Scroll down to read articles:
- Mass Graves of Residential School Children Identified – Independent Inquiry Launched
- List of Canadian residential schools and locations of mass graves found thus far (by province west to east)
- Location of Mass Graves of Residential School Children Revealed for the First Time; Independent Tribunal Established
- Native Residential Schools: "Kids Put On Electric Chair"
- The Mask Slips, for Those with Eyes to See: Preparing for the Real Pandemic (Killer vaccine)
- **** Warning ! **** Please scroll to the bottom of this page to read What happened to the Children?--A Collaborative Project - Warning ! The photo might be hard for some BUT I believe it is neccessary to include it for people to understand the horrible heartbreak that it was for the children to be separated from their familes ". . . four young homesick boys had left the Lajac School without permission. The youngest was seven years old. The eldest, nine. It was dark, and 20-below zero, but they missed their parents so they sneaked out of the school and started walking home, across the lake. . . "
Mass Graves of Residential School Children Identified
Canadian Holocaust -Try Not to Cry
Witness to murder at Indian Residential School
Irene Favel describes in a CBC interview (July 8, 2008) how she witnessed the murder of a baby by staff at the Muskowekwan Indian Residential School, run by the Roman Catholic Church in Lestock, Saskatchewan.
Mass Graves of Residential School Children Identified – Independent Inquiry Launched
Press Statement: April 10, 2008
We are gathered today to publicly disclose the location of twenty eight mass graves of children who died in Indian Residential Schools across Canada , and to announce the formation of an independent, non-governmental inquiry into the death and disappearance of children in these schools.
We estimate that there are hundreds, and possibly thousands, of children buried in these grave sites alone.
The Catholic, Anglican and United Church , and the government of Canada, operated the schools and hospitals where these mass graves are located. We therefore hold these institutions and their officers legally responsible and liable for the deaths of these children.
We have no confidence that the very institutions of church and state that are responsible for these deaths can conduct any kind of impartial or real inquiry into them. Accordingly, as of April 15, 2008, we are establishing an independent, non-governmental inquiry into the death and disappearance of Indian residential school children across Canada .
This inquiry shall be known as The International Human Rights Tribunal into Genocide in Canada (IHRTGC) , and is established under the authority of the following hereditary chiefs, who shall serve as presiding judges of the Tribunal:
Hereditary Chief Kiapilano of the Squamish Nation
Chief Louis Daniels (Whispers Wind), Anishinabe Nation Chief Svnoyi Wohali (Night Eagle), Cherokee Nation
Lillian Shirt, Clan Mother, Cree Nation
Elder Ernie Sandy, Anishinabe (Ojibway) Nation
Hereditary Chief Steve Sampson, Chemainus Nation
Ambassador Chief Red Jacket of Turtle Island
Today, we are releasing to this Tribunal and to the people of the world the enclosed information on the location of mass graves connected to Indian residential schools and hospitals in order to prevent the destruction of this crucial evidence by the Canadian government, the RCMP and the Anglican, Catholic and United Church of Canada.
We call upon indigenous people on the land where these graves are located to monitor and protect these sites vigilantly, and prevent their destruction by occupational forces such as the RCMP and other government agencies.
Our Tribunal will commence on April 15 by gathering all of the evidence, including forensic remains, that is necessary to charge and indict those responsible for the deaths of the children buried therein.
Once these persons have been identified and detained, they will be tried and sentenced in indigenous courts of justice established by our Tribunal and under the authority of hereditary chiefs.
As a first step in this process, the IHRTGC will present this list of mass graves along with a statement to the United Nations in New York City on April 19, 2008. The IHRTGC will be asking the United Nations to declare these mass graves to be protected heritage sites, and will invite international human rights observers to monitor and assist its work.
Issued by the Elders and Judges of the IHRTGC
Interim Spokesperson: Eagle Strong Voice
Email: genocidetribunal@yahoo.ca
pager: 1-888-265-1007
IHRTGC Sponsors include The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared, The Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada, the Defensoria Indigenia of Guatemala, Canadians for the Separation of Church and State, and a confederation of indigenous elders across Canada and Turtle Island.
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Residential Schools Public Service Announcement
Anglican Residential Schools Map (double click to enlarge)
United Church Residential Schools Map
Took the Children Away
Very good song ! - Only problem: Not all the children came back
Mass Graves at former Indian Residential Schools and Hospitals across Canada [Found so far]
And full listing of residential schools for each province in green
And full listing of residential schools for each province in green
British Columbia:
1. Port Alberni: Presbyterian-United Church school (1895-1973) , now occupied by the Nuu-Chah-Nulth Tribal Council (NTC) office, Kitskuksis Road .
Grave sites:
- A series of sinkhole rows in hills 100 metres due west of the NTC building, in thick foliage, past an unused water pipeline.
- Tseshaht reserve cemetery, and in wooded gully east of Catholic cemetery on River Road .
Primary boys' class, Alberni Indian Residential School - United Church archives
2. Alert Bay / 'Yalis: St. Michael’s Anglican school (1878-1975) , situated on Cormorant Island offshore from Port McNeill, known as 'Yalis by the local people. Presently building is used by Namgis First Nation.
Grave sites:
- An overgrown field adjacent to the building, - Under the foundations of the present new building, constructed during the 1960’s.
-Skeletons seen “between the walls” .
St. Michaels Industrial Residential School (above), built in 'Yalis in 1894 and operated by the Anglican church from 1929 until the 1960s. It is a symbol of colonial oppression to the Kwakwaka'wakw and other First Nations people who were confined here.
Unidentified Kwakwaka'wakw family c 1890. The forced removal of children from their homes and communities and other assimilationist government policies contributed to the decline in health of the Kwakwaka'wakw population which hit an all time low of about 1,500 people in the 1920s.
With its extraordinary houses and monumental carving traditions, 'Yalis attracted world attention and became the most famous of the Northwest Coast Indian villages.
3. Kuper Island: Catholic school (1890-1975) , offshore from Chemainus. Land occupied by Penelakut Band. Former building is destroyed except for a staircase.
Grave sites:
- Immediately south of the former building, in a field containing a conventional cemetery;
- At the west shoreline in a lagoon near the main dock.
Kuper Island
"Some died trying to escape on logs across the water. Many more died later, trying to escape their memories."
4. Nanaimo: Nanaimo Indian Hospital: Indian Affairs and United Church experimental facility (1942-1970) on Department of National Defense land. Buildings now destroyed.
Grave site:Immediately east of former buildings on Fifth avenue , adjacent to and south of Malaspina College .
"Jasper Joseph is a sixty-four-year-old native man from Port Hardy, British Columbia. His eyes still fill with tears when he remembers his cousins who were killed with lethal injections by staff at the Nanaimo Indian Hospital in 1944.
