By
the time she was six years old, Melvina was taken away to the St. Joseph's
Residential School in Spanish, Ontario. The photograph on the left
was taken by my grandmother who was visiting Melvina with my father around
1923.
The residential schools were legislated under the Indian Act, 1876
and funded by Department of Indian Affairs in Ottawa. They were run
under the auspices of various religious denominations, whose primary purpose
was to assimilate Indians into mainstream society. They were vocational
schools based on religious indoctrination, where boys were taught trades
and girls were given domestic training. Indian language, culture and
spirituality were prohibited, and children were not allowed to
leave. Melvina remembers the boys were separated from the girls, and
she was only allowed a few minutes a week to see her brother, who was in
the next building. She said many children tried to escape from the
school, but were always brought back and severely disciplined. My
father remembers, as a young boy, standing on shore of Aird Island with
my grandmother, watching, as his uncles George and Clayton rowed towards
them in a wooden boat. My grandmother said they were running away
because the priests were abusing them. Melvina remembers that during
the winter, they were not allowed access to coats to prevent them from
escaping. She distinctly remembers one night waking up and noticing
the bed opposite her empty. In the morning, she looked out the
window, and saw the priests coming towards her across the snow covered
field. They were carrying the frozen body of the young girl who had
tried to escape.
|