St. Paul’s Indian Residential School
St Paul’s Indian Residential School (also known as the Squamish Indian Residential School or St. Francis Indian Residential School) was a Canadian Indian residential school and was located in the 500 Block West Keith Road at what is now the site of St. Thomas Aquinas High School in the City of North Vancouver. It was a Roman Catholic school and operated from 1899 to 1958 by the Order of the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. The students of the school were from the adjacent Mission Reserve as well other Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh children.
History
The Parish of St Paul's was established by Father Leon Fouquet who constructed the St Paul's Indian Church which opened as a chapel in 1866. When Bishop Durieu came to the Church to work with the Squamish people he decided he wanted to provide schooling for them. He led the construction of St Paul's School, located on the Mission Reserve in North Vancouver. In 1898 he wrote to the Motherhouse of the Sisters of the Child Jesus in Lepuy, France. The First three sisters arrived on October 5, 1898, making it the first school for First Nations people on the north shore.[1] The Squamish people supported the school with food and other donations until 1900 when the Department of Indian Affairs took over administration of the school.[1] Indian Affair’s intention was to assimilate the First Nations people by denying them rights to their language, culture and traditions while forcing them to take on the take on the colonialist language, culture, traditions and Roman Catholic Religion. Residential schools were an instrumental part of the Canadian genocide of First Nations people.[2] In 1920 the Indian Act was amended and Canadian federal legislation making it mandatory for every Indian child to be sent to residential schools upon reaching 7 years of age until 16 years of age.[3] Most of children came from the surrounding Squamish Nation reserves along the Burrard Inlet, Howe Sound, and the Squamish River. Other students were from the Tsleil-Waututh and Musqueam nations, and some came from as far away as the Lil'wat (Mount Currie) band, near Pemberton, as well as the Shishalh (Sechelt) and Sto:lo peoples. Over 2000 students in six generations attended the school, arriving at between 4 and 6 years of age. The students stayed until the eighth grade, or until the age of 16 very few made it to twelfth grade graduation.[4] Children in the school were segregated by age group and gender and were often not permitted to visit other family members in the school. They were stripped of their culture and were abused as punishment for taking part in their own language or cultural traditions. There are many reports of physical, sexual and emotional abuse taking place in residential schools as well as documented homicides, sterilization, medical experimentation, malnutrition, and neglect.[2] The fatality rate in residential schools consistently sat between 40-60% for the duration of their existence in Canada, deaths were often covered up as cases pneumonia, with most records of the victims since destroyed.[2]
Contemporary Building
The St Paul’s Indian Residential School was torn down in 1959. The site was turned over to the Catholic Arch-Diocese, a Catholic School Board which supervised the building of St Thomas Aquinas Catholic High School on the grounds. First Nations students were allowed to attend this school and came from the Squamish Nation, Mt Currie and Powell River under the direction of the Department of Indian Affairs. The high school still remains on the original site today and some Squamish students still attend each year.[4]
Memorial
On August 13, 2013 the mayor of the City of North Vancouver agreed to construct a monument honoring the survivors from St Paul’s Indian Residential School.[5] The proposed memorial is an art piece in the form of a wave with a high point representing pre-European contact, a low point in the wave representing the residential school era and a rising wave with a canoe and two children representing the First Nations recovering from the experience. The base will be made of concrete and the canoe and children will be carved red cedar. This is a Squamish Nation design and installation designed by Jason Nahanee, who was a residential school survivor who started attending St. Paul’s at the age of 3, he also will be carving the red cedar elements. It will be located on the school site where St. Thomas Aquinas High School currently resides. There will be a 4’x 8’ plaque with room for at least 400 names of students that attended and will include a history of the school's opening. The designer of the plaque is a close family member of a residential school survivor named Shain Jackson. The monument was funded by Ustlahn Social Society of the Squamish Nation, The Indigenous Women's Studies Institute,The Squamish Nation, The Sisters of the Child Jesus, The Oblates of Mary Immaculate, and The City of North Vancouver. The memorial is scheduled to be completed in June 2014.[1]
References
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