The Politics of Education In Moose Factory, Ontario

JOHN S. LONG

Moose Factory, Ontario

This study1 study examines the politics of education at the com­ munity level in the predominantly Native community of Moose Fac­ tory, Ontario, during a debate over the site of a new elementary school. Two-thirds of the community's elementary school children live on an Indian reserve, but an integrated school system has pro­ vided for their education on federal land off-reserve since 1957. Since few of the non-Natives living in the community today have school-age children,2that educational system served to integrate children from the reserve with other Native children living off-reserve — members

'This discussion focuses only on elementary school education. My understand­ ing of community politics has been obtained through observation and through nu­ merous informal conversations in Moose Factory since 1972. I am grateful to sev­ eral effective teachers: Norman Wesley and Mervin Cheechoo have explained the Moose Band's viewpoint, while Fred Moore, Ruby McLeod and Herbert McLeod have suggested the changing social position of the Metis. Pat Chilton, who was Business Administrator and, later, Board Chairman during many of these de­ velopments, also shared his insights and clarified several points. Gilbert Faries provided essential information on the early history of the Board. Bob Mitchell, Supervisory Officer with the Ontario Ministry of Education, explained the Min­ istry's viewpoint. Professors Richard J. Preston and Stephen B. Lawton made helpful comments on an earlier draft of this paper. 2 When the hospitalfirst opened , there were few Native employees and the largely transient non-Natives had enough children of school age to demand their own school (see page 11). By the 1970s this situation had changed, so that there were fewer non-Natives and thus fewer children of school age.

183 184 JOHN S. WNG of other Indian bands from eastern and western J ames Bay, non- 'I status Indians and Metis. A 5.4 million dollar school was planned to be built off-reserve, with the provincial government contributing two million dollars on behalf of off-reserve residents, and the federal government providing the Moose Band's three million dollar share. After the community school board had awarded a contract to build the school, contro­ versy erupted publicly over the tradition of integrated education in a school located off-reserve. Some Moose Band members favoured a new school on their reserve, but they did not necessarily want a seg­ regated school. Under existing provincial law, however, such a school could only have served their children, since the province was unable to build on federal (reserve) land. At issue was the question of who should control education in the community- a board representing the entire island community, or a dual system with Moose Band and the off-reserve residents managing separate operations. The resulting conflict revealed an apparent, but much misunder­ stood, discontinuity- a seeming split in the community; in fact, the basis for this division had existed for decades.

Historical and Social Background From the early 19th century, there were two groups of Native people in the James Bay region: a minority of mixed European and Native ancestry who resided at the posts, and a majority who hunted and trapped for the Hudson's Bay Company. In 1905, with the sign­ ing of Treaty No. 9 in northern Onta1:o, this dual division of the Native population was selectively emphasized. After 1905, we can speak of an lndian-Metis split at Moose Factory but not at nearby Fort Albany on western James Bay (Long 1985). Moose Factory declined in importance following the completion of the Timiskaming and Northern Ontario (later the Ontario North­ land) Railway in 1931 and the growth of the mainland village of Moosonee, first established as a Revillon Freres trading post. The island community was not completely eclipsed, however, for the rail­ head was near enough that the island remained an administrative headquarters for the Anglican Church, which operated a residential and day school there, as well as a small hospital. In addition, the federal government maintained regional offices on the island for the POLITICS OF EDUCATION 185

Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the Indian Affairs Department. For the Moose Factory Metis, exclusion from Treaty No. 9 had little impact for several years. The Indians received their $4 per per­ son treaty money annually, but a Metis like William McLeod earned a yearly salary of $235 by working as a Hudson's Bay Company carpenter in 1909, plus food rations and housing (Judd 1983). In ad­ dition to their economic advantage, some Metis prided themselves on their social status. This became clear when the century-old distinc­ tion between Metis HBC servants and Indian hunter-trappers began to break down, a change which distressed at least some of the Metis. William McLeod's daughter-in-law, Ruby McLeod (nee Carey), born in 1900, recalls the early years of this century:

Everybody was religious around here. They used to go to church with all their children. And they had an Indian service, Cree service, in the afternoon. And the white people, all the halfbreeds would go to church before dinner. And they all had their own pews in church, each family. That's what they done. And the Indians didn't mix up with the morning service; it was only for the halfbreeds. And then they used to have an Indian service after dinner. (R. McLeod 1985)

Ruby blames the Reverend J.T. Griffin, an Anglican missionary stationed at Moose Factory from 1921 to 1926, for changing this orderly system:

So, I don't know, some fellow didn't like that, some minister. Mr. Griffin they called him. My father-in-law went to church and he stood at the door. "What's the matter with you?" Mr. Griffin told him. "Well," he said, "my seat is just full of Indians. Kids," he says. "Oh," he says, "there's a lot of seats in church. You don't have to have [that] one for a seat," he told him. "There's a lot of seats." "But I'm not going to walk all over the church if I come to church. I like my old pew," he says, "for all my family". "Oh," he says, "there's no [reserved] pews. They're all free," he said. "For anybody." That was Griffin. That's what he thought. It's him what put a stop to that. And so they were sitting all over the church. Now today they sit anyplace. And people used to befine when everybody had their own pews, you know. There was the Moores and the McLeods and the Careys and MacDonalds. All of them. They all had their own seats. It used to be nice like that. The whole family would go, you see. To church. And he come and 186 JOHN S. LONG

changed it, of course. He told them to sit where they like. "The seats are not paid for," he says, [laughs] That [was] Griffin. (R. McLeod 1985)

