Were Residential Schools A Tragedy?
By Michelle Stirling ©2024
I’m not a Catholic. But I am appalled that it appears the Catholic Church is throwing decades of Canadian historical evidence and Catholic heroes under the bus in its recent sacred covenant signed between the Kamloops First Nation and the Archdioceses of Vancouver and Kamloops, which had the blessing of His Holiness.
If Truth is fundamental to Reconciliation, then let us have the Truth.
The Kamloops Indian Residential School was not imposed upon First Nations people, it was requested by First Nations people. Furthermore, it was established on land sold to the government by the Widow Le Roux, who was married to the Chief. From Leonard et al v the Queen (1976), Margaret Leonard claimed the land used by the Kamloops Indian Residential School, now no longer used as a school, should revert to her ownership, based on historical claims of her family history we find the following historical evidence.
The historical records show that the school was originally established by the government of Canada, not the Catholic Church, and at the request of the regional chiefs and with their participation. Operations were only subsequently handed over to the Catholic Church and the regional chiefs were directly involved in these negotiations. It is clear that it was the Catholic Church which had to pick up the ‘tab’ for the $50 difference in costs of annual care for a child for the full year versus the government per student stipend of $130; there is no evidence on record that the Chiefs offered to supplement the costs of care from their own tribal incomes, nor did the Chiefs elect to keep their children out of school. Clearly, they relied on the charitable nature of the Catholic Church.
Kamloops Okanagan Indian Agency
Kamloops, B.C. 14th January 1892
Sir,
I have the honour to acknowledge receipt of your letter 286 A(?) referring to the demeanour of the Indian Chiefs at Kamloops respecting the transfer of the Kamloops Industrial School to the management of the R.C. Church authorities and asking me for my report thereon
In my letter to you of the 26th last Decbr touching this question, I endeavoured to lay before you a plain statement of the facts of the case which are as follows :-
On the morning of the 26 December last the following chiefs and headmen called on me on what Alexander their spokesman represented to be very important business, we met at the Indian Office here
Louis, Chief of the Kamloops band Sushwap
André, Chief of the Chuk chuknalk band Sushwap
Narcisse Chief of the Haltkara band Sushwap
John Celestin Chief of the Spahamin band Okanagan
Alexander, a headman of the Spahamin band Okanagan
Peter Chief of the Naaik band Nhlakapmuh
Sassé Chief of the Hamilton River wintering reserve Nhakapmuh(?)
towards the close of the meeting Leon Chief of the Halant band of Sushwaps entered the Office and took part in our discussions
Alexander stated that at a meeting held on the afternoon of Christmas day a great many Indians being present. The Reverend Fathers Bedard and Le Jeune O.M.I. addressed the Indians on matters connected with the Industrial School Father Bedard spoke first and Father Le Jeune followed him.
They informed the Indians that after the end of December or rather on New Year’s day next the management of the Industrial School would be delivered to the authorities of the Roman Catholic Church; that the Government allowed the Church $130 per year for the support of each child; that that sum was insufficient and that after the first day of July next the parents and guardians of each child attending the School would have to pay to the Church $50 for every such child in order to make up a sufficient sum for each child’s proper maintenance.
The Indians were very much exercised at this heavy demand on their resources: the more so as they had been led to believe that the Department would bear the whole of the expenses incurred in respect to each child attending the school. The above meeting was held at the Kamloops reserve. I informed the Indians that as far as I knew no such measure as taxing the Indians for the support of the school was contemplated by this Department.
Mr Mara. M.P. for the Yale District happened fortunately to enter the office whilst this matter was under discussion and corroborated the remarks which I had made to the Indians.
There was something said about the Government being too poor to carry on the school or to pay more than $130 per head for the support of each scholar, I did not make a note of this remark at the time of the meeting, and I am now not clear as to the exact words used by Alexander, the alleged poverty was as I remember distinctly referred to, as being one of the points put to the Indians by the Revd Fathers as a reason for asking them for the $50 extra for each child who might receive the benefits of the maintenance and tuition offered by the school.
I have the honour to be
Sir
Your most obedient Servant
(signed) J.W. Mackay
Agent
On July 30, 1888 the Indian Superintendent in British Columbia wrote (in part) to the superintendent-general of Indian Affairs as follows concerning the selection of a school site (Exhibit 2):
I have the honor to report my return on the 28th instant from Kamloops. With respect to the erection of Industrial School buildings in the Interior, I am of the opinion that Kamloops is the most appropriate location and more centrally situated for all purposes, than any other point I could name in that region. . . .
I took several days in examining the large reserve opposite Kamloops, conferring with the Indians Etc. and have selected a site which is certainly superior in every respect.
It is situated on the south side of Mount St Paul . . . .
The Indians were delighted to hear of the proposed establishment of the School and my visit among them was of a most satisfactory character in other respects.
The Catholic Church and His Holiness seem to have accepted at face value the claim by the Kamloops First Nation that there are children’s bodies in the orchard, allegedly murdered by priests (according to some accounts) and that these bodies of children (reportedly some as young as three) were buried there by their child classmates.
If the Catholic Church admits its complicity in such heinous crimes, why is it not now before the International Criminal Court on charges of genocide?
But let us ask the question of how it is that if the Kamloops Knowledge Keepers knew this secret all along, why does it not appear in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission records?
Former chief of the Kamloops First Nation is Manny Jules. Both he and his sister Diena Jules were attending Kamloops Indian Residential School at the same time as William Combes, whose lurid testimony in Kevin Annett documentaries appears to be the sole ‘evidence’ of such claims, but it is a testimony that appears to have convinced people like Noam Chomsky according to a 2008 article in The Tyee[1] by Terry Glavin, that a secret genocide occurred at residential schools in Canada. One other alleged eyewitness in Annett’s books is Jessie/Jesse Jules.
Combes died in 2011, reportedly of tuberculosis. But neither Manny Jules nor his sister Diena provided such testimony to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, at least none that appeared in the published versions of the recollections. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission was restricted from criminal accusations, due to the nature of its format, which did not allow for cross-examination, nor was any evidence required from participants to support any claims made. One would think that if such heinous crimes were personally known to individuals involved in the Truth and Reconciliation process, then appropriate criminal investigations should have been conducted.
However, while there are allegations of unmarked graves related to heinous acts, there is no list of names of missing persons.
The Kamloops find appears to be a case of atrocity propaganda, perhaps one that arose from inadvertently announcing the discovery of graves without appropriate confirmation of evidence; one that is hard to step back from now. Thus, it is crucial that the general public know what the Catholic Dioceses and the Kamloops First Nation have agreed to in their sacred covenant because, with the impending risk of jail terms for ‘residential school denialism’ as outlined in Bill C-63 and in the recent federal budget, will the Catholic Church’s apparent blanket acceptance of the genocide claims mean people like myself will go to jail for the crime of presenting historical fact?
Though I am not a Catholic, the Catholic Church may have just set a national precedent in this covenant and thus sentenced me to life imprisonment for ‘hate’ for the crime of historical accuracy.
The RCMP, which initiated a criminal investigation into the Kamloops finding, was quickly hauled off the case, and the facts now remain in limbo, though it appears that the highest orders of the Catholic Church accept the claims as fact.
It is most likely the Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) used by Dr. Sarah Beaulieu, ‘discovered’ disturbances that are the remaining clay tiles of an old septic trench (based on previous land use records). Beaulieu’s report has never been released to the public.
One may ask how can it be that William Combes’ eye-witness testimony can be questioned? The answer may be that people suffering from Tuberculosis are prone to psychotic episodes, delusions of persecution and hallucination.[2] Mr. Combes reportedly also suffered from alcoholism which may entail psychotic events and alcohol hallucinosis.[3] In the book, “Grave Error: How the Media Misled us (And the Truth About Residential Schools)”, Frances Widdowson provides a detailed essay titled “Billie Remembers,” which deconstructs Combes’ claims.
Further to the sacred covenant, there are several wildly inaccurate claims about the history of the purpose of the pilgrimage of Father LeJeune and Chief Louis.
Archbishop Miller states:
In 1904, Chiefs Louis Clexlixqen of Kamloops and Johnnie Chilleheetsa of Douglas Lake accompanied Father Le Jeune, an Oblate priest, across two continents to meet Pope Pius X in Rome. There they advocated for the rights and title of First Nations people in this region, and they showed how their work together had advanced language and trade. While in Rome, Chief Johnnie and Chief Louis, took part in an exhibition of stenography, at which they received three gold and five silver medals. (bold emphasis added)
There is no evidence supporting the claim that Father LeJeune and the two Chiefs did anything other than go on a pilgrimage, where the chiefs were blessed by the Pope at a large public ceremony in the Catholic tradition where hundreds of people are blessed. There is no record of advocating for the ‘rights and title of First Nations people in this region’ because there is no record of a personal meeting of this nature with the Pope. Furthermore, since few treaties were ever signed in British Columbia (as were signed across the Prairies in the Numbered Treaties) there was no reason to advocate for ‘the rights and title of First Nations people in this region.’
It is deeply concerning that the leader of the world’s smallest nation, The Vatican, led by His Holiness, The Pope and Holy Father of Catholicism, appear to be establishing a form of ‘nation-to-nation’ recognition of land rights within Canada, a sovereign nation, through this sacred covenant, based on historical revisionism.
As I have pointed out in a previous article on this topic, both the Catholic Church and the Kamloops First Nation are taxpayer funded/subsidized, thus the matter of the Sacred Covenant must not be secret, but must be published in full, for all Canadians to see, including details of what ‘scientific experts’ may have been retained, as the Archbishop stated, “We have retained scientific experts who have worked around the world on similar challenging situations. They are ready to serve you and to assist your teams in ensuring that the best technology is available to help you get the answers you deserve.”
As I have argued elsewhere, regarding community graveyards near former Indian Residential Schools, one must not presume there are only Indigenous children buried there; my relatives might be there, too. Thus, all Canadians have an interest in knowing what is going on with the Kamloops orchard and excavations, or any such abandoned graveyard.
Likewise, the Catholic Church must remain true to the facts of history, most of which are from their own archives, methodically inscribed by their faithful servants of Christ who gave their entire lives to elevating the living standards of the Indigenous children they served.
Historian Robert Carney, father of the famous Mark Carney, denounced the work of the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples in that, [4] “The work of the traditional boarding schools is similarly ignored in the chapter’s introductory section. The fact is that in addition to providing basic schooling and training related to local resource use, they served Native communities in other ways. It would have been fair to acknowledge that many traditional boarding schools, in some cases well into the twentieth century, took in sick, dying, abandoned, orphaned, physically and mentally handicapped children, from newborns to late adolescents, as well as adults who asked for refuge and other forms of assistance.” (bold emphasis added)
Indeed, as Metis historical scholar and lawyer Greg Piazetski has shown, in the latter years of the Indian Residential School system it was the de facto child welfare system (i.e., the period of time when most of those who presented their recollections to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission). Thus, attendees who may have been enrolled by their parents for education, were also surrounded by children with special needs related to Fetal Alcohol Disorder, children who had been orphaned (and thus may have been grieving and in shock), and children from dysfunctional families who experienced Domestic Violence from an early age which can result in Reactive Attachment Disorder.[5]
“As painful as it may be to admit today, the vast majority of native children attending residential schools during the post-war period suffered from social ills, family hardships and health concerns that were far more serious than those faced by most other children in Canada. In particular, the devastating inter-generational effects of alcoholism and parental dysfunction on reserves had turned residential schools into a de facto native child welfare system. Had the government shut these schools down in the 1940s, as it very much wanted to, those children would have been left at grave risk of injury or death. There was, quite simply, no other place for them to go.”[6]
Will I be sent to jail for telling these unpleasant truths of history, thanks to the Catholic Church apparently accepting at face value that residential schools were a ‘tragedy’ — when obviously, for many children, they were the only life-saving lifeboat available?
Likewise, most Canadians who are not well-versed in history may not know that hundreds of Indigenous staff worked at Indian Residential Schools. It beggars belief to suggest that they would have been witness to disappearing students and to not have stepped up to save their people’s children, or to report the heinous crime of genocide to authorities. Thus, will these Indigenous people be hauled before the International Criminal Court for their role?
Or will Canadian society take a deep breath and ask the difficult questions about what really happened in Kamloops? Why did the Truth and Reconciliation Commission diminish the positive and constructive reports — in fact, skewing historical evidence? Why does Kimberly Murray, Special Interlocutor, continue to overstep her authority by sending unvetted and unsupported reports to international bodies, making unsubstantiated claims of heinous crimes? Who in government recognizes that competitor nations like China are going to use these reports as if ‘authoritative,’ having been issued by a Canadian civil servant, in their accusation against Canada, that we are guilty of genocide, when there is no evidence to support such a claim? What will those international consequences be?
Jesus said: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Light.”
Millions of Catholics and Christians of all denominations have been smeared and delegitimized by the false, heinous accusations of genocide, purportedly ‘proven’ by a Ground Penetrating Radar search in an orchard, based on stories and ‘knowings’ of children from decades ago. Over a hundred Christian churches and facilities have been burned to the ground or vandalized with hardly a murmur of outrage from the Holy See, let alone Canadian Catholics.
The Catholic Church must honor its dedicated servants of Christ — those who loved their dear children[7] and brought so many out of harms way and into the Light.
Release the full details of the secret, Sacred Covenant.
Retract the claim that residential schools were a tragedy.
Restore historical balance to the narrative.
Resist the urge to play some kind of territorial “Catan” game with sovereign Canada.
Without Truth, there is no Reconciliation.
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Michelle Stirling is a former member of the Canadian Association of Journalists. She researched, wrote, and co-produced historical shows about Southern Alberta under the supervision of Dr. Hugh Dempsey, then curator of the Glenbow Museum.
[1] https://thetyee.ca/Views/2008/04/30/TruthAndAbuse/
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10902804/#:~:text=Conclusions,other%20adverse%20effects%20of%20PE.
[3] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK459134/
[4] https://michellestirling.files.wordpress.com/2023/03/review-article_-canada_-royal-commission-on-aboriginal-peoples.pdf
[5] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK537155/#:~:text=Affected%20children%20have%20difficulty%20forming,held%2C%20cuddled%2C%20or%20comforted.
[6] https://c2cjournal.ca/2024/02/genocide-canadas-government-wanted-to-close-every-indian-residential-school-in-the-1940s/
[7] https://www.dorchesterreview.ca/blogs/news/our-dear-children-the-sisters-chronicles-of-indian-residential-school
