Provincial responsibility: 1940–1960
The 1937 policy change was a clear indication that the federal government expected the provinces to take over responsibility for Métis education, whether in a residential or non-residential setting. This was in keeping with the overall approach that the federal government took towards First Nations education in the years following World War Two, which was to integrate students into the provincial system. In the case of First Nations students, the federal government recognized a financial responsibility to pay the provinces to educate First Nations students. It did not accept a similar responsibility for Métis education. Since, in many parts of western and northern Canada, Métis students lived in communities where there were no day schools, provincial governments often chose to place them in residential schools. In some cases, spaces were purchased in federally supported residential schools, while, in other cases, the spaces were in schools operated solely by religious organizations. Over time, provincial governments established northern school divisions. Although these divisions opened elementary schools in many small and remote communities, high school education often was provided in central locations only, with students being required to live in residences. As a result, many Métis students continued to receive residential schooling—often in federally funded institutions—well into the post-war period. A similar process in the Yukon and Northwest Territories expanded Métis attendance in northern residential schools.
It is important to recognize that Métis children and parents often were not welcomed into public schools. Saskatchewan Superintendent of Schools J. R. Martin wrote in 1941 that Métis children in one community had such severe health problems that if the government forced them to attend school, “the other children would walk out and refuse to go to school.”1 In 1943, Martin’s successor, E. J. Brandt, reported, “Some parents even threaten to take their children out of school if more of the Métis attend. On the surface this seems to be a very narrow and bigoted attitude but if we examine the matter more closely from the point of view of health and cleanliness, they may be, at least partly justified.”2 Public opinion was scandalized in Saskatchewan after the 1942 trial of a thirteen-year-old Métis boy for his theft of a horse and buggy. The trial detailed the plight of the Métis families of the Crescent Lake region of the province. During the winter, they lived in shacks, and travelled during the summer. The investigation revealed there were at least forty school-aged children in the community who had never gone to school. These children were described in a police report as being malnourished and suffering from a number of diseases, including tuberculosis and trachoma, which was a potential cause of blindness.3 Such stories generated public sympathy towards the Métis while, at the same time, reinforcing resistance to the prospect of the enrolment of Métis children in public schools.
Initially, the federal government seems to have opposed efforts to continue the policy of placing Métis children in residential schools. In January 1940, Indian agent N. P. L’Heureux, who was responding to an overcrowding problem at the Fort Vermilion school, informed the school principal, J. Huguerre, that it “is useless to present to Ottawa, an application for the admission” of an eight-year-old girl, whose parents were both “non-treaty.” L’Heureux said he would not recommend admission because “there are still many Indian children who are treaty and who are not in school.”4 At the time, there were eighty-eight students enrolled in a school with a designated capacity of sixty-five.5 The overcrowding problem was largely one of the government’s own creation. Earlier that month, Dr. H. A. Hamman had informed Indian Affairs that
more and more children are being brought into the (Fort Vermillion Residential) school in accordance with your instructions that various adults will lose ration rights if their children or grandchildren are not placed therein. Accommodation is taxed to the utter limit and more are coming. Not a single cot is now available. But, more important, the health of all is going to be seriously affected if more are entered as the cubic air space of dormitories and school rooms is already asked to do too much to keep up a steady amount of fresh air for all.6
Also in 1940, Indian agent Samuel Lovell reported that Father Doyen, the principal of the Guy Hill school in The Pas, Manitoba, was “in the habit of taking destitute half-breed children into the School as resident pupils.” Lovell pointed out that this was done without any medical examination.7 Indian Affairs official Philip Phelan informed Lovell that it was against policy to admit “destitute halfbreed children to the Guy Indian Residential School.” If any such children had been admitted, Lovell was expected to instruct the principal to discharge them. The maintenance of “destitute halfbreed children” was deemed a provincial responsibility.8
In Manitoba, federal opposition to Métis enrolment in residential schools continued through the 1940s and early 1950s. In 1946, Indian Affairs declined to admit four children to the Birtle, Manitoba, school as grant-earning students, because their father was a “French Halfbreed.”9 In 1951, R. S. Davis, the regional director of Indian agencies in Manitoba, recommended that the principal of the Sandy Bay, Manitoba, school be instructed to return three “half breeds” to their homes and have their places taken by “Treaty Indians.” Davis noted that he was led to believe that Indian Affairs was currently paying for the three students’ education.10
The trend was very different in Alberta where there were six church-owned residential schools in operation. These schools did not require government approval to admit students who did not have status under the Indian Act.11 As result, the Roman Catholic schools at Hobbema, Fort Vermilion, Grouard, Fort Chipewyan, Joussard, and Wabasca began to take in increasing numbers of Métis students in the 1940s and 1950s.
By 1946, the Alberta Department of Education was paying the Roman Catholic Diocese of Grouard $500 a year for every group of thirty-five provincial students it accepted. Almost all of them would be Métis. In that year, the department supported ninety-seven students.12 The number of Métis students attending the Catholic Sturgeon Lake school was so great that, according to Bishop Henri Routhier, they presented a problem in terms of “hygiene and discipline,” and were contributing to what he described as “unduly overcrowde[d]” classrooms.13
Provincial support for Métis students in residential schools was haphazard. In 1950, the Alberta government was paying $900 a year to support Métis students at the Holy Angels school in Fort Chipewyan. According to G. H. Gooderham, the regional supervisor of Indian agencies in Alberta, “There are a great many Metis attending the Residential School at Grouard,” but the “Province has paid nothing for their tuition.”14 According to Bishop Routhier, in the summer of 1950, the province was paying $18 a month to cover board, tuition, and clothing of Métis students at Roman Catholic boarding schools. In a letter to the Alberta government, Routhier noted that Indian Affairs was paying “a little over $300 a year per child,” or $25 a month, and suggested that the province should pay a similar amount.15
By 1951, one inspector thought that the Grouard school was developing into “an orphanage for metis and white children.” The First Nations population was down to one-third of the school and was expected to drop further when First Nation students from the Yukon transferred to the recently constructed Lower Post school on the British Columbia–Yukon border. One possibility was to transfer the First Nations students at Grouard to Joussard, and turn Grouard over to the provincial government, to be used as a Métis school. An inspector noted that “the thin stream of school supplies fed by the Indian Affairs Branch is thinly spread with a meagre reinforcement from provincial or other funds for the five classrooms.” According to the inspector, “the smooth running and efficient operation of the school is achieved at the expense of the childrens’ [sic] education. Self-expression and self-confidence are sacrificed to regimentation and efficiency.”16 In October that year, Indian Affairs official Philip Phelan noted that only 50 of the 175 students at Grouard had status under the Indian Act. He suggested that they be placed in other schools. “This would mean that all the Metis children would be in the same building. It would also mean that the other schools would only have Indian children.”17 The church was able to deflect this proposal. In 1954, there were sixty-four Indian children attending the school, and Bishop Routhier took the position that he would prefer to see the school continue to educate both “Indian children and … Metis children.”18 This trend continued elsewhere. In 1958, there were twenty-seven (twenty-five after Christmas) Métis children attending the Wabasca school.19 In December 1958, only 7 of the 250 students at the mission school at Grouard were Treaty students; almost all the rest were Métis.20
In 1960, the Alberta government established the Northlands School Division to coordinate education throughout northern Alberta. The division incorporated thirty school districts and twenty schools.21 In coming years, other districts would transfer into the division.22 In 1961, the province purchased the Grouard hostel with the intent to convert it into a residence for students attending a vocational training centre, to be built in the community. This was the largest residential project operated by Northlands. It opened in 1963, but was closed several years later, due to costs and low enrolment. An ongoing problem for the school was the fact that Aboriginal students did not feel accepted in the local public schools.23
The Saskatchewan government attempted to reform its northern education in the 1940s, but it was not until the 1970s that the residential school in Île-à-la-Crosse closed and was replaced by a public school.24 In Manitoba, the Frontier School Division was established in 1965.25 A former military base at Cranberry Portage was converted into a residence for students from remote communities attending high school.
It is apparent that many of the past issues associated with residential schooling of Métis children have continued into the present. A 2010 review of Alberta’s Northlands School Division found that the division’s students had low rates of high school completion. Furthermore, many students who did go on to high school still had to leave the division and board in larger communities, where very few supports were available to them. Whether they were bused to, or boarded at, outside schools, many students felt that the reception they received in public schools was racist. In addition, the Aboriginal content provided in the division’s schools was judged to be “inadequate.”26 Based on the evidence of the students who attended residential schools, it is clear that the education Métis people experienced in the residential school system paralleled that of First Nations and Inuit students.