Statements about the Indians and Metis being "one big family" at Moose Factory a few decades ago must be critically examined. They may reflect a longing for the old days when everybody had a de­ fined social status. The social stratification of the fur trade provided satisfaction for Indians and Metis alike. When Metis HBC servants like Herbert McLeod visited Indians on their trapping grounds, they were "treated as guests of honour":

When we arrived, we did not have to do anything! Our dogs were taken care of by the boys, and all the loads were taken in and opened up. They had a very fineten t for us to stay in with nice, clean brush, and the part where we were to sleep had some canvas which was taken from an old canoe, but was very clean. We did not have to cook for ourselves, also wood and water was all taken in for us. (H. McLeod 1978:16)

Back in the settlement, the Metis served as bilingual cultural bro­ kers (Paine 1971). William McLeod was John Cooper's interpreter and Ruby McLeod served the same function for Regina Flannery in the early 1930s. As long as the Indians spent most of the year hunting and trapping, they were their own bosses, and visitors to their traplines were their guests. Griffin recognized that this system was already breaking down in the 1920s, as more and more Indian children attended school and learned to speak English, and as some Indians began to work year-round for the HBC, Revillon Freres or the Anglican mission (see also Blythe ti al 1985:31ff). The Metis' social space was being violated not only in the settle­ ment but also in the mud flats of James Bay. Fred Moore, a Metis born in 1914, recalls the hunting restrictions that resulted as the Canada-US Migratory Birds Convention was enforced: "That law never come in here 'til the Mounties come in [1929]. That's the only fellas we had here, and they were getting pretty strict. That was just about the time the railway come through." Speaking of earlier conditions, he stated, "You could go out like an Indian, and go and hunt geese wherever you felt like it, Metis or halfbreed or whatever you want to call it. Everybody was together. You'd go and sit in a blind with a treaty guy" (Moore 1985). The selective enforcement of hunting, trapping or fishing restrictions reinforced the notion of the POLITICS OF EDUCATION 187

Metis as a people apart and, now, a group with few if any advantages over the Indians. Unfortunately, we know little of the Indians' view of the Metis at Moose Factory. A recent incident illustrates one Indian's attitude to­ ward Company servants. Two retired Company servants were sitting on a bench near the riverbank at the end of a hot summer day. An elderly Cree canoe-taxi driver, his day of ferrying people back and forth to Moosonee now over, happened to walk by. "You wouldn't be able to sit there if it wasn't for me," he told them in Cree, "I trapped a lot of furs for the Hudson's Bay, and they cheated me." The infer­ ence was that their salaries and pension cheques were earned at his expense. In 1905 the Moose Factory Crees had selected their reserve some ten miles upriver from Moose Factory Island (see map). By the 1930s they were "suffering from the combined effects of the Depression, the disappearance of game, and the construction of the railways (which made the area more accessib^ to white trappers)"; to make matters worse, the HBC ended its debt system (Blythe et al 1985:34). Most of the Crees who had begun to penetrate the Company's servant ranks found themselves unemployed after the arrival of the railroad, when the HBC moved its offices to Winnipeg (PAC 1935a). In 1932, in an effort to relieve their destitution, the local Indian Agent-doctor, Dr. Lome Tyrer, began encouraging the Moose Fac­ tory Indians to settle on their reserve and commence farming opera­ tions. This project apparently had the full support of Father Emile Saindon, an Oblate missionary. A worried Anglican, the Reverend Joseph Blackburn, wrote, "I am wondering whether this is part of the R.C. scheme of trying to reach &; win our people, for it is stated the RC's intend to build a church

non-Native influence which accompanied the railroad (PAC 1935b; Blackburn 1932). In this they were unsuccessful. If the Indians would not move to the reserve, another solution would be to create another reserve. The Moose Factory Crees had pressured the federal government for an alternative site in 1912 and again in 1930, but provincial authorities had not seemed willing to cooperate (Ontario 1905-).

The island community witnessed major changes following World War II. One end of the island was designated as a reserve for the Moose Band, an area comprising about two-thirds of the entire is­ land; this was in addition to their original reserve upriver. At the opposite end of the island, another portion was set aside as federal Crown land for a new 200-bed regional hospital-sanitarium, school lands and Indian Affairs regional administration; today the Moose Band argues that this is part of their reserve land. The intervening corridor remained in the control of the Hudson's Bay Company and the Anglican Church. Some of the largely Metis employees of the Church and the Company already resided in this central core; others relocated there, displaced by the new Indian reserve. Also living in this central core were a few Native families from the east and west coasts of James Bay, who had begun moving to Moose Factory in the 1930s.

Work on the Mid-Canada line of radar stations at Winisk and Great Whale River, on Hudson Bay, began in 1954. In 1960 construc­ tion began on another radar base at Moosonee, part of the Pine Tree Line. These developments reinforced +he importance of Moosonee as a transportation and trans-shipment centre, and also attracted numerous Indians from the west coast of James Bay who lived there as squatters (Bucksar 1971).

