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Canada’s Residential Schools: The Inuit and Northern Experience The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Volume 2 Canada’s Residential Schools Volume 2 Canada’s Residential Schools: The Inuit and Northern Experience The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Volume 2 Published for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission by McGill-Queen’s University Press Montreal & Kingston • London • Chicago This report is in the public domain. Anyone may, without charge or request for permission, reproduce all or part of this report. 2015 Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Website: www.trc.ca ISBN 978-0-7735-4653-0 (v. 2 : bound). ISBN 978-0-7735-4654-7 (v. 2 : paperback). Printed in Canada on acid-free paper An index to this volume of the final report is available online. Please visit http://nctr.ca/trc_reports.php Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada [Canada’s residential schools] Canada’s residential schools : the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. (McGill–Queen’s Native and northern series ; 80–86) Includes bibliographical references and index. Contents: v. 1. The history. Part 1, origins to 1939 — The history. Part 2, 1939 to 2000 — v. 2. The Inuit and northern experience — v. 3. The Métis experience — v. 4. The missing children and unmarked burials report — v. 5. The legacy — v. 6. Reconciliation Issued in print and electronic formats. ISBN 978-0-7735-4649-3 (v. 1, pt. 1 : bound). ISBN 978-0-7735-4650-9 (v. 1, pt. 1 : paperback). ISBN 978-0-7735-4651-6 (v. 1, pt. 2 : bound). ISBN 978-0-7735-4652-3 (v. 1, pt. 2 : paperback). ISBN 978-0-7735-4653-0 (v. 2 : bound). ISBN 978-0-7735-4654-7 (v. 2 : paperback). ISBN 978-0-7735-4655-4 (v. 3 : bound). ISBN 978-0-7735-4656-1 (v. 3 : paperback). ISBN 978-0-7735-4657-8 (v. 4 : bound). ISBN 978-0-7735-4658-5 (v. 4 : paperback). ISBN 978-0-7735-4659-2 (v. 5 : bound). ISBN 978-0-7735-4660-8 (v. 5 : paperback). ISBN 978-0-7735-4661-5 (v. 6 : bound). ISBN 978-0-7735-4662-2 (v. 6 : paperback). ISBN 978-0-7735-9817-1 (v. 1, pt. 1 : ePDF). ISBN 978-0-7735-9818-8 (v.1, pt. 1 : ePUB). ISBN 978-0-7735-9819-5 (v. 1, pt. 2 : ePDF). ISBN 978-0-7735-9820-1 (v. 1, pt. 2 : ePUB). ISBN 978-0-7735-9821-8 (v. 2 : ePDF). ISBN 978-0-7735-9822-5 (v. 2 : ePUB). ISBN 978-0-7735-9823-2 (v. 3 : ePDF). ISBN 978-0-7735-9824-9 (v. 3 : ePUB). ISBN 978-0-7735-9825-6 (v. 4 : ePDF). ISBN 978-0-7735-9826-3 (v. 4 : ePUB). ISBN 978-0-7735-9827-0 (v. 5 : ePDF). ISBN 978-0-7735-9828-7 (v. 5 : ePUB). ISBN 978-0-7735-9829-4 (v. 6 : ePDF). ISBN 978-0-7735-9830-0 (v. 6 : ePUB) 1. Native peoples—Canada—Residential schools. 2. Native peoples—Education—Canada. 3. Native peoples—Canada—Government relations. 4. Native peoples—Canada—Social conditions. 5. Native peoples—Canada—History. I. Title. II. Series: McGill–Queen’s Native and northern series ; 80–86 E96.5.T78 2016 971.004’97 C2015-905971-2 C2015-905972-0 Contents Introduction ................................................................................................. 3 Section 1: Mission schools in the North: 1867 to 1960 ............................... 7 1. An era of neglect: Canadian government policy in the North before 1950 ....................................................................... 9 2. Laying the groundwork: Mission schools: 1850 to 1900 ...................... 13 3. Mission schools of the Northwest Territories: 1900 to 1960 ................ 17 4. Student Life at the Mission Schools ..................................................... 37 5. Education for what purpose? ................................................................ 45 6. The mission era in the Yukon ............................................................... 57 Section 2: Bureaucrats replace missionaries: Residential schooling in the North after 1950 ........................... 71 Introduction ................................................................................................. 73 7. The federal government rethinks its northern policy .......................... 75 8. The federal day schools ........................................................................ 87 9. The large hostels ................................................................................... 101 10. The small hostels .................................................................................. 151 11. Territorial administration: 1969 to 1997............................................... 163 12. The residential school experience in Arctic Québec and Labrador .... 179 Conclusion ................................................................................................... 187 Notes ............................................................................................................ 189 Bibliography ................................................................................................ 249 Canada’s Residential Schools Volume 2 Introduction esidential schooling in Canada’s North deserves its own consideration for a number of reasons. R First, its history is more recent than that of residential schooling in the rest of the country. As late as 1900 there were only two residential schools north of the sixtieth parallel. By 1950 there were only six residential schools and one hostel in the North. This slow growth reflects the fact that while the overall goals of the Canadian govern- ment’s Aboriginal policy were to assimilate, civilize, and Christianize, this policy was not applied in a uniform manner. Where there was no pressing demand for Aboriginal lands, the federal government delayed taking on the obligations that Treaties created. This was particularly true in the North. As long as there was no prospect of economic development or of the arrival of large numbers of non-Aboriginal settlers, the federal government was not prepared to negotiate with northern Aboriginal peoples. Nor was it interested in establishing reserves or residential schools—or any sort of school, for that matter. Were it not for the work of Roman Catholic and Anglican missionaries, residential schooling would have no history north of the sixtieth parallel before 1950. A second distinct feature of the situation in the North was the fact that, in the years after 1950, the Canadian government did not simply extend the existing southern res- idential school system into northern Canada. Instead the federal government created a system of day schools and hostels under the direction of Northern Affairs rather than Indian Affairs. This system was intended from the start to be integrated into, not separate from, the public school system of the day. Unlike the southern schools, the northern schools made no attempt to restrict admission to First Nations students, so Métis and Inuit, along with a number of non-Aboriginal students, also attended them. At the end of the 1960s, these schools were transferred from the federal government to the governments of the Northwest Territories and the Yukon. That jurisdictional transfer gave rise to a third difference between residential schooling in the South and in the North. From 1970 to the system’s windup in the late 1990s, residential schools were administered by northern governments. Residences were located in both of the territorial capitals of the period, and residential schooling 4 • Truth & Reconciliation Commission was the subject of far more political attention and understanding than in the rest of the country. During the system’s later years, former residential school students were serving as premiers and ministers of northern governments. Residential schooling in the North also played a major role in the rapid transfor- mation of the region’s traditional, land-based lifestyles and economies. The tremen- dous distances that Inuit and some First Nations and Métis children had to travel to school meant that, in some cases, children were separated from their parents for years. The establishment of day schools and what were termed small hostels in over a dozen communities in the eastern Arctic led many parents to decide to settle in those communities on a year-round