Residential Schools

In 1909, Principal Charlebois, of the Duck Lake/St. Michael's Residential School received permission to send students from the school to work in the homes of local white families. The students were supposed to be well treated and not over worked with their wages being saved by the school. In practice, only girls were sent into service. The Department hoped that these girls would be married to "reliable ex-pupils or other Indians on the Reserve." No money was given to the school in receipt of the girls' labor. The parents complained about the situation as they were sending their children to be educated, not to work for white people. As a result of these complaints and at the behest of the Duck Lake Indian Agent, the program was discontinued by the Department.

In 1895, the One Arrow Band requested that their children be sent to the Duck Lake/St. Michael's Boarding School. Previously, the One Arrow Band refused to send their children to any boarding schools. However, they had been warned by the local Indian Agent that if they didn't send their children to any school they would be taken by force and sent wherever the Department wished.

A former student at All Saints School, Shirley Bear, recalled being abused by the vice principal. Shirley's brother had recently run away from the school, and she was accused of saying in Cree that she was also going to run away if her brother did not return. Mr. Mayo, the vice principal, believed her to be lying and so he hit her on the back, arms, and legs. Bear described this as "the worst strapping of [her] whole life." She was not beaten because Mr. Mayo wanted her to speak Cree, but because he believed she was lying when she said she could not speak the language. Mr. Mayo is quoted by Shirley Bear as saying, "Don't be stupid, all Indians speak Cree". Shirley recalls having feelings of confusion because she constantly saw children being beater for speaking in Cree, and when she admitted to not being able to speak the language, she was beaten for only being able to speak English. She also recalled how under Mr. Mayo, bullying and fighting amongst students was common. Staff did not protect students from the authorities, nor did they protect them from other students.

Sam Bear, a 17 year old grade 8 student at File Hills School in 1926, was caught stealing a mouthful of beans from the kitchen. As punishment, Sam was forced to eat nothing but beans at a table setup just for him in the middle of the dinning room in front of his fellow students. When Sam refused to eat anymore beans the matron held his mouth open and "shoved in the beans." This punishment went on for about a month.

In June of 1981 at Muscowequan Residential School, 5 or 6 girls between the ages of 8 and 10 attempted suicide by hanging. Earlier in the year, a 15 year old died by suicide.

In the Muscowequan Indian Residential School it was common practice for staff to punish children who had urinated in their bed by draping the soiled sheet over the child’s head and requiring them to stand in front of their peers, often for an hour or more. Children were also made to scrub toilets as punishment for flatulence. Ears and hair were pulled continuously to reprimand students for speaking their Indigenous languages. Students who had the darkest skin were made to scrub themselves with a floor brush in an attempt to make their skin less dark. During Easter, one student recalls being made to kneel in prayer for hours at a time, from 6:00am going straight through to 11:00am, during which time many of the children would faint. Girls who were caught running away had their heads shaved and were forced to work in the kitchen, an area highly visible to students.

In January of 1935, 3 boys ran away from the Round Lake Residential School and attempted to return home to the Ochapowace Reserve. Glen Gaddie and Alec Wasacase made it to their homes safely while Percy Ochapowace got lost in a blizzard and froze to death as the temperature was below 25 degrees (F).

            Running away was a consistent response to the frequent pattern of abuse within the Residential School system. According to the testimony of one survivor, Joe Kapoeze, his experience at school consisted of watching over the children as they tended to farm work such as milking cows. Kapoeze recalled, "As I got bigger, I got another job and this time I watched over the kids. I used to watch the school children and wasn’t really being teached in school and that’s why I don’t know anything. I was always working and if I’m not doing anything, they would teach us about religious things, so I didn’t really learn anything at all.” Due to this, Joe felt it would be better to run away home where he knew he would learn more and be treated better.

During her time at Gordon Indian Residence from 1959-1964, Geraldine Sanderson recalls that "every once in a while students would run away." Geraldine recalls that travelling from James Smith Reserve to the Gordon Residence required over three hours by bus. Because of the distance, runaways students rarely made it home before being apprehended and punished. Punishment varied according to gender. For example, she recalls one boy being forced to remove his pants in front of students, after which he received 10-15 lashes from the principal with a leather strap. Girls often had their heads shaved.

In 1947, the Lac La Ronge Mission Indian Residential School burnt down in a fire that was reportedly caused by some of the students. Supposedly the students started the fire in an attempt to destroy the school so that they would be either sent home or able to runaway. The school, which had previously burnt down in 1920 and been rebuilt, was moved to Prince Albert along with its students and renamed All Saints School - Lac La Ronge.