For some officials in the provincial and federal governments, Moose Factory may now have seemed an anachronism. Consultants to the Ontario Northland Transportation Commission recommended relo­ cating the people of Moose Factory to the mainland: "There is no advantage to be gained from the continuance of the Moose Factory community except the savings of relocation costs" (PPA 1964:26- 27). Needless to say, this suggestion was unpalatable to the people of Moose Factory. The proposal was never seriously entertained, but it demonstrates the continued existence of community rivalry. POLITICS OF EDUCATION 189

Formation of the Moose Factory School Board

During the early 1950s, Moose Factory was faced with a short­ age of school accommodation. With the establishment of the new Indian reserve and the construction of a larger hospital, many Indi­ ans belonging to the Moose Band elected to reside on the island for most of the year. This represented a major shift for many families from a bush-orientation to a settlement-orientation. The nucleus for such an Indian settlement had been initiated by a few World War II veterans. A number of these veterans were descendants of fur trade company families, former members of the Fort Albany Band who had transferred to the Moose Band. The Moose Band absorbed many Anglican Indians from other Indian Bands on the east and west coasts of James Bay during this period, drawn to the island by employment, past family and school associations, or ties of marriage. The Indian Affairs Department began a major housing project on the reserve and operated a local sawmill. More Crees from eastern and western James Bay settled off- reserve at Moose Factory as squatters on Anglican Church or federal government land. The Moose Band, seeing its new reserve becoming crowded, stopped accepting new members. Until this time the Anglican school, located off-reserve, had pro­ vided accommodation for Moose Factory's Indian and non-Indian children in an integrated system (Long 1978). The federal govern­ ment contributed educational funding for Indian students, most of whom were boarders in the residential school since their parents lived away from the settlement. The Ontario government offset the costs of educating the non-Indian day students, most of whom were Metis. The Church school was too small to accommodate an influx of stu­ dents from the newly established reserve, and the federal government began construction of an Indian day school situated on the reserve. For two years there was no school accommodation for reserve resi­ dents (Faries 1973, 1983). A large number of non-Natives, mostly transient, had been re­ cruited as staff for the island's new federal hospital. As might be expected, some of these new arrivals had young children in need of schooling. When the Anglican system could not accommodate them, a segregated school facility was arranged for the children of non- Native hospital employees. Although a few Native children living 190 JOHN S. LONG off-reserve were allowed to attend this school, Indian children from the reserve were prohibited — even if their parents were employed by the hospital (Faries 1983). Federal and provincial education officials jointly investigated the educational needs of the community. During these post-war years, integration of Indian students into the provincial school system was considered a panacea for improving the situation of Canada's Indian people. In 1948 a Special Joint Committee of the Senate and House of Commons recommended that "wherever and whenever possible Indian children should be educated in association with other chil­ dren" (Canada 1948:188). In Ontario, the Hope Commission and the Goodfellow Committee echoed the call for integration (Ontario 1950:677; Ontario 1954:18-21). The island's tradition of integrated schooling conveniently dove­ tailed with the wishes of federal and provincial education officials. It does not seem to have been a matter of islanders demanding such a system, nor of bureaucrats imposing one. When education officials inspected the island's temporarily segregated school system in the early 1950s they were introduced to Gilbert Faries, a vocal critic of the system. Gilbert Faries is a World War II veteran, a graduate of the An­ glican residential school and a former member of the Fort Albany Band who had transferred to the Moose Band. He erected one of the first homes on the new reserve and was elected Chief of the Moose Band in 1950. Although Mr. Faries was a member of the hospital staff, his children could not attend the hospital school and actually went two years without any schooling. Referring to the segregated hospital school, he recalled, "I hate to say it, I think some of them [i.e., white transients] didn't like their children mixing up with the Indian children" (Faries 1983). The shortage of accommodation and the controversy over seg­ regated day schools were resolved by the formation of a provincial Public School Board3 which took office in January of 1957. The re­ gional boarding school on the island was still administered separately

This superceded an earlier board which provided schooling for Metis, non­ status and non-Native children at the Indian residential school. In 1949 the trustees were HBC Manager R. Duncan, Anglcan Archdeacon N. Clarke and Metis Tom McLeod (Ontario 1949). POLITICS OF EDUCATION 191 and Horden Hall, a new structure, was built. Administration of thie residential operation passed from the Anglican Church to the Indian Affairs Department in 1969. The new Board, although formed under provincial law, managed school buildings situated on federal Crown land — on the Indian reserve and on the federal compound at the opposite end of the is­ land. The federal government acted as the Board's sponsor and was responsible for all capital costs. The provincial government paid a portion of the operating costs on behalf of the off-reserve residents, for there was no local tax base. In effect, the province bought edu­ cational services from the federal government. The Board was composed of three trustees appointed by the province. For its first nine years, the Board consisted of the hospital administrator, the Indian Affairs superintendent and Mr. Gilbert Faries. Together, these trustees represented the interests of the oc­ cupants of federal Crown land at each end of the island. The Indian Affairs office administered the Board's finances and maintained its buildings. No one represented the Metis, non-status and other Indi­ ans residing on the central strip of the island. By December of 1963 the Board was responsible for an annual budget of over $140,000, a staff of 18 teachers and an enrolment of 357 students from kindergarten to grade ten. A dozen students attended grade nine and ten academic classes on the island, while another 19 took technical or vocational or advanced academic courses in North Bay or other communities (Moose Factory 1963). In 1964 the Board hired its own business administrator and as­ sumed responsibility for educating about 200 Indian residential school students in what was now a fully integrated school system (Faries 1983). The residential school drew its clientele from Moose Factory and other coastal or inland Bands in Ontario and Quebec. The super­ intendent of Indian Affairs was replaced on the Board by the adminis­ trator of the student residence. Federal education officials considered the Moose Factory school system one of the most advanced in the country (Waller 1965). There was still no representation for those residing on Church or Hudson's Bay Company land in the central strip. The Moose Factory school system was fragmented, using class­ room space in six different buildings at opposite ends of the is­ land. The Board confidently took steps to centralize and modernize 192 JOHN S. LONG

its facilities, and hired an architect. Plans were drawn for a new school and the Indian Affairs Department was approached for fund­ ing (Faries 1983). This hoped-for school, sponsored by the federal government, was never built. Enrolment had peaked and the num­ ber of residential students declined over the next decade as Moose Factory lost its former role as James Bay's regional school. Day schools were constructed on other Indian reserves and settlements in the region, and the Quebec clientele became administered separately within that province. In addition, the federal government undoubt­ edly had second thoughts about assuming the financial responsibility for school buildings attended by children who were not a federal re­ sponsibility — i.e., the off-reserve residents of Moose Factory. The construction of an elaborate education centre in the main­ land community of Moosonee likely consumed any capital money which might have been allocated to Moose Factory. In the words of Gilbert Faries, then Chairman of the Moose Factory Board, "I'm sure the money that was supposed to go to that [elementary] school is over in JBEC [the James Bay Education Centre in Moosonee] right now . . . because we had our plan right up to the working drawings when all of a sudden they were shelved ... As a matter of fact, the plan of JBEC is almost identical to the plan we had for our school over here" (Faries 1983). No progress was made towards improving the school facilities at Moose Factory.

Recent Developments

The 1970s witnessed the formation in Ontario of Grand Council Treaty No. 9 (now called the Nishnabe-Aski Nation), a political fed­ eration of the Treaty 9 Chiefs. Within the space of a few years the activities of the Grand Council, especially its high profile during the early hearings of the Royal Commission on the Northern Environ­ ment, raised the expectations of many of its constituents, frustrated by years of restriction under the management of the Indian Affairs Department and the rapid erosion of their culture and language. In 1977 the Grand Council announced its Nishnabe-Aski Declara­ tion, proclaiming the region's Ojibway and Cree people a "free and sovereign nation". This declaration of independence asserted that "solutions to our problems must come from within our local com­ munities. The right to deal with those problems must rest with our POLITICS OF EDUCATION 193 people." By the year 2000 the Declaration sought to achieve "spir­ itual, cultural, social and economic independence" (Grand Council 1977; Rickard 1977). Although education was not specifically mentioned in this doc­ ument, it must be understood to be a critical area on three counts: the crucial role of the school in enculturating young people through its formal curriculum and its value-laden hidden curriculum, the sub­ stantial annual costs of education which Indian Bands seek to control, and the employment possibilities for Band members in an all-Indian school. Political developments in northern Ontario reflected the nation­ wide rejection of Prime Minister Trudeau's 1969 proposal for termi­ nating Indian status (Weaver 1981). Education was quickly iden­ tified as a priority area in the post-1969 re-assertion by Canadian Indians of their right to be different. In 1972 the National Indian Brotherhood issued a position paper entitled Indian Control of In­ dian Education which was quickly adopted as a policy guide by the Indian Affairs Department and has had a major influence on Native education ever since. The report emphasized what it called two ba­ sic concepts in a blueprint for "education in a democratic country . . .parental responsibility [and] local control" (NIB 1972). In Ontario, a Task Force on the Educational Needs of Native Peo­ ples was established to consult with the province's Indians and also the Metis and non-status Indians. The finalrepor t of the Task Force recommended that the federal and provincial governments "adjust their policies and practices so that Native peoples are involved in all phases of the education of their children and . . . assume more responsibility for the provision of that education" (Ontario 1976). Community control of education was already an accomplished fact in the island community of Moose Factory. The Board had developed from a three-person Board with only one representative from the Indian reserve, and two from federal government agencies at the opposite end of the island, into a truly representative (though not elected) body. By the early 1970s the reserve had two trustees, while a third trustee represented the off-reserve area including the previously un­ represented centre strip. This 2:1 ratio accurately reflected the pro­ portion of students living on- and off-reserve. It also reflected the fact that all capital funding and a majority of operating costs were 194 JOHN S. LONG

met by the federal government. When the Board evolved from an ap­ pointed to an elected Board, it became the only elected government body serving the entire island community. The Band, meanwhile, had increasingly assumed responsibility for the administration of programs once handled by the local Indian Affairs Department, beginning with housing, welfare and tourism ventures. While the Band had chosen its own Chief and Council since the signing of the treaty in 1905, there has been no comparable elected municipal organization for off-reserve residents. Band members are quick to point out that development of the island's services always took place at the opposite end of the island, away from the reserve, in the federal compound. The sewage system in the federal compound does not include the reserve. The fire de­ partment is located in the federal compound. The community centre is in the federal compound. The school system is centred in the fed­ eral compound. These buildings and services, along with new fire trucks and road graders, they say, were acquired with Indian Affairs money. Clearly, many Band members felt that enough was enough, and it was time for their reserve to develop.

The New School

The Moose Factory Board continued to press for a new school, but with little success. By the late 1970s the Board investigated sev­ eral possibilities, rejecting the concept of a Band-controlled federal school on the reserve. It concluded that there were only two options, both of which meant remaining a provincial public school board. The choice was between sponsorship by the Indian Affairs Department as a board on tax exempt land (The Education Act 1983, Sec. 70), or joint funding by both levels of government (on a per capita basis) as a district school area board (The Education Act 1983, Sec. 62). Munroe Linklater was then Chairman of the Board and concur­ rently Chief of the Moose Band. He is a World War II veteran, a graduate of the Anglican residential school system and another for­ mer member of the Fort Albany Band. Under his leadership the Board held two public meetings to discuss the two options facing them. The status quo was not appealing after two fruitless decades. By forming a district school area board (DSAB), a new jointly-funded elementary school built off-reserve was virtually guaranteed. One of POLITICS OF EDUCATION 195 the Board's existing buildings was already considered unsafe. Hoping to expedite the construction of a new school the Board, with evident community support after holding two public meetings on the issue, opted to change its status. There were, undoubtedly, some Band members who disagreed with this decision but their opin­ ions were not made public at this time. In February of 1980 the Moose Factory Island DSA Board was created. The composition of the new Board upset the balance of rep­ resentation and power in the community. The off-reserve area, des­ ignated the official school district, was awarded three trustees. Chil­ dren living on the reserve were designated non-residents of the school district, and the reserve was allocated two representatives on the Board — the maximum allowed under Ontario law (The Education Act 1983, Sec. 165, Subsec. 4-6). This Formula no longer reflected the demographic composition of the community, since the reserve supplied 62% of the students but had only 40% representation.4This effect was known in advance, and was explained to those who at­ tended the public meetings; the Board attempted, unsuccessfully, to negotiate increased Band representation. Against this setback the Moose Band received vastly increased financial controls since the new Board would have to negotiate tu­ ition agreements and capital cost-sharing agreements directly with the Band, not with the Indian Affairs Department. Increased fi­ nancial control and fair representation were, for the Moose Band, entirely separate issues — one did not offset the other. Plans for the new elementary school went ahead against a backdrop of anger, resentment, suspicion and fear. Why had the provincial Ministry of Education not drafted special legislation to fit the unique representation needs of Moose Factory? The Ministry envisaged a regional Board which would amalgamate the Moose Factory school system with nearby Moosonee under one administration (Ontario 1973, 1981, 1982). Inter-community rivalry and the amalgamation issue further complicated the new school con­ troversy. A few months after the new five-person Board was formed, the

••Alternatively, the number of trustees might be calculated proportional to the number of electors, or to the total population rather than to the number of school children. 196 JOHN S. WNG

Moose Band elected a new and younger chief, David Fletcher. Once elected, the new Chief and Council challenged the Board's decision to build a new school off-reserve. A general meeting of Band members was held in November of 1981. The members present voted by a show of hands to support the Board's decision. This vote reflected a practical concern that selection of a reserve site would have further delayed school construction. It also served to reinforce the island 'tradition of integrated education. Having taken this issue to its constituents, the aand Council had little choice but to pass a resolution: in favour of the off-reserve site. Band Council resolutions (BCRs) have little legal status to begin with (Canada 1984), but serve as indicators of opinion or advice at a given time\ · The BCR did not irrevocably commit the Band to the off-reserve site,\. although it certainly appeared otherwise to Ministry officials. It was later learned that this BCR ·had no legal status whatsoever, since a quorum was lacking ·at the Council meeting when it was passed. In 1982 the Board engaged an architect to design a new school to serve alLt_he children in the community. In October of that year, Rodger Allari, a Commissioner appointed by Ontario's Minister of Education highlighted the amalgamation issue while visiting the area (Allan 1983). Materials for the construction of the new school began to arrive at the railhead in Moosonee, awaiting trans-shipment to the island over the winter ice road. Biennial Band elections were scheduled for December. The in­ cumbent was defeated at the polls and replaced by another member of his generation, Ernest Rickard. Escalated fears of amalgamation, highlighted by the Commissioner's visltJ, resulted in pressure being applied on the Ministry by the Nishnabe-Aski Nation on behalf of the Moose Band: if the Ministry did not halt its amalgamation plans, the Band threatened to withhold its share of the capital funding for the new school. The Ministry deemed it expedient to defer further discussion of the amalgamation proposal. More building materials for the new school were shipped to Moosonee by rail and then trucked to the is­ land. The Board engaged a contractor to build their new school. The Band, through its two trustees, had seemingly committed its three million dollar share pf the five million dollar school. The provincial share was already guaranteed. But Chief Rickard and others still questioned the off-reserve site. POLITICS OF EDUCATION 197

The chairmanship of the Board passed, for a time, into the hands of one of the Band's trustees. The Board's Secretary-Treasurer/Busi­ ness Administrator was also a Band member. With Moose Band Indians as Chairman and Secretary-Treasurer, the Band had consid­ erable behind-the-scenes control, but this too was a separate issue. It did not offset the concern with underrepresentation. Building materials worth two million dollars sat stockpiled near the proposed school site. As the end of March approached, Min­ istry of Education officials in the North Bay Regional Office faced a dilemma. These materials had been purchased and shipped on the basis of what had seemed to them a reasonable assumption: that the community (including Moose Band, as indicated by its BCR) sup­ ported the school site. A Ministry official explained the Ministry's frustration:

As early as 1979 I attended a meeting of representatives of the Moose Factory Island DSA Board, D.I.A.N.D., Moose Band, and Ministry of Education, at which a verbal agreement was made to build a new school on a cost-sharing basis [on the Board's] site. Band Resolution #271 supported the new school and site. A letter from Mr. G.A. Mullin, Director of Education, Ontario Region, D.I.A.N.D., to J.J. Sullivan [Regional Director of Education, Ontario Ministry of Education, North Bay] in October of 1981 officially stated that D.I.A.N.D. had projected $3,150,000 toward the new school, that the school would be on the [Board's] site, and that his department had no plans or funds to construct a federal school on the reserve. Given the ground rules of the Education Act and the agreements in writing of all parties concerned, the board proceeded in good faith with its plans for the new school, hired an architect, tendered for a contractor, and the project was underway. The board, with the support of the Ministry of Education, continued to fulfill its legal and contractual obligations, while other parties treated their verbal and written agreements as if they had never been made. (Mitchell 1984)

Chief Rickard announced that a referendum would be held on the reserve to determine whether Band members really supported the off-reserve site; no definite date was set for the voting. If the federal share, controlled by the Band, was not committed to the off-reserve school by April 1 (start of a new fiscalyear) , it was ru­ mored that the project would be cancelled and the Board would lose its provincial allotment of capital funds. The school would not be built, the contractor would initiate a law suit, construction would be delayed indefinitely and the materials would sit unused. 198 JOHN S. LONG

The province could not share the costs of an Indian-controlled school on reserve. Section 171 of The Education Act gives a board authority to acquire a school site by purchase, expropriation or lease. The school site must lie within its area of jurisdiction, or in an ad­ joining provincial school district. Since Indian reserves do not he within such jurisdictions, boards cannot build schools there. To some observers it seemed that Chief Rickard and his support­ ers simply did not understand the rules of the game, as defined by The Education Act. This was not the case. The rules were under­ stood, but they were found to be illogical and unacceptable. In a community where the majority of the students lived on the reserve, it made absolutely no sense to rule out the possibility of building a school there to serve the whole island community. There would be major difficulties involved, mainly in finding a serviceable site, and this would have delayed school construction. The Band's capital funds were being committed for several decades, and Chief Rickard and his supporters undoubtedly wanted them allocated to a project that made sense. To further complicate matters, it was now discovered that the proposed school site had not yet been transferred to the province, but was on federal Crown land. The building materials were also stockpiled on federal Crown land. Some Indian leaders suggested that the entire federal compound should be considered Indian land, in which case the federal government would not be able to release it to the provincial Board without Band approval. In fact, the entire legal status of the off-reserve land was being questioned, although ultimately the school site was leased to >,he province. During the week of March 20th, rumors spread throughout the community that the Ministry of Education had given the Band a deadline. Unless the Band committed its capital share of three mil­ lion dollars by Friday, March 25, 1983, the building materials would be trucked back across the ice road to Moosonee, where the regional secondary school was in need of new facilities. Once again, inter­ community rivalry complicated the picture. As the Ministry's apparent deadline approached, some Moose Band members, who favoured immediate construction of the school as planned, took matters into their own hands and went from door- to-door on the reserve with a petition. On Friday, March 25th, the supposed deadline, the petition organizers announced that a majority POLITICS OF EDUCATION 199 of the reserve's qualified electors approved the Board's plan. Before the afternoon was out, Chief Rickard announced that his referendum would be held on the following Tuesday. The referendum gave voters two choices, a school on-reserve or a school off-reserve. Informally, throughout the community, this simple choice was taken to mean several alternatives: a new school imme­ diately or a delay of several years; a large school for everyone or a small school on the reserve; community control or Band control; in­ tegration or segregation. When the ballots were counted on Tuesday, the Band had voted 115 to 85 in favour of the off-reserve site (i.e., the Board's plan). It is impossible to know to what degree the voters were motivated by geographical convenience, dissatisfaction with underrepresenta- tion, integrationist or isolationist views, and rejection of Ministry policy or provincial law. The previous week about 240 eligible vot­ ers had signed the petition, a face-to-face declaration rather than a secret ballot. Undoubtedly some individuals who signed the petition felt no compulsion to register their opinion again at the ballot box — only 200 Band members voted. In any event, both measures of Band opinion had favoured the Board's plan by slim majorities. One's assumptions inevitably affect the names assigned to fac­ tions. Those favouring a school on reserve could simply be called isolationists or segregationists. Such simplistic labels conceal the fact that many of these people were only rejecting the provincial restriction on school sites. Some will argue that, in doing so, they were not being realistic. I am more inclined to believe that their rejection of provincial formulas is a trend that cannot be reversed. If provincial structures remain inflexible, or are perceived to be in­ flexible, this will only make a unique style of Aboriginal government more appealing to Native people. Similarly, the other faction might be called integrationists, but this ignores the fact that most of those favouring a site on-reserve probably envisaged a school for the entire island community. If names are to be used, I favour Norm Wesley's terms "chal­ lengers" and "conformists". So many factors influenced participants in the new school referendum and petition that it is misleading to speak of factional conflict during the controversy; a focus on the Band distracts us from its changing relationships with other categories of Native people and with provincial authorities. The narrow margin 200 JOHN S. LONG of victory, however, served to emphasize the potential for factions on the reserve (see also McFeat 1983; Cheechoo 1983)

The Repercussions The Chief had seemingly lost a major issue early in his term of office. A year later, however, the situation seemed to have been much less a defeat than a temporary setback for the Band. The new off-reserve elementary school, Moose Factory Ministik [Island] School was officially opened on September 8, 1984. Moose Band, however, argued that the school site (and the entire federal com­ pound) is part of their Indian reserve. Chief Rickard was quick to perceive the importance of this issue. The Band began investigating the legal status of the federal compound land, and finally a new Chief (Ernie Sutherland) announced the claim in 1985. This could lead to vastly increased Band controls over education (and island politics in general) if the Band can win its case. The political relationship between Moose Factory's reserve and off-reserve areas is changing and complex. Expatriate beneficiaries under the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement of 1975, who live in Moose Factory (on- and off-reserve) and Moosonee, have formed an organization called MoCreeBec to represent them. North­ eastern Ontario's Metis and non-status Indians have formed their own regional organization called the Aboriginal Peoples Alliance of Northern Ontario, but this group is shrinking as members apply for Indian status following amendments to the Indian Act in 1985. An­ other interest group, off-reserve Ontario Indians from the west coast of James Bay, has no formal organization at this time. On March 8, 1984, the firstda y of a two-day First Ministers' Conference focusing on Native self-government, 33 homeowners from the island's provincial strip voted to amalgamate with the Moosonee Development Area Board. The immediate stimulus for this deci­ sion was the need for a sewage system, coupled with a realization that provincial funds for the project could only be obtained through amalgamation. Municipal amalgamation with Moosonee is symp­ tomatic of shifting political orientations; it symbolizes a lifeline for some off-reserve residents who feel threatened by Band initiatives. John Murdoch notes (personal communication) that changing polit­ ical representation has threatened to transform those who were once POLITICS OF EDUCATION 201 cultural brokers into marginal persons. In the 1960s, the Moose Factory education system was considered by government officials to be the vanguard of the future:

The most advanced move in the integration process was the formation . . . of the Moose Factory Island School Section in northern Ontario . . . The for­ mation of this school section is an advancement in Indian education because it illustrates an agreement between the Federal and the Ontario governments which, under provincial legislation, provides for the local administration of a public school for all of the children in the community, regardless of ethnic origin, under a board having Indian representation. In effect, it is the closest the Branch has come to its long-term objective of local autonomy for each Indian community. (Waller 1965:68)

Two decades later in the same community, Indian representation is inadequate under provincial law, and "control" is the byword. The goal of integration is a source of controversy. The provincial educa­ tion system seems to be inflexible on key issues. Local autonomy is now known as self-government, and its implications for the Band, the larger community and the region are uncertain.

Conclusions Within the island community of Moose Factory, some off-reserve residents feel that the Band's new-found political clout is spoiling what was once one big happy family. The truth is that there was never a single community, just an illusion, easily maintained when one community was dispersed in the bush for most of the year, and by close family ties between some Metis families and some reserve fam­ ilies. What we have is the partial breakdown of fur trade social dis­ tinctions, symbolized by the separate Indian and Metis/non-Native church services and reinforced by 20th-century hunting, trapping or fishing restrictions and the uneven distribution of Indian status. Some off-reserve residents are upset that their position is being threatened: someone else is sitting in their pews. The Moose Band is equally frustrated in its efforts to obtain what is seen as a fair share of the decision-making and in trying to reverse the island's trend of off-reserve development. Like the anecdote of the Company servant's pension, Moose Factory reserve residents feel that the off- reserve people have taken advantage of them over the years. Commu­ nity politics in many northern Native communities are rooted in the 202 JOHN S. LONG history of the fur trade, as Chalmers (1969:20) recognized, but are further complicated in north-eastern Ontario by the categorization of Native people in Treaty No. 9 Indians, MoCreeBec Indians, Metis, on-reserve Indians, off-reserve Indians, and non-status Indians.

Provincial school officials were caught by surprise when the Board's plans for a new school, which seemed to have support from the com­ munity (including the Band), unexpectedly took a new turn. After the formation of the Moose Factory Board in 1957, the Moose Band Council seldom intervened in educational matters; a major issue, changed circumstances and new leadership served to break this pat­ tern, although the potential had always been there.

The Moose Band has been frustrated by the Ministry's stance during the new school issue; it is also guaranteed a minority position in a Moosonee/Moose Factory amalgamate designed by the Ministry. A larger form of educational government involving Bands from the west coast of James and Hudson Bay, who have recently formed the Muskegog Cree Council, will obviously be Indian-controlled (see en­ rolment statistics). If this entity is to include off-reserve Moose Fac­ tory and Moosonee, it will likely conflict with the Ministry's current plans.

In October of 1985 the Muskegog Cree Council and the federal Indian Affairs Department signed a Memorandum of Agreement on the imminent transfer of the Department's programs (including ed­ ucation) to the western James and Hudson Bay Cree, perhaps as early as 1988. It is by no means certain what political forms will eventually evolve in the lower Moose River region. If the evolution of these structures seems frustrated by existing Ministry plans and provincial law, a leaked policy paper indicated that flexibleform s of Native self-government in northern Ontario are being treated as a reality by the provincial cabinet (Ontario 1985). Despite their dif­ ferences, the various Native interest groups in the region — Treaty No. 9 Indians, Metis, MoCreeBec Indians and non-status Indians — are now in a position to devise a unique Cree community or regional structure, perhaps one similar to that already in place in neighbour­ ing northern Quebec where eight communities are administered by a Cree school board. POLITICS OF EDUCATION 203

Epilogue

Island politics took a dramatic turn on 28 January, 1986, just as this article was being submitted for publication. Off-reserve home­ owners voted unanimously to reject amalgamation with Moosonee, and have opted for forming a Local Services Board. This low level of municipal organization allows optimalflexibility, including future acceptance of the Moose Band's claim to the federal compound, the aspirations of MoCreeBec and the Metis for a local land base. Moose Factory may become an island community in fact, not just in myth.

REFERENCES Allan, G. Rodger 1983 The Report of the Commission of Inquiry Regarding Small Sec­ ondary Schools in Northern Ontario, 15 February 1983. Toronto: Ministries of Education, Colleges, and Universities

Blackburn, Joseph 1932 Letter to Bishop John G. Anderson, 7 April 1932. Archives of On­ tario, Diocese of Moosonee Papers, Ms 311.

Blythe, Jennifer M., Peggy Brizinski, and Sarah Preston 1985 "I Was Never Idle": Women and Work in Moosonee and Moose Factory. Hamilton: McMaster University Research Programme for Technology Assessment in Subarctic Ontario.

Bucksar, Richard 1971 Moosonee and the Squatter Problem. Pp. 107-112 in The People Outside: Studies of Squatters, Shack Town and Shanty Residents, and Others Dwelling on the Fringe in Canada. James Lotz, ed. Ottawa: St. Paul University.

Canada 1984 House of Commons, Special Committee on Indian Self-Government. Indian Self-Government in Canada: Report of the Special Commit­ tee. Ottawa: Government Printer.

1948 Special Joint Committee Appointed . . .Indian Act. Fourth Report. Ottawa: Goverment Printer.

Chalmer, John W. 1969 Social Stratification of the Fur Trade. Alberta Historical Review 16:10-20. 204 JOHN S. LONG

Cheechoo, Sinclair 1983 Letter to the Editor, 2 April. Moosetalk.

Fairies, Gilbert G. 1973 Elementary Education — James Bay Area. Pp. 5-6 in Tricentennial Guide Book for Moose Factory. L.T. Pugh, comp. Moose Factory: privately printed.

1983 Interview, 22 March. Five page typed ms.

Grand Council Treaty No. 9 1977 A Declaration of Nishnabe-Aski, .. .Delivered . . .to Ontario Premier William Davis . . .in Toronto, Wednesday, 6 July.

Judd, Carol 1983 Housing the Homeguard at Moose Factory: 1730-1982. The Cana­ dian Journal of Native Studies 3:23-38.

Long,John 1978 Edcation in the James Bay Region During the Horden Years. On­ tario History 70:75-89.

1985 Treaty No. 9 and Fur Trade Company Families. Pp. 137-162 in The New People: Being and Becoming Metis in North America. Jacquiline Peterson and Jennifer Brown, eds. Winnipeg: University of Manitoba Press.

McFeat, Tom F. S. 1983 An Affair to Remember: Winoque 1965. Culture 3:79-90.

McLeod, Herbert F. 1978 Memories of Fur Trading Days in Moose Factory and Vicinity. John S. Long, comp. Moose Factory: privately printed.

McLeod, Ruby 1985 Taped interview, 23 June. Canadian Ethnology Service contract 1630-4M-017, tapes no. 99-100.

Mitchell, Robert E. 1984 Personal communication, 20 July.

Moore, Fred 1984 Taped interview, 27 December. Canadian Ethnology Service con­ tract 1630-4M-017, tape no. 89. POLITICS OF EDUCATION 205

1985 Taped interview, 23 June. Canadian Ethnology Service contract 1630-4M-017, tape no. 101.

Moose Factory Island Public School Board 1963 Annual Report. Ms in author's possession.

National Indian Brotherhood 1972 Indian Control of Indian Education. Ottawa: National Indian Broth­ erhood.

Ontario 1905- Ministry of Natural Resources. Indian Reserve #68,file no. 185901.

1949 Letter from Deputy Minister of Education to L.C. Sutherland, Pub­ lic School Inspector, Cocharane, 21 September. Archives of Ontario, RG 2 P-3,file 212-111 (Bishop Harden Memorial Indian Residential School).

1950 Report of the Royal Commission on Education in Ontario. J.A.Hope, Chairman. Toronto: Government Printer.

1954 Select Committee on Indian Affairs. Toronto: Government Printer. [Archives of Ontario RG 18, D-29-3-1954.]

1973 Ministry of Education Task Force on Organization Structure for Education Administration. Toronto: Ministry of Education.

1976 Task Force on the Educational Needs of Native Peoples. Toronto: Government Printer. 198lMinistry of Education, Northeast Region. Towards a James Bay Board of Education. North Bay.

1982 Ministry of Education, Northeast Region. Towards a James Bay Board of Education. North Bay.

1985 A "Lego Block" Approach to Self-Government Negotiations With the Nishnawbe-Aski Nation. Cabinet Paper dated 20 September.

Pain, Robert, ed. 1971 Patrons and Brokers in the East Arctic. St. John's: Memorial Uni­ versity.

Project Planning Associates 1964 Moosonee: A Community Development Plan. Report to the On­ tario Northland Transportation Commission. Ms in the author's possession. 206 JOHN S. LONG

Public Archives of Canada 1935a RG10 v. 3034, caption on photo C57044.

1935b RG10 v. 3034, caption on photo C57040.

Richard, Andrew 1977 An Open Letter. Indian News 18:9.

Sutherland, Willie Sr. 1984 Taped interview, 28 May. Canadian Ethnology Service contract 1630-4M-017, tape no. 46.

Waller, L.G. 1965 The Enrolment of Indian Children in Provincial Schools. Pp. 61-74 in The Education of Indian Children in Canada. L.G. Waller, ed. Toronto: Ryerson. Weaver, Sally 1981 Making Canadian Indian Policy: The Hidden Agenda 1968-1970. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. POLITICS OF EDUCATION 207

WESTERN JAMES AND HUDSON BAY 208