Saint Joseph's Mission (Williams Lake)

St. Joseph's Mission
Location
Willams Lake Canada
Information
Other name	St. Joseph's Indian Residential School
Former name	St. Joseph's, Williams Lake Industrial School, Cariboo Indian Industrial School, Cariboo Indian Student Residence, Cariboo Industrial School, Cariboo Student Residence, Caribou Residential School, St. Joseph's Indian residential School, St. Joseph's Industrial School, St. Joseph's Mission School, St. Joseph's Residential School
Type	Residential School
Religious affiliation(s)	Roman Catholic Church, Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Sisters of Saint Anne
Established	1867, July 5th
Founder	James Maria McGuckin
Closed	1981

St. Joseph's Mission was a Roman Catholic mission established near Williams Lake, British Columbia in 1867. The mission was operated by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. It is primarily known for the notorious St. Joseph's Indian Residential School located on the property, a part of the Canadian Indian residential school system. Schooling occurred on the Mission from 1872 to 1981.

Founding and early days

In 1860, the Oblates of Mary Immaculate pre-empted land along the San Jose River, near Williams Lake, in the Colony of British Columbia. In 1866, Father James Maria McGucken, a young priest with the order, was assigned to found a mission on the property.

On July 5, 1867, the St. Joseph's Mission was founded. The goal of the mission was to convert the local Secwepemc people and other nearby First Nations to Catholicism. Initially the mission engaged in ranching in order to become self-sustaining, but also as a means of building connections into the nearby community. The mission was responsible for recording births and deaths in the area.

In 1871, Father Charles Grandidier became the head of the mission, and work began on building a school. The school was completed in 1872, and initially only accepted white and métis boys, with 11 boys in its first year of operation. In 1876, the Sisters of Saint Anne arrived and opened a girls school. By 1878, the two schools had a combined enrollment of 75 students. In addition to academic subjects, the school taught domestic skills to the girls and agricultural trades to the boys.

Conversion to an Indian Residential School

In 1890, St. Joseph's School accepted indigenous children for the first time. In 1891, the school became one of the first schools in the Canadian Indian residential school system, taking the name St. Joseph's Indian Residential School. Upon conversion to a residential school, the white children were sent to other schools, being phased out over a period of three years. The residential school was run by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. Native children in the Williams Lake area were obliged to attend St. Joseph's due to the fact that they could not attend the other schools in area; they would not be allowed to enter the public school system until 1967.

The school was initially set up to teach trades to its students. However, in 1891, the school's blacksmith shop burned down. Following the reconstruction of the blacksmith's shop, the school's blacksmith became sick and quit.

The first mission for the schools's teachers was to teach the students English. The first year, none of the students knew any English, so the school had to permit the use of Indigenous languages at first. By 1894, the boys were mostly speaking English, with principal J.M.J. Lejacq declaring that "the Indian language is a thing of the past." The girls took longer to give up their Indigenous languages: they were still speaking them regularly in 1896. Later on, the students would be punished for speaking their indigenous languages, and the school successfully caused the children to lose the ability to speak their native tongue.

In 1896, the Sisters of Saint Anne departed from the school, due to financial difficulties. They were replaced as teachers by the Order of the Sisters of the Child Jesus, who came from France in order to serve at St. Joseph's Mission.

Initially, the government agreed to support a maximum of 50 indigenous students at the St. Joseph's School, but in 1893, the government cut the pupilage to 25, threatening the existence of the school. The school responded by having its harness shop sell to customers locally in order to raise funds for the school. This resulted in complaints in 1899 that the school was harming local businesses and failing to educate its pupils properly. The Department of Indian Affairs investigated and dismissed the claims.

Student deaths

Duncan Sticks

On February 8, 1902, nine boys ran away from the school after lunch. A teacher chased them and after organizing a search party, found eight of the boys and returned them to the school. When the principal returned to the school at 5:00pm, he was informed that the ninth boy, Duncan Sticks, was still missing. The principal declined to continue the search for Duncan Sticks, although he did organize a search for four other boys who had run away earlier that day. The following day, he sent a staff member to the indian reserve in order to find the missing boy. A local man found Duncan Sticks' body, frozen to death.