I was just eight, and they'd shipped us down from the Anglican residential school in Alert Bay to the Nanaimo Indian Hospital, the one run by the United Church. They kept me isolated in a tiny room there for more than three years, like I was a lab rat, feeding me these pills, giving me shots that made me sick. Two of my cousins made a big fuss, screaming and fighting back all the time, so the nurses gave them shots, and they both died right away. It was done to silence them. (November 10, 2000)"
5. Mission: St. Mary’s Catholic school (1861-1984) , adjacent to and north of Lougheed Highway and Fraser River Heritage Park . Original school buildings are destroyed, but many foundations are visible on the grounds of the Park.
Grave sites:
- Immediately adjacent to former girls’ dormitory and present cemetery for priests, and a larger mass grave in an artificial earthen mound, north of the cemetery among overgrown foliage and blackberry bushes,
- East of the old school grounds, on the hilly slopes next to the field leading to the newer school building which is presently used by the Sto:lo First Nation. Hill site is 150 metres west of building.
6. North Vancouver: Squamish (1898-1959) and Sechelt (1912-1975) Catholic schools , buildings destroyed.
Grave Site: Graves of children who died in these schools interred in the Squamish Band Cemetery , North Vancouver .
7. Sardis: Coqualeetza Methodist-United Church school (1889-1940) , then experimental hospital run by federal government (1940-1969) .
Grave sites: - Native burial site next to Sto:lo reserve and Little Mountain school,
- Possibly adjacent to former school-hospital building.
Students doing laundry, Coqualeetza Institute, 1910
8. Cranbrook: St. Eugene Catholic school (1898-1970) , located on the St. Mary's reserve and recently converted into a tourist “resort” with federal funding, resulting in the covering-over of a mass burial site by a golf course in front of the building.
Grave sites:
- Numerous grave sites are around and under this golf course.
St. Eugene's, Cranbrook
Former Residential School - Now St Eugene Golf Resort Casino Cranbrook
I saw a documentary on this conversion - I understand the torn feelings of the Aboriginal people over this !9. Williams Lake: Catholic school (1890-1981) , buildings destroyed but foundations intact, five miles south of city.
Grave site:Reported north of school grounds and under foundations of tunnel-like structure.
10. Meares Island (Tofino): Kakawis-Christie Catholic school (1898-1974) . Buildings incorporated into Kakawis Healing Centre.
Grave site Body storage room reported in basement, adjacent to burial grounds south of school.
Kakawis-Christie Catholic school: Meares Island near Tofino
11. Kamloops: Catholic school (1890-1978) . Buildings intact.
Grave site: Mass grave south of school, adjacent to and amidst orchard. Numerous burials witnessed there.
Kamloops Indian Residential School
Children from around the province attended the school including the coast, northern BC, the Okanagan and, of course, the Shuswap. Children were brought in by cattle truck from remote areas after being chased down by priests and Indian Agents and taken by force.
12. Lytton: St. George’s Anglican school (1901-1979) . Reportes of students flogged to death, and other deaths,
Grave sites:
- Reported under floorboards
-Next to playground.
St. George’s Anglican school
13. Fraser Lake: Lejac Catholic school (1910-1976) , buildings destroyed.
Grave sites:
- Reported under old foundations and
- Between the walls.
****Warning ! **** Please scroll to the bottom of this page to read What happened to the Children?--A Collaborative Project - Warning ! The photo included with article might be hard for some BUT I believe it is neccessary to include it for people to understand the horrible heartbreak that it was for the children to be separated from their familes ". . . four young homesick boys had left the Lajac School without permission. The youngest was seven years old. The eldest, nine. It was dark, and 20-below zero, but they missed their parents so they sneaked out of the school and started walking home, across the lake. . . "
****Warning ! **** Please scroll to the bottom of this page to read What happened to the Children?--A Collaborative Project - Warning ! The photo included with article might be hard for some BUT I believe it is neccessary to include it for people to understand the horrible heartbreak that it was for the children to be separated from their familes ". . . four young homesick boys had left the Lajac School without permission. The youngest was seven years old. The eldest, nine. It was dark, and 20-below zero, but they missed their parents so they sneaked out of the school and started walking home, across the lake. . . "
Lejac Residential School 1960s
Listing of residential schools in British Columbia:
Alberni Indian Residential School; Port Alberni opened 1920; closed 1973 (Prebyterian)
All Hallows Indian Residential School; Yale opened 1884; closed 1920 (Anglican)
Ahousaht Indian Residential School; Ahousaht; opened 1901; closed 1950 (Presbyterian)
Christie Indian Residential School (Kakawis Indian Residential School; Tofino, opened 1900, closed 1973; new school built in 1974, closed 1983 (Catholic)
Cowichan Catholic Convent School; Cowichan; opened 1863; closing date unknown (Catholic)
Friendly Cove Day School; Yuquot; opened 1930; closed 1964 (Catholic)
Greenville Mission Boy’s Boarding School; Nass River opened 1863; closing date unknown (Methodist)
Kamloo Indian Residential School (St. Ann’s Academy); Kamloops; opened 1890; closed 1978 (Catholic)
Kamloops Indian Residential School (St. Louis Mission Indian Residential School); Kamloops; opened 1890; closed 1978(Catholic)
Kitimaat Indian Residential School (Elizabeth Long Memorial School for Girls); Kitimaat; opened 1883; closing date unknown (Methodist)
Kootenay Indian Residential School (St. Eugene’s Indian Residential School, St. Mary’s Indian Residential School); Cranbrook; opened 1898; closed 1970 (Catholic)
Kuper Island Indian Residential School; Chemainus; opened 1890; closed 1975 (Catholic)
Lejac Indian Residential School; Fraser Lake opened 1910; new building in 1922; closed 1976 (Catholic) Link here for blog, Lejac Indian Residential School, set up by a former student of school "tina"
Lejac Indian Residential School
Metlakatla Indian Residential School (Metlakatla Indian Girl’s School); Metlakatla; opened 1891; closed 1962 (Other)
Port Simpson Methodist Girl’s School; Port Simpson opened 1863; closed 1950 (Methodist)
Port Simpson Methodist School (boys and girls) from United Church archives
Presbyterian Coqualeetza Indian Residential School; Chilliwack opened 1861; closed 1940 (Presbyterian)
Roman Catholic Coqualeetza Indian Residential School; Chilliwack opened 1890; closed 1941 (Catholic)
Sechelt Indian Residential School; Sechelt; opened 1912, closed 1975 (Catholic)
Squamish Indian Residential School (St. Francis Indian Residential School; St. Paul’s Indian Residential School); North Vancouver opened 1898; closed 1959 (Catholic)
St. George’s Indian Residential School (Lytton Indian Residential School); Lytton; opened 1901; new school built in 1928; closed 1979 (Anglican)
St. Mary’s Mission Indian Residential School; Mission opened 1861; closed 1984 (Catholic)
St. Michael’s Indian Residential School (Alert Bay Indian Residential School); Alert Bay opened 1929; closed 1975 (Anglican)
Thomas Crosby Indian Residential School (Thomas Crosby Girls Home Indian Residential School); Port Simpson; opened 1879; closed 1950 (Methodist)
Thomas Crosby Indian Residential School (Thomas Crosby Home for Boys Indian residential School); Port Simpson; opened 1879; closed 1950 (Methodist)
Victoria Catholic Convent School; Victoria; opened 1863; closing date unknown (Catholic)
Williams Lake Indian Residential School (Williams Lake Industrial School; Cariboo; opened 1890; closed 1981 (Catholic)
Yale Indian Residential School; Yale opened 1900; closing date unknown (Anglican)
Yuquot Indian Residential School; Yuquot; opened 1901; closed 1913 (Catholic)
Alberta:
1. Edmonton: United Church school (1919-1960) , presently site of the Poundmaker Lodge in St. Albert .
Grave site: Reported south of former school site, under thick hedge that runs north-south, adjacent to memorial marker.
2. Edmonton: Charles Camsell Hospital (1945-1967) , building intact, experimental hospital run by Indian Affairs and United Church .
Grave site: Mass graves of children from hospital reported south of building, near staff garden.
Charles Camsell HospitalCompleted in 1913. During World War II it was given to the American Army to support their efforts in building a highway to Alaska, during that time it was known as the Northwest Service Command Headquarters . When the highway was completed in 1944 the building was returned to the Canadian Government. After renovations were completed in 1945 the Department of Veterans Affairs used it and it was known as the Jesuit College Hospital. In 1946 it was used by the Indian Health Service for use as a tuberculosis hospital, during this phase the building became known as the Charles Camsell Indian Hospital. The building was a regular hospital at the time of its demolition in July of 1967, shortly after everything was moved into the new Charles Camsell Hospital.
Some former patients of Canada's approximately 28 Indian hospitals claim that medical experimentation and forced sterilization were carried out in the hospitals.
Some former patients of Canada's approximately 28 Indian hospitals claim that medical experimentation and forced sterilization were carried out in the hospitals.
3. Saddle Lake: Bluequills Catholic school (1898-1970) , building intact, skeletons and skulls observed in basement furnace.
Grave site: Mass grave reported adjacent to school.
Blue Quills
4. Hobbema: Ermineskin Catholic school (1916-1973) , five intact skeletons observed in school furnace.
Grave site: Under former building foundations.
Listing of residential schools in Alberta
Assumption Indian Residential School (Hay Lakes Indian Residential School); Hay Lakes; opened 1953; closed 1957
Blue Quill’s Indian Residential School (Lac la Biche Boarding School; Hospice of St. Joseph); Lac la Biche; opened 1862; moved to (Brocket?) Saddle Lake in 1898 (RC)
Blue Quill’s Indian Residential School (Sacred Heart Indian Residential School; Saddle Lake Boarding School; Saddle Lake; opened 1898; closed 1931 (RC)
Blue Quill’s Indian Residential School (St. Paul’s Residential School); St Paul ; opened 1931; in closed 1970 (RC)(1971 became the first Native-administered school/college in Canada)
Convent of Holy Angels Indian Residential School (Holy Angels Indian Residential School; Our Lady of Victoria Indian Residential School); Fort Chipewyan opened 1902; closed 1974 (RC)
Crowfoot Indian Residential School; Cluny; opened 1909; closed 1968 (RC)
Dunbow Industrial School (St. Joseph’s Industrial School, High River Industrial School); High River; opened 1888; closed 1939 (RC)
Dunbow Industrial School(St. Joseph’s Industrial School, High River Industrial School) High River, Alberta
Edmonton Industrial School; St. Albert opened 1919; closed 1960 (MD)
Edmonton Indian Residential School; Edmonton (United)
Student dining hall, Edmonton Indian Residential School, circa 1930
Ermineskin Indian Residential School; Hobbema; opened 1916; closed 1973 (RC)
Fort Smith Indian Residential School (Breyant Hall); Fort Smith; opened 1955; closed 1970 (RC)
Immaculate Conception Indian Residential School (Immaculate Conception Boarding School; Blood Indian Residential School); Stand-Off opened 1884; closed 1926 (RC)
Immaculate Conception Boarding School (Blood Indian Residential School; St. Mary’s Mission Boarding School); Stand-Off; opened 1911; closed 1975 (RC)
Orphanage and Residential School (Morley Indian Residential School); Morley; opened 1886; closed 1949 (Methodist)
Two young boys (with two girls looking on) at Morley Indian Residential School. 1945McDougall
Old Sun’s Boarding School (North Camp Residential School, White Eagle’s Boarding School; Short Robe Boarding School); Gleichen; opened 1894; closed 1912 (Anglican)
Old Sun’s Boarding School (North Camp School; White Eagle’s Boarding School; Short Robe Boarding School); Gleichen; opened 1929; closed 1971 (Anglican)
Peigan Indian Residential School (Victoria Jubilee Home); Brocket; opened 1892; closed 1965 (Anglican)
Red Deer Industrial School; Red Deer opened 1889; closed 1944 (Methodist)
Sarcee Indian Residential School; Calgary opened 1894; closed 1930 (Anglican)
St. Albert’s Indian Residential School; St. Albert opened 1941; closed 1948 (Catholic)
St. Andrew’s Indian Residential School; Whitefish Lake opened 1895; closed 1950 (Anglican)
Barnabas Indian Residential School; Sarcee, opened 1899; new school built 1912; closed 1922(Anglican)
St. Bernard Indian Residential School (Grouard Indian Residential School); Grouard; opened 1939; closed 1962 (Catholic)
St. Bruno Indian Residential School (Joussard Indian Residential School); Joussard; opened 1913; closed 1969 (Catholic)
St. Cyprian’s Indian Residential School; Brocket; opened 1900; new school built in 1926; closed 1962 (Anglican)
St. Francis Xavier Indian Residential School; Calais; opened 1890; closed 1961 (Catholic)
St. Henri Indian Residential School (Fort Vermilion Indian Residential School); Fort Vermilion; opened 1900; closed 1968 (Catholic)
St. John’s Indian Residential School (Wabasca Residential School); Wabasca; opened 1895; new school built in 1949; closed 1966 (Anglican)
St. Martin Boarding School; Wabasca; opened 1901; closed 1973 (Catholic)
St. Paul Des Métis Indian Residential School; St. Paul; opened 1898; closed 1905 (Catholic)
St. Paul’s Indian Residential School, Cardston; opened 1900; closed 1972 (Anglican)
St. Peter’s Indian Residential School (Lesser Slave Lake Indian Residential School); Lesser Slave Lake; opened 1900; closed 1932 (Anglican)
Sturgeon Lake Indian Residential School; Sturgeon Lake; opened 1907; closed 1957 (Catholic)
Youville Indian Residential School; Edmonton; opened 1892; closed 1948 (Catholic)
Listing of residential schools in Saskatchewan
Battleford Industrial School; Battleford; opened 1883; closed 1943 (Catholic)
Beauval Indian Residential School; Beauval; opened 1895; closed 1983 (Catholic) (now Meadow Lake Tribal Council’s Beauval Indian Education Centre)
Cowesses Indian Residential School (Marieval Indian Residential School); Marieval; opened 1936; closed 1975 (Catholic)
Crowstand Indian Residential School; Kamsack; opened 1888; closed 1913 (Presbyterian)
St. Michael’s Indian Residential School (Duck Lake Indian Residential School); Duck Lake; opened 1892; closed 1964 (Catholic)
Emmanuel College; Prince Albert; opened 1865; closed 1923 (Anglican)
File Hills Indian Residential School (File Hills Colony School); Okanese Reserve opened 1889; closed 1949 (Methodist)
A staff member and some of the boys, with the new tractor, File Hills Indian Residential School.
Gordon Indian Residential School; Punnichy; opened 1889; new school built in 1911, burned down in 1929; closed 1996 (Anglican)
As a result of building additions made in recent years, and the difficulty in placing residential students in elementary day schools (native or municipal), Gordon’s continued to serve as a residential school until 1996, when it was finally closed by Ottawa and torn down.
Guy Hill Indian Residential School; Sturgeon Landing; opened 1926; the school burned down on September 4, 1952 and the students were relocated to a temporary school in The Pas until a newly built school opened in Clearwater Lake in 1958; closed June 30, 1979 (Catholic)
Ile-à-la-Crosse Indian Residential School; Ile-à-la-Crosse; opened 1878; closing date unknown (Catholic)
Lake La Ronge Mission Indian Residential School; La Ronge opened 1914; new school built in 1920; closed 1947 (Anglican)
Muscowequan Indian Residential School; Lestock opened 1932; closed 1981 (Catholic)
All Saints Indian Residential School; Lac La Ronge; opened in 1865; February 2nd 1947- fire destroyed school; 1951- Amalgamated with St. Albans; 1953 - Adopted name Prince Albert Indian Residential School (Anglican)
Prince Albert Indian Residential School; Prince Albert; (new school opened in September 1948 under old name name “All Saints School – Lac La Ronge”) ;1951St. Albans closes and students transferred in; 1953 - officially renamed; closed 1964 (Anglican)
Qu’Appelle Indian Residential School (Fort Qu’Appelle Indian Residential School; Lebret Indian Residential School) Lebret; opened 1884; school burned down in 1908; closed 1969 (Catholic) (Re-opened under the operations of the reserve in 1973, and renamed White Calf Collegiate, but closed in August 1998.
Regina Indian Residential School; Regina; opened 1890; closing date unknown (Presbyterian)
Round Lake Indian Residential School; Whitewood; opened 1886; closed 1950 (Methodist)
St. Anthony’s Indian Residential School (Onion Lake Catholic Indian Residential School); Onion Lake; opened 1891; closed 1968 (Catholic)
St. Barnabas Indian Residential School (Onion Lake Indian Residential School); Onion Lake; opened 1893; school burned down in 1943; relocation of students and staff to the newly established (1944) St. Alban’s School in Prince Albert (Anglican)
St. Phillips Indian Residential School (Keeseekoose Day School); Kamsack; opened 1899; closed 1965 (Catholic)
Thunderchild Indian Residential School (Delmas Indian Residential School); Delmas; opened 1933; school was burned down by students in 1948 (Catholic)
Performing a song, Norway House Indian Residential School, Manitoba.
Manitoba:
1. Brandon: Methodist-United Church school (1895-1972) . Building intact.
Grave site: Burials reported west of school building.
2. Portage La Prairie: Presbyterian-United Church school (1895-1950) .
Grave site: Children buried at nearby Hillside Cemetery .
3. Norway House: Methodist-United Church school (1900-1974) .
Grave site: “Very old” grave site next to former school building, demolished by United Church in 2004.
Listing of residential schools in Manitoba:
Assiniboia Indian Residential School (Assiniboia Hostel); Winnpeg; opened September 2, 1958; closed June 30, 1973 (Catholic)
Birtle Indian Residential School; Birtle; opened December 3, 1888; closed 1970 (Presbyterian)
Brandon Indian Residential School (Brandon Industrial School); Brandon; opened May 23, 1895; closed June 30, 1972 (Methodist)
Cross Lake Indian Residential School (Norway House Roman Catholic Indian Residential School); Cross Lake; opened March 9, 1915; closed July 30, 1969 (Catholic)
Elkhorn Indian Residential School (Elkhorn Industrial School; Washakada Indian Residential School); Elkhorn; opened 1888; closed 1919 as CP railroad purchased land on which school was built (Anglican)
Elkhorn Indian Residential School — Elkhorn, MB
Elkhorn Indian Residential School (Washakada Indian Residential School); Elkhorn; opened 1925; closed 1949 (Anglican)
Fort Alexander Indian Residential School; Pine Falls; opened 1905; closed June, 1970 (Catholic)
Guy Hill Indian Residential School; Sturgeon Landing; opened 1926; the school burned down on September 4, 1952 and the students were relocated to a temporary school in The Pas until a newly built school opened in Clearwater Lake in 1958; closed June 30, 1979 (Catholic)
Lake St. Martin Indian Residential School; Fisher River; opened 1874; new school built in 1948; closed 1963 (Anglican)
MacKay Indian Residential School; The Pas opened 1915; closed 1933 (AN)
MacKay Indian Residential School; The Pas
MacKay Indian Residential School; Dauphin opened 1955; closed 1980 (Anglican)
MacKay Indian Residential School; Dauphin.Opened in 1957 with 200 students in residence, most being of elementary school age. Additional dormitories were constructed in the 1960s to accommodate more high school students attending the schools in town.
Norway House Methodist Indian Residential School; Norway House; opened 1900; closed June 30, 1967 (Methodist)
Pine Creek Indian Residential School (Camperville Indian Residential School); Camperville; opened 1890; closed August 31, 1969 (Catholic)
Portage la Prairie Methodist Indian Residential School; Portage la Prairie; opened 1891; closed June 30, 1975 (Methodist)
Portage la Prairie Presbyterian Indian Residential; Portage la Prairie; opened 1895; closed 1950 (Presbyterian)
Sandy Bay Indian Residential School; Sandy Bay Reserve; opened 1905; closed June 30, 1970 (Catholic)
St. Boniface Industrial School; St. Boniface opened 1891; closed 1909 (Catholic)
St. Paul’s Industrial School (St. Rupert’s Land Industrial School); Selkirk; opened 1886; closed 1906 (Anglican)
Waterhen Indian Residential School; Waterhen; opened 1890; closed 1900 (Catholic)
Ontario:
1. Thunder Bay: Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital , still in operation. Experimental centre.
Grave site: Women and children reported buried adjacent to hospital grounds.
St. Joseph's Hospital on the left and Sister Margaret Smith Centre on the right. The latter was demolished and replaced with a new building to house the Lakehead Psychiatric Hospital, as their current building is much too large.
2. Sioux Lookout: Pelican Lake (Catholic ?) Anglican (see link under photo)school (1911-1973) .
Grave site: Burials of children in mound near to school.
3. Kenora: Cecilia Jeffrey school, Presbyterian-United Church (1900-1966) .
Grave site: Large burial mound east of former school.
Cecilia Jeffrey school
4. Fort Albany: St. Anne’s Catholic school (1936-1964) .
Grave site:Children killed in electric chair buried next to school. [Read article below]
5. Spanish: Catholic school (1883-1965) .
Grave site: Numerous graves.
6. Brantford: Mohawk Institute, Anglican church (1850-1969) , building intact.
Grave site: Series of graves in orchard behind school building, under rows of trees.
7. Sault Ste. Marie: Shingwauk Anglican school (1873-1969) , some intact buildings.
Grave site: Several graves of children reported on grounds of old school.
Listing of residential schools in Ontario
Albany Mission Indian Residential School (Fort Albany Residential School); Fort Albany opened 1912; closed 1963 (Catholic)
Alnwick Industrial School; Alderville opened 1838; closed 1966; worked in partnership with Mount Elgin Indian Residential School (Methodist)
Bishop Horden Memorial School (Moose Factory Indian Residential School; Moose Fort Indian Residential School); Moose Factory; opened 1907; closed 1963 (Anglican)
Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School; Kenora; opened 1900; closed 1966 (Presbyterian)
Chapleau Indian Residential School (Saint John’s Indian Residential School); Chapleau; opened 1907; closed 1950 (Anglican)
Fort Frances Indian Residential School (St. Margaret’s Indian Residential School); Fort Frances; opened 1902; closed 1974 (RC)
Kenora Indian Residential School; Kenora opened 1949; closed 1963 (RC)
McIntosh Indian Residential School; Kenora opened 1924; closed 1969 (RC)
Mohawk Institute Residential School (Mohawk Manual Labour School; Mush Hole Indian Residential School); Brantford opened 1850; closed 1969 (AN)
Mount Elgin Indian Residential School; Muncey Town opened 1848; closed 1948; worked in partnership with Alnwick (MD)
Shingwauk Indian Residential School; Garden Rive; opened 1873; burned down six days after opening (AN)
Shingwauk Indian Residential School; Sault Ste. Marie opened 1873; merged with Wawanosh to form a larger school in 1934 (AN)
Shingwauk Indian Residential School (Wawanosh School for Girls); Sarnia opened 1877; merged with Singwauk in 1934 (AN)
Shingwauk Indian Residential School (Wawanosh School for Girls; Singwauk Hall); Sault Ste. Marie opened 1934; closed 1971; (AN) currently houses Algoma University
Sioux Lookout Indian Residential School (Pelican Lake Day School); Sioux Lookout opened 1911; closed 1973 (AN)
Spanish Indian Residential School; Spanish opened 1883; closed 1965 (RC)
St. Anne’s Indian Residential School; Fort Albany opened 1936; closed 1964 (RC)
Link here to hear radio show: Abuse Affects the Next Generation: Talking with survivor of St. Joseph’s Indian Boarding School St. Joseph’s Indian Boarding School (Fort William Indian Residential School); Fort William (now called Thunder Bay) opened 1936; closed 1964 (RC)
St. Mary’s Indian Residential School; Kenora opened 1894; closed 1962 (RC)
Wikwemikong Indian Residential School (Wikwemikong Day School); Manitowaning opened 1840; closed 1879 (RC)
Wikwemikong Indian Residential School (Wikwemikong Day School; Wikwemikong Manual Labour School); Manitowaning opened 1879; closed 1963 (RC)
The Cree Residential School at La Tuque, Québec
Quebec:
1. Montreal: *Allan Memorial Institute, McGill University *, still in operation since opening in 1940.* MKULTRA experimental centre. *
Grave site: Mass grave of children killed there north of building, on southern slopes of Mount Royal behind stone wall.
Listing of residential schools in Quebec
Amos Indian Residential School (St. Marc’s Indian Residential School) Amos opened 1948; closed 1965 (RC)
Fort George Anglican Indian Residential School (St. Phillip’s Indian Residential School); Fort George opened 1934; closed 1979 (AN)
Fort George Catholic Indian Residential School; Fort George opened 1936; closed 1952 (RC)
La Tuque Indian Residential School; La Tuque opened 1962; closed 1978 (AN)
Pointe Bleue Indian Residential School; Point Bleue opened 1960; closed 1980 (RC)
Sept-Îles Indian Residential School; Stept-Iles opened 1952; closed 1971 (RC)
Listing of residential schools in Nova Scotia
Shubenacadie Indian Residential School; Shubenacadie; opened 1922; closed 1968; (RC)
Listing of residential schools in Yukon
Baptist Indian Residential School (Yukon Indian Residential School); Whitehorse; BP opened 1900; closed 1968 (Baptist)
Carcross Indian Residential School (Forty Mile Boarding School); Forty Mile opened 1891; moved to Carcross in 1910 (Anglican)
Baby George was an orphan who was brought to the Carcross Indian Residential School by Bishop Bompas. He died of tuberculosis in the Whitehorse hospital and was buried near Dawson Road, about a mile from town, date unknown.
Carcross Indian Residential School (Chooutla Indian Residential School; Caribou Crossing Indian Residential School); Carcross opened 1910; closed 1969 (Anglican)
Lower Post Indian Residential School; Lower Post; opened 1940; closed 1975 (Catholic)
Shingle Point School -for Inuvialuit; Shingle Point; opened 1922; closed in 1925 when an influenza epidemic was spreading throughout the region - no school for 4 years (Anglican)
St. John’s Eskimo Residential School; Shingle Point; opened 1929; closed August 1936 - students transferred to All Saints Indian and Eskimo Residential School NWT (Anglican)
St. Paul’s Indian Residential School (St. Paul’s Hall); Dawson; opened 1920; closed 1943 (Anglican)
Yukon Hall; Whitehorse; opened 1956; closed 1965; residences for local day school students (Anglican)
Returning to boarding-school at Inuvik, NWT, after their summer vacation
Listing of residential schools in North West Territories (NWT)
Aklavik Catholic Indian Residential School (later Inuvik Indian Residential School); Aklavik; opened 1925; relocated to Inuvik in 1959; Stringer Hall was Anglican Residence and Grollier Hall the Catholic residence (name of residences) (Catholic)
All Saints Indian and Eskimo Residential School; Aklavik NWT; Opened Sept 1936 - Kindergarten to Grade 8; 1952 school closes when Federal Day School opens - Building converted to a residence; June 1959 All Saints Student Residence closes. Most students transfer to new government hostel at Inuvik to open in September June1959 . (Anglican)
Fort McPherson Indian Residential School; Fort McPherson opened 1898; closed 1970; Fleming Hall (name of residence); nondenominational (Other)
Fort Providence Indian Residential School (Providence Mission Indian Residential School); Fort Providence; opened 1867; closed 1953 (Catholic)
Fort Resolution Indian Residential School; Fort Resolution; opened 1867; closing date unknown (Catholic)
Fort Simpson Indian Residential School (Fort Simpson Boarding School); Fort Simpson; opened 1920; closed 1950; Bompas Hall, Lapointe Hall, St. Margaret’s Hall (names of residences) (Catholic)
Bompass Hall- Anglican NWT
Fort Simpson Indian Residential School; Fort Simpson; opened 1950; closed 1970; Bompas Hall, Lapointe Hall, St. Margaret’s Hall (names of residences) (Other)
Hay River Indian Residential School (St. Peter’s Mission Indian Residential School); Hay River; opened 1898; closed 1949 (Anglican)
Yellowknife Indian Residential School (Rocher River Day School); Yellowknife; opened 1948; closed 1970; Akaitcho Hall (name of residence) (Catholic)
Listing of residential schools in Nunavut
Chesterfield Inlet Indian Residential School; Chesterfield Inlet opened 1929; closed 1970; Turquetil (name of residence) (Catholic)
Frobisher Bay Indian Residential School; Frobisher Bay opened 1965; closing date unknown (Catholic)
Father Trinell with Inuit children in front of the Roman Catholic Mission, Cape Dorset, N.W.T.*, October 1951 Photographer: Douglas Wilkinson, National Film Board of Canada Library and Archives Canada, PA-146509 *Kinngait, Nunavut.
Sources:
- Anglican Indian and Eskimo Residential Schools http://www.anglican.ca/relationships/trc/histories/
- Anglican Indian and Eskimo Residential Schools http://www.anglican.ca/relationships/trc/histories/
- Eyewitness accounts from survivors of these institutions, catalogued in Hidden from History: The Canadian Holocaust (2nd ed., 2005) by Kevin Annett. Other accounts are from local residents. See http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/ .
- Documents and other material from the Department of Indian Affairs RG 10 microfilm series on Indian Residential Schools in Koerner Library, University of B.C.
- Survey data and physical evidence obtained from grave sites in Port Alberni , Mission , and other locations.
This is a partial list and does not include all of the grave sites connected to Indian residential Schools and hospitals across Canada. In many cases, children who were dying of diseases were sent home to die by school and church officials, and the remains of other children who died at the school were incinerated in the residential school furnaces.
This information is submitted by The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (FRD) to the world media, the United Nations, and to the International Human Rights Tribunal into Genocide in Canada (IHRTGC). The IHRTGC will commence its investigations on April 15, 2008 on Squamish Nation territory.
For more information on the independent inquiry into genocide in Canada being conducted by the IHRTGC, write to: genocidetribunal@yahoo.ca
10 April, 2008
Squamish Nation Territory (“ Vancouver , Canada ”)
Location of Mass Graves of Residential School Children Revealed for the First Time; Independent Tribunal Established
Squamish Nation Territory ("Vancouver, Canada")
Thursday, April 10, 2008 11:00 am PST
At a public ceremony and press conference held today outside the colonial "Indian Affairs" building in downtown Vancouver, the Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (FRD) released a list of twenty eight mass graves across Canada holding the remains of untold numbers of aboriginal children who died in Indian Residential Schools.
The list was distributed today to the world media and to United Nations agencies, as the first act of the newly-formed International Human Rights Tribunal into Genocide in Canada (IHRTGC) , a non-governmental body established by indigenous elders.
In a statement read by FRD spokesperson Eagle Strong Voice, it was declared that the IHRTGC would commence its investigations on April 15, 2008, the fourth Annual Aboriginal Holocaust Memorial Day. This inquiry will involve international human rights observers from Guatemala and Cyprus, and will convene aboriginal courts of justice where those persons and institutions responsible for the death and suffering of residential school children will be tried and sentenced. (The complete Statement and List of Mass Graves is reproduced above).
Eagle Strong Voice and IHRTGC elders will present the Mass Graves List at the United Nations on April 19, and will ask United Nations agencies to protect and monitor the mass graves as part of a genuine inquiry and judicial prosecution of those responsible for this Canadian Genocide.
Eyewitness Sylvester Greene spoke to the media at today's event, and described how he helped bury a young Inuit boy at the United Church's Edmonton residential school in 1953.
"We were told never to tell anyone by Jim Ludford, the Principal, who got me and three other boys to bury him. But a lot more kids got buried all the time in that big grave next to the school."
For more information: http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/ , or write to the IHRTGC at: genocidetribunal@yahoo.ca
Issued on Squamish Territory, 10 April, 2008, under the authority of Hereditary Chief Kiapilano.
Native Residential Schools: "Kids Put On Electric Chair"
1997 Edmonton Journal
The home-made electric chair used for years to punish aboriginal children at St. Anne's Residential School in this James Bay ( Fort Albany, Ontario ) community has dissappeared, but its memory endures.
Hundreds of children who survived the horrors of the school have bitter memories of the chair - used as a means of forcing them to bend to the will of Roman Catholic missionaries who ran the school.
"The nuns used it as a weapon" says former student Mary Anne Nakogee-Davis, 41. " It was done to me on more than one occassion. They would strap your arms to the metal arm rests, and it would jolt you and go through your system. I don't know what I did that was bad enough to have that done to me."
Edmund Metatawabin, 49, former Chief of the Fort Albany First Nation, remembers being forced to take turns with his classmates sitting in the chair and receiving painful jolts of electricity to entertain visiting dignitaries.
"I was six years old. There was no sense of volunteering or anything. We were just told by the brother to do it and there was never any question of not doing it. Once the thing was cranked up, I could feel the current going through me, mainly through my arms. Your legs are jumping up, and everyone was laughing."
St. Anne's operated as a residential school from 1904 to 1973 in this isolated Cree community of 1400 about 1000 kms north of Toronto.
A three year investigation by Ontario Provincial Police has found evidence of widespread sexual and physical abuse of students, hundreds of whom have been left with deep emotional scars.
Regional Crown attorney Martin Lambert has said some priests, brothers, nuns, and lay workers who ran the school soon will be charged. [ Did this happen?]
The federal government forced Cree and Ojibwa children to leave their families and live for ten months of the year at the school, which was operated as part of a nationwide policy of trying to assimilate aboriginals into the dominate white culture. It was a policy that didn't work. Most schools were closed during the 1960s and 1970s. [ Last federally-operated residential school is closed (Akaitcho Hall in Yellowknife). It is estimated that more than 100,000 Native children aged six and up attended the national network of residential schools from 1930 until the last one closed. ]
St. Anne's was operated by the Roman Catholic diocese of Moosonee, the Oblate order and the Grey Nuns, without much outside supervision.
Other students have told police investigators of heterosexual and homosexual rape, sexual fondling, forced masturbation and severe beatings. Students have complained of humiliating treatment, such as being forced to eat their food off the floor.
Boys and girls in the school weren't allowed to speak to each other, and if brothers and sisters communicated, even by a wave of a hand or a smile, they were beaten, students say.
When children died "of natural causes", their parents were not always notified. They learned of the death only when their child failed to come back to their community for the two-month summer holiday.
"What happened at St. Anne's is the truth and we have to acknowledge it," says Nakogee-Davis. "If we don't do anything, then people will say it never happened, that we are just talking. We have to prove it happened and help the victims."
The Mask Slips, for Those with Eyes to See: Preparing for the Real Pandemic (Killer vaccine)
by Kevin D. Annett, M.A., M.Div.
http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/
by Kevin D. Annett, M.A., M.Div.
http://www.hiddenfromhistory.org/
Last week, many of the aboriginal people in the remote west coast village of Ahousaht were innoculated with the tamiflu vaccine. Today, over a hundred of them are sick, and the sickness is spreading.
In the same week, body bags were sent to similarly remote native reserves in northern Manitoba that have also received the tamiflu vaccine.
On the face of things, it appears that flu vaccinations are causing a sickness that is being deliberately aimed at aboriginal people across Canada, and this sickness will be fatal: a fact acknowledged by the Canadian government by their “routine” sending of body bags to these Indian villages.
Before you express your shock and denial at the idea that people are being racially targeted and killed, remember that murdering Indians with vaccinations is not a new or abnormal thing in Canada. Indeed, it’s how we Europeans “won the land”, and it’s one of the ways we keep it.
In 1862, Anglican church missionaries Rev. John Sheepshanks and Robert Brown inoculated interior Salish Indians in B.C. with a live smallpox virus that wiped out entire native communities within a month, just prior to the settlement of this native land by gold prospectors associated with these missionaries and government officials.
In 1909, Dr. Peter Bryce of the Indian Affairs department in Ottawa claimed that Catholic and Protestant churches were deliberately exposing native children to smallpox and tuberculosis in residential schools across Canada, and letting them die untreated. Thousands of children died as a result. (Globe and Mail, April 24, 2007)
In 1932, B.C. provincial police attempted to lay charges against Catholic missionaries who had sent smallpox-laden Indian children back among their families along the Fraser river near Mission, BC. The RCMP intervened and protected the church, even though whole villages were wiped out as a result of the church’s actions.
In 1969, native children who escaped from the Nanaimo Indian Hospital on Vancouver Island described being inoculated with shots that caused many of them to die “with bloated up bodies and scabs all over”, to quote one survivor.
Knowing this history, it’s not surprising when Indians on isolated Canadian reserves start sickening and dying en masse from sudden illnesses, after receiving flu shots. After all, it’s still the law in Canada, under the apartheid Indian Act, that no on-reserve Indian can refuse medical treatments or experimentation. So it’s small wonder that these reserves are the places being targeted first to be injected with untested, unsafe and potentially lethal flu vaccines.
As an entire race of involuntary test subjects, Indians in Canada are a weather vane for what will befall all of us, and very soon. For the very techniques and weapons of genocide perfected against aboriginal people are now being deployed against “mainstream” Canadians.
Under Bill C-6, which is about to pass third reading in Parliament and become the law, no Canadian will be allowed to refuse inoculations for the swine flu, despite the fact that it is relatively benign and mild, and has killed only people who are already immune-compromised. Indeed, it is astounding that such coercion and dictatorial laws are being employed to deal with what the chief Canadian Health Officer has called a “mild seasonal flu”.
Clearly, another agenda is at work; but the time to ascertain and challenge that agenda has all but run out. This coming month, forced inoculations and imprisonment of those who refuse them may be a reality across Canada. And for what reason? Clearly, not for public health, considering the sickness and death caused by previous swine flu vaccines.
I believe that the real pandemic is about to be unleashed through the very vaccines being pushed by governments and pharmaceutical giants like Novartis and Glaxo Smith Kline. The shots will be the cause, not the cure, of the pandemic. Of course, those in power can disprove this by simply being the first people to take the swine flu shot: an event about as likely as these companies forgoing the multi-billion dollar profits they will reap from the mass vaccinations.
It’s indeed ironic that, very soon, many “white” Canadians may be suffering the same fate that aboriginal people have for centuries. Perhaps it’s fitting. For if we are indeed being targeted for extermination, or at the least martial law and dictatorship, we finally can have the chance to shed our complicity in the genocide of other people, and get on the right side of humanity – simply by having to fight the system that is causing mass murder.
Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission is overseeing something called the Missing Children Project--a bold attempt to track and record the fate of every indigenous child who passed through the notorious residential school system. It's a kind of census of calamity. What follows is the framework of one story. I'd like to collect many more. If you have personal knowledge of a child who died while attending a residential school, and whose true story has never been fully told, please contact me at adams.claude@gmail.com , or post a comment to this blog (address under tittle). In so doing, you will be adding to the documentation of a sad chapter in Canada's history.
Jack Lacerte was barely three years old when it happened, but he has a vivid recollection of the day back in 1937 when the two priests knocked on the door of his home in Fraser Lake, B.C. The black-robed clerics wanted to speak to Jack’s dad Philippe, a caretaker at the local residential school.
Two days earlier, on New Year’s Day, four young homesick boys had left the Lajac School without permission. The youngest was seven years old. The eldest, nine. It was dark, and 20-below zero, but they missed their parents so they sneaked out of the school and started walking home, across the lake. By midnight, police later said, all four had frozen to death within a kilometer or two of their destination. But their bodies would lay in the snow for more than 16 hours before police and local townspeople even mounted a search party. (See photo above.) Their names were Andrew Paul (8), John Michel Jack (7), Justa Maurice (8), and Alan Willie (9). A fifth boy, Paul Alex (10) left the school with them that night, but returned on his own.
“Indian Affairs is sending investigators to look into this tragedy,” the priests told Phillip Lacerte, standing in the doorway. “They’ll be asking questions. You knew the boys. We want to make sure you have the story right. We’re here to tell you what we want you to say.”
Jack says his father objected. He told the priests he was raised in a Catholic school in Quebec, that he couldn’t tell a lie. The priests said he had 24 hours to consider his refusal to co-operate. But Philippe was adamant. He couldn’t take part in a cover-up. He realized that what he had to say about the treatment of the children at Lejac would reflect badly on his black-robed superiors. So he took a stand on principle, but it carried a bitter price: That same day, the school terminated his job, and he and his family were thrown out of their home on school property. All records of his employment at the school were erased. Jack Lacerte says his father sank into depression, and became an alcoholic. He died in a work accident in the 1950s.
Meanwhile, the full story of the Indian boys—why they ran away, why it took nearly a day before anybody started to look for them—has never been told: One more grim, shameful and incomplete chapter in the history of Canada’s residential schools.
* * * *
Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has a profoundly difficult mandate: to bring some kind of emotional closure to the survivors the 130 Indian residential schools. There are approximately 80,000 of these survivors, many of them past the age of 60, and almost all of them carry the psychic (and sometimes physical) scars of their experience. They have received compensation, and counseling, and an apology from the government and the churches.
But the TRC’s most challenging task may involve not the living, but rather the dead. Its Missing Children Project, headed by Ontario historian John Milloy, is seeking to create a comprehensive record of every child who never returned home. What are the numbers, 5000? Or, as some suggest, as many as 50,000? Did they die from TB or malnutrition? Where are the medical records? Did they die while fleeing abuse at the hands of their teachers? Where are they buried? Or if they survived, did they return to their homes, or were they passed on to foster parents?
Why should we concern ourselves with things that happened 70 or 80 years ago? What relevance do events like the Lejac incident have today? Milloy sees his project as a fundamental historical settling-of-accounts. For Canada’s aboriginal peoples, though, it’s much more than statistics. Says native activist Maggie Hodgson: “It is so important to know how we came to this place of collective grief. If we have these figures, then our people can begin to talk about their own holocaust.”
The challenges of the Missing Children’s Project are many: the problem of lost (or destroyed) records, the failing memory of the survivors, the missing graveyards and the unmarked graves, the agonies of the families, like the Lacertes, who were indirect victims of the schools policy. Was this a genocide, as some suggest, or a monumental act of carelessness [ ! ? ! ? ! ?] , as Milloy characterizes it?
Who am I?
A year ago I did a long investigation for Reader’s Digest magazine on the inadequacies of the compensation package that the Canadian government gave to the survivors of the residential schools. I got to know the players, and in my interviews with them, one question kept coming up: What happened to those many thousands of children who didn’t come home? I promised myself that I would try to answer this question, and I got to know people like John Milloy, and Maggie Hodgson. And people like Kevin Annett, a defrocked Anglican minister who claims the schools were part of was a deadly conspiracy. That’s an extreme view, which I don’t subscribe to, but many of Annett’s questions have not yet been satisfactorily answered.
Why should you care?
The residential schools are one of the darkest parts of 20th century Canadian history, and what they produced are at the heart of the country’s aboriginal problem. We’ll never understand the alienation of a million aboriginal Canadians, until we understand that impulses that created and maintained these schools, and what they did to several generations of children, whose deaths live in us all.
[And are still reflected in many aboriginal children today. If only one generation loses the model of a normal family, generations ever after are affected because they are raised by wounded parents who were not raised in a family environment. In earlier years, TV modeled "perfect families" - Some wounded children were saved by the examples of those television shows. But today the families on TV are all grossly disfunctional - So when any (Native or non-Native) child is raised in disfunction now, what hope do they have of finding a good family model ? ]
What happened to the children?--A collaborative project
by Claude Adams
http://claudeadams.blogspot.com/2011/07/what-happened-to-children-collaborative.html
by Claude Adams
http://claudeadams.blogspot.com/2011/07/what-happened-to-children-collaborative.html
Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission is overseeing something called the Missing Children Project--a bold attempt to track and record the fate of every indigenous child who passed through the notorious residential school system. It's a kind of census of calamity. What follows is the framework of one story. I'd like to collect many more. If you have personal knowledge of a child who died while attending a residential school, and whose true story has never been fully told, please contact me at adams.claude@gmail.com , or post a comment to this blog (address under tittle). In so doing, you will be adding to the documentation of a sad chapter in Canada's history.
Jack Lacerte was barely three years old when it happened, but he has a vivid recollection of the day back in 1937 when the two priests knocked on the door of his home in Fraser Lake, B.C. The black-robed clerics wanted to speak to Jack’s dad Philippe, a caretaker at the local residential school.
Two days earlier, on New Year’s Day, four young homesick boys had left the Lajac School without permission. The youngest was seven years old. The eldest, nine. It was dark, and 20-below zero, but they missed their parents so they sneaked out of the school and started walking home, across the lake. By midnight, police later said, all four had frozen to death within a kilometer or two of their destination. But their bodies would lay in the snow for more than 16 hours before police and local townspeople even mounted a search party. (See photo above.) Their names were Andrew Paul (8), John Michel Jack (7), Justa Maurice (8), and Alan Willie (9). A fifth boy, Paul Alex (10) left the school with them that night, but returned on his own.
“Indian Affairs is sending investigators to look into this tragedy,” the priests told Phillip Lacerte, standing in the doorway. “They’ll be asking questions. You knew the boys. We want to make sure you have the story right. We’re here to tell you what we want you to say.”
Jack says his father objected. He told the priests he was raised in a Catholic school in Quebec, that he couldn’t tell a lie. The priests said he had 24 hours to consider his refusal to co-operate. But Philippe was adamant. He couldn’t take part in a cover-up. He realized that what he had to say about the treatment of the children at Lejac would reflect badly on his black-robed superiors. So he took a stand on principle, but it carried a bitter price: That same day, the school terminated his job, and he and his family were thrown out of their home on school property. All records of his employment at the school were erased. Jack Lacerte says his father sank into depression, and became an alcoholic. He died in a work accident in the 1950s.
Meanwhile, the full story of the Indian boys—why they ran away, why it took nearly a day before anybody started to look for them—has never been told: One more grim, shameful and incomplete chapter in the history of Canada’s residential schools.
* * * *
Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has a profoundly difficult mandate: to bring some kind of emotional closure to the survivors the 130 Indian residential schools. There are approximately 80,000 of these survivors, many of them past the age of 60, and almost all of them carry the psychic (and sometimes physical) scars of their experience. They have received compensation, and counseling, and an apology from the government and the churches.
But the TRC’s most challenging task may involve not the living, but rather the dead. Its Missing Children Project, headed by Ontario historian John Milloy, is seeking to create a comprehensive record of every child who never returned home. What are the numbers, 5000? Or, as some suggest, as many as 50,000? Did they die from TB or malnutrition? Where are the medical records? Did they die while fleeing abuse at the hands of their teachers? Where are they buried? Or if they survived, did they return to their homes, or were they passed on to foster parents?
Why should we concern ourselves with things that happened 70 or 80 years ago? What relevance do events like the Lejac incident have today? Milloy sees his project as a fundamental historical settling-of-accounts. For Canada’s aboriginal peoples, though, it’s much more than statistics. Says native activist Maggie Hodgson: “It is so important to know how we came to this place of collective grief. If we have these figures, then our people can begin to talk about their own holocaust.”
The challenges of the Missing Children’s Project are many: the problem of lost (or destroyed) records, the failing memory of the survivors, the missing graveyards and the unmarked graves, the agonies of the families, like the Lacertes, who were indirect victims of the schools policy. Was this a genocide, as some suggest, or a monumental act of carelessness [ ! ? ! ? ! ?] , as Milloy characterizes it?
Who am I?
A year ago I did a long investigation for Reader’s Digest magazine on the inadequacies of the compensation package that the Canadian government gave to the survivors of the residential schools. I got to know the players, and in my interviews with them, one question kept coming up: What happened to those many thousands of children who didn’t come home? I promised myself that I would try to answer this question, and I got to know people like John Milloy, and Maggie Hodgson. And people like Kevin Annett, a defrocked Anglican minister who claims the schools were part of was a deadly conspiracy. That’s an extreme view, which I don’t subscribe to, but many of Annett’s questions have not yet been satisfactorily answered.
Why should you care?
The residential schools are one of the darkest parts of 20th century Canadian history, and what they produced are at the heart of the country’s aboriginal problem. We’ll never understand the alienation of a million aboriginal Canadians, until we understand that impulses that created and maintained these schools, and what they did to several generations of children, whose deaths live in us all.
[And are still reflected in many aboriginal children today. If only one generation loses the model of a normal family, generations ever after are affected because they are raised by wounded parents who were not raised in a family environment. In earlier years, TV modeled "perfect families" - Some wounded children were saved by the examples of those television shows. But today the families on TV are all grossly disfunctional - So when any (Native or non-Native) child is raised in disfunction now, what hope do they have of finding a good family model ? ]