Page:TRC Canada Survivors Speak.pdf/33

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page needs to be proofread.

Catholic school. And then on the other hand, the Anglicans, they would come out with what they called "bale clothes." They bring out bunch of clothes in a bale, like, a big bale. It was all used clothing and they'd give it to the women on the reserve here, and the women made blankets and stuff like that out of these old clothes. But that's the way they, they competed for us as people.42

Some children wanted to go to school, at least initially. Leon Wyallon, who attended the Roman Catholic residence in Fort Smith in the 1960s, said he looked forward to residential school "because I wanted to learn; learn to talk English and learn, so I can learn both languages at the same time." He hated his first year at the residence, particularly the restrictions on speaking his own language. But he said, "My mom and dad didn't listen to me; but they still sent me back."43

In other cases, missionaries convinced students of the benefits of going to school. Anthony Henry said that a priest named Father LaSalle convinced him to come to residential school at Kenora. According to Henry, his mother did not want him to go to residential school, but LaSalle, who spoke fluent Ojibway, convinced him it would be beneficial.