Tofino Chapter 13 notes

Separation - Notes on Sources

The United Church of Canada’s website “The Children Remembered” provides a thorough history of the Ahousat Residential School along with many photographs. http://thechildrenremembered.ca/school-locations/ahousaht/

Information about Christie School and the Ahousat Presbyterian school comes in great part from letters and reports located in Library and Archives Canada. See particularly RG10, Volume 6430, file 876-1, part 1. See also RG10, Volume 6439, file 879-1, parts one and two for information on Christie School in the 1930s and 1940s.

Information about deaths and sickness at Christie School in the 1930s appears in RG10, Volume 6441, file 879-23, part one. For earlier accounts, see Father Charles Moser’s diary, and the correspondence of Father Maurus Snyder, held at Mount Angel Abbey.

Information on sickness at the Ahousat school comes from Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa: RG10 Vol 6430, File 876-1, Part 1. See also Nurse B.J. Banfill, With the Indians of the Pacific.

Information on deaths at Ahousat school appears in http://thechildrenremembered.ca/schools-history/ahousaht/ also in Library and Archives Canada, RG10, Volume 6430, file 876-1, part 1.

Statistics about school enrolment come from school inspectors’ reports, held in Library and Archives Canada; from “Indian Affairs Annual Reports, 1864-1990.” Library and Archives Canada. http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/aboriginal-heritage/first-nations/indian-affairs-annual-reports/Pages/introduction.aspx. See also the letters and diaries of missionaries.

All quotations from Father Brabant come from his diary or from letters held at Mount Angel Abbey.

Quotations from Father Maurus Snyder come from his letters to Father Brabant and from scraps of unpublished memoir in his personal papers, held at Mount Angel Abbey.

Quotations from Father Charles Moser come from his diary.

“the rest of the day…,” letter from Harry Guillod to A.W. Vowell. Library and Archives Canada, RG10, Volume 6430, file 876-1, part 1.

“fight the priests…,” William Netherby to Walter Dawley, letter in the Dawley papers.

“Chief Billy, Chief Moquiney…” Letter to Clifford Sifton from the five chiefs, June 30, 1904, Library and Archives Canada, RG10, Volume 6430, file 876-1, part 1.

Fred Thornberg’s letters about local disputes at Ahousat and about his daughter Hilda are held in the papers of Father Maurus Snyder, Mount Angel Abbey Archives. His comment on the “Divels of Ahouset Indians” appears in a letter to Walter Dawley.

Father John Lemmens described the Ahousahts in Insulis Quae Procul Sun, a memoir based on his letters, assembled by his family. A translation of this memoir is held at the archives of the Diocese of Victoria.

“the most impudent and aggressive…” A.W.Neill on the Ahousahts, cited by Murray, Vagabond Fleet, p. 188.

“Dear Sir…” Billy August’s letter to Clifford Sifton, cited by Murray, Vagabond Fleet, p. 189.

“an agitator and a mischievous man”, Vowell on Billy August, cited by Murray, Vagabond Fleet, p. 189.

Martin Benson’s correspondence, including his letter of November 29, 1901, to “The Secretary” opposing establishment of Ahousat residential school, Library and Archives Canada, RG10 Vol. 6431 File 876-6 part one.

Among the early whistleblowers who spoke out about illness in the residential school system across Canada, Dr. Peter Bryce stands out. As chief medical officer of the Department of Indian Affairs, his 1907 report led to major articles being published that year in Saturday Night and in the Ottawa Citizen. Bryce lost his job but continued to speak out. In 1922 he published a tract entitled The Story of a National Crime. For more on Bryce and on conditions in residential schools see John S. Milloy, “A National Crime”: The Canadian Government and the Residential School System, 1876 – 1986; Mary Ellen Kelm, Colonizing Bodies: Aboriginal Health and Healing in British Columbia, 1900-1950; J.R. Miller, Shingwauk’s Vision: A History of Native Residential Schools.

For details of Mike’s death at Christie School in 1900, see Horsfield, Voices from the Sound; also Father Charles Moser’s diary.

“here again…” comments concerning access to residential schools appear in school inspector George Pracnell’s report, mid-1930s.

“The whole atmosphere…” and other comments by Gerald Barry, from Library and Archives Canada, RG10 Vol 6431 File 876-6, part one, Inspectors’ Reports.

Nurse Bessie Jean Banfill’s With the Indians of the Pacific provides information about administering a residential school and the challenges faced by staff. She describes how newly arrived staff members challenged the principal about the children’s living conditions, only to learn the principal did not choose to speak out to authorities for fear of being moved to an even more difficult school. Though written as fiction, this book clearly represents Nurse Banfill’s period of working at Ahousat.

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