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Western Oblate Studies 2

  • Residential schooling at fort chipewyan and fort resolution 1874-1974

Procliaming The Gospel to the Indians and the MétisResidential schooling at fort chipewyan and fort resolution 1874-1974

Robert Carney, Professor
Faculty of Education
University of Alberta

 

Pas disponible in Francais.

AFFIRMING THE EQUATION

The major objectives that led to the establishment and subsequent maintenance of residential schools in the Diocese were the following: (1) to counter Anglican and non-denominational educational arrangements; (2) to provide catechetical instruction and other forms of Christian indoctrination; (3) to give board and care to orphans and other children; and (4) to teach children reading, writing, and arithmetic in one or more languages and some domestic and institutional skills. These objectives, to a greater or lesser extent, were considered sufficient preparation for most of the children who were expected to return to a hunting, trapping life, where they could help those who had not been schooled. Although adjustments were made to these objectives during the first half of this century, they largely applied and were considered to be appropriate until the 1940s, at least by most who reported publicly on the work of the schools. Oral testimony of graduates provides little evidence that many of the Métis and Indian children who attended school at Chipewyan or Resolution wanted to prolong their stay in these institutions.22 Accounts by former pupils and attendance figures also suggest that some children who heard of residential school life from those who went decided it was not in keeping with their own values and preferences.

The presence of Anglican ministers, especially if it was known that they planned to open a school, was invariably cited in Oblate appeals to the Mother General of the Grey Nuns that sisters be sent. The first such request was from Grandin at Providence in 1862, which yielded results five years later when a party of Grey Nuns arrived in the settlement.23 A similar missive was sent to Montreal in 1874 once it was known that the Anglicans had opened a school in Chipewyan. The Anglican initiative was immediately countered when the superior at Providence, without the authorization of the Mother House, sent three members of her community to establish Holy Angels.24 In 1880, when the Oblates at Providence learned that the sisters might abandon the convent, they wrote Bishop Henri Faraud pointing out that the school was a projection of the Church's image in "the eyes of our separated brethren who attach great importance to the external advantages of education and who are willing to spend considerable amounts to sustain error.”25

After briefly reviewing the unsuccessful attempts of his predecessor to secure sisters for Fort Resolution, Breynat wrote the Mother General in 1902 insisting that there be no more temporizing on the matter. He noted that the Anglican bishop was planning to operate a school at Resolution sometime in 1903, and as the governments favoured the Anglicans, the project would undoubtedly be realized. If a Catholic school was established after the Anglican, the Catholic cause would encounter grave difficulties. Breynat would have preferred to have sisters in the spring of 1902. That would, he said, "couper l'herbe sous les pieds des ministres." However, if the Grey Nuns could not promise sisters by 1903, then he would be forced to call in another congregation.26 Five Grey Nuns arrived in Fort Resolution in June 1903; and on 25 July they, along with five Indian children, moved into a small convent: "L'École Saint-Joseph de Fort Resolution était fondée."27

The children of St. Joseph's and Holy Angels followed a daily schedule of prayer, religious instruction and observances: morning prayer, grace before meals, ethics, bible study, sacred music, catechetical instruction (which was often given in French, Cree, Dogrib and Chipewyan), rosary, benediction, and evening prayer. Virginie Calumet, who went to St. Joseph's in the 1920s, remembered that "We used to go to church early in the morning, at about five o'clock .... On Sunday we used to go to church three times a day.”28 Moral and religious teaching occurred in other contexts as well. Fraternization of the sexes, even between members of the same family, was largely forbidden. As the number of boarders increased, children of the same sex were classified into two groups according to age and were housed in separate dormitories. Boys and girls ate and went to school together, but they sat apart and were not to look at members of the opposite sex.29

The religious exercises were supplemented by the activities of youth groups, including altar servers and the League of the Sacred Heart for boys and the Daughters of Mary for girls, which were selective as to membership and which had special emblems to designate the rank and privileges of those who belonged. All these measures were designed in the hope that the habits acquired and the knowledge gained would continue to influence the child's behaviour long after he or she left school. Only a minority of school-age Métis and Indian children went to the mission schools at Chipewyan and Resolution. In 1939, for example, no more than thirty per cent were in attendance30 and those who went stayed for relatively short periods of time.31 It was believed, however, that with adequate civil safeguards and reasonable vigilance on the part of the missionaries, that at least these children, according to the proverb, would not abandon what they had been taught: "A young man according to his way, even when he is old will not depart from it."32 The testimony of many former students indicates the truth of this dictum. For instance, one informant recalled his three years at Holy Angels in these terms:

It is not really hard job to learn how to pray, but Latin that one was pretty hard job, but when you got it in your mind, it didn't take too long. That is what I got from the Sisters when I stay in the Mission, prayer and helping the Father. 33

In addition to their teaching duties, most sisters faced the monumental task of nourishing, disciplining and caring for the boarders. In looking after children in crowded dormitories, a sister was responsible for supervising as many as 50 to 60 children, even more in some instances, often entirely on her own seven days a week, winter and summer, year after year. The condition of many who went to boarding school presented the sisters with further challenges. A 1910 agreement between the churches and the Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) included a requirement that Indian children be in "good health" to be admitted to residential school.34 There is considerable evidence, however, that sick children, including some who were seriously ill with scrofula and tuberculosis, were admitted to the boarding schools at Chipewyan and Resolution.35 Many of the other children who were sent to these schools also were in need of special care. Territorial government directives stipulated that priority, be given in assigning the few non-Indian (Inuit, Métis and white) boarding places to "orphan, destitute or neglected” children. 36Territorial residential school admission policies were similar to those which had been set by DIA for status Indian children. According to a 1922 DIA memorandum, the following admission criteria were in effect for schools in the Mackenzie District and northeastern Alberta:

Principals of residential schools have been, instructed, when recruiting pupils, to give preference to orphan and destitute children of school age [seven to fifteen]. This class of children, to a large extent, comprises the grant earning pupils at these institutions.37

When the above conditions and requirements are taken into account together with the fact that most Indian children spoke neither English nor French on coming to school, the difficulties faced by the sisters In nurturing the children become apparent. Problems of communication between them and the boarders were further exacerbated by the fact that many sisters spoke no English upon coming North. They were not subsequently given time to learn English well, nor were they, encouraged, as the Oblates were, to study Indian languages. Under such Circumstances it is little wonder, as a former student put it, the "tough times" the sisters faced caused some to become "mad with themselves" and "to take it out on US.”38 Many other informants have positive comments about. Their time in school, including this woman who attended Holy Angels in the 1920s:

The more and more I think of it--the more I realize how good the sisters were and how much they helped us. They left their home country to come to poor Fort Chipewyan where there was nothing and they did their best for us.39

Unlike some southern Indian residential schools which provided academic instruction on a half-day basis, the schools at Chipewyan and Resolution held classes in the morning and afternoon. The curriculum consisted of the three Rs which were initially taught in French, then in French and English, and finally mostly in English. As the average time in school was about four years for boys and about five for girls,40 very few children reached grade six. For example, Indian enrolment figures for 5t. Joseph's from 1906 to 1939 indicate that only three per cent of the children registered reached the sixth grade.41 Fort Chipewyan's grade level registrations were similar to those at Resolution.42 As the following excerpts from interviews of two former pupils from Holy Angels suggest, however, not a few believed that a knowledge of basic skills was all that was needed:

My first language was French and Cree. Both my parents went to school, the same place, Holy Angels [where] I learned what I know today. The subject in them days, was about the same as now, different subjects, geography, arithmetic, religion, everything. [School] used to be from 9 to 12 and 1 to 3. My school work was helpful to me after I left school. I had to bring up my kids in the bush, so I had to teach my kids [by correspondence] and now they have good jobs over that.43

I was going on 10 years when I went to school, and stayed for five and half years only. Grade 5 when I quit school. I didn't finish my English grammar or French grammar. I liked it [the school] very much, fond memories of the convent. We were lucky to be there, because now I can read a little French and English.44

Classroom discipline was strict. Prizes were distributed to recognize accomplishments, and punishments, including such penalties as kneeling out, standing in the corner, wearing a hat for looking at members of the opposite sex, and withdrawal of yard privileges were among the methods used to maintain order. In general, however, the work of the teaching sisters was judged to be fair and effective. Territorial and Indian Affairs inspectors and other school visitors invariably praised the sisters' teaching skills, and the testimony of most former students is similarly appreciative. Classroom exercises and related out-of-school excursions, according to the students, were the best part of their time in residence.

The children were taught catechism in the Chipewyan language at St. Joseph's and in Cree and Chipewyan at Holy Angels in the 1920s.45 They used Native hymnals and prayer books in church and, to the end of the 1930s at least, were allowed to speak their languages in the school yard and in other non-classroom contexts. In the 1940s, however, English became the language of instruction for all subjects, including catechism. By this time Native language use was restricted in other ways as well. According to the Department of Indian Affairs Programme of Studies in effect in 1945, teachers in places like Fort Resolution were "to insist on English even during supervised play.”46

Until this time, the religious, child care and basic skill programmes at Chipewyan and Resolution were largely compatible with the tenets of the Native-wilderness equation. Although Indian Affairs 'reports on the schools indicated that a range of Native skills were taught, including preparing bannock and making moccasins,47 missionary accounts and the testimony of former students reveal that little of this was done, except by a few older girls. Most of the students' out-of-school tasks had to do with provisioning the school and mission: picking berries, snaring rabbits and attending to the woodpile.

In the 1930s, Bishop Breynat sought to change these academic and disciplinary orientations. In 1935, for example, he argued that the only way to prevent "Indian languages and Indian life ... from passing into oblivion would be to introduce Native languages in the Indian schools together with courses in syllabic characters.”48 The Bishop advanced a further element to his proposal when, four years later, he recommended that practical programmes involving bush skills and apprenticing on the land supervised by "special inspectors" be introduced in the schools to meet "the needs of northern children who [have] no future other than fishing and hunting.”49 His proposals fell on deaf ears, especially among depression conscious government officials who were preoccupied with the reduction of Native school subsidies. A determination by all levels of government to have Indian and Métis schools follow provincial courses of study ruled out any funding for Native-based curricula or programmes. This decision also served to accommodate white parents in places like Chipewyan who wanted their children schooled according to provincial standards.

Breynat was not surprised with government indifference to his Native oriented schooling proposals. He was deeply troubled, however, with a willingness on the part of some Oblate colleagues in southern residential schools to accept provincial courses of study.50 In fact, he found the efforts of his confreres “À réclamer tous les droits de nos Indiens, à les protéger contre l'invasion des blancs, et à les réhabiliter sous tous les rapports: hygiénique, éconornique, social, éducationel" to have been so ineffectual, if not negligent, that he resigned from the Oblate Indian Welfare and Training Commission in 1940.51

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