INTEGRATING THE EAGLES: MEMBERS OF DOKIS FIRST NATION REFLECT ON PUBLIC EDUCATION IN ONTARIO, 1960-1980
KAITLYN BLACKLAWS
SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS IN HISTORY
NIPISSING UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES NORTH BAY, ONTARIO
© Kaitlyn Blacklaws July 2014
ABSTRACT
Between 1939 and 1945, thousands of Aboriginal Canadians enlisted for service in the Second
World War, left their loved ones, travelled overseas, and even lost their lives. No single reason exists for why these men and women chose to fight alongside Canadian soldiers, although each one received the same token of gratitude for their service; the loss of their “Indian status.”1 As a result of this type of governmental ingratitude, along with the poverty, homelessness, and residential school abuses that
Aboriginal peoples continued to face in postwar Canada, organizations such as the National Indian
Brotherhood developed to pressure the Canadian government to action. 2 Increasing postwar unrest, combined with the Canadian government’s signature on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, resulted in the creation of a Special Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons in 1946 to investigate potential changes to the Indian Act.3 The Committee recommended the closure of residential schools and amendments to the Indian Act in order to integrate Aboriginal peoples into Canadian society through provincial education in non-Aboriginal schools. 4 Using the stories of Aninshinaabeg from Dokis
First Nation and neighbouring communities in Northern Ontario, I argue the early integration of Aboriginal children into public schools was based on the same policies of assimilation as residential schools.5 By the 1970s and 1980s the experiences of some students improved, but under the integration scheme First
Nations education in Canada continued to be characterized by discrimination because of the decision making authority of Indian Affairs and the provincial government over local communities, the lack of cultural resources and training available to teachers, and the removal of children from Anishinaabe land into public schools that ignored their language, identity, and culture.
1 Robert Alexander Innes, “The Socio-Political Influence of the Second World War, Saskatchewan AboriginalVeterans, 1945-1960,” (MA thesis, University of Saskatchewan, 2000), 19. 2 “The League of Indians of Canada,” Library and Archives Canada, http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca /008/001/008001-5000-e.php?&e=1&brws=1&st=Aboriginal%20Documentary%20Heritage:%20 Historical%20Collections%20of%20the%20Canadian%20Government&ts_nbr=1&. 3 Innes, “The Socio-Political Influence of the Second World War,” 45. 4 Innes, “The Socio-Political Influence of the Second World War,”15; Helen Raptis, “Maintaining the Illusion of Democracy: Policy-Making and Aboriginal Education in Canada, 1946-1948,” Canadian Journal of Educational Administration and Policy 102 (2010): 7; Section 113 b, Indian Act, 1951. 5 Scholars who suggest that contemporary education of First Nations peoples has continued the residential school legacy of colonialism and assimilation include Marlene Brant Castellano, Lynne Davis and Louise Lahache, ed. Aboriginal Education: Fulfilling the Promise (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2000); John W. Friesen and Virginia Lyons Friesen, Aboriginal Education in Canada: A Plea for Integration (Calgary: Detselig Enterprises, 2002); J. R. Miller, Lethal Legacy: Current Native Controversies in Canada (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2004); Jerry Paquette and Gerald Fallon, ed., First Nations Education Policy in Canada: Progress or Gridlock? (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2010); and Jerry P. White, Julie Peters, Dan Beavon and Nicholas Spence, ed., Aboriginal Education: Current Crisis and Future Alternatives (Toronto: Thompson Educational Publishing, 2009). iv
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank the faculty and students at Nipissing University for supporting this project and for providing helpful suggestions throughout the research process. I am extremely grateful to Dr. Catherine Murton Stoehr and Dr. Katrina Srigley. Without your guidance and constant feedback this project could not have been completed. I would also like to thank the
Office of Aboriginal Initiatives for their patience and willingness to support me throughout my educational journey.
I would like to extend a special thank you to Chief Denise Restoule, Doug Dokis and
Sharon Goulais from Dokis First Nation for collaborating on this project, organizing community support, and providing guidance on how to complete this project in a good way. I would also like to extend a special thank you to the individuals who shared their stories of education.
Without your willingness to participate and guide me throughout this project it could not have been completed.
I would also like to thank my family and friends for their love and optimism. Your support has made this an enjoyable and enriching graduate experience.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION ...... 7
The Eagles on the River ...... 7
Personal Location ...... 9
A Note About Terminology……………………………………………………………………11
IMPLEMENTING INTEGRATION ...... 12
Aboriginal Protests and the Canadian Government’s Response ...... 12
Telling the Story of Aboriginal Education in Canada ...... 16
Integrating the Eagles…………………………………………………………………………26
Integration, 1960s to 1970s: The Impact of Racism on Identity…………………………..28
Integration, 1970s to 1980s: Land, Language, and Culture………………………..……..33
CONCLUSION………………………………………………………………………………………….41
Weaving the Strands…………………………………………………………………………..41
The Eagles in the Twenty-First Century…………………………………………………….46
Segregation or Integration?...... 50
BIBLIOGRAPHY……………………………………………………………..…………………………55
vi 7 INTRODUCTION
The Eagles on the River
The people from Dokis First Nation are Anishinaabe sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers, whose traditional territory is Dokis First
Nation on the French River in Northern Ontario.6 Their territory, roughly forty thousand acres between the Districts of Sudbury, Parry Sound and Nipissing, was secured under colonial law in 1850 when Michel d’Aigle Dokis signed the Robinson Huron Treaty.7 His signature guaranteed that the lands of Dokis First Nation were passed down to his descendants who are also known as the Eagles on the River.8 Nine of these individuals agreed to share their experiences with education between the 1960s and 1980s. While their stories are very different they all share a connection to Dokis First Nation’s land, community, and way of life, and the experience of leaving the community to attend integrated public schools. These individuals have also become accomplished professionals with careers spanning administrative positions in Dokis First Nation’s Band Office, to national organizations on Aboriginal education.
Also included in this project is Elder John Sawyer. Although he is not a member of Dokis First
Nation his experiences with integrated education in a neighbouring community share the same connection to land, community, and Anishinaabe identity as his relatives from Dokis. Out of respect for Dokis First Nation’s traditional lands, language, identity, and culture, I have chosen to incorporate their words into my telling of their history.
Over a period of three months I travelled from my home in Hockley Valley, in Southern
Ontario, to North Bay and Dokis First Nation to meet with ten individuals who agreed to welcome me into their homes and places of employment to share their stories of public education between the 1960s and 1980s. I met with Doug Dokis, Senior Advisor for Actua’s
National Aboriginal Outreach Program, on March 14, 2014 at his home in North Bay and heard
6 “Welcome to Dokis First Nation,” Dokis First Nation, www.dokisfirstnation.com. 7 James T. Angus, “MIGISI,” Dictionary of Canadian Biography 13 (University of Toronto, 1994), 4. 8 Michel d’Aigle Dokis’ Ojibwe name, Migisi, means “eagle” when translated to English, and therefore his descendants have become known as the “eagles on the river.” See, Eagles on the River, produced by Ray Pollard, 29 minutes, University of Guelph, 1977, 1 videocassette.
8 his story of attending public schools in Malton, Ontario during the 1960s and 1970s.9 The following month, Professors at Nipissing University introduced me to Norm Dokis. I had the opportunity to meet with Norm at the Ministry of Natural Resources, his place of employment, on April 16, 2014.10 Norm shared his experiences attending Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig, the elementary school located on Dokis territory since 1955.11 This school provided instruction from grades one to eight until the 1960s when the grades that the school offered were reduced from one to four.12 Norm also attended Monetville Public School, approximately a half-hour drive from Dokis First Nation, and Northern Secondary School in Sturgeon Falls, approximately an hour and a half drive from Dokis First Nation.13 I met with Norm’s brother, Clayton Dokis, on
May 22, 2014 at Dokis First Nation’s band office. Clayton, the Project Manager for Eco- tourism/Non-timber Forest Products also shared his experiences attending Kikendawt
Kinoomaadii Gamig, Monetville Public School, French River District Secondary School in
Noelville, approximately a forty-five minute drive from Dokis First Nation, and Northern
Secondary School.14
On June 3, 2014, Dokis First Nation’s Education Administrator invited me to the band office to complete six additional interviews. In the morning I met with Art Restoule, an employee of Dokis First Nation who is currently involved in a hydro dam project, and heard his experiences attending Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig, French River District Secondary School, and high schools in North Bay.15 I then met with Jason Restoule, employed by Dokis First
Nation in their public library, and heard his story of education in Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig,
9 Actua is a charity that includes a National Aboriginal Outreach Program that provides community-based science, engineering and technology camps for Aboriginal youth. See, “National Aboriginal Outreach Program,” Actua, www.actua.ca/aboriginal/; Interview with Doug Dokis, March 14, 2014. 10 Interview with Norm Dokis, April 16, 2014. 11 This is the year that the Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig building was constructed. As early as 1918 students from Dokis First Nation were educated in the summer school at the Dokis Church and year round in the Community Hall after 1928. A new building was constructed in 1995, which is now where Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig is located. This building was updated again in 1995. See, “Education Services,” Dokis First Nation, www. dokisfirstnation.com. 12 According to Dokis First Nation’s Education Administrator, the grades offered at Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig have changed periodically depending on the number of students in the community each year. See, Education Administrator, e-mail message to author, July 14, 2014. 13 Norm Dokis provided this information on the travel time from Dokis First Nation to Sturgeon Falls by bus. See, Norm Dokis, Interview. 14 Clayton Dokis provided this information on the travel time from Dokis First Nation to Noelville by bus. See, Interview with Clayton Dokis, May 22, 2014. 15 Interview with Art Dokis, June 3, 2014.
9 Monetville Public School, and Northern Secondary School.16 Later that day, I met with Thomas
Johnson, Sarah Turner, Alice Stone, and Mary Black. They all shared their experiences at
Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig and Monetville Public School.17 Thomas and Mary also attended French River District Secondary School in Noelville, like Norm, Clayton, and Art, but transferred when the school adopted French curriculum in the late 1970s.18 While Thomas chose to attend Northern Secondary School after the transition in Noelville, the same school that Sarah attended after graduating from Monetville Public School, Alice and Mary chose to attend high schools in North Bay.19 Mary, who boarded in North Bay, eventually transferred to high schools in Sudbury but quit school because of the difficulties she faced boarding with strangers and living away from Dokis First Nation.20
While this project is based on the experiences of individuals from Dokis First Nation, I have been fortunate enough to have the support of John Sawyer, an Anishinaabe elder from a neighbouring community in Northern Ontario. I met with John on April 7, 2014 at the Office of
Aboriginal Initiatives in Nipissing University and listened to his experiences attending elementary and secondary schools in North Bay.21 Following this meeting John invited me to his home and informally shared his thoughts on the purpose of education, specifically holistic education, and its ability to form individuals, teach them how to be good people, help them to overcome loss, and develop a pride in their cultural identity.
Personal Location
Anishinaabe peoples often identify themselves by their name, where they are from, and who their family is.22 My name is Kaitlyn Blacklaws and I come from a small town in Southern
Ontario called Hockley Valley. I am a settler Canadian of Scottish and Irish descent and have been fortunate to attend Nipissing University, situated on the traditional territory of Nipissing
16 Interview with Jason Restoule, June 3, 2014. 17 Interview with Thomas Johnson, June 3, 2014; Interview with Sarah Turner, June 3, 2014; Interview with Alice Stone, June 3, 2014; Interview with Mary Black, June 3, 2014. 18 Johnson, Interview; Black, Interview. 19 Johnson, Interview; Turner, Interview; Stone, Interview; Black, Interview. 20 Black, Interview. 21 Interview with John Sawyer, April 7, 2014. 22 Doug Dokis, Interview.
10 First Nation. My educational experiences have been characterized by social privilege. As such, I have become interested in the experiences of individuals who have struggled for recognition within Ontario’s public education system. Due to the experiences that I have had completing my studies on Anishinaabe territory, working in the Office of Aboriginal Initiatives, and teaching at Nbisiing Secondary School, I decided to pursue a project that could express my gratitude to those individuals who have allowed my educational goals to become a reality, and work towards strengthening cross-cultural conversations on education.
While I acknowledge that I am a product of an educational system rooted in Euro- centrism, oppression, racism, and intolerance, I hope that this project will illuminate the rich and meaningful knowledge that comes from forming respectful relationships and engaging in cross- cultural dialogue.23 This research is based on the experiences of individuals that I have come to know and is intended to be part of a larger conversation about Aboriginal education that encourages collaboration between band councils and community members, and the provincial and federal governments.24 However, it is important to note that given the time constraints of
23 Scholars who suggest that public education is Eurocentric and has, therefore, discriminated against and excluded other ethnic groups and their ways of knowing include, Marie Battiste, “Naturalizing Indigenous Knowledge in Eurocentric Education,” Canadian Journal of Native Education 32 (2009), Reclaiming Indigenous Voice and Vision (Vancouver: UBC Press, 2000), Protecting Indigenous Knowledge and Heritage: A Global Challenge (Saskatoon: Purich Publishing, 2000), and Decolonizing Education: Nourishing the Learning Spirit (Saskatoon: Purich Publishing, 2013); Rebecca Chartrand, “Anishinaabe Pedagogy,” Canadian Journal of Native Education 35 (2012); Yatta Kanu, “Teacher’s Perceptions of the Integration of Aboriginal Culture into the High School Curriculum,” The Alberta Journal of Educational Research 51 (2005); Verna St. Denis, “Silencing Aboriginal Curricular Content and Perspectives Through Multiculturalism: ‘There Are Other Children Here’,” The Review of Education, Pedagogy, and Cultural Studies 33 (2011); Erica Neeganagwedgin, “A Critical Review of Aboriginal Education in Canada: Eurocentric Dominance, Impact, and Everyday Denial,” International Journal of Inclusive Education 17 (2013); Bernard Shissel and Terry Wotherspoon, The Legacy of School for Aboriginal People: Education, Oppression, and Emancipation (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003); and Michael Marker, “After the Makah Whale Hunt: Indigenous Knowledge and Limits to Multicultural Discourse,” Urban Education 41 (2006) and “ ‘It was Two Different Times of the Day, But in the Same Place:’ Coast Salish High School Experiences in the 1970s,” BC Studies 144 (2005). 24 Scholars who have advocated for local control, or shared authority of Aboriginal education in Canada include, Brenda Tsioniaon LaFrance, “Culturally Negotiated Education in First Nations Communities: Empowering Ourselves for Future Generations,” in Castellano, Davis, and Lahache, ed., Aboriginal Education, 101-113; Sadie Donovan, “Challenges to and Successes of Urban Aboriginal Education in Canada: A Case Study of Wiingashk Secondary School,” in Heather A. Howard and Craig Proulx, ed. Aboriginal Peoples in Canadian Cities: Transformations and Continuities (Waterloo: Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2011); John Long, “Times are Changing: Options for the Transfer & Control of Secondary Off-Reserve & Post-Secondary Programs to First Nations” (1994), and “Making Native-Language Policy in Ontario in the 1980s,” Historical Studies in Education 18 (2006); Ron Common and Lorraine Frost, Teaching Wigwams: A Modern Vision of Native Education (Muncey: Anishinaabe Kendaaswin Publishing, 1994); Friesen and Friesen, Aboriginal Education in Canada; Verna Kirkness, “Aboriginal Education in Canada: A Retrospective and a Prospective,” Journal of American Indian Education 39 (1999); Paquette and Fallon, ed., First Nations Education Policy in Canada; David Bell, Sharing our Success: Ten Case Studies in Aboriginal Schooling (Kelowna: Society for the Advancement of Excellence in Education, 2004); George Taylor Fulford, Sharing our Success: More Case Studies in Aboriginal Schooling: Band-Operated Schools, A Companion Report
11 this project there were some obstacles to building relationships. I was unable to attend community events that I had hoped to participate in, such as the Dokis pow wow, and was unable to speak with more than ten individuals because of time limitations and the length of this project. While inevitable, these kinds of limitations constrain our ability to represent one another with words and texts. It is my hope that what I offer here is worthy of the time and trust that my Dokis partners shared with me.
The stories that I was fortunate enough to hear demonstrate the ways in which public education has both marginalized and benefited First Nations peoples in Northern Ontario. It is important to note, however, that all of the participants attended public schools between the
1960s and 1980s and many of these individuals are employed in Dokis First Nation’s Band
Office. This means that this research is representative of individual experiences during a certain time period and is not representative of all of Dokis First Nation, or all First Nations peoples in Ontario. However, the experiences shared by members of Dokis First Nation, while similar in some ways, are very different in others. By acknowledging the diverse experiences of individuals from Dokis First Nation, the history of First Nations education can be shared in a way that has the potential to create positive change in the future, without forgetting the hardships of the past.
A Note about Terminology
Throughout this report I will use various terms to refer to the original inhabitants of this country. When referring to education on a large scale, particularly throughout Canada, I use the term Aboriginal and First Nations interchangeably. When referring specifically to members of Dokis First Nation I use the term Anishinaabe as a way to acknowledge their shared traditional language, Anishinaabemowin, and to express their Ojibwe culture. Some scholars have suggested that terms such as “Aboriginal” are representative of Eurocentric, Western modes of classification that dehumanize the individuals that they refer to.25 I fully agree with
(Kelowna: Society for the Advancement of Excellence in Education, 2007); and White, Peters, Beavon, and Spense, ed., Aboriginal Education. 25 Andrew Snowball, “Aboriginal Education for Non-Aboriginal Students” (MA thesis, 2009), 2.
12 this statement and that is why I have chosen to use the term Anishinaabe when referring to members of Dokis First Nation, since it is the term that they use to describe themselves. I use the terms Aboriginal and First Nations interchangeably to be inclusive of the original inhabitants of this country who may not identify as Odawa, Ojibwe, or Potawatomi, while also recognizing that these terms are not representative of the identities, languages, and cultures of those individuals.26 Although this research is dedicated primarily to Anishinaabe individuals from
Dokis First Nation who have generously shared their stories, I hope that using the terms
Aboriginal and First Nations will make this project accessible to a Western, non-Aboriginal audience, who needs to be aware of the realities of Aboriginal education in Ontario.27
IMPLEMENTING INTEGRATION
Aboriginal Protests and the Canadian Government’s Response
Aboriginal veterans groups were instrumental in establishing the Special Joint
Committee of the Senate and House of Commons in 1946.28 Helen Raptis, Faculty of
Education at the University of Victoria, has studied the Special Joint Committee (SJC) as the moment that educational integration, which separated Aboriginal children from their home communities, was officially sanctioned.29 Raptis’ discussion of the SJC shows that Aboriginal groups from across the country organized presentations on topics including treaty rights, band membership, and most importantly for this study, Indian Day Schools and residential schools.30
Although only eight percent of the briefs presented by Aboriginal groups to the SJC were in favour of closing residential schools and integrating Aboriginal students into public schools away from their home communities, Louis St. Laurent’s Liberal government and Canada’s
Indian Affairs Branch arbitrarily began encouraging educational integration on a countrywide
26 Chartrand, “Anishinaabe Pedagogy,” 146. 27 The Report on the Royal Commission of Aboriginal Peoples supports the use of Aboriginal “when describing in a general manner the Inuit, and First Nations (Indians), and Metis people, without regard to their separate origins and identities.” See, “A Note on Terminology: Inuit, Metis, First Nations, and Aboriginal,” Inuit Tapiriit Kanatami, www.itk.ca/note-terminology-inuit-metis-first-nations-and-aboriginal. 28 According to Robert Alexander Innes, fourteen Aboriginal organizations were created across Canada as a result of veterans’ protests regarding the “deplorable conditions” that continued to affect Aboriginal peoples in Canada after the tragedy of the Holocaust and the Second World War. See, “The Socio-Political Influence of the Second World War, 16-18. 29 Raptis, “Maintaining the Illusion of Democracy,” 8, 1. 30 Raptis, “Maintaining the Illusion of Democracy, 7.
13 scale before the 1951 amendments to the Indian Act came into effect.31 As early as 1949, the
Canada Department of Mines and Resources Report of Indian Affairs Branch For the Fiscal
Year Ended March 31, 1949 reported “a start was made towards increasing the number of
Indian children attending white schools through the co-operation of Provincial departments of education and by arrangement with local school boards.”32 Although integration was included in the 1949 report, it was not officially sanctioned until 1951 amendments to the Indian Act that allowed “on-reserve Aboriginal learners to be integrated into provincially-administered public or independent schools.”33
While early reports suggested that the integration of Aboriginal children was a necessary, and commonly practiced initiative, it was not until the 1952 report that the Indian
Affairs Branch espoused this initiative based on official policy.34 The Canada Department of
Citizenship and Immigration Report of Idnian Affairs Branch For the Fiscal Year Ended March
31, 1952 report outlined the “new Indian Act” that was passed on September 4, 1951, and suggested that these amendments made possible “a new record, with a total of 27, 955 Indian pupils enrolled, and 1, 202 of these attending high schools or universities.”35 The positive language used by the Indian Affairs Branch to show the record-setting progress of Aboriginal education within Canada was continued throughout reports during the 1950s.36 Subsequent
Indian Affairs reports throughout the 1960s and 1970s continued this trend of suggesting that
31 Raptis, “Maintaining the Illusion of Democracy,” 13. 32 Indian Affairs Branch, Canada Department of Mines and Resources Report of Indian Affairs Branch For The Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 1949 (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1949) 189-190. 33 Section 113b Indian Act, 1951; Raptis, “Maintaining the Illusion of Democracy,” 2. 34 Reports from the Indian Affairs Branch that suggested integration was becoming more common and claimed that it would be successful in enhancing the lives of Aboriginal students include, Indian Affairs Branch, Canada Department of Mines and Resources Report of Indian Affairs Branch For the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 1948 (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1948), 217-218, Indian Affairs Branch, Canada Department of Mines and Resources 1949, 199-200, and Indian Affairs Branch, Canada Department of Citizenship and Immigration Report of Indian Affairs Branch For the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 1950, (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1950), 68-69. 35 Indian Affairs Branch, Canada Department of Citizenship and Immigration Report of Indian Affairs Branch For the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 1952 (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1952), 42. 36 As an example, the 1957 report stated that “the number of Indian children attending non-Indian schools under group agreements, tuition grants, or other means continues to rise from year to year, with nearly 17 per cent of all Indian school children now receiving their education in non-Indian schools,” and that during the 1957 school year, a total of “6, 272 Indian children attended non-Indian schools.” According to the same report, “many of the teachers in Indian schools have received special in-service training in the interpretation and use of special techniques, and there now exists a greater understanding of the aims of Indian education in Canada.” See, Indian Affairs Branch, Report of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration Report of Indian Affairs Branch For the Fiscal Year Ended 1956-57 (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1957), 61.
14 Canadian education was meeting the needs of Aboriginal learners through the use of phrases like “gained momentum,” and “continued expansion” when referring to the integration initiative in Canada.37
Although, according to the Indian Affairs Branch “seasonal work of the parents” of
Aboriginal children often led to absenteeism, the integration of Aboriginal students into provincial schools was increasing in the 1950s and 1960s, which proved the policy’s success from the perspective of the Canadian government.38 By 1970, “over 4,000 students were accommodated in private boarding homes” in Canadian cities because they had to leave their home community to attend the nearest public school.39 In subsequent years the Indian Affairs
Branch moved away from statistics on elementary and secondary education and began emphasizing the success of integration by focusing on post-secondary achievements. In the
1977 report, for example, the Department stated that “there were 3,577 Indian students attending university and affiliated training colleges,” and that “Indian post school vocational enrolment now stands at 6,170, an increase of 1,058 over last year.”40 These examples of success from the Indian Affairs Branch, combined with over 5,000 more “Indian students” enrolled in provincial schools than federal schools, were likely highlighted as a way to overshadow the recommendations from Aboriginal groups to the SJC that children should not continue to be separated from their families.41
On December 21, 1972 the National Indian Brotherhood presented a policy paper entitled Indian Control of Indian Education to the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern
Development in order to address the failure of both residential schools and integrated education in Canada, and to demand the transfer of Aboriginal education to local Aboriginal
37 Indian Affairs Branch, Canada Department of Citizenship and Immigration Report of Indian Affairs Branch For the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 1960 (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1960), 61; Indian Affairs Branch, Canada Department of Citizenship and Immigration Report of Indian Affairs Branch For the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 1961 (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1961), 85. 38 Indian Affairs Branch, Canada Department of Citizenship and Immigration Report of Indian Affairs Branch For the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 1962 (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1962), 29. 39 Indian Affairs Branch, Annual Report 1969-1970 Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1970), 128. 40 Indian Affairs Branch, 1976-1977 Annual Report Indian and Northern Affairs (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1977), 29. 41 Raptis, “Maintaining the Illusion of Democracy,” 8.
15 communities and band councils.42 After this presentation the Indian Affairs Branch claimed to support the transfer of educational control to local authorities in Aboriginal communities.
However, their reports referenced Indian Control of Indian Education directly preceding, or following successful statistics on integration, without acknowledging how integration disrupted
First Nations peoples’ oversight of schools.43 This suggests that the Indian Affairs Branch did not actually support any initiative other than integration.
By 1980, the educational objectives of the Indian Affairs Branch changed to support
“Indians and Inuit in having access to educational programs and services that are responsive to their needs and aspirations,” and “support the Indian and Inuit peoples in preserving, developing, and expressing their cultural identity, with emphasis on their native languages.”44
These objectives, although not expressed in the 1970s reports, were supported by a series of
Resource Guides that the Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development released in collaboration with the Ontario Ministry of Education in 1975, 1977, and 1981.45 While these documents provided Aboriginal resources for teachers to use in their classrooms, some scholars have suggested that non-Aboriginal teachers continue to be unwilling to incorporate cultural content into their lessons that they are unfamiliar with, or only include this content in superficial ways.46 Furthermore, incorporating Aboriginal content into a mainstream academic subject continues to relegate Aboriginal culture to an inferior position in Canadian society by
42 National Indian Brotherhood, Indian Control of Indian Education (Ottawa: Assembly of First Nations, 1972), 7. 43 An example of this can be found in an Indian Affairs report where a discussion of the National Indian Brotherhood’s policy of local control is directly followed by the suggestion that “cultural enrichment programs,” which “are now offered in about 200 federal and 50 provincial schools,” should continue to be introduced by the provinces. See, Indian Affairs Branch, 1976-1977 Annual Report, 29-30. 44 Indian Affairs Branch, Annual Report 1980-1981 Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1981), 22. 45 These guides provided teachers with historical and cultural information on Aboriginal peoples, as well as teaching resources such as films, books, songs and articles written by, and for, Aboriginal peoples that could be added into curriculum subjects to appeal to Aboriginal learners. See, Ontario Ministry of Education, People of Native Ancestry: A Resource Guide for the Primary and Junior Divisions (1975), People of Native Ancestry: A Resource Guide for the Intermediate Division (1977), and People of Native Ancestry: Curriculum Guideline for the Senior Division (1981). 46 Yatta Kanu observed and interviewed high school teachers on the topic of integration and concluded that by simply adding discussions of Aboriginal peoples into classroom subjects teachers “unwittingly contributed to this process of assimilation by allowing the curriculum topics, not Aboriginal issues/ perspectives, to remain at the center of their teaching.” See, Kanu, “Teachers’ Perceptions of the Integration of Aboriginal Culture,”56; Verna St. Denis furthers Kanu’s research suggesting that “multiculturalism in schools makes it possible for non-Aboriginal teachers and schools to trivialize Aboriginal content and perspectives, and at the same time believe that they are becoming more inclusive and respectful.” St. Denis, “Silencing Aboriginal Curricular Content,” 313,
16 simply including brief discussions of Aboriginal peoples rather than creating curriculum that deals explicitly with cultural perspectives that can be found in Aboriginal literature, language, politics, health, social issues, and so on.47 Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal scholars have begun to acknowledge the historic mistreatment of Aboriginal peoples and dedicated their research to examining the colonial past, acknowledging the colonial present, and working towards a postcolonial future.48
Telling the Story of Aboriginal Education in Canada
Scholars in Canada have been attempting to write Anishinaabe histories that do not justify or affirm colonialism. Anthropologists have researched the beliefs, practices, and behaviours of Anishinaabe peoples for centuries and historians like Cary Miller, Associate
Professor at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, have begun to use their research in order to show the effects of colonialism on Anishinaabe ways of life in contemporary society.49 In
Ogimaag: Anishinaabeg Leadership, 1760-1845, Miller provides an outline of Anishinaabe ways of knowing founded in mino-bimaadiziwin which can be defined as “the concept of balancing the four elements of health: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual,” for “holistic health,” or the good life.50 For Miller, the way that the Anishinaabeg seek to obtain mino- bimaadiziwin is through social relationships with all beings including the manidoog, or the
47 Marie Battiste argues this kind of teaching that simply adds Aboriginal peoples into classroom studies as content, and Canada’s education systems more generally, are part of “cognitive imperialism” which “denies Indigenous peoples access to and participation in the formulation of educational policy, constrains the use and development of Indigenous knowledge and heritage in schools, and confines education to a narrow positivistic scientific view of the world that threatens the global future.” See, Battiste, Protecting Indigenous Knowledge, 86, 48 Some scholars who have acknowledged that colonialism continues to exist in North America include, Shelagh Rogers, Mike Degagne and Johnathan Dewar, ed., Speaking My Truth: Reflections on Reconciliation & Residential School (Winnipeg: Hignell Book Printing, 2012); Castellano, Davis and Lahache, ed., Aboriginal Education in Canada; Friesen and Friesen, Aboriginal Education in Canada; Kirkness, “Aboriginal Education in Canada;” Scott Lauria Morgensen, “Destabilising the Settler Academy: The Decolonial Effect of Indigenous Methodologies,” American Quarterly 64 (2012), Erica Neeganagwedgin, “A Critical Review of Aboriginal Education in Canada: Eurocentric Dominance, Impact, and Everyday Denial,” International Journal of Inclusive Education (2013), J.R. Miller, Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens: A History of Indian-White Relations in Canada, (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1989), Shingwauk’s Vision: A History of Native Residential Schools (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1996), and Lethal Legacy (2004). 49Anthropologists who have conducted research on Anishinaabe beliefs, practices, and behaviours, include William Warren, History of the Ojibways, Based Upon Traditions and Oral Statements (St. Paul: Minnesota Historical Society, 1885), Paul Radin, “Religion of the North American Indians,” The Journal of American Folklore 27 (1914), and Alfred Irving Hallowell, “Ojibwa Ontology, Behaviour and World View,” in Culture and History (New York: Columbia University, 1960). 50 Cary Miller, Ogimaag: Anishinaabeg Leadership , 1760 to 1845 (Nebraska: University of Nebraska, 2010), 25; “Mino Bimaadiziwin: Innovation Award for Healthy Living,” Government of Manitoba, http://www.gov.mb.ca/ healthyliving/hlp/docs/MinoB_Application.pdf.
17 spirits that reside in parts of creation, whether animate or inanimate according to a Western scientific classification.51 As such, Miller points out that the familial structures, social codes, and hierarchies of power that exist within Western epistemology do not apply to the
Anishinaabeg, even going so far as to suggest “a complete inversion of the sense of human domination over the natural world presented in Western religion and philosophy.”52 When considering how Anishinaabe children have been taught in Ontario public schools, this inversion is important. Western education favours Eurocentric knowledge and methods of socialization over First Nations’ ways of knowing and being.
According to educational scholars one of the primary functions of the Western education system is socialization, whereby “the school system decides what knowledge to formally pass along by determining what is to be taught and which values are to be stressed.”53
Educational scholars and sociologists suggest that the knowledge that is deemed important by the dominant society, including specific constructions of gender, race, and class, is conveyed to students through the “hidden curriculum.”54 The “hidden curriculum” includes the concepts that students learn in school that are not explicitly written into the curriculum objectives, particularly
“unspoken norms and rules” that must be mastered by students in order to be considered successful.55 Since Canadian public education is developed mono-culturally, the hidden curriculum provides students with Eurocentric ideas of race, gender, and class through textbook images and text and, more importantly, through interactions with teachers, administrators and peers.56
51 Often defined in English as “spirit,” manidoog are defined by Anishinaabeg elder Basil Johnston as “spiritual, mystical, supernatural, godlike, or spiritlike, quiddity, essence,” and are beings that are considered to be animate, capable of giving blessings to eliminate illness or starvation, and are part of kinship networks, often being referred to as “grandmothers and grandfathers,” “brothers and sisters.” See, Basil Johnston in Miller, “Ogimaag,” 27-28. 52 Miller, Ogimaag, 23. 53 Scott Davies and Neil Guppy, The Schooled Society: An Introduction to the Sociology of Education (Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2010), 11. 54 Davies and Guppy, The Schooled Society, 2. 55 Jennifer Esposito, “Negotiating the Gaze and Learning the Hidden Curriculum: A Critical Race Analysis of the Embodiment of Female Students of Colour at a Predominantly White Institution,” Journal for Critical Education Policy Studies (2011): 144. 56 Esposito, “Negotiating the Gaze,” 144.
18 When mono-cultural administrators make determinations on curriculum in Ontario it results in institutional discrimination, which means that Anishinaabe ways of knowing and being are labeled inferior by exclusion. This exclusion has led many Aboriginal peoples and scholars to study Anishinaabe ways of knowing and being in regards to traditional versus formal education. Within Aboriginal History: A Reader published in 2012, Dennis H. McPherson and
J. Douglas Rabb’s chapter “Indigeneity in Canada: Spirituality, the Sacred, and Survival” provides examples of Ojibwe, and larger pan-Aboriginal values, that have explicit implications for First Nations education. Two of the most important values expressed by these authors are autonomy and non-interference. They state that “if you ask an Elder for advice you will never get a straight answer. You will often be told a story which seems to have nothing whatever to do with the question asked or the problem raised,” and suggest that this is a common practice that exemplifies the autonomy of individuals within First Nations communities.57 McPherson and Rabb also reference the British Columbia Ministry of Education’s Native Literacy and Life
Skills Curriculum Guidelines which suggests that “ ‘at the age of mobility’ the Native Indian child is ‘considered a person’ and is ‘free to explore his own environment’ whereas the non-Native ‘is watched and controlled by parents throughout childhood’,” to further support their claim that
First Nations peoples respect the journeys and experiences of each individual within his or her own life.58 For Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, Anishinaabe Professor at the University of
Manitoba, the journeys of the individual and the community are defined in Anishinaabe narratives that “exemplify how Anishinaabe relationships grow while continuing an inclusive sense of nationhood.”59 Lawrence Gross, Anishinaabe Professor of Race and Ethnic Studies at the University of Redlands, similarly suggests that “uniting past, present, and future…acknowledging the past to imagine a better future to work toward in the present,” is an integral part of Anishinaabe pedagogy that allows “individuals to fulfill one’s mission in life,” and
57 Dennis H. McPherson and J. Douglas Rabb, “Indigeneity in Canada: Spirituality, the Sacred and Survival,” in Kristin Burnett and Geoff Read, Aboriginal History: A Reader (Don Mills: Oxford University Press, 2012), 6. 58 McPherson and Rabb,”Indigeneity in Canada,” in Burnett and Read, Aboriginal History, 6. 59 Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair, “Ninndoodemag Bagijiganan: A History of Anishinaabeg Narrative,” (PhD diss., University of Saskatchewan, 2013): ii.
19 “direct their talents toward benefiting one’s family, community, and place.”60 Rebecca
Chartrand, Aboriginal Educator, also suggests that by using the traditional teachings of the
Anishinaabeg, including the original laws, the medicine wheel, clan system, and prophecy songs, education can be representative of not only Anishinaabee ways of knowing and being, but of holistic education that does not segregate the various aspects of being human and living in relationship to the world. 61
Similarly recognizing the need to transform colonial education in Canada and develop curriculum that is founded on Aboriginal worldviews, John W. Friesen and Virginia Lyons
Friesen’s Aboriginal Education in Canada: A Plea for Integration, includes a statement from
Chief of the Nakoda Sioux, John Snow, who said “of course I believe in integrated education.
Let the neighbouring communities bring their children onto our reserve and we’ll do our best to integrate them.”62 Friesen and Friesen, Faculty of Education at the University of Calgary, suggest that the federal government’s 1969 White Paper was a policy of “assimilation, not integration” and argue that “the new objective of integrating outsiders into Aboriginal ways of thinking and behaving,” characterized by “spirituality” and an “interconnectedness” of all beings, must be taken up “for everyone’s benefit and for the sake of the future.” 63 Most scholars of the
60 Lawrence W. Gross, “Some Elements of American Indian Pedagogy from an Anishinaabe Perspective [Abstract],” American Indian Culture and Research Journal 34 (2010). 61 Chartrand, “Anishinaabe Pedagogy,” 148-151; For more information on Anishinaabe pedagogy and Indigenous Methodologies that focus on Indigenous ways of teaching and learning and the importance of relationships, see Kathleen Elaine Abolson, “Kaandosswin, This is How We Come to Know! Indigenous Graduate Research in the Academy: Worldviews and Methodologies,” (PhD diss., University of Toronto, 2002); Kim Anderson, Life Stages and Native Women: Memory, Teaching and Story Medicine (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 2011); Jill Doerfler, Niigaanwewidam James Sinclar, and Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark, Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World Through Stories (Lansing: Michigan State University Press, 2013); Margaret Kovach, Indigenous Methodologies: Characteristics, Conversations and Contexts (Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2009); Lynn F. Lavelle, “Practical Application of an Indigenous Research Framework and Two Qualitative Indigenous Research Methods: Sharing Circles and Anishinaabe Symbol-Based Reflection,” International Journal of Qualitative Methods (2009); Deborah McGregor, “Traditional Ecological Knowledge: An Anishinaabe Woman’s Perspective, Atlantis 29.2 (2005); Morgensen, “Destabilizing the Settler Academy; David Newhouse, “Indigenous Knowledge in a Multicultural World,” Native Studies Review 15 (2004); Deborah Prior, “Decolonising Research: A Shift Towards Reconciliation,” Nursing Inquiry 14 (2007); Linda Tuhiwai Smith, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples (London: Zed Books, 2012); Shawn Wilson, Research is Ceremony (Halifax: Fernwood Publishing, 2008); and Lawrence W. Gross, “The Comic Vision of Anishinaabe Culture and Religion,” American Indian Quarterly 26 (2003), “Cultural Sovereignty and Native American Hermeneutics in the Interpretation of the Sacred Stories of the Anishinaabe,” Wicazo Sa Review 18 (2005), and “Teaching American Indian Studies to Reflect American Indian Ways of Knowing and to Interrupt Cycles of Genocide,” Wicazo Sa Review (2005). 62 Chief John Snow, These Mountains are Our Sacred Places: The Story of the Stoney Indians (Toronto: Samuel Stevens, 1977), in Friesen and Friesen, Aboriginal Education in Canada, 13. 63 Friesen and Friesen, Aboriginal Education in Canada, 13, 15.
20 twenty-first century support educational integration on terms identical to, or similar, to the ones expressed by Friesen and Friesen in order to transform Eurocentric public education and integrate a system of education that is premised on holistic education that incorporates physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual lessons into curriculum to encourage the development of the whole child. 64
Integrated education is not only the transitional point from residential to public schools, but also a philosophy of education with specific goals and assumptions on the purpose of education for Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in Canadian society. Helen Raptis is one scholar who has written extensively on the topic of integration as both an educational policy and philosophy.65 In “Maintaining the Illusion of Democracy: Policy-Making and Aboriginal
Education in Canada, 1946-1948,” Raptis examines the minutes and proceedings of the
Special Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons in 1946 to suggest that integration policies were encouraged by the Canadian government as a way to end the undemocratic segregation Aboriginal peoples experienced in residential schools.66 While the minutes and proceedings suggest that few Aboriginal peoples were in favour of integrated education, amendments to the Indian Act in 1951 legalized the aims of the policy.67 Raptis concludes:
Early initiatives consisted of little more than erecting or renovating schools into which Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal learners were installed, reflecting the belief of government officials at all levels—federal, provincial and local—that educational parity was to be achieved through equality of opportunity…and lend support to the contention that integration efforts were synonymous with the federal government’s earlier assimilationist schooling agenda.68
The failure of integration according to scholars like Raptis seems to stem from its failure to
64 For examples of educational integration that, like Friesen and Friesen’s, focus on including Aboriginal world views within education see, Common and Frost, Teaching Wigwams; Roger Neil, ed., Voice of the Drum: Indigenous Education and Culture (Toronto: Kingfisher Publications, 2000); Angela Ward and Rita Bouvier, Resting Lightly on Mother Earth: The Aboriginal Experience in Urban Educational Settings (Calgary: Detselig Enterprises, 2001). 65 Raptis, “Maintaining the Illusion of Democracy,” “Exploring the Factors Prompting British Columbia’s First Integration Initiative: The Case of Port Essington Indian Day School,” History of Education Quarterly 51 (2011), and “Implementing Integrated Education Policy for On-Reserve Aboriginal Children in British Columbia, 1951-1981,” Historical Studies in Education. 66 Raptis, “Maintaining the Illusion of Democracy,” 1. 67 Raptis, “Exploring the Factors Prompting British Columbia’s First Integration Initiative,” 519. 68 Raptis, “Implementing Integrated Education Policy,” 137.
21 meet the mandates of the National Indian Brotherhood’s policy document Indian Control of
Indian Education which, like Rebecca Chartrand’s “Anishinaabe Pedagogy,” demands an integration of ways of learning and teaching that is controlled by Anishinaabe peoples and centered on the personal development of students, rather than a Western, subject-centered approach that merely adds First Nations peoples into public schools and curriculum as content.69
The National Indian Brotherhood accurately claimed “integration in the past twenty years has simply meant the closing down of Indian schools and transferring Indian students to schools away from their Reserves.”70 Based on the Indian Affairs Branch reports from the
1960s to 1967 that show residential schools and reserve schools closing annually and being replaced by public schools, this is an accurate representation of the Canadian government’s understanding of integration.71 According to Indian Control of Indian Education, integration
“blends the best from the Indian and the non-Indian traditions” rather than expecting Aboriginal peoples to give up their language, identity, and culture to integrate into Euro-Canadian society.72 The Educational Philosophy of the Dokis Education Authority, the governing body for the education of students at Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig, similarly recognizes that the education “which we offer our children, must prepare them to live in our community while also
69 National Indian Brotherhood, Indian Control of Indian Education, 3; Chartrand, “Anishinaabe Pedagogy,” 158; Kanu, “Teachers’ Perceptions of the Integration of Aboriginal Culture,” 56. 70 National Indian Brotherhood, Indian Control of Indian Education, 25. 71 The 1965 to 1966 report was the only report between 1960 and 1967 that did not include an increase of provincial schools and the closure of federal schools. However, enrollment of Aboriginal students in provincial schools increased. See, Indian Affairs Branch, Canada Department of Citizenship and Immigration Report of Indian Affairs Branch For the Fiscal Year Ended 1965-1966 (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1966), 35; No report is available for 1968, and the 1970 report provides evidence that during the late 1960s some federal schools were forced to remain open because of the isolation of Aboriginal communities in Northern Ontario. However, this report also suggests that the attendance of Aboriginal students in provincial schools continued to increase. See, Indian Affairs Branch, Annual Report 1969-1970 Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1970), 126; Other reports show that residential schools were closing and public schools were being erected include Indian Affairs Branch, Canada Department of Citizenship and Immigration 1960, 62; Indian Affairs Branch, Canada Department of Citizenship and Immigration Report of Indian Affairs Branch For the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 1961 (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1961); 65-66; Indian Affairs Branch, Canada Department of Citizenship and Immigration 1962, 31; Indian Affairs Branch, Canada Department of Citizenship and Immigration Report of Indian Affairs Branch For the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 1963 (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1963), 23; Indian Affairs Branch, Report of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration 1963-1964 (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1964), 25; Indian Affairs Branch, Annual Report Fiscal Year 1966-67 Department of Indian Affairs And Northern Development (Ottawa: Indian Affairs Branch, 1967), 50. 72 National Indian Brotherhood, Indian Control of Indian Education, 25.
22 preparing them to live in the society at large.”73 Inherent within this educational philosophy, is the need to encourage students to develop not only academic skills, but also personal values including “generosity, wisdom, self-reliance and respect for the natural environment, native culture, spirituality.”74 The philosophy of the Dokis Education Authority espouses a form of holistic education, founded in Anishinaabe principles of intellectual, emotional, physical and spiritual health, as well as communal wellbeing.75
Individuals from Dokis First Nation have historically worked towards maintaining the wellbeing of all members of the community. In his article “How the Dokis Indians Protected
Their Timber,” James T. Angus, former Dean of Education at Lakehead University, outlines the historical resistance of the Dokis to surrendering their timber to the Department of Indian
Affairs.76 Angus discusses the founding of Dokis First Nation with Michel Dokis’ signature on the Robinson-Huron Treaty of 1850, and explains that by refraining from selling timber for thirty years the Dokis band was able to increase the price from the government’s initial proposal of one hundred dollars per annum, to fifty dollars per month, per member.77 The community used the money to increase infrastructure, building a road, church, school, band office, power line and fire hall, but as the finances began to decline the Dokis peoples discontinued individual payments in order to sustain community wealth. 78 In doing so, they ensured that even with
“the blend of European traditions and their own traditions” they could still maintain “their own identity and draw a feeling of being Indian from their roots in the land.”79 Similarly, William
Campbell’s The French and Pickerel Rivers: The History and Their People published in 1993, focuses on the “pristine river,” and “still wilderness” as a way to illuminate the important historical connection between the people of Dokis First Nation and their traditional lands.80
Wayne LeBelle’s 2006 publication entitled Dokis: Since Time Immemorial, adds to an
73 Dokis Education Authority, Mandate, Policies and Guidelines, (2003), 3. 74 Dokis Education Authority, 4. 75 Chartrand, “Anishinaabe Pedagogy,” 149. 76 James T. Angus, “How the Dokis Indians Protected Their Timber,” Ontario History No. 3 (September 1989): 181. 77 Angus, “How the Dokis Protected Their Timber,” 196. 78 Angus, “How the Dokis Protected Their Timber,” 195. 79 Eagles on the River, 1977. 80 William A. Campbell, The French and Pickerel Rivers: Their History and Their People (Sudbury: Journal Printing, 1993), 89.
23 understanding of education in Dokis First Nation that includes a historical timeline of the creation of the Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig, or the Dokis Education Building/ Dokis School.81
LeBelle outlines the colonial history of education in Dokis First Nation, from the Dokis Indian
Day School operated as a summer school within the Catholic Church in 1918, to the creation of a new school in 1995 that provided year round schooling for students from Junior Kindergarten to Grade Four.82 LeBelle also imagines the traumatic experience of attending secondary school in Sturgeon Falls or North Bay, which required a minimum two-hour travel and isolated children from their home community.83 LeBelle dedicates thirteen pages to the historical development of the Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig, a description of secondary education, and images of students and staff.84 My goal is to add to the understanding of education in Dokis
First Nation in a way that promotes respect, cross-cultural dialogue, and the validity of stories.
Terry Tafoya, Native American scholar and storyteller, says:
Stories go in circles. They don’t go in straight lines. It helps if you listen in circles because there are stories inside and between stories, and finding your way through them is as easy and as hard as finding your way home. Part of finding is getting lost, and when you are lost you start to open up and listen.85
When I was listening to the stories of individuals from Dokis First Nation I remember getting lost and being unsure if I was asking the right research questions, receiving the right answers, and understanding the stories in the right way. I realized, however, that my educational training, my cultural background, and my assumptions about knowledge were impeding my ability to listen to the stories of each individual and understand the experiences that were important to them.
While I approached each interview with questions that I wanted answered, some individuals focused more on specific questions than others, and some even chose not to answer certain questions. Once I accepted that this process would not hinder the research, I was able to realize that the purpose of using the stories of individuals from Dokis First Nation is to
81 Wayne LeBelle, Dokis: Since Time Immemorial (Field: WFL Communications, 2006), 70. 82 Lebelle, Dokis, 70. 83 LeBelle, Dokis, 67. 84 LeBelle, Dokis, 67-79. 85 Terry Tafoya in Wilson, Research is Ceremony, 6.
24 determine what they remember about their educational experiences and how that illustrates the way they view the purpose and importance of education. By respecting the validity of stories in transmitting intellectual knowledge that is not based on obtaining right or wrong answers to an interview question, other Anishinaabe ways of knowing were illuminated during the completion of this project.
Storytelling as a methodology allows for the inclusion of the emotional and spiritual knowledge of the Anishinaabeg.86 Jill Doerfler, Niigaanwewidam James Sinclair and Heidi
Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark, editors of Centering Anishinaabeg Studies: Understanding the World
Through Stories, suggest that Anishinaabeg storytelling is twofold. The editors state aadizookaanag, or sacred stories, are “manidoog (manitous), living beings who work with
Anishinaabeg in the interests of demonstrating principles necessary for mino-bimaadiziwin,” or the good life.87 There are also dibajimowinan, or personal stories, which allow individuals within communities to share personal experiences, visions, feelings, and ideas.88 I attempted to incorporate these emotional and sacred aspects of storytelling into my research in two ways.
By collaborating with elders and participants in the development of research questions, I was provided with guidance on how to tailor the questions to the worldviews of participants.
Similarly, I was advised to give gifts of tobacco at the beginning of each interview to show that the knowledge shared would be honoured and respected. In the interviews themselves, I avoided facilitating the discussion beyond broad research questions and respected the silence of individuals who needed time to reflect on the question, or wanted to move on to the next one. These practices allowed participants to speak honestly about their experiences with education and colonialism and the ways in which those experiences affected their emotional wellbeing.89
Storytelling as a research method provides a way in which to nurture the relationship between mind, heart and soul, but also a physical relationship between storyteller, the land,
86 Kovach, Indigenous Methodologies, 101. 87 Doerfler, James Sinclair and Stark, ed. Centering Anishinaabeg Studies, xvii. 88 Doerfler, Sinclair and Stark, ed., Centering Anishinaabeg Studies, xviii. 89 Lavelle, “Practical Application of an Indigenous Research Framework,” 9.
25 and the researcher.90 In conducting research with Dokis First Nation participants decided who attended the interviews and the location where the interviews took place, whether on Dokis territory or at another meaningful location. In respecting the medicine wheel teachings of interconnectedness and continuity among the Anishinaabeg, I attempted to develop relationships prior to conducting research, and nurture those relationships throughout the research process.91 Although there were time limitations I had a relationship with two of the participants, Doug and John, prior to beginning the research, and was personally introduced to other interested members of Dokis First Nation through Doug Dokis, Chief Denise Restoule, and the Education Administrator at Dokis First Nation. Upon meeting each of the participants, I asked them to review the interview questions to ensure that they were aware of, and comfortable with, what was being asked, but also to show that this project is a collaborative learning journey that will survive after the research has been completed, both in a physical copy of the report that I will present to community members of Dokis First Nation, as well as in the personal relationships that I have gained as part of my educational journey. In order to ensure that my relationship with participants remains respectful, those who chose to remain anonymous will be referred to by a pseudonym within this project, and will continue to be referred to as such in any future communication regarding this research.
Although the knowledge acquired and relationships created during interviews have been complimented with archival research, academic standards of protocol, and oral history methodology, it is my hope that Anishinaabe perspectives have been honoured during, and following, the completion of this project. 92 Following the completion of the interviews I
90 Wilson, Research is Ceremony, 63. 91 Kovach, Indigenous Methodologies, 98. 92 This project uses a mixed-method approach that incorporates archival research, including analyses of government policy documents, curriculum documents, educational statistics, and secondary literature, as a way to contextualize the stories shared by members of Dokis First Nation. For examples of historians who have taken a mixed-method approach to researching First Nations education by combining interviews and archival research see, J. R. Miller, Shingwauk’s Vision and Elizabeth Graham, The Mush Hole: Life at two Indian Residential Schools (Waterloo: Heffle Publishing, 1997); For information on the academic standards of protocol adhered to during the interview process, including the Participant Information Letter, Interview Protocol Form, and Waiver of Confidentiality Form given to each participant, see “Protocol Forms,” Nipissing University, http://www.nipissingu.ca/academics/research- services/ethics/reb/Pages/Protocol-Forms.aspx; For information on recording, interviewing, and evaluating oral histories, including preparing equipment, developing appropriate questions and pauses, transcribing interviews,
26 delivered transcripts to each participant for revision, invited them to attend the Academic
Defense at Nipissing University, and began arranging an appropriate time for the final report to be shared with individuals through an oral and visual presentation on Dokis territory. Sharing this research with members of Dokis First Nation and Nipissing University is an important part of this project because, according to the editors of Centering Anishinaabeg Studies, “there are as many versions of the Creation Story as there are storytellers—all contribute to the understanding of who we are.”93 I have chosen to focus this research on the stories of The
Eagles on the River because their stories of education have not been told as part of the integration narrative. By using their stories I have ensured that their voices tell their individual experiences with integration and that my own voice can be included to share the impact their stories have had on the way I understand the history of Aboriginal education in Canada.
Integrating the Eagles
As early as 1950, when a road was created to connect Dokis First Nation with the outside world and education past grade eight was deemed compulsory in Ontario, individuals from Dokis First Nation and neighbouring communities began travelling into nearby towns to attend high school.94 Since compulsory education was not actually enforced during this time period, and because Ontario was a rural province which created the 1954 Schools
Administration Act allowing students to leave school at fourteen years of age to help with family incomes and farming, the number of children from Dokis who obtained a secondary education is unknown.95 Although some individuals from Dokis would have travelled to nearby towns in the 1950s to obtain a secondary education, by the late 1960s when the Dokis School,
Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig, was reduced to grades Kindergarten to four, all students would
revising transcriptions, engaging in cross-cultural research, and sharing findings with participants see, Valerie Raleigh Yow, Recording Oral History: A Guide for the Humanities and Social Sciences (Toronto: Altamira Press, 2005), 92-118 and 311-333; William Schneider, “Interviewing in Cross-Cultural Settings,” in Donald A. Ritchie, The Oxford Handbook of Oral History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011), 51-64; “Protocol Forms,” Nipissing University, http://www.nipissingu.ca/academics/research-services/ethics/reb/Pages/Protocol-Forms.aspx. 93 Doerfler, Sinclair and Stark, Centering Anishinaabeg Studies, xviii. 94 “History,” Dokis First Nation, www.dokisfirstnation.com; Philip Oreopoulos, “Canadian Compulsory School Laws and their Impact on Educational Attainment and Future Earnings” (Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 2005), 8. 95 Oreopoulos, “Canadian Compulsory School Laws,” 8.
27 have left the community to complete their elementary and secondary education in neighbouring communities.96
Most students from Dokis First Nation between the 1960s and 1980s attended three different schools in neighbouring towns. In 1950, Monetville Public School was created, approximately a half hour drive from Dokis First Nation.97 When the grades were reduced in
Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig students from Dokis First Nation travelled to Monetville to complete grades five to eight, although the school offered elementary education for all students from Kindergarten to grade eight.98 After grade eight, most students attended the French River
District Secondary School in Noelville to complete their secondary education from grades nine to thirteen, approximately a forty-five minute drive from Dokis First Nation.99 The French River
District Secondary School adopted a French curriculum in the late1970s following the Official
Languages Act in 1969, which declared French an official language.100 Following this legislation the school only provided educational instruction in the French language.101 After this transition some students from Dokis First Nation decided to travel to Sturgeon Falls to complete grades nine to thirteen at Northern Secondary School, founded in 1971. 102 Other individuals from Dokis First Nation, before and after the French River District School’s transition, also attended schools in North Bay where they boarded with families or lived with relatives.103
Some individuals chose not to divulge the names of the schools, others transferred frequently between these schools, and the individual schools themselves seem to be only a small factor in the overall educational experience of these students who identified the city of North Bay, and the families that they boarded with, as the most important parts of their experiences.104 Mary
Black, for example, traveled to Sudbury to obtain a secondary education after the transition of
96 Art Restoule, Interview. 97 “Monetville Public School: School Profile,” Rainbow Schools, www.rainbowschools.ca/ elementary/monetville/profile/profile.php. 98 “Monetville Public School,” Rainbow Schools. 99 Clayton Dokis, Interview. 100 Clayton Dokis, Interview; Black, Interview, Johnson, Interview; The Official Languages Act, 1969. 101 Clayton Dokis, Interview; Black, Interview; Johnson, Interview. 102 Clayton Dokis, Interview; Black, Interview; Johnson, Interview; “Northern Secondary School,” Near North District School Board, www.nearnorthschools.ca. 103 Art Restoule, Interview; Black, Interview; Stone, Interview. 104 Art Restoule, Interview; Black, Interview; Stone, Interview.
28 the French River District Secondary School to French curriculum.105 Her experience will be discussed in terms of living in boarding homes rather than an analysis of the individual schools that she attended, since she identified boarding as having the largest impact on her educational experiences.106 While some individuals stayed on the reserve until they were required to leave and returned immediately after completing the compulsory education in Monetville, Noelville,
Sturgeon Falls, North Bay, and Sudbury, others moved to much larger urban centers in order to obtain a secondary and post-secondary education that would allow them to succeed in non-
Aboriginal, Canadian society.107
Integration, 1960s to 1970s: The Impact of Racism on Identity
Doug Dokis recalled the experience of growing up as a Northern Anishinaabe living in
Malton, Ontario during the 1960s and 1970s.108 Here, residing with his mother and two sisters, he completed his elementary and secondary education.109 Doug’s is a story of hard work, determination, and ultimately success, as he now organizes educational camps and workshops for Aboriginal youth across Canada in his role as Senior Advisor for Actua, a national science education program for Aboriginal youth.110 While Doug currently practices Anishinaabe culture and includes cultural lessons in the programs that he organizes through Actua, he recalled questioning “Do I connect with non-Native culture and tradition, or non-Native society?” while attending school and living in the Greater Toronto Area.111 This question was something that subconsciously followed him throughout his educational and professional experiences, particularly because of his residence in Malton, which exposed him to discrimination both within the public schools he attended during the 1960s and 1970s, and the perceptions of non-
Aboriginal Canadians during the time period.112 For Doug, discrimination in school was blatantly obvious, particularly because of the negative depictions of Aboriginal peoples that
105 Black, Interview. 106 Black, Interview. 107 Doug Dokis, Interview. 108 Doug Dokis, Interview. 109 Doug Dokis, Interview. 110 Doug Dokis, Interview. 111 Doug Dokis, Interview. 112 Doug Dokis, Interview.
29 existed in educational resources. He recalled Aboriginal peoples being referred to as
“savages” in school textbooks, and although he did not understand this to be racism at a young age and during a time where these kinds of depictions of Aboriginal peoples were not only prevalent, but generally accepted and even uncontested by Anishinaabe individuals like Doug, himself.113 In retrospect he realized the negative impact it had on his sense of identity and his feeling of being caught between two worlds; one being a city populated with various cultural groups, and the other being an isolated community, home to members of Dokis First Nation.114
Doug’s feeling of isolation from his community was largely a result of the negative stereotypes that were associated with Aboriginal peoples within the 1960s “Canadian mosaic of culture,” and the increasing social issues that were affecting First Nations communities that struggled to survive such obvious racism.115 He remembered visiting Dokis First Nation every summer and gradually feeling more like an “outsider” because of the hesitancy of individuals from Dokis to accept people from outside the community during a time where Aboriginal peoples were continuing to be discriminated against both socially, and politically.116
Furthermore, Doug recalled not belonging in Malton and even being “chased home from school by white kids.”117 The discrimination Doug face, combined with his feeling of personal isolation, provoked him to fight often and to engage in activities that he knew were wrong.118
As a reaction to racism Doug remembered that his “consciousness was opened up” and he began to question the accepted values and behaviours of Euro-Canadian society in a way that led him to discover a knowledge and worldview that he had not been exposed to growing up outside of Dokis First Nation; a worldview founded on “kindness, caring, sharing, honesty, respect, gratitude, love,” that was also lost to other individuals who pursued an education
113 Doug Dokis, Interview. 114 Doug Dokis, Interview. 115 Doug suggested that problems with alcohol, drugs, and violence were increasing in First Nations communities during the 1960s because of the isolation of Aboriginal peoples from Canadian society and the stereotypes associated with First Nations communities during the period. See, Doug Dokis, Interview. 116 Doug Dokis, Interview. 117 Doug Dokis, Interview. 118 Doug Dokis, Interview.
30 outside Dokis in the 1960s.119 Doug did not remember seeing these values practiced in public schools even though the Ontario curriculum following Living and Learning: the Report of the
Provincial Committee on Aims and Objectives of Educaiton in the Schools of Ontario was ostensibly devoted to the physical, social, moral, spiritual, and emotional development of all students regardless of “race, religion, language, or background.”120 Due to his experiences with education and racism, and the negative impact of those experiences on his mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual health, Doug devoted his post-secondary years to advocating for Aboriginal political representation within the university that he attended, and went on to develop culturally relevant, educational programs for Aboriginal youth, such as Aboriginal
Student Links which was incorporated into the curriculum at Northern Secondary School in
Sturgeon Falls, and high schools in North Bay, for five years.121
Art Restoule, a member of Dokis First Nation and successful professional currently working with the hydro dam project in the community, attended elementary school at Dokis
Indian Day School in the 1960s.122 While he, unlike Doug, resided in the community from grade one to eight and returned after completing post-secondary education, he shared the same experience of feeling disconnected from Anishinaabe culture as a result of the authority of Indian Affairs and public school boards over educational instruction.123 He shared a story of the history of Dokis that his grandfather had told to him, stating that Dokis was “isolated in the fact that they only had the waterway to connect them with the goods and services they may need,” and as a result “they’d have to wait for the lake and the river to freeze up to a thickness that would support horses, then make the trip by horses to Sturgeon Falls,” where they had to interact in French or English in order to complete business transactions.124 This frequent interaction with French and English speaking Canadians, combined with the colonialist agenda
119 Doug Dokis, Interview. 120 Justice E. M. Hall and Lloyd A. Dennis, Living and Learning: The Report of the Provincial Committee on Aims and Objectives of Education in the Schools of Ontario, 1968, http://www.connexions.org/Cx Library/Docs/CX5636-HallDennis5.htm. 121 “Aboriginal Student Links Information Night,” Nipissing University, http://www.nipissingu.ca/about- us/newsroom/Pages/Aboriginal-Student-Links-information-night.aspx. 122 Art Restoule, Interview. 123 Art Restoule, Interview. 124 Art Restoule, Interview.
31 “that the government wanted made during the residential school period” and the continued control of Indian Affairs over First Nations education, led many individuals to lose a connection to their Ojibwe language and to the cultural practices of their ancestors.125 Art suggested that the control of Indian Affairs over education resulted in Aboriginal culture being completely excluded from the curriculum that was taught to students at the Dokis Indian Day School, and that underlying assumptions about Aboriginal peoples as biologically inferior, evidenced by the vitamins and other medications that Indian Affairs forced students to consume, characterized
First Nations education during the 1960s.126 Art’s experience with education and Indian Affairs in particular, led him to suggest that regaining cultural traditions through the Dokis powwow and the Ojibwe language, which is currently taught to students in Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig, will lead to “more respect amongst each other in the community…help them to understand their roots…learn to be an individual and to have respect for the next one…and to become a stronger, better person overall.”127 Art’s experiences with public education were characterized by government control, subtle racism, and a loss of Anishinaabe culture.128
The importance of educating children in a way that fosters respect, strength, and an understanding of identity and history, was also discussed by John Sawyer, a respected elder within Nipissing University whose educational experiences were also affected by government control and social misconceptions of Aboriginal peoples.129 John Sawyer, although raised in a neighbouring community, was also affected by the Canadian government’s integration initiative and was forced to attend school in North Bay like his relatives from Dokis First Nation.130 The
Indian Act and its classification of Aboriginal peoples within Canada shaped John’s experiences in North Bay’s public schools. John’s father had joined the Canadian military and, as such, lost his status.131 His mother also lost her status because of her marriage to John’s
125 Art Restoule, Interview. 126 Art Restoule, Interview. 127 Art Restoule, Interview. 128 Art Restoule, Interview. 129 Sawyer, Interview. 130 Sawyer, Interview. 131 Sawyer, Interview.
32 father prior to Bill C-31, introduced in 1985, which has allowed Aboriginal women to regain their rights that were denied through marriage to a non-Aboriginal man.132 For John, a non-status
Anishinaabe man living on the reserve, attending school in North Bay presented many challenges that led him to feel that he was an outsider in both places.133 One particular challenge that he remembered was in regards to Indian Affairs and their authority over tuition payments and transportation. Being non-status and living in a First Nations community, John recalled “sneaking onto the bus,” that was provided by Indian Affairs, because living on the reserve without a “tax base,” or First Nations status, transportation was not provided for him to attend school.134 Furthermore, his family received a letter in 1961 that itemized the tuition rate for each of the children in the family because they were not eligible for funding through the federal government.135 The letter, addressed to John’s father Donald Sawyer from E. S.
Chiarelli, Administrator of the North Bay Separate School Board, stated that an outstanding balance of $164. 50 was owed for the months of September to November, and that an additional $11. 75 for each of the five children attending school was owed for the month of
December.136 The total amount to be paid to the North Bay Separate School Board was $223.
25, an impossible amount when John’s father “was only making twenty-five dollars a week and raising six boys and two adults.”137 In response to this letter, titled “non-resident tuition fees,”
John’s parents contacted Mr. Surtees, the Superintendent of Indian Affairs, and informed him that they would be withdrawing their children from school immediately because they could not afford the tuition payments.138 Mr. Surtees replied and told them to continue sending the children to school and to ignore the account.139 However, John was still faced with the issue of finding transportation from his home community to the schools in North Bay, which resulted in a
132 Sawyer, Interview; Section 12 1b, Indian Act 1951; C-31, An Act to Amend the Indian Act, 1985. 133 Sawyer, Interview. 134 Sawyer, Interview. 135 Sawyer, Interview. 136 E. S. Chiarelli, letter to Donald Sawyer, December 8, 1961. 137 E. S. Chiarelli, 1961; Sawyer, Interview. 138 E. S. Chiarelli, 1961; Sawyer, Interview. 139 Sawyer, Interview.
33 deal that stipulated that John and his siblings would plow the driveway of the man who owned the bus company in exchange for riding the Indian Affairs bus to school in North Bay.140
Within the schools that John attended, he recalled being faced “with the cruelty of being a Native person and being called an Indian,” while not having status and therefore not having access to the dental and eye exams that were organized by Indian Affairs and provided to the
Aboriginal students who attended public schools in North Bay.141 Despite being denied the services that were offered to other students within the schools, John recalled feeling privileged to attend various newly built schools during his educational career in North Bay.142 After becoming professionally involved in education within his home community and interacting frequently with representatives of Indian Affairs, John realized that the “Indian bus went from one new school to the next new school, and every time it put their kids in that school they were eligible for Native funding.”143 John’s experience as a non-status Aboriginal person illuminates the complexities of racism and discrimination within Canada’s education system. While other individuals recalled sentiments of racism that emerged in social interactions with peers and teachers, John’s experience represents the institutional racism that plagued educational integration and made him conclude, “it [integration] is assimilation.”144
Integration, 1970s to 1980s: Land, Language, and Culture
The members of Dokis First Nation who shared their stories of education from the late
1970s to 1980s recalled more positive experiences as a result of geographic, social, and political factors. Students from Dokis attended school in North Bay less frequently after
Northern Secondary School in Sturgeon Falls was built in 1971, and only did so if they had their own transportation or accommodation.145 While this meant that individuals from Dokis First
Nation had less choice over where they attended school, they recalled more positive experiences outside of North Bay. In the 1970s, integration began at an earlier age for
140 Sawyer, Interview. 141 Sawyer, Interview. 142 Sawyer, Interview. 143 Sawyer, Interview. 144 Doug Dokis, Interview; Clayton Dokis, Interview; Turner, Interview; Sawyer, Interview. 145“Northern Secondary School,” Near North District School Board; Black, Interview; Stone, Interview.
34 students from Dokis First Nation, since their community elementary school was reduced to grades Kindergarten to four instead of grade eight.146 Elsewhere in Ontario, integration was becoming more common as well, as evidenced by the decline in residential schools from twenty-nine in 1960, to fifteen in 1979.147 With the increase in educational integration various social and political movements during the 1970s were taking place to enhance the education of
First Nations peoples throughout Canada. In 1975 a provincial task force heard requests for increased language and cultural programs within schools and increased funding for Aboriginal education, and published these demands in the Summary Report of the Task Force on the
Educational Needs of Native Peoples in 1976.148 This task force, policy documents such as
Indian Control of Indian Education, Ontario Ministry of Education Resource Guides, and the increased awareness of the tragedies of residential schools, may have had a significant impact on the experiences of individuals from Dokis First Nation who attended elementary and high school during the 1970s and 1980s.149
Norm Dokis, member of Dokis First Nation and employee at the Ministry of Natural
Resources in North Bay, attended Monetville Public School and Northern Secondary School during the 1970s.150 Reflecting on his experiences in public schools, Norm suggested that he was “lost in a system,” where he “couldn’t keep up with other ones, or couldn’t comprehend their ideas, or couldn’t comprehend in terms of the scope of what was were being taught.”151
For Norm, Western knowledge was something that felt foreign in comparison to his way of learning and living in the world, particularly because of his love for nature, the traditional lands of Dokis First Nation, and the experiential learning that he was accustomed to among plants
146 Art Restoule, Interview. 147 Aboriginal Healing Foundation, Directory of Residential Schools in Canada (Ottawa: Aboriginal Healing Foundation, 2007), 20-23. 148 Francis Abele, Carolyn Dittburner, and Katherine A. Graham, “Towards a Shared Understanding in the Policy Discussion about Aboriginal Education,” in Castellano, Davis and Lahache, ed., Aboriginal Education, 6. 149 Abele, Dittburner, and Graham, “Towards a Shared Understanding,” 6; National Indian Brotherhood, Indian Control of Indian Education; Ontario Ministry of Education, People of Native Ancestry (1975), People of Native Ancestry (1971), People of Native Ancestry (1981); Honourable Frank Iacobucci, “Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement,” http://www. Residentialschoolsettlement.ca/IRS%20Settlement%20Agreement-%20 ENGLISH.pdf. 150 Norm Dokis, Interview. 151 Norm Dokis, Interview.
35 and animals within his community.152 Norm had grown up exploring the forest, observing the animals, and had learned how to properly name and classify them by the time he was twelve years old.153 For Norm, as with many others who attended public schools during the 1970s, a close connection with teachers created a beneficial educational experience through which he was able to embrace both Western and Anishinaabe understandings of the world.154 He recalled having teachers who took an interest in his culture, and remembered field trips to
Dokis where he was encouraged to share traditional practices such as making spigots for tapping maple trees, with teachers and classmates.155 Although positive relationships existed with teachers and peers, Norm recalled feeling as though there were obstacles to his success, particularly “the fears from generations before,” to pursue new ideas, new activities, and new relationships; a fear that was heightened by the individualism of public education and a lack of transitional resources, support services, and role models, for individuals from Dokis First
Nation.156 For Norm, “if there was some focus on Aboriginal peoples…and how we contributed to this country instead of being a nuisance to the colonizers,” some of those fears would have been alleviated, education would have been personalized, and he would have flourished.157
Norm’s experiences with integrated education were characterized by a disconnection from his own land and community of Dokis First Nation that resulted in fear and made him hesitant to fully apply himself academically in the public schools he attended.158
The failure to include Anishinaabe knowledge and history was also discussed by other individuals as one of the primary shortcomings of the public education system during the 1970s and 1980s. Thomas Johnson, a councilor at Dokis First Nation, recalled attending a cultural event at the North Bay Indian Friendship Center and being considered absent by the administrators at Northern Secondary School, because Anishinaabe culture and events were
152 Norm Dokis, Interview. 153 Norm Dokis, Interview. 154 Norm Dokis, Interview. 155 Norm Dokis, Interview. 156 Norm Dokis, Interview. 157 Norm Dokis, Interview. 158 Norm Dokis, Interview.
36 not “regarded as an important learning tool.”159 According to Thomas, First Nations teachings and ways of life were not incorporated into public schools, particularly lessons about interacting with one another.160 Outside of school, residing in Dokis First Nation, Thomas recalled an emphasis on respect, and respecting “your neighbor, your family, your friends, your community members.”161 Along with this respect, was a communal atmosphere where members of Dokis
First Nation would help each other rather than compete with one another.162 Thomas recalled missing that environment when he was away from the community that he “truly loved.”163
Clayton Dokis also expressed a connection to the community and lands of Dokis First
Nation that impacted his experiences in Monetville, Noelville and Sturgeon Falls. Attending elementary school in the early nineteen seventies, Clayton remembered that the school building “looked like a prison,” and suggested that racial discrimination and authoritarian styles of teaching were very opposite to the way of life in Dokis First Nation and at the Dokis
School.164 Clayton remembered being teased for being Native, even being called a “savage,” and being scared of some of the teachers that he encountered in Monetville and Noelville.165
However, he recalled more positive experiences when he attended Northern Secondary School in Sturgeon Falls which “was more integrated with the Natives from Nipissing [First Nation],” which helped to alleviate some of the “bias in the air” that resulted from the behaviours of non-
Aboriginal students.166 While most of the time verbal discrimination did not occur, Clayton remembered feeling like an outsider because “when there was a group of Natives walking and a group of white people walking…they would just look away or laugh.”167 According to Clayton, this discrimination does not exist as much in the present education system, but within Canadian society these sentiments continue to relegate First Nations peoples to “second-class”
159 Johnson, Interview. 160 Johnson, Interview. 161 Johnson, Interview. 162 Johnson, Interview. 163 Johnson, Interview. 164 Clayton Dokis, Interview. 165 Clayton Dokis, Interview. 166 Clayton Dokis, Interview 167 Clayton Dokis, Interview.
37 citizens.168 Like others with similar experiences, these kinds of interactions led him to more fully appreciate and miss the love, respect, and sense of community that characterized his life in Dokis First Nation.169
While Clayton recalled learning primarily academic lessons in the schools that he attended, he also reflected on the practical skills that he acquired by growing up in Dokis First
Nation.170 He remembered catching frogs and making acorn necklaces that a woman named
Ivy would sell at the local craft shop, and suggested that instead of having one teacher that acted as the authority within a classroom, in the community he learned from various individuals by watching and participating.171 He remembered “learning from the elders by visually watching what they do, like harvesting fish or hunting, and respect in the community,” particularly in regards to respecting individuals of different ethnic backgrounds and welcoming them into the community as friends, whether tourists, classmates, teachers, or others.172 For
Clayton, integration was difficult, and continues to be difficult, because “some people want to eat their wild foods and do their type of living, their hunting, and the things that they love to be in connection with the earth,” and if that way of life and Western ways of life can be respected and considered equal within public schools and within Canadian society more generally, “we can get together now and figure this out.”173 Clayton’s experiences with public education illuminate the purposeful exclusion of Aboriginal peoples, their lands, and their way of life, to such an extent that he felt isolated within the schools that he attended.174
Jason Restoule, employed by Dokis First Nation in their public library, was raised feeling a connection to both Western and Anishinaabe culture and knowledge.175 When he attended school in Monetville and Sturgeon Falls he recalled succeeding both socially and academically as a result of his upbringing on a tourist camp, his ability to make friends, and the
168 Clayton Dokis, Interview. 169 Clayton Dokis, Interview. 170 Clayton Dokis, Interview. 171 Clayton Dokis, Interview. 172 Clayton Dokis, Interview. 173 Clayton Dokis, Interview. 174 Clayton Dokis, Interview. 175 Jason Restoule, Interview.
38 inclusion of Aboriginal content within the classroom.176 Although in high school he recalled limited, if any, lessons on First Nations, when he attended Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig in
Dokis First Nation, he recalled viewing a documentary entitled “Eagles on the River,” a history of Dokis First Nation told by residents of the community, as well as participating in a cultural week “where they’d show drumming, and what you would do at a powwow,” while in Monetville
Public School.177 The most valuable lessons that he learned, however, came from his parents’ business and his father’s love of history.178 Jason was asked to write an address to the 2014 graduates of Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig and in it he stated that although his father went
“right through the school; in the front door and out the back,” he, along with others from Dokis
First Nation, used their “own surroundings and common sense” to survive and to build a future for themselves and their children.179 He shared some of the traditional practices of people from
Dokis, which were also discussed in Art’s interview, including tapping the ice in order to cross the river to reach Sturgeon Falls to obtain goods and supplies that were needed for survival.180
He also referenced the seven grandfather teachings, “wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility, and truth,” as an important foundation for education and something to be mindful of in daily life in order “to see our past failures, and accept them as valuable lessons.”181 Whereas others have expressed feeling disconnected from an educational system that largely ignored their cultural identity and history, Jason’s father, heralded as the local historian, was able to provide a connection between Jason and the history and culture of Dokis First Nation, in a way that eliminated any feeling of isolation and discrimination within the schools he attended.182 For
Jason, Anishinaabe teachings, combined with “a better understanding and a more equal understanding,” of the history of First Nations education in Canada, need to become part of
176 Jason Restoule, Interview. 177 Jason Restoule, Interview. 178 Jason Restoule, Interview. 179 Jason Restoule, Interview. 180 Jason Restoule, Interview; Art Restoule, Interview. 181 Jason Restoule, Interview. 182 Jason Restoule, Interview.
39 public education in order to create a more positive learning experience for students from Dokis
First Nation.183
One of the ways that public school integration negatively affected individuals from Dokis
First Nation in its early stages of implementation was in regards to the loss of the Anishinaabe language.184 While instances of discrimination were less frequent for individuals from Dokis
First Nation during the 1970s and 1980s, a disconnection from the language continued.185
Sarah Turner, an employee of Dokis First Nation, recalled positive experiences with teachers when she attended school.186 She remembered eating lunch with some of the teachers that she had, and being invited to go for walks with one teacher after school.187 Sarah also recalled some negative experiences with students, such as being referred to as a “squaw,” by boys in her class.188 However, for Sarah, one of the ways in which the education for individuals from
Dokis today has been advanced, is through the instruction of the Ojibwe language at both
Kikendawt Kinoomaadii Gamig and Monetville Public School, something that she was not fortunate enough to have the opportunity to study.189 Although Sarah’s mother could not read or write, she spoke Ojibwe, French and English.190 Sarah believes that because of a lack of academic schooling her mother tried to ensure that Sarah and her siblings received a proper education.191 This meant becoming part of the mainstream education system that did not include Ojibwe.192 Sarah recalled making similar decisions regarding her own daughter’s education, in order to ensure that she would have as many career opportunities as possible.193
She put her daughter into French immersion while living in Sudbury, but then moved back to
Dokis where Ojibwe was taught instead.194 While Sarah recalled taking mandatory French
183 Jason Restoule, Interview. 184 Art Restoule, Interview. 185 Turner, Interview. 186 Turner, Interview. 187 Turner, Interview. 188 Turner, Interview. 189 Turner, Interview. 190 Turner, Interview. 191 Turner, Interview. 192 Turner, Interview. 193 Turner, Interview. 194 Turner, Interview.
40 classes and being exposed to very little Anishinaabe culture and history while in school, her daughter’s generation of students from Dokis First Nation have been provided with more cultural exposure at the expense of practical skills required by mainstream society, such as being bilingual speakers of English and French.195 Sarah’s experience illuminates the lack of control over curricular programming that has continued to affect individuals from Dokis First
Nation.196
Mary Black, an employee of Dokis First Nation, similarly recalled issues with programming that resulted in her frequent transition from school to school.197 Having attended
Dokis Indian Day School, Monetville Public School, and French River District Secondary
School in Noelville, she was fortunate to travel no more than one hour to school each day.198
However, when the French River School in Noleville transitioned to a French curriculum, Mary was forced to leave that school and find lodging in North Bay where she could obtain an education in the English language.199 For Mary, as with others I interviewed who attended school during the 1970s and the 1980s, the experience was mostly positive.200 She did not recall racial discrimination, and remembered getting along fairly well with students and teachers.201 For her, however, boarding was a challenge that ultimately became an obstacle to her educational attainment.202 Mary recalled feeling “plucked out of her home and thrown in with a big pile of people that you didn’t know.”203 After “living with strangers” in North Bay and
Sudbury, Mary eventually moved in with her sister to complete high school in Sudbury, but decided to leave school and obtain a job in Dokis First Nation.204 Having been part of a transitional period in Noelville, Mary was not provided with the option to attend Northern
Secondary School in Sturgeon Falls where those who were younger than her would later
195 Turner, Interview. 196 Turner, Interview. 197 Black, Interview. 198 Black, Interview. 199 Black, Interview. 200 Black, Interview. 201 Black, Interview. 202 Black, Interview. 203 Black, Interview. 204 Black, Interview.
41 attend.205 Aside from boarding with strangers, Mary felt that attending school with students who “weren’t overly welcoming,” and who were not from Dokis First Nation, was also difficult as a “shy and awkward” youth who was used to living in a community where everyone was closely related, or at least familiar with each other.206 For Mary, integrated education was characterized by a disconnection from the land and community of Dokis First Nation that left her feeling isolated and unwelcome in larger urban centers.207
Alice Stone had a similar experience in school when she boarded in North Bay.208
Although Alice stayed at her grandmother’s house while she attended school, she recalled difficulty “getting used to the school, how to get around the school, and meeting people” at
Chippewa Secondary School, because she was the only student from Dokis attending at that time.209 Having attended a large school away from Dokis First Nation, Alice also recalled feeling disconnected from the activities that she usually participated in when living at Dokis.210
She remembered her mother teaching her how to bead and make moccasins, and the powwows she attended where she would dance in the outfit that her mother helped her make.211 Although Alice “went to school ‘cause I had to go to school,” she feels that students from Dokis First Nation “need to know it’s different living on reserve and going to school, than going off reserve and going into a different school,” and that, therefore, “they need to go.”212
CONCLUSION
Weaving the Strands
They need to go.”213 “It’s a good thing that we went out.”214 “They need that exposure.”215 All of the individuals who shared their experiences with integrated education between the 1960s and 1980s agreed that it was necessary, and continues to be necessary, in
205 Black, Interview. 206 Black, Interview. 207 Black, Interview. 208 Stone, Interview. 209 Stone, Interview. 210 Stone, Interview. 211 Stone, Interview. 212 Stone, Interview. 213 Stone, Interview. 214 Turner, Interview. 215 Norm Dokis, Interview.
42 order to ensure that children from Dokis experience life outside of the community, including different cultures, different ways of life, different understandings of the world, and different opportunities. Leaving the community of Dokis First Nation, however, deeply affected each individual. After hearing the stories of individuals from Dokis First Nation, I have determined that while some experiences were positive and others were negative, each person who left
Dokis First Nation experienced a physical disconnection from their home community, which then served as a catalyst for a disconnection from all other elements of the medicine wheel teachings; the mental, emotional, and spiritual components required for a good life.216
According to Marie Battiste, Indigenous scholar and educator:
Indigenous knowledge is part of the collective genius of humanity of Indigenous peoples that exists in the context of their learning and knowing from the places where they have lived, hunted, explored, migrated, farmed, raised families, built communities, and survived for centuries despite sustained attacks on the peoples, their languages, and cultures.217
Central to this definition of Indigenous knowledge, is the relationship between individuals and the land. One of the themes that emerged in the stories from members of Dokis First Nation about integrated education was a physical disconnection from the land. Those individuals who shared their stories of the land recalled the fear that was associated with leaving the reserve.
Norm Dokis spoke about an intense connection to the land and recalled family members suggesting that there were more educational and social opportunities away from the territory of
Dokis First Nation.218 However, he reflected on many invaluable lessons that he learned from the land that benefited him later on in his educational career.219 By observing plants and animals, and participating in local activities such as hunting, individuals from Dokis First Nation recalled having a strong sense of traditional knowledge that was only available to them because of their education on the land, and within the community of Dokis First Nation.220
Similarly, Clayton Dokis, although he did not feel the same sense of connection to the land at a
216 “Mino Bimaadiziwin,” Government of Manitoba. 217 Battiste, Naturalizing Indigenous Knowledge, 6. 218 Norm Dokis, Interview. 219 Norm Dokis, Interview. 220 Norm Dokis, Interview; Clayton Dokis, Interview; Jason Restoule, Interview.
43 young age, returned to Dokis First Nation in his adult years, and became interested in learning about the plants that live in Dokis First Nation.221 He began studying their medicinal uses, their nutritional value, and sharing this information with tourists who visit Dokis.222 Jason Restoule also felt this connection to the land.223 Although his experiences with integration were extremely positive, he credited most of his learning as the “common sense” that came from his ancestors’ knowledge of the land as a means for survival.224 The removal of students from the land of Dokis First Nation was the primary experience shared by all participants that resulted in their disconnection from traditional knowledge, including Anishinaabe culture and language.
The intellectual knowledge obtained through experimenting, observing, and participating in local and cultural activities on the land, was recalled as the most important way of learning among participants. All of the participants recalled learning from relatives and members of the community by participating in activities that benefited the community and allowed them to learn the history of their peoples. Activities like hunting allowed individuals to be introduced to stories about animals and their historical significance for people from Dokis First Nation.225 The passing of community members was another way in which individuals learned the history of the people who lived in their community, and whose lives continued to influence the community after their death.226 Learning to feel a sense of pride in Dokis First Nation’s history and lands was something that came from summer jobs in Dokis that focused on “beautifying the reserve.”227 Intellectual knowledge, for the individuals who shared their stories, was something that was obtained through observing, experimenting, participating, and listening in a communal setting where each individual, whether a young child or an adult, was viewed as an equal who served a specific purpose in the community.228 John Sawyer recalled mealtime gatherings where children would be invited to sit and eat with the adults in his community and credits this
221 Clayton Dokis, Interview. 222 Clayton Dokis, Interview. 223 Jason Restoule, Interview. 224 Jason Restoule, Interview. 225 Norm Dokis, Interview. 226 Sawyer, Interview. 227 Black, Interview. 228 Sawyer, Interview.
44 experience of simply listening to the adults’ conversations as a major form of learning in his young life.229 Mary Black also remembered community picnics and powwows where family and friends would eat together and would often be joined by tourists who came to Dokis First Nation on the Chief Commanda.230 These kinds of community events and duties initiated a type of learning, outside of a formal classroom with specific academic objectives, that allowed children in Dokis to learn right from wrong, respect, generosity, and the importance of community.
Two of the most prevalent ways in which the education system deeply affected the lives of Anishinaabe students from Dokis First Nation was through their relationships with teachers and peers. Most of the participants recalled having positive relationships with peers, even though there were some instances of discrimination.231 Some remembered their non-Aboriginal classmates visiting the community on weekends.232 Others remembered socializing with classmates outside of school on hockey teams and other sports teams.233 For individuals like
Doug and Clayton however, violent interactions were common because of their peers’ lack of understanding about Aboriginal peoples and Aboriginal culture.234 Many positive experiences did exist however. Individuals like Mary recalled meeting individuals from various cultural backgrounds that she had not previously been exposed to and becoming more aware, and appreciative, of their different identities.235 Others, like Alice Stone remembered having a close group of friends that she maintained strong relationships with in elementary school and high school.236 While positive and negative experiences existed in regards to individuals’ relationships with their peers, most concluded that once cultural barriers were overcome, particularly through extracurricular activities such as sports or field trips, non-Aboriginal students were generally accepting and welcoming within the schools.237
229 Sawyer, Interview. 230 Black, Interview. 231 Norm Dokis, Interview; Turner, Interview; Stone, Interview; Black, Interview. 232 Sawyer, Interview. 233 Sawyer, Interview; Art Restoule, Interview. 234 Doug Dokis, Interview; Clayton Dokis, Interview. 235 Black, Interview. 236 Stone, Interview. 237 Doug Dokis, Interview; Norm Dokis, Interview; Jason Restoule, Interview; Johnson, Interview; Turner, Interview; Stone, Interview; Black, Interview.
45 The relationship that students from Dokis First Nation had with teachers was similarly diverse. Some individuals recalled being forced to sit at the back of the class and remembered teachers reinforcing the “savage” depictions of First Nations peoples that were prevalent in school textbooks during those years.238 Some individuals suggested that negative relationships with teachers were a result of racial differences, whereas others suggested they were primarily class-based.239 Regardless, all of the individuals who attended public schools in the 1960s and early 1970s recalled being either ignored by teachers, or disciplined more frequently than their non-Aboriginal counterparts.240 Individuals who attended public schools in the late 1970s to
1980s, however, tended to have positive relationships with teachers. Norm Dokis recalled having teachers who acknowledged his connection to the land and community of Dokis First
Nation and organized field trips that allowed him to act as a teacher in front of his classmates.241 These field trips allowed students from Dokis First Nation to feel proud of their
Anishinaabe heritage and to share some of their traditional practices with their teachers and classmates.242 Sarah Turner recalled a teacher named Mrs. McIntyre who allowed her to come over for lunch if Sarah’s mom was out of town, and would even go for walks with her after school.243 For most of the participants, relationships with teachers in the Dokis school and in
Monetville were very positive.244 Once students from Dokis attended high school at the French
River District Secondary School in Noelville, Northern Secondary School in Sturgeon Falls, and secondary schools in North Bay, Sudbury, and the Greater Toronto Area, those close relationships with teachers ended, either becoming negative relationships, or non-existent.
Less diversity in participants’ experiences seems to exist in the way that individuals viewed themselves, their identity, and sense of purpose. The story of the seven grandfather teachings was told by Doug Dokis during his interview and is representative of one of the ways
238 Sawyer, Interview; Doug Dokis, Interview. 239 Doug Dokis, Interview; Sawyer, Interview. 240 Doug Dokis, Interview; John Sawyer, Interview; Art Restoule, Interview; Clayton Dokis, Interview. 241 Norm Dokis, Interview. 242 Norm Dokis, Interview. 243 Turner, Interview. 244 Norm Dokis, Interview; Johnson, Interview; Jason Restoule, Interview; Turner, Interview; Stone, Interview; Black, Interview.
46 in which participants viewed a disconnect between Anishinaabe ways of teaching and learning and what was expected in Ontario’s public schools.245 Individuals suggested that although they inherently knew the Anishinaabe teachings, they did not see them practiced in daily life, partly because of the lack of similar values within the Western education system, and partly because of the shame that was associated with being an Aboriginal person.246 Some of the participants attempted to pass as other minority ethnic groups, whereas others retained pride in their
Anishinaabe heritage but remembered feeling isolated.247 All participants felt that at certain points in their lives, they did not belong in mainstream society. This feeling of not belonging was different for each individual. For John Sawyer, it was based on his identity as a non-status
Anishinaabe.248 For Thomas Johnson it was based on the lack of attention given to
Anishinaabe culture within the schools, and his love for the community of Dokis First Nation.249
For Norm Dokis, it was his love of “the bush.”250 For Sarah Turner, Mary Black and Alice
Stone, it was leaving their friends from Dokis that they had gone to school with for many years.251 For Anishinaabe students from Dokis First Nation and neighbouring communities in
Northern Ontario, public schools ignored their cultural identity which was inherently tied to the land, language, and culture that had been passed down for generations, creating a disconnect that the community of Dokis First Nation is working towards repairing today.
The Eagles in the Twenty-First Century
While some members of the Dokis First Nation believe that sending their children to public schools at a young age is important because it introduces them to life outside of their small community, others have suggested that leaving the reserve to attend public schools in
245 The seven grandfather teachings is an Anishinaabe story that explains the teachings of wisdom, love, respect, bravery, honesty, humility and truth, that were sent to the Anishinaabe by the spirit grandfathers, or the “manidoog.” The grandfathers found a young boy to give these teachings to and told him to return to his people, share these teachings, and tell them to end their feuds. Anishinaabe peoples try to follow these teachings in order to “live their own Mino Bimaadiziwin,” or the good life. See, “Anishinaabe Mino Bimaadiziwin: Principles for Anishinaabe Education,” http://www.renaud.ca/public/Aboriginal/Mino-Bimaadizwin-Principles-for-Education.pdf. 246 Doug Dokis, Interview; Sawyer, Interview; Art Restoule, Interview. 247 Doug Dokis, Interview; Sawyer, Interview. 248 Sawyer, Interview. 249 Johnson, Interview. 250 Norm Dokis, Interview. 251 Turner, Interview; Black, Interview; Stone, Interview.
47 surrounding areas produced, and continues to produce, challenges for students from Dokis
First Nation.252 A few years ago, students from Dokis First Nation began taking Ojibwe language lessons within the Dokis School.253 Recently this instruction has expanded, and students can now continue learning the Ojibwe language in Monetville Public School.254
Students are also able to experience the annual powwow at Dokis, which has continued to increase over the past ten years.255 Students from Dokis are able to choose courses in secondary schools that include content on the historical treatment of Aboriginal peoples and their contributions to Canadian society.256 Student achievements are celebrated at student awards nights in the public schools and in Dokis First Nation.257 Students are able to participate more in extracurricular and after school activities.258 Students are allowed to attend cultural events without being considered absent from school.259 However, students from Dokis
First Nation still face many of the challenges that their parents and grandparents faced, which suggests that although improvements were made between the 1960s and 1980s, continued improvements are necessary to ensure that Aboriginal students in Canada are successful in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary education.
According to Art Restoule, students from Dokis “aren’t up to the level of education that they should be entering into Monetville Public School.”260 Furthermore, as of 2011, forty-four percent of First Nations peoples held a postsecondary qualification and sixty percent of First
Nations peoples had reported completing high school.261 While these statistics represent an increase from previous years, “there’s always room for improvement.”262 This improvement will undoubtedly take time and must be a collaborative effort between Aboriginal and non-
Aboriginal Canadians. Not only do non-Aboriginal Canadians need to work towards altering
252 Norm Dokis, Interview; Clayton Dokis, Interview. 253 Art Restoule, Interview; Turner, Interview. 254 Turner, Interview. 255 Art Restoule, Interview. 256 Ontario Ministry of Education, The Ontario Curriculum Grades 9 and 10: Canadian and World Studies (2005), 50. 257 Turner, Interview. 258 Stone, Interview 259 Johnson, Interview. 260 Art Restoule, Interview. 261 The Educational Attainment of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. (Ottawa: Statistics Canada, 2011). 262 Art Restoule, Interview.
48 their own perceptions of Aboriginal peoples in order to eliminate the overt racism or racist sentiments that individuals from Dokis remembered experiencing, but they need to acknowledge the value of Anishinaabe culture, language, knowledge and ways of life, as equal to Western systems of education.
Individuals from Dokis First Nation identified some practical changes that can be made to the education system that would benefit First Nations students, and also begin the process of changing misconceptions and stereotypes of Aboriginal peoples through education. John
Sawyer and Art Restoule spoke passionately about the role of Indian Affairs in First Nation education and the ways in which financial changes to the administration of First Nations education could create positive change.263 Both suggested that the funding available for
Aboriginal students attending public schools is less than the funding available to non-Aboriginal students, and that therefore the financial discrepancies create “double-standards,” both academically and socially, and make it difficult for First Nations communities to attract teachers who are not just qualified, but interested in Anishinaabe culture and dedicated to the success of the students.264 Rather than treating First Nations peoples as “resources” that bring in financial benefits to create new schools, Indian Affairs and the provincial and federal governments need to honour the treaties and respect Aboriginal peoples as equal partners in regards to funding and administration.265
Norm Dokis, Clayton Dokis, Thomas Johnson, and Doug Dokis, suggested changes need to be made to the public school curriculum in order to advance First Nations education in the future.266 Each of them spoke about their connection to Anishinaabe culture and the importance of holistic education; educating students to be academically successful, but also physically healthy, respectful, vocal, and strong in their identity.267 They suggested that rather than educating children through standardized testing and other Western forms of assessment
263 Sawyer, Interview; Art Restoule, Interview. 264 Art Restoule, Interview. 265 Sawyer, Interview. 266 Norm Dokis, Interview; Clayton, Interview; Johnson, Interview; Doug Dokis, Interview. 267 Norm Dokis, Interview; Clayton Dokis, Interview; Johnson, Interview; Doug Dokis, Interview.
49 that promotes competitiveness, the focus of the curriculum should be to create strong individuals, interested in the success of others, and conscious of the way that their actions influence the world.268 In order to do this, it was suggested by these individuals that
Anishinaabe culture be incorporated into school curriculum, not just as a component of one subject, but throughout all lessons, activities, and school events.269 The reason for this is that
Anishinaabe teachings and Western values often contain many similarities that non-Aboriginal
Canadians do not recognize, and Anishinaabe culture, teachings, and language, can provide beneficial experiences to all students regardless of their ethnicity.270 In addition to this, it was suggested that courses that deal specifically with Aboriginal history become mandatory in public schools in order to eliminate the discrimination, whether blatant or subtle, that emerges from textbooks and teachers that are shaped by Western education and culture.271 By presenting Aboriginal peoples as equal participants in the creation of Canadian society and as individuals who still contribute to the advancement of this country, Aboriginal students can feel represented in public school curriculum and proud in their cultural identity, and non-Aboriginal students may change the perceptions of Aboriginal peoples that have been passed down through generations in Canadian society.
Mary Black, Alice Stone, Sarah Turner, and Jason Restoule all discussed the ways in which public schools can provide social support for First Nations students.272 Sarah referenced programs such as Aboriginal Student Links, a program collaboratively operated by Doug Dokis and Nipissing University that provided First Nations students with curricular activities that were relevant to Anishinaabe culture, role models to aspire to, and a network of support to aid them with personal issues, academic struggles, and career opportunities.273 She also discussed the various types of cultural centers that are available to First Nations students in other public school jurisdictions in Ontario, such as Aboriginal Student Centers available to students in
268 Norm Dokis, Interview; Clayton Dokis, Interview; Johnson, Interview; Doug Dokis, Interview. 269 Norm Dokis, Interview; Clayton Dokis, Interview; Johnson, Interview; Doug Dokis, Interview. 270 Doug Dokis, Interview. 271 Norm Dokis, Interview. 272 Black, Interview; Stone, Interview; Turner, Interview; Jason Restoule, Interview. 273 Turner, Interview.
50 Sudbury’s high schools and university, and suggested that these areas within the schools that students can gather in with members of the community and elders, would help to ease their transition away from Dokis First Nation.274 She also suggested that school orientation should occur earlier and more frequently, to recognize the special need that students from Dokis First
Nation have in adjusting to education outside of the community, and in larger urban environments.275 Finally, based on the stories that individuals shared with me, I would suggest that increasing the number of Aboriginal professionals within public schools could help First
Nations students who otherwise might not seek guidance from non-Aboriginal counselors when they need personal or academic support.276 While some of these changes may be difficult to implement, at least immediately, if Indian Affairs, the provincial and federal governments, and non-Aboriginal Canadians are willing to listen to the concerns of First Nations peoples and work as equal partners with First Nations communities, public education for Aboriginal Canadians will continue to improve.
Segregation or Integration?
The stories of Anishinaabe men and women from Dokis First Nation and neighbouring communities shows that the early integration of Aboriginal children into public schools was based on the same policies of assimilation that were experienced in racially segregated residential schools. Students from Dokis First Nation were forced to leave the community to obtain a secondary education, given inadequate funding that affected the high schools that they were able to attend, discriminated against by students and teachers, and denied a meaningful place in the curriculum. While students from Dokis First Nation who were integrated into public schools were spared the physical abuses of the residential school system, they were exposed to very real abuses because of Eurocentric assumptions about the purpose of education to
274 The mandate of Sudbury’s postsecondary Aboriginal student center is “Dedicated to promoting full access, participation and success for First Nations, Metis, and Inuit students.” See, “Aboriginal Student Affairs,” Laurentian University, http://laurentian.ca/aboriginal-student-affairs. 275 Turner, Interview. 276 All of the individuals from Dokis First Nation who were interviewed for this project reported not utilizing guidance and support services within the schools that they attended.
51 assimilate and civilize.277 Within these assumptions direct links to residential schools can be seen. In the 1960s students from Dokis First Nation and neighbouring communities were given vitamins and other medications determined to be necessary for good health.278 While the students during this time period were too young to remember exactly what types of health care they were receiving, the experience is reminiscent of Canadian nutritional experiments on
Aboriginal students in residential schools between 1942 and 1952.279 Although students from
Dokis First Nation were given vitamins and other medications rather than denied medications that were essential to treat certain illnesses or to combat the malnutrition of students in residential schools, they do not recall ever giving consent or having their parents give consent for the administration of health care.280 Furthermore, students who were not classified as
“status Indians” as defined by the federal government’s Indian Act, were denied dental care and eye exams, in the same way as Aboriginal students in residential schools, and were expected to fund their own education whereas their status, and non-Aboriginal counterparts, were funded by the federal and provincial governments.281 While a true comparison can not be made between Aboriginal experiences in residential schools and public schools in Ontario, the documented experiences of students in both systems suggest that education during, and post, residential school years, was founded on the bureaucracy of the federal government and the department of Indian Affairs, Eurocentric understandings of knowledge, health, and civility, and
277 For information on the physical diseases and sexual abuse that residential school students endured, see Richard Wagamese, Indian Horse (Madeira Park: Douglas & McIntyre, 2012), 44, 50-55, 80-82; Kevin D. Annett, Hidden From History: The Canadian Holocaust, The Untold Story of The Genocide of Aboriginal Peoples by Church and State in Canada (Vancouver: The Truth Commission into Genocide in Canada, 2005); Roland Chrisjohn, Sherri Young and Michael Maraun, ed., The Circle Game: Shadows And Substance in the Indian Residential School Experience in Canada (Penticton: Theytus Books, 2006); Ward Churchill, Kill the Indian, Save the Man: The Genocidal Impact of American Indian Residential Schools (San Francisco: City Lights Books, 2004); Elizabeth Graham, The Mush Hole; Celia Haig-Brown, Resistance and Renewal: Surviving the Indian Residential School (Vancouver: Arsenal Pulp Press, 1988); Miller, Skyscrapers Hide the Heavens; John S. Milloy, A National Crime: The Canadian Government and the Residential School System 1879-1986 (Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press, 1999); Rogers, Degagne, and Dewar, ed., Speaking My Truth; Robert P. Wells, Wawahte (Trafford Publishing, 2012). 278 Art Restoule, Interview; Sawyer, Interview. 279 Between 1942 and 1952 the Canadian government, in collaboration with nutritional experts, used vitamin supplements on Aboriginal peoples to study malnutrition and diseases such as tuberculosis that plagued Aboriginal communities in Canada. See, Ian Mosby, “Administering Colonial Science: Nutrition Research and Human Biomedical Experimentation in Aboriginal Communities and Residential Schools, 1942-1952,” Histoire Sociale/Social History 46 (2013): 149-151. 280 The studies conducted on Aboriginal peoples by the federal government and nutritional experts between 1942 and 1952 were done without consent. See, Mosby, “Administering Colonial Science,” 166. 281 Sawyer, Interview.
52 obvious racism through a denial of basic human rights to Aboriginal students, both status and non-status.
By the 1970s and 1980s some members of Dokis First Nation had more positive experiences in public schools. However, these experiences continued to be characterized by epistemic discrimination because of the authority of Indian Affairs and the provincial government, the lack of cultural resources and training available to teachers, and the exclusion of Anishinaabe language and culture within the public curriculum. While Aboriginal students were recognized as a distinct cultural group with unique customs, beliefs, and history, they were not considered worthy of inclusion in the provincial curriculum.282 Furthermore, these students continued to encounter racial discrimination from teachers and students, and were denied access to cultural resources within the schools that they attended. Students in the
1970s and 1980s experienced similar difficulties as those in the 1960s, including a disconnection from Anishinaabe language and culture, unstable sense of identity, isolation from family and community, and racial discrimination.
While the stories shared are in many ways specific to individuals of Dokis First Nation and their connection to their traditional lands and way of life, “this is a global history written through the windows of local experiences.”283 Their stories represent the historic mistreatment of Aboriginal peoples throughout Canada, as well as the hopes for the future of education that many local communities have continued to fight for following the National Indian Brotherhood’s
1972 recommendations expressed in Indian Control of Indian Education. On November 26,
2013 Chief Denise Restoule, along with other leaders from First Nations communities throughout Canada, responded to Minister Bernard Valcourt’s proposed legislation on First
282 Evidence that Aboriginal peoples were beginning to be acknowledged as having their own cultures and ways of learning can be found in Ontario Ministry of Education, People of Native Ancestry (1975); Ontario Ministry of Education, People of Native Ancestry (1977); and Ontario Ministry of Education, People of Native Ancestry (1981). 283 Scott Rutherford, “Canada’s Other Red Scare: Rights, Decolonization, and Indigenous Political Protest in the Global Sixties” (PhD diss., Queen’s University, 2011), 2.
53 Nations education.284 In her letter, Chief Restoule suggested that the current system of education for First Nations students is rooted in the policies of assimilation that characterized residential schools and can be seen “in today’s underfunded Band-Operated Schools and the underlying assumption that First Nations should emulate the provincial education systems,” which has resulted in “a dismal 36% graduation rate among First Nations students, loss of cultural identity and poverty.”285 Dokis First Nation, along with other First Nations throughout
Canada, rejected Valcourt’s proposal for legislation. On April 10, 2014 Minister Valcourt introduced Bill C-33 to the House of Commons.286 The bill, entitled First Nations Control of
First Nations Education Act:
“will require that First Nation schools design curriculums that ensure students can transfer seamlessly between schools on and off reserve, that students meet minimum attendance requirements, that teachers are properly certified, and that First Nation schools award widely recognized diplomas or certificates.”287
These assurances only continue the history of dictating educational requirements to First
Nations communities “under threat of third-party management.” 288 While the bill provides no stipulations on the curriculum to be taught, it does demand that the curriculum meet the standards of provincial schools and also dictates the duties of school administrators and the community in meeting those standards and proving that those standards are met through frequent reports to the Minister.289 First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act, while providing stipulations for the operation of schools on First Nations territory, fails to provide standards to provincial education authorities who are responsible for the education of First
Nations students integrated into Ontario’s public schools; an education that members of Dokis
First Nation have suggested is necessary to ensure Aboriginal youth are exposed to, and successful, in Canadian society.
284 Letters to Minister Valcourt from other First Nations communities can be found at Chiefs of Ontario, www.chiefs- of-ontario.org/search/node/valcourt; Chief Denise Restoule to Honourable Minister Bernard Valcourt, November 26, 2013, “Re: Proposed National First Nations Education Legislation,” Dokis First Nation. 285 Chief Denise Restoule, 2013. 286 Bill C-33, First Nations Control of First Nations Education Act Introduced in the House of Commons, 2014. 287 Bill C-33, 2014. 288 Chief Denise Restoule, 2013. 289 Section 35 (1) – (5), Bill C-33, 2014.
54 The stories of individuals from Dokis First Nation illuminate the need to increase funding for Aboriginal students, allow more local control for First Nations communities in regards to teacher hiring and school administration, and to create a curriculum that integrates Aboriginal perspectives throughout all subject areas and allows for specific courses to deal with Aboriginal history and languages. It is clear, based on the National Indian Brotherhood’s Indian Control of
Indian Education, and responses such as Chief Denise Restoule’s to Minister Valcourt’s Bill C-
33, that First Nations education in Canada has continued to be arbitrarily administered by federal and provincial authorities, with little consideration of the needs of First Nations students and the demands of First Nations communities. While opinions may differ among members of
Dokis First Nation, and members of other First Nations throughout Canada, the stories I have heard regarding First Nations education in the past and the goals for its future, suggest that only by integrating Aboriginal land, language, identity, and culture into public school curriculum, and First Nations parents and elected representatives into school administration and classroom instruction, will education in Canada be truly integrative of the original inhabitants of this country. A return to segregated education controlled by federal authorities is not what will benefit students from Dokis First Nation. While non-Aboriginal educators and administrators may suggest it is impossible to truly integrate all cultures, a complete reorganization of public education in Ontario that recognizes Aboriginal Canadians as important founders of and contributors to this country, both in the past and present, is necessary to create an “integration of hearts and minds,” rather than “only a physical presence.”290
290 Chief Dan George in Kirkness, “Aboriginal Education in Canada,” 5.
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Multimedia
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