NEWS FROM SCHOOL: LANGUAGE, TIME, AND PLACE IN THE NEWSPAPERS OF 1890s INDIAN BOARDING SCHOOLS IN CANADA JANE GRIFFITH A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN THE FACULTY OF EDUCATION YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO October 2015 © Jane Griffith, 2015 ii ABSTRACT Though few documents remain showing exactly how English was taught at Indian boarding schools (a term that includes both residential schools in Canada as well as their counterpart in the U.S.), some schools produced newspapers. Newspaper production at boarding schools occurred for almost 100 years and in diverse regions across both Canada and the U.S. In this dissertation, I focus on five newspapers produced at four nineteenth-century Indian boarding schools in Canada, arguing that these documents and the printing programs that produced them afford a rare glimpse into language instruction in situ. They feature writing by teachers and students as well as audiences that included community members, governing bodies, and parents. These newspapers participated in an assimilative agenda but, I argue, also feature ways in which students resisted as well as resignified and repurposed English for their own needs. Despite the schools’ agenda to erase Indigenous languages, promoting what Andrea Bear Nicholas calls “linguicide,” students demonstrated in school newspapers their ability to maintain Indigenous languages and learn English. And while much research suggests a separation between boarding schools in Canada and boarding schools in the U.S., these newspapers reveal evidence of both commonalities and communication across the border, particularly as the two systems began. Through school newspapers, this dissertation aims to contribute to what Dwayne Donald calls “excavating the colonial terrain.” This research views school newspapers as complex evidence of the disciplinary techniques driving discourses of settler colonialism as well as Indigenous students’ resistance and responses. By investigating their multiple purposes and audiences, I argue iii nineteenth-century school newspapers both represented and attempted to constitute language, time, and place for readers and served as a testament to linguicide. Yet even within the tightly controlled narrative of the newspaper, students resisted in their own ways and used newspapers to articulate something of their own experiences and strategies of survivance. This research asks how we might come to understand these documents in a post-Truth and Reconciliation Commission (but not post-truth and reconciliation) Canada today. iv DEDICATION To Derek S. Turnbull, who was with me on my first day of university and continues to serve as an inspiration. v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Because this is an archival project, I have many archivists and institutions to thank: the Residential School Survivors Centre at Algoma University (thanks especially to Krista McCracken); the Provincial Archives of Alberta; the British Columbia Archives; the Anglican General Synod Archives; the Esplanade Archives of Medicine Hat; the Newberry Library; the Cumberland County Historical Society (in particular Barbara Landis); Rebecca Murray at Library and Archives Canada; Deschâtelets Archives; Saskatchewan Archives Board; Archives of Manitoba; and the Haskell Cultural Center and Museum—huge thanks belong especially to Rhonda LeValdo and Karen Gillis. I also wish to thank the interlibrary loan staff at both the University of Michigan and York University. I received generous support from the Faculties of Graduate Studies and Education at York University, the York Graduate Student Association, SSHRC, the History Education Network/Histoire et éducation en réseau, and Fulbright. Thanks also go to those behind the scenes: Laura Greco, Loretta Fiorini, and Elizabete Petersons. Big thanks belong to the many scholars who have read this work, inspired this work, and helped in other ways: Paul Axelrod, Martin Cannon, Warren Crichlow, Susan Dion, Dwayne Donald, Gregory Dowd, Theodore Fontaine, Maureen Heinen, Jennifer Jenson, Randy Kapashesit, Jeffrey Mirel, Mary Leigh Morbey, Nicholas Ng-A-Fook, Andrea Bear Nicholas, Carolyn Podruchny, Myra Rutherdale, and David Wallace. Thanks especially go to Phil Deloria for my research year at the University of Michigan as well as members of the Sweetland Writing Group and the Spolum family. vi My committee has shaped this project in countless ways. I greatly appreciate the mentorship and close reading of all my committee members, who pushed me in so many directions—especially Lisa Farley and Celia Haig-Brown. I am also grateful for the guidance of Brenda Child, Boyd Cothran, and Aparna Mishra Tarc. Karen Stanworth, my supervisor, deserves especial gratitude: Karen—I will never approach an archive in the same way! This research would not have been possible without your generosity as a teacher and scholar. Finally, I wish to thank my students, friends, and family both back home and in Ontario who supported me during graduate school. Special thanks go to several women: Rebecca Beaulne-Stuebing, Kelly Bergstrom, Audrey Hudson, Stephanie Matchiwita, Nikole Pascetta, and Kim Tavares. Particular praise belongs to Cristyne Hébert, whose friendship knows no bounds. Thanks to my mom, dad, and siblings for their encouragement along the way. And last but not least, my partner—I could not have written this without your humour, feedback, and kindness. vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................................. II DEDICATION ............................................................................................................................................ IV ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ......................................................................................................................... V LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................................................................... VIII LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................................... IX CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................... 1 BOARDING SCHOOL HISTORY ..................................................................................................................... 8 LITERATURE REVIEW ................................................................................................................................13 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ......................................................................................................................19 DISSERTATION OUTLINE AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...............................................................................32 CHAPTER 2: METHODS AND METHODOLOGY ..............................................................................38 INDIGENOUS PEOPLES AND ARCHIVES .......................................................................................................41 METHODOLOGY AND METHODS ................................................................................................................50 ARCHIVE 1: ANGLICAN GENERAL SYNOD ARCHIVES, TORONTO ..............................................................58 ARCHIVE 2: DESCHÂTELETS ARCHIVES, OTTAWA .....................................................................................60 ARCHIVE 3: CUMBERLAND COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY, PENNSYLVANIA ............................................62 ARCHIVE 4: HASKELL INDIAN NATIONS UNIVERSITY, LAWRENCE, KANSAS .............................................64 CHAPTER 3: THE LABOUR OF PRINTING ........................................................................................67 THE TRADE OF PRINTING ...........................................................................................................................69 PRINTING ON DISPLAY ...............................................................................................................................85 LEADERS AND READERS ............................................................................................................................98 BARRIERS TO PRINTING JOBS: THE CASE OF GILBERT BEAR ...................................................................112 CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................................117 CHAPTER 4: ENGLISH IN SCHOOL NEWSPAPERS.......................................................................120 CONTEXT FOR NEWSPAPERS: THE IDEOLOGY OF ENGLISH ONLY .............................................................123 ENGLISH LANGUAGE PEDAGOGIES, TOOLS, AND TECHNOLOGIES ...........................................................136 ENGLISH AND ..........................................................................................................................................151 CONCLUSION ...........................................................................................................................................161 CHAPTER 5: INDIGENOUS LANGUAGES IN SCHOOL NEWSPAPERS .....................................163 RESISTANCE: UNSANCTIONED LANGUAGE ..............................................................................................165