At first, the local coroner refused to investigate Duncan Sticks' death, claiming the government did not see any reason for an enquiry. However, a local businessman and a former teacher named Brophy lobbied for an enquiry, so an enquiry was held. Brophy had kept a record of student mistreatment at the school from the time he had worked there. However, Indian Affairs doubted the accuracy of his record, and claimed that the mistreatment in the book was "slight indeed compared to the time I went to school." During the coroner's investigation, in an interview of Duncan Sticks' sister, she claimed that they were being served rotten beef, and if the students refused to eat it, they would be tied up and blindfolded and starved for a day; and also that other students would be struck across the face with a strap; and that she ran away from school the previous fall and that no one had come after her. Many other students echoed the claims of rotten food, and added claims of being stripped naked and beaten, and held in solitary confinement for many days. The principal stated that students had been running away from school regularly, claiming the food quality was poor. The principal also stated that the boys were denied water after dinner in order to prevent them from wetting their beds at night. At the conclusion of the coroner's inquest, a recommendation was made for an independent inquiry into the school, but no independent inquiry took place. Indian Affairs discounted all claims of misconduct, and dismissed Brophy as a troublemaker.

Augustine Allan

In 1920, a boy by the name of Augustine Allan died, and it was reported as an accidental death. Further investigation revealed that the boys of the school were depressed because of the harshness of the discipline, which led nine boys to agree to eat hemlock in a suicide pact. Allan died, while the other eight boys became very sick. This led to a request by an Indigenous man to have his son discharged from the school.

As with before, the local coroner initially chose not to hold an inquest, claiming that "there was nothing suspicious about children eating a poison weed." The local Indian Agent believed that the school would refuse to cooperate with an inquiry, so he wrote to Ottawa asking them to carry out a medical examination of the boys in the school. However, the department of Indian Affairs refused, instead asking the agent to ask about the "unduly severe punishment" at the school. In the time it had taken for the reply to return, the children had gone home on vacation, so the agent declined to investigate further. A few months later, Augustine's father, a member of the Canim Lake Band, attempted to get another pupil discharged from the school, saying that the school did "not send any notice to me" to say that his son had died. In response to this complaint, the inspector of Indian schools was asked to investigate. The inspector decided to interview the former principal of the school, who claimed that on one occasion one of the brothers had become incensed at the behaviour of a student and beat him with a rod, causing the boy to run away. The inspector was satisfied and declared the matter closed.

Fires and scandals

In 1946, following a government inspection, the government declared the St. Joseph's School building a fire hazard and a menace to the health of the students and staff. The government asked the Oblates to replace the building. Indeed, the buildings had been condemned as early as 1939. A sister who worked at the school wrote to the Prime Minister's wife in 1949, claiming that the buildings were "cold and dilapidated", with frequent blackouts, and of the convent she wrote that it could "go up in flames some fine night." The government responded that they were in the process of drawing up plans for a replacement building.

In 1954, a fire destroyed one classroom at the school. Then on December 22, 1955, the school became internationally known when the British United Press published a story titled "Indian Children 'Starved'". The reporter had interviewed parents saying that their children "are being half starved"; and that when the children had come home for Christmas, "they all had frozen hands, ears, faces and even feet. Some had to be taken to the hospital." In response to the story, the local Indian agent demanded an apology, claiming the reporter should have fact-checked the story with the school first. The news service followed by running a story from the school disputing the allegations.

The following week, an Oblate at the school wrote to his provincial superior, claiming that the school principal had a drinking problem and had lost control of the school. The Oblates sent an investigator, who found the accusations to be true, and furthermore found several other problems that should have been reported to the government. The local Indian Agent expressed concerns that this could become bad publicity for the church. Thus, in January 1956, the provincial superior asked the principal to discuss the possibility of taking a leave of absence. The principal immediately abandoned his position and left the school. The local Indian Agent did not report any of the issues with the school to the government.

In 1965, the Cariboo Union Board of Health declared the school a public nuisance, as the school was dumping 40,000 gallons of raw sