That fall of 1967, Violet began her trip from the Reserve to the city with two other students. She had some money in her pocket. She also had a solid green suitcase that Izzy had bought for her. This time, there would be no one to take it away from her. Everything she had packed would be hers.
She boarded an airplane at the Reserve with two boys about her own age. They landed at the nearest town, stayed at a hotel that night, and very early the next morning, they walked to the train station across the street.
When they got to the train station, Violet found three girls sitting on one of the benches. The three had no luggage. They had slept on the benches in the station waiting room all night, not knowing where they were supposed to go. The girls had been told to get on the train by the storekeeper, who had the only phone in their community, but they were not told where to go once they reached the station. There was nothing open yet where they could have bought something to eat.
The ticket agent told them all at sunrise that the train pulling in was theirs. They got on the train and settled in for a long ride, as it would be stopping to deliver supplies and pick up freight all along the line to the city.
Around lunchtime, the six were very hungry, but there was nothing to eat on the train. They watched the small communities go by, one after the other — lakes, rocks and more lakes, surrounded by the many beautiful fall colours.
The four girls sat together. The two boys, in the opposite row of seats, seemed to be enjoying themselves.
Later in the afternoon, Violet realized that none of the girls had much to say. They answered her when she spoke to them, but otherwise they just looked out the window. She asked their names and soon discovered that none had ever left home before. They were scared, not knowing what to expect and what it would be like where they were going.
For the first time, Violet realized that she had more experience than any of them, and had a better idea of what life would be like in the city. So she told them what she thought it would be like to live in white families’ homes and what the inside of the house would be like, based on her babysitting experience while she was at Residential School. That was the only white person’s home she had ever entered. She also explained what the city high school might be like, and the bus they might have to take to go to school.
Violet listened to the girls telling each other about their lives and the loved ones they had left behind. When they tried to draw her in on their conversation, she found that she couldn’t think of a thing to add, other than what she had already told them. She realized then that she didn’t know how to talk to other girls her age. She had never had any friends her own age. She had no trouble, however, in telling them what they must do and what they should watch out for in the city.
At the first home Violet stayed, there were three other Anishinabe girls. Violet soon discovered the house rules. The girls were not allowed to sit outside, because the homeowners’ neighbours might see them. They were not allowed into the living room to watch television. After school, they were to stay in their room and do their homework. Then they were called to supper, where they ate in silence. Their offer to wash the dishes was turned down. They were told not to touch anything, and to go back into their bedroom and get ready for the next school day.
As promised, Violet began her diary for Grandma on the first day of school, this time in a new shiny red diary that Grandma had given her. This one had a tiny gold lock. Never trusting anyone, Violet kept it locked in her suitcase at all times and took it out only when she wrote in it just before bed every evening.
The high school was large. In her homeroom, Violet found that there were eight Anishinabe students in a class of thirty. At lunchtime, she met twenty-five Anishinabe students and they all sat together in the cafeteria.
One day, as she was boarding the bus for home, Violet noticed two boys from the school who always hung around together. They got on the same bus as she did and sat down across the aisle from her. The older boy leaned over, saying that they were going downtown before heading home. He asked where she lived. She told him the street name, but then they couldn’t talk anymore as other people got on.
When they reached downtown, Violet waited for the bus she would need to transfer to. The boys hung around with her, talking, until her bus came. They were brothers named Steve and Dave. Steve was older and the talkative one. After that day, they took to riding downtown with Violet to see her onto her next bus.
Toward the end of September, an announcement came on the school intercom that all Anishinabe students were to report to a particular room and wait there. Seven students from her class made their way down the hall with Violet, to find another group of students already standing there.
Violet asked one of the boys what this was about. He looked at her and told her firmly, “You are not to answer true. Just give any answer at all, but not the truth. Pretend you don’t understand and pretend you don’t know! We all do it.”
Violet was puzzled. One by one, the students were called in. When it was her turn, Violet sat down where she was told. A man sat there with forms in front of him and a pen held poised. He began showing her weird squiggly lines on a page, then asked her what it was. On and on he went, from one page to another. Violet began to enjoy giving opposite answers to what she thought the lines might be, or just making answers up as she went along. Finally, she was told she could go. When she came out, she asked another girl, “What was that all about?” The girl smiled. “The intelligence test,” she said.
The girls Violet lived with stayed for about two weeks at their first home before they had to move again. It would be the first move of many.
As Christmastime neared and it was almost time to go home, Violet began having anxiety attacks and could not sleep. She was beginning to dread that something was going to happen to prevent her from getting home to Grandma again. Her mother and Izzy had agreed that she was to go to Flint Lake for Christmas, and they would see if they could visit her there at Grandma’s. The Indian Affairs Student Counsellor agreed to the arrangement because it was simpler travel for Violet than going to her mother’s Reserve.
But Violet did get to go home this time. After a long bus ride through a rough bush road, Violet’s bus arrived at a town. She and three others got on a train from there. When the train stopped at Flint Lake, Grandma was there to meet Violet.
A huge storm prevented Violet’s mother and family from coming to see her at Grandma’s. After a joyous reunion with Grandma and a week spent chopping wood and ice fishing, Violet was back at the city high school. She kept writing in her journal, waiting until she could get back to Grandma. In all, she moved five times to different homes with her green suitcase that first year.
Violet stayed with her grandmother at Flint Lake every summer holiday for the next four years. In February of Violet’s final year of high school, her grandmother died, alone in her cabin. Violet was devastated and took a long time to recover from her grief. Her grades began to slip. Finally, after struggling for weeks to catch up with her school work, she managed to pass her year and leave school behind. She never saw Steve and Dave again.
Violet never returned to Flint Lake. After her high-school graduation, she began work as a clerk at the Hudson’s Bay store on the Reserve where her mother lived. Izzy had managed to build an extension to the home so that Violet could have her own bedroom.
When she turned twenty, Violet married the Grade 3 teacher who lived on the Reserve. They had four children. With them lived an all-black dog named Blackie.
To this day, the children of the northern First Nations must live in cities and towns, usually far from home and family, to attend high school.