Home Social Landscape Featured Articles Reverend Mr. John Nelson: Missionary with an Impossible Mission

Reverend Mr. John Nelson: Missionary with an Impossible Mission

by Uta H. Fox

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John Nelson did not experience any difficulties filling the school to capacity when it opened. Red Deer itself was geographically situated in an area with a strong Methodist presence, and children from reserves at Morley, Hobbema, White Whale Lake, Whitefish Lake, Goodfish Lake and Saddle Lake attended the School. Fifty-two pupils were admitted, which was two beyond the capacity of the building. Like Qu'Appelle and Battleford Industrial Schools, Red Deer accepted both girls and boys (St. Dunstan's Calgary Indian Industrial School only admitted boys). Students quickly became indoctrinated into Euro-Canadian life at the School by following a half-day program of work and study. Boys learned carpentry, farming, blacksmithing, and later, shoemaking. The older boys also built the fences, dug up stumps, and cleared away the brush. As Reverend Mr. Nelson reported: "... the building site was a veritable forest." In the first winter the boys had cut 8,000 rails, with each boy averaging over 200 per day. This last feat so impressed Nelson that he wrote: "To my mind at least, the too prevalent idea that Indians are naturally lazy has no proof in actual observation." The girls learned such household trades as laundry, cooking, and sewing. The principal declared: "... the parents are delighted to know their daughters are able to make good bread, and to see them dressed in neat and becoming clothing cut and made by the girls themselves." While Nelson felt that the students had made excellent progress in their studies, he was not as pleased with their progress in learning English. Since some of the staff were fluent in Cree, it was easier for both the staff and students to converse in it. So, to promote English, "... every evening each pupil is required to speak at least one English sentence of their own composition."¹⁷

Despite principal Nelson's optimism, two problems plagued this institution throughout its history: recruitment and desertions. The per-capita grant dictated that enrolment be maintained at the maximum number, yet this proved more and more difficult as some Methodist Indian parents had no desire to commit their children to this institution, but the use of corporal punishment and the high illness rate at the school also alienated many. As attendance was not yet mandatory, the school had to try and maintain a good rapport with parents and the Methodist Indian community. Nelson believed that if the parents could only observe first-hand what the institution had accomplished in just a few months, then he could " popularize the school on the Reserve." He received permission from the Indian Department to take a number of students to the annual meeting of the Saskatchewan District of the Methodist Church, held at the Cree community of Saddle Lake in May 1895. Reverend Mr. Nelson was so pleased with the results of the meeting he reported to the Department:

One evening was set apart for us. The pupils ... each gave an address in English and in Cree before a crowded house.

The people were delighted with what they saw and heard, the parents of the boys especially so.

To the people the contrast in appearance and deportment with those of the Reserve was most apparent. One man ... said he intended, if possible, to take his son from the school and put another in his place but now he wished to leave him at school as long as possible. As the result of our visit the revulsion of opinion is such that without solicitation the people offer to place their children in the Institution. Eight bright active healthy children arrive to-day.

However, using students as goodwill ambassadors did not stop desertions. According to the "Register of Admissions and Discharges" ("Register") for the Red Deer School, of the 52 students who were admitted in 1893, 12 (23 per cent) deserted.¹⁸

From the beginning at the school, Methodist Indian parents actively responded to industrial education at Red Deer. The influential Cree Chief James Seenum (Pakan) of Saddle Lake asked for the return of his son in 1894, after the boy had spent only one year at the school. A few other parents also demanded and were granted the permanent return of their children. Two girls were discharged simply because they were needed at home. The Department of Indian Affairs regulations declared that only the Indian Commissioner could admit, discharge or grant students permission to leave the institution for any period of time. Yet time did not always permit the communication process to be completed between the parent's request and the Indian Commissioner's response from Regina. A group from the Louis Bull reserve at Hobbema, for instance, came to take their children home. Nelson, without official permission, let them proceed. He feared a refusal "would cause needless trouble." Although students were not given holidays, a leave of absence was occasionally extended to visit homes for a predetermined length of time. One girl was allowed to spend two weeks at home provided, "she must not be allowed to remain out longer than the term specified."¹⁹

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