There’s big difference between visiting and touring. And it was the troubling cubby hole under the basement staircase that did it for me – more on that
Most “Indian residential schools” are not named after a visionary Chief. That’s a juxtaposition in context. This one has a unique history where the Chief was double crossed – more on that.
Visiting a sombre place can evoke strong emotions like sadness and reflection but also leads to a deeper understanding of history and empathy.
Such an experience can even promote healing and dialogue.
The Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre (SRSC) is located in Sault Ste. Marie. It has a very different story than most others. The school was named after prominent Anishinaabe Chief Shingwaukonse from nearby Garden River.
There was a tour that became a visit.
Shingwauk Residential School
On a cool grey rainy day in October the brown brick building looked somewhat austere, it’s situated on a small rise. Old architecture.
It has an identifiable central spire that pierces the sky above. There’s a lower crucifix affixed to the central edifice. Four floors high with an entrenched lower level. There are two protruding building sections, with distinct triangular peaks that creates symmetry to the setting – the rectangular windows help with this balance. But it is a place of imbalance in the beginning.
The promenade area in front is tapered in width, the concrete multi-step stairs lead you to the entrance, a church like entrance.
There’s raised gardens that complement the entry, and flags to the left and large mature conifers to the right. There’s a large open green space - leading up to the drive-up access and those two, recessed large - almost unwieldy - hardwood entry doors, for students. There’s a memorial on the front lawn you will eventually visit.
If those doors could talk, it was an Indian residential school.
Shingwauk Hall is the first major, permanent Residential School Survivor driven exhibition in a former Residential School building.
There is now ongoing construction to the south of the multi-storied brick building which will change the initial view. The new construction announced in 2024 will be the Makwa Waakaa’igan Culture Centre. The three-floor facility will include spaces for ceremonies, cultural events and academic learning.
The school was designated a national historic site in 2021. It was once the largest in Canada’s residential school system. It is one of the few surviving residential school sites with a ensemble of preserved buildings (Shingwauk Memorial Cemetery (1876), Bishop Fauquier Memorial Chapel (1883), the former principal’s residence (1935), the former woodworking shop (1951), and Anna McCrea Public School (1956) and landscape elements that continue to testify to the long history of the residential school system in Canada.
The cemetery layout and headstones itself show the racial separation of colonial versus indigenous. There may be unmarked graves there as well. As search for unmarked burials began in September 2021.
Using AI the query was: Indian residential schools named after Chiefs - there’s plenty of colonial geographic names, some Indigenous place names, and plenty of saints, but of the 139 schools over 150 years – a name of a Chief did not surface. The search was undertaken in several different ways. How could a Chief’s name be affixed to a residential school?
Needed background
The residential term refers to a government-sponsored system of educational institutions, primarily in Canada, established with the goal of assimilating Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture and eradicating their own cultures, languages, and identities.
Research shows the stated goal of the system was aggressive civilization to kill the Indian in the child. This policy is now widely considered a form of cultural genocide.
The schools were funded by the federal government and run by various Christian churches, including the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Presbyterian, United churches and Mennonite mission agencies (three in northwestern Ontario, we visited one – Stirland - in the story of how far you can drive a car north in Ontario during COVID, July 14, 2021).
The Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) process officially started on June 1, 2008, as a component of the landmark Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. The commission's mandate concluded in December 2015, with the release of its comprehensive final report and 94 Calls to Action.
If you are not familiar with the history, in 1920, amendments to the Indian Act made attendance mandatory for First Nations children aged 7 to 15, and it was illegal for them to attend any other school.
Children, often as young as four years old, were forcibly removed from their families and communities, sometimes located far from their homes, to weaken family and cultural ties.
Students endured widespread physical, sexual, emotional, and psychological abuse, as well as neglect, poor sanitation, and inadequate health care. Thousands of children died in the schools, many buried in unmarked graves.
The system started in the 1880s, with the last federally recognized school closing in 1996. The devastating effects, including intergenerational trauma and loss of language and culture, continue to have a significant impact on Indigenous communities today.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) was established in 2008 to document the truth of the residential schools and guide the process of reconciliation. In 2015, the TRC released its final report, which included 94 Calls to Action.
The SRSC is now a cross-cultural research and educational project of Algoma University and the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association (CSAA), which includes former students of the Residential schools, staff, descendants, family, and friends. Algoma University is located on the site (and uses some of the buildings) of the former Shingwauk and Wawanosh Indian Residential Schools.
Shingwauk Hall, a central and integral part of the Algoma University campus, was first established in 1873 as a residential school for First Nations children and operated as such until the Shingwauk Indian Residential School closed in 1970. The building is one of the oldest landmarks in the lock city.
Tour/Visit
As an elected school board trustee, I am also the northern regional chair of school boards and school authorities for the Ontario Public School Board Association (OPSBA). Since 1988, OPSBA has advocated for policies and practices that have led to Ontario’s public education system of school boards.
The residential school’s history is told through an extensive gallery exhibition on the second floor of the school. The information on the series of plaques and photos comes from personal accounts of the children.
Our tour (but it wasn’t one, because expectations change through experience) guide was Serena Hill, identified as a Community Engagement Specialist, a younger person with a personable demeanour – she knows her heritage.
Her thoughts about having these tours and the guided truth walks?
“It is important work; and depending on the time of year with being booked solid, or the community and range of understanding visitors may carry; it can be a challenge to carry the history and share it in its intended way- for educational purposes and healing. For so long, this history was kept hidden or shared only through the worldview of the colonizers who enacted the system on First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples. So, very valuable work to have these educational spaces and direct experiences of the survivors to share their truth for our present and upcoming generations.”
And what of people’s reactions?
“Reactions can vary and depend on where each individual is on their own learning journey. But also, very visible in body language and expressions that a piece of knowledge shared along the walk was taken in. Knowing there can often be a delayed reaction as this learning can be overstimulating, the Centre and myself prioritize self-care to reach out when the person is ready with their own personal circles, but also the team and wider community to support them as they move forward.”
Serena advises that visitors inquire ahead of time to provide an estimated number of visitors for the staff, “especially if they are interested to be guided and appropriately accommodated as the former residential school is now home to Algoma University.”
“Visitors may drop in (small numbers only), and depending on the schedules of the staff members, may be available to answer questions or briefly provide information and insight to the Reclaiming Shingwauk Hall exhibit and outdoor site locations such as the monuments, chapel, former Principal's residence, cemetery, and cubby hole.”
We visited the stone memorial set well back from the front of the former school, closer to Queen St. East. This dichotomy tells it all.
The original monument honours the school's founder, Rev. E.F. Wilson. It is on the front lawn of the building using stones from the original principal's house, it faces Queen Street.
Directly behind the Wilson monument, facing the school, is another one put up by the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association. This monument was purposely placed in August of 2012.
“It remembers all who attended residential schools across Turtle Island (North America). It especially honours those who never returned home.” The plaque is surrounded by symbols of the Seven Grandfather Teachings. “This monument was part of a larger event by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada,” said Serena.
It becomes more than a tour - it is a comprehensive and insightful visit.
A sidebar story to all of this.
Within one of my early residential school stories I quoted Mike Cachagee, who I interviewed years ago. He has passed but was a member of the Chapleau Cree First Nation and one of the founding members of the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association.
Back then he said, “It is comforting to know there are still people out there who can really begin to understand and accept that a segment of Canada's history is somewhat dark and clouded.”
Conversant in his Cree language and had a working knowledge of Oji-Cree and Anishinaabe. Having previously attended two other Indian Residential Schools in the province he was moved to the Shingwauk Indian Residential School as a young man to attend high school in Sault Ste. Marie.
In all, he spent 12 and-a-half years in residential schools including St. John’s in Chapleau.
Mike Cachagee buried the first of four classmates when he was eight years old at St. John's. He said he was told the children died of tuberculosis.
"We can't just have our people planted in the ground and forgotten about," he said. "That's basically what they did.”
Mr. Cachagee once chaired the National Residential School Survivors' Society, then said former students continue to want these graves identified so they can better understand their family histories.
He described his school experience to me as “Not very nice. Subsequent to my exposure to residential schools, the work that I’ve been doing for the past twenty years has been working directly with survivors.”
I put my hand on his profile photo; it is part of the SRSC exhibit, but the feeling of being grateful to what he once shared with me was all that mattered in the moment.
The Shingwauk site tour included visits to Shingwauk cemetery and the Anishinabek Discovery Centre, which houses the Shingwauk Education Trust’s Library and Archives Research Centre. Here is the tour contact information.
Afterthoughts
The recommendation was made to trustee colleagues that we tour the SRSC as part of our northern regional meeting in the Soo.
But we visited.
Elaine Johnston is OPSBA’s Chair, First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Trustees’ Council a trustee from the Algoma District School Board. Also, she's a former Chief of Serpent River First Nation. She helped arrange the PD visit for northern trustee colleagues and an opening address from former, and well known, Chief Dean Sayers of Batchewana First Nation.
She said, “Reconciliation in Education is about establishing a mutually respectful relationship between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous peoples. Visiting the Residential School is a powerful experience to learn the history/stories of survivors, understand that experience, explore what occurred, recognize that the Residential Schools did exist and teach others along with taking action to ensure it never happens again to any student.”
Jennifer Sarlo is the Chair of the Algoma District School Board and has visited the centre on several occasions. Post the OPSBA visit she said, “I always appreciate an opportunity to listen to stories from others, even when they are difficult to hear, as this is how we learn and grow in understanding that leads to meaningful change.
“I was reminded of Chief Shingwauk's vision for education on this site to be one of cross-cultural learning and teaching. He hoped that through education we could learn from each other and live in harmony. Through the efforts of many, we are hopefully moving forward with that original vision through acknowledging the difficult experiences of the past and committing to meaningful reconciliation.”
Jason Nesbitt is OPSBA’s, Superior-Greenstone DSB Director from Schreiber.
“The experience of visiting this location was very heavy and meaningful. I as many heard of residential schools for a long time and took for granted that this was not just something that impacted far north indigenous children. They were here in our backyards. This experience ensures I continue in my growing, learning and making truth and reconciliation meaningful as a trustee.”
Chief Shingwauk
Through media we know of Chiefs south of the border – Sitting Bull, Geronimo and Crazy Horse among many. North of the border, who don’t know so much - Poundmaker, Big Bear, and then to the more contemporary - starting with Chief Dan George.
Chief Shingwaukonse rose to prominence following the War of 1812, siding with Canada against the United States. That war, pre-Confederation, helped define Canada by fostering a shared sense of identity and nationhood among diverse groups who united to defend against an American invasion.
He was a true visionary.
A strong leader and devout Midewiwin, Chief Shingwauk’s vision for his people surrounded education. Chief Shingwauk’s vision of a Teaching Wigwam was for the creation of a lodge or schoolhouse where his people and the settlers could learn together with mutual respect, allowing his people to adapt to a changing world while retaining their culture.
History says the Chief snowshoed from Garden River to Penetanguishene, then walked the rest of the way to York, (Toronto) in 1832 to petition Governor John Colbourne to provide a school building. He then knew that education was an inherent right for his people; he felt the same about resource rights. Throughout the 1840’s Chief Shingwauk, along with his sons, was leading the push to have his people’s land and resource rights secured under treaty. After defending their territories from illegal miners at Mica Bay in November of 1849, Chief Shingwauk became one of the lead negotiators and signatories to the 1850 Robinson-Huron Treaties. The Métis or known at the time - as half breeds were not included in these negotiations. Chief Shingwauk did not differentiate.
Chief Shingwauk passed in 1854 at 81 years of age.
What happened next?
His vision for an Indigenous-led educational institution that combined the "best of both worlds - Indigenous and European knowledge and skills—went badly because the school he envisioned was diverted and transformed into the Canadian Indian Residential School system.
Post death the Reverend Edward F. Wilson, an Anglican minister, took up the charge for the school but changed the nature of its operation, turning it into a residential school focused on assimilation. The Anglican Church of Canada issued an apology to residential school survivors in 1993 and a further apology in 2019 for the church's role in causing spiritual harm to Indigenous Peoples.
The rest is history. The Shingwauk moniker remained. An early example of appropriation.
Shingwauk matters
Who would know much about Chief Shingwauk and the Métis? Harry Huskins, and he qualifies as an expert. When I contacted him he was off to receive an honorary doctorate and was putting pen to paper for a convocation address.
Harry retired this year after some twenty-five years as a member of the Board of Directors of the Shingwauk Education Trust which holds the land and assets of the former Shingwauk Indian Residential School. During that time, he served at various times as the Trust's Vice-President, Administrator, and Director of Research. He is also one of the founding Directors of Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig (Shingwauk Teaching Lodge / Shingwauk University) which is one of the Ontario government's nine accredited Indigenous Education Institutes and which operates on the land of the former Residential School. He holds a Master of Arts degree in Canadian history, a Master’s degree in law, and a Doctorate taken at Oxford, England.
He has extensively researched Chief Shingwauk, the SRSC and the evolution of the Métis.
He said, “There is no other history written, at this point, of the Shingwauk Indian Residential School.” A book is in the making.
“You are quite right about Shingwauk and the Métis at Sault Ste. Marie and the surrounding area. The present-day rigid silos of 'Status Indian' and Métis' are a construct of late 1800's and early 1900's government policy particularly the creation of Indian Affairs Band Lists and the national Census which allowed individuals to declare themselves to be 'Indian' but had no category for 'Metis' which rendered them White and statistically invisible.”
The controversy in Ontario involves a conflict between the Métis Nation of Ontario (MNO) and First Nations, specifically regarding land, rights, and self-identification. First Nations argue the MNO is making illegitimate claims to their territories and rights by asserting the existence of historical Métis communities and governments. The MNO, supported by the federal government in some cases through legislation like Bill C-53, contends that it is a distinct Indigenous Nation with rights that are being denied.
Harry stated, “Today, one must be exclusively in one of these categories or another given section 35 (2) of the Constitution Act 1982. This was not so in Shingwauk's day. He was the son of French fur trader Lavoine Barthe.
“The other key signer of the 1850 Robinson Huron Treaty was Chief Nebenaigoching whose mother was Julia Sayers. Both of the First Nation's Chiefs leadership would be categorized as Métis today. The reality is that, in Shingwauk's day, individuals moved back and forth between the Indian, Métis, and Euro-Canadian cultural lifestyles throughout the course of their lives - and easily so. Nebenaigoching married a wife, lived on one of the Métis river lots at the Sault for over twenty years, and then moved to Garden River in the Métis 'French town' there after the 1850 Metis displacement in what is now downtown Sault Ste. Marie (SSM).”
As for Shingwauk's relationship with the Métis, “We have some of his daughters marrying into Métis families. In government agent Edward Borron's 1893 Report on 'The Halfbreed Claims at SSM,' Borron relates that Shingwauk's Council at Garden River met with the SSM Metis Council in 1850 to discuss how best to deal with William Benjamin Robinson in the coming negotiations over what was to become the Robinson-Huron Treaty. Borron had been an Indian Agent, then elected as Algoma's Member of Parliament after Confederation, and then appointed as District Magistrate (see Canadian Dictionary of Biography). Sounds like a pretty good and equal working relationship.”
Cubby hole
Near the completion of the visit, we reenter the main building.
At the bottom of the staircase to the lower level of the building, a small cubby hole no less than one meter by one metre remains intact. See the photo.
More than a thousand Indigenous children from Ontario, Quebec, the Prairies, and the Northwest Territories attended this school.
At first this cubby was a place for social respite for students, kind of like a tree fort, a place of comfort, a place of their own.
When administration discovered this the opposite occurred. It became a place of detention and forced confinement, in a dark place. Corporal punishment.
You pause for a poignant amount of time. There’s no answer.
Whether they were there by choice or coercion, residential school students were subject to a regimented daily routine that involved working to maintain the school while facing severe discipline and abuse, harsh labour, emotional neglect, inadequate nutrition, poor healthcare, and poor living conditions. The stories and records of residential school survivors are primarily held and preserved by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) in Winnipeg.
Siblings remained separated by gender and age, and Indigenous languages were forbidden. Many students spent their entire childhoods at the school and some never returned home. The far-reaching effects of the residential school experience continue to have significant impact on former students, their families, and communities today.
This is an insightful 2016 story that appeared in SooToday from survivors of the school. And a YouTube tour of the centre and grounds produced by the National Trust for Canada.
Visit summary
This experience was emotionally challenging.
You come away with the commitment to the restoration of the true intent and spirit of Chief Shingwaukonse’s vision – cross-cultural education and learning – and the reinterpretation of the site as a place for healing and reconciliation.
You realize over the course of its existence, it was the Shingwauk school in name only as Chief Shingwaukonse’s true vision was lost.
The visit leaves a lasting impact, shifts perspectives, and make lessons from history more real. This is truth and reconciliation.
Don’t tour - pay a visit for learning and respect.
