall
Inuvik Stringer Hall
Aklavik All Saints
Aklavik Immaculate Conception Federal Hostel -
Fort Cambridge Bay Federal Hostel - Federal Hostel -
McPherson Coppermine Igloolik/ Broughton Island/
St. Paul's Hostel Iglulik Qikiqtarjuaq
Federal Hostel -
YUKON Federal Hostel - Pangnirtung
Fort Franklin NUNAVUT
NORTHWEST TERRITORIES Federal Hostel -
Whitehorse Yukon Hall Federal Hostel - Frobisher Bay
Baptist
Coudert Hall
TERRITOIRES DU NORD-OUEST Cape Dorset/Kinngait
Federal Hostel - Iqaluit
Whitehorse Baker Lake /
Fort Simpson Fort Simpson Qamani'tuaq Federal Hostel -
Carcross Bompas Hall Lapointe Hall Lake Harbour
Akaitcho Hall
Yellowknife Chesterfield Inlet
Lower Post Fort Providence Rankin Inlet
Fort Resolution Federal Hostel -
Hay River Payne Bay
BRITISH COLUMBIA Fort Smith Breynat Hall
Federal Hostel -
Fort Smith Grandin College Eskimo Point / Arviat
NE
Assumption Federal Hostel - W
COLOMBIE- George River TE FO
Federal Hostel - RR UN
BRITANNIQUE Fort Port Harrison E- D
Vermilion Holy Angels NE LA
ALBERTA UV ND
Churchill Vocational E
Port Simpson
St. Augustine Centre ET AN
Kitimaat Whitefish Lake SASKATCHEWAN
Federal Hostel -
LA D L
Grande Grouard Desmarais Belcher Islands BR A
Lejac Prairie A
BR OR
Wabasca MANITOBA
D
Sturgeon
AD
Prince George Joussard Federal Hostel -
Lake Lesser Lac la Lac La
Beauval Great Whale River
OR
Slave Lake Ronge
Anahim Biche
Edmonton
St. Albert Onion Lake Fort George (St. Phillip's)
Cariboo Blue Sturgeon Cross Lake
St. Michael's Edmonton St. Anthony's Landing Fort George (St. Joseph's)
Quills Guy Hill St. John's
Ermineskin Thunderchild Norway House Fort George Hostels
St. George's Prince Albert
Mackay -
Sechelt St. The Pas
Ahousaht St. Michael's Sept-Îles
Paul's
Kamloops Morley Calgary Battleford Fort Pelly St. Anne's QUÉBEC
Christie Stirland Lake
Vancouver Old Sun Saskatoon St. Philip's Pine Creek
Alberni Sarcee Crowstand
SAINT-PIERRE
Kuper Island Cristal Lake Bishop Horden ET MIQUELON
Coqualeetza St. Joseph's Crowfoot Gordon's Cote Poplar Hill (FRANCE)
Mackay - Hall
Victoria Sacred Heart Muscowequan Marieval Dauphin
Cranbrook
St. Cyprian's
Fort
ONTARIO P.E.I.
St. Mary's Regina Sandy Alexander
St. Paul's Regina Birtle Bay Point Bleue N.B. Î.-P.-É.
St. Mary's Lebret Round Elkhorn McIntosh
Assiniboia Pelican Lake N.-B. Charlottetown
File Hills Lake Winnipeg Amos
Brandon St. Mary's Fredericton
La Tuque Shubenacadie
Cecilia Jeffrey
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Fort Frances Fort William Québec
Portage Halifax
ÉTATS-UNIS D'AMÉRIQUE Chapleau N.S.
la Prairie
Montréal N.-É. P.E.I.: PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND
Shingwauk
Î.-P.-É. : ÎLE-DU-PRINCE-ÉDOUARD
Spanish Boys' School
Up until the 1990s Canada, often in partnership with leading church Jusqu'aux années 1990, le Canada, en partenariat avec les Ottawa N.B.: NEW BRUNSWICK
Wawanosh Home Spanish Girls' School
organizations, operated a residential school system to which over organisations ecclésiatiques principales, a élaboré un système N.-B. : NOUVEAU-BRUNSWICK
150,000 First Nation, Métis, and Inuit students were sent. This map scolaire résidentiel auxquels plus de 150 000 élèves de Premières
N.S.: NOVA SCOTIA
shows the location of residential schools identified by the Indian Nations, Métis et Inuits ont été envoyés. Cette carte démontre
Toronto N.-É. : NOUVELLE-ÉCOSSE
Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. l'emplacement des écoles résidentielles identifiées par la 0 100 200 300 400 500 km
Mohawk Institute
Convention de règlement relative aux pensionnats indiens.
Mount Elgin Map of Canada provided by Natural Resources Canada.
Carte du Canada fournie par Ressources naturelles Canada.
May 2011 / mai 2011
Residential Schools/Pensionnats Location/Emplacement Church/Église Residential Schools/Pensionnats Location/Emplacement Church/Église Residential Schools/Pensionnats Location/Emplacement Church/Église Residential Schools/Pensionnats Location/Emplacement Church/Église
St. George’s (Lytton) Lytton A South Camp, Flaherty

Alberta Federal Hostel - Belcher Islands N Saskatchewan
Island
Assumption (Hay Lakes) Assumption C St. Mary’s (Mission) Mission C Federal Hostel - Broughton Island/Qikiqtarjuaq Qikiqtarjuaq N Battleford Battleford A
Lac la Biche, 1891-98 St. Michael’s (Alert Bay Girls’ Home, Alert Bay Boys’ Home) Alert Bay A Beauval (Lac la Plonge) Beauval C
Blue Quills (Saddle Lake, Sacred Heart, Lac la Biche) Saddle Lake, 1898-1931 C Federal Hostel - Cambridge Bay Cambridge Bay N
St. Paul, 1931 St. Paul’s (Squamish, North Vancouver) North Vancouver C Cote Improved Federal Day School Kamsack U
Federal Hostel - Cape Dorset/Kinngait Kinngait N
Crowfoot (Blackfoot, St. Joseph’s, St. Trinité) Cluny C
Sechelt Sechelt C Federal Hostel - Eskimo Point/Arviat Arviat N Crowstand Kamsack P
Desmarais (St. Martins, Wabiscaw Lake, Wabasca) Desmarais-Wabasca C
Manitoba Federal Hostel - Frobisher Bay (Ukkivik) Iqaluit N File Hills Balcarres U
Edmonton (Red Deer Industrial, St. Albert) St. Albert U
Assiniboia (Winnipeg) Winnipeg C Federal Hostel - Igloolik/Iglulik Igloolik/Iglulik N Fort Pelly Fort Pelly C
Ermineskin Hobbema C
Birtle Birtle P Federal Hostel - Lake Harbour Kimmirut N Gordon’s Gordon’s Reserve Punnichy A
Fort Vermilion (St. Henry’s) Fort Vermillion C
Brandon Brandon U/C Federal Hostel - Pangnirtung (Pangnirtang) Pangnirtung/Panniqtuuq N Lac La Ronge Lac La Ronge A
Grouard (St. Bernard’s, Lesser Slave Lake Roman Catholic) Grouard C
Churchill Vocational Centre Churchill N Federal Hostel - Pond Inlet/Mittimatalik Mittimatalik N Lebret (Qu’Appelle, Whitecalf, St. Paul’s High School) Lebret C
Holy Angels (Fort Chipewyan, École des Saints-Anges) Fort Chipewyan C Cross Lake (St. Joseph’s, Norway House, Jack River Annex,
Cross Lake C Marieval (Cowesess, Crooked Lake) Cowesess Reserve C
Notre Dame Hostel) Ontario
Joussard (St. Bruno’s) Joussard C
Elkhorn (Washakada) Elkhorn A Bishop Horden Hall (Moose Fort, Moose Factory) Moose Factory Island A Muscowequan (Lestock, Touchwood) Lestock C
Lac la Biche (Notre Dame des Victoires, Blue Quills) Lac La Biche C
Fort Alexander (Pine Falls) Pine Falls C Cecilia Jeffrey (Kenora, Shoal Lake) Kenora P Onion Lake Onion Lake A
Lesser Slave Lake (St. Peter’s) Lesser Slave Lake A Prince Albert (Onion Lake, St. Alban’s, All Saints, St.
Guy Hill (Clearwater, The Pas, Sturgeon Landing (SK)) Clearwater Lake C Chapleau (St. Joseph’s, St. John’s) Chapleau A Prince Albert A
Barnabas, Lac La Ronge)
Morley (Stony/Stoney) Morley U
Mackay – Dauphin Dauphin A Cristal Lake High School Cristal Lake M Regina Regina P
Old Sun (Blackfoot) Gleichen A
Mackay – The Pas The Pas A Fort Frances (St. Margaret’s) Fort Frances C Round Lake Broadview U
Sacred Heart (Peigan, Brocket) Brocket C
Norway House Norway House U Fort William (St. Joseph’s) Fort William C St. Anthony’s (Onion Lake, Sacred Heart) Onion Lake C
St. Albert (Youville) Youville C
Pine Creek (Camperville) Camperville C McIntosh (Kenora) McIntosh C St. Michael’s (Duck Lake) Duck Lake C
St. Augustine (Smoky River) Peace River C
Portage la Prairie Portage la Prairie U Mohawk Institute Brantford A St. Phillip’s Kamsack C
St. Cyprian’s (Victoria Home, Peigan) Brocket A
Sandy Bay Sandy Bay Reserve C Mount Elgin (Muncey, St. Thomas) Muncey U Sturgeon Landing (Guy Hill, Manitoba) Sturgeon Landing C
St. Joseph’s (High River, Dunbow) High River C
Northwest Territories / Territoires du Nord-Ouest Pelican Lake (Pelican Falls) Sioux Lookout A Thunderchild (Delmas, St. Henri) Delmas C
St. Mary’s (Blood, Immaculate Conception) Cardston C
Akaitcho Hall (Yellowknife) Yellowknife N Poplar Hill Poplar Hill M Yukon
St. Paul’s (Blood) Cardston A
Aklavik - Immaculate Conception Aklavik C St. Anne’s (Fort Albany) Fort Albany C Carcross (Chooulta) Carcross A
Sarcee Junction, T’suu
Sarcee (St. Barnabas) A
Tina Aklavik (All Saints) Aklavik A St. Mary’s (Kenora, St. Anthony’s) Kenora C Coudert Hall (Whitehorse Hostel/Student Residence, Yukon
Whitehorse C
Hall)
Sturgeon Lake (Calais, St. Francis Xavier) Calais C
Federal Hostel - Fort Franklin Déline N Shingwauk Sault Ste. Marie A St. Paul’s Hostel (Dawson City) Dawson A
Wabasca (St. John’s) Wabasca Lake A Spanish Boys’ School (Charles Garnier, St. Joseph’s,
Fort McPherson (Fleming Hall) Fort McPherson A Spanish C Shingle Point (St. John’s) Shingle Point A
Whitefish Lake, Atikameg, Wikwemikong Industrial)
Whitefish Lake (St. Andrew’s) A
(St. Andrew’s Mission) Fort Providence (Sacred Heart) Fort Providence C Spanish Girls’ School (St. Joseph’s, St. Peter’s, St. Anne’s, Whitehorse Baptist (Lee Mission) Whitehorse B
Spanish C
Wikwemikong Industrial)
British Columbia / Colombie-Britannique Fort Resolution (St. Joseph’s) Fort Resolution C Yukon Hall (Whitehorse/Protestant Hostel) Whitehorse N
Stirland Lake High School Stirland Lake M
Ahousaht Ahousaht U Fort Simpson - Bompas Hall (Koe Go Cho) Fort Simpson A
Church / Église
Québec
Alberni Port Alberni U A = Anglican / Anglicane
Fort Simpson - Lapointe Hall (Deh Cho Hall, Koe Go Cho) Fort Simpson C
Amos (St. Marc-de-Figuery) Amos C B = Baptist / Baptiste
Anahim (Anahim Lake) Anahim Lake N C = Catholic / Catholique
Fort Smith - Breynat Hall Fort Smith C
Fort George (St. Phillip’s) Fort George A M = Mennonite / Mennonite
Cariboo (St. Joseph’s, William’s Lake) Williams Lake C N = Non-denominational / Non-confessionelle
Fort Smith - Grandin College Fort Smith C Fort George (St. Joseph’s Mission, Residence Couture, P = Presbyterian / Presbytérienne
Fort George C
Christie (Clayquot, Kakawis) Tofino C Sainte-Thérèse-de-l’Enfant- Jésus) U = United / Unie
Hay River (St. Peter’s) Hay River A
Federal Hostel - George River Kangirsualujjuaq N
Coqualeetza Chilliwack U Inuvik - Grollier Hall Inuvik C
Federal Hostel - Great Whale River (Poste-de-la-Baleine, Kuujjuaraapik/
N
Cranbrook (St. Eugene’s, Kootenay) Cranbrook C Inuvik - Stringer Hall Inuvik A Kuujjaraapik) Whapmaguustui
Kamloops Kamloops C Federal Hostel - Payne Bay (Bellin) Kangirsuk N

Nova Scotia / Nouvelle-Écosse
Kitimaat Kitimaat U Federal Hostel - Port Harrison (Inoucdjouac, Innoucdouac) Inukjuak N
Shubenacadie Shubenacadie C
Kuper Island Kuper Island C La Tuque La Tuque A

Nunavut
Lejac (Fraser Lake) Fraser Lake C Point Bleue Pointe-Bleue C
Chesterfield Inlet (Joseph Bernier, Turquetil Hall) Chesterfield Inlet C
Lower Post Lower Post C Sept-Îles (Seven Islands, Notre Dame, Maliotenam) Sept-Îles C
Coppermine (Tent Hostel) Coppermine A
Port Simpson (Crosby Home for Girls) Port Simpson A Federal Hostel - Baker Lake/Qamani’tuaq Qamanittuaq N
1500–360 Main Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 3Z3
Telephone: (204) 984-5885
Toll Free: 1-888-872-5554 (1-888-TRC-5554)
Fax: (204) 984-5915
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.trc.ca

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﻿ • a

Canada, Aboriginal Peoples,

Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada

Telephone: (204) 984-5885

Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication

They came for the children [electronic resource] :

1. Native peoples--Canada--Residential schools. 2. Native peoples--

E96.5 T43 2012 371.829’97071 C2012-980023-6

Design: Doowah Design Inc.

December 31, 2011

Justice Murray Sinclair

Chief Wilton Littlechild

1500-360 Main Street

To Christianize and Civilize: Canada’s Residential Schools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

School Days: The Residential School Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

Residential Schools in the North and the Arctic. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55

The Experience of the Métis and Residential Schools . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

The Staff Experience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71

The Continuing Legacy of Residential Schools. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77

Sources of quotations in captions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada is

Residential schools were justified by arguments that

This is our story and Canada’s story.

In talking about residential schools and their legacy,

addition to these schools in eastern Canada, Catholic and

economic security in a period of dramatic change and

of Aboriginal people) and annual payments.

later, police officers.9 traditional Aboriginal teachings described a coherent,

to do good or harm—played in shaping the relationship

made a commitment to provide financial support for

On the strength of his limited investigation, Davin

as preparing people for the labour market. He said that “if

It is unlikely that any Tribe“

each enfranchisement, the number of Indians would

a failure; from 1859 to 1876, only one person was enfran-

From the record, it is clear that controlling costs was the

has become known as the “Sixties scoop,” although it con-

boys were openly rebellious, many of them stealing or

Education: “Lots of copying

It was awful having to watch and eyes looking at the floor.”177

to them. When a nun discovered what he had done, Ruben said

when I wasn’t happy. I learned to get along and talk with

I was on the ice, I would let it all out.” 229

their children to the school. 252

Parents and grandparents often withdrew children again.”259

overcrowding by sending children to other schools were there. I remember being so

The Métis nation emerged out of the fur trade when

Marius Tungilik felt he had been taught “to hate our

Elise Charland said she was a terrible parent. “My chil-

He said, “I hope and I do believe sincerely in the words of

Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples within Canadian

Schedule N of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement

The Commission shall be assisted by an Indian 9. Research

within the limits of, and in accordance with, its Mandate,

21. Bennett with Blackstock 2002,

Sources of quotations in captions

Residential Schools of Canada

St. George’s (Lytton) Lytton A South Camp, Flaherty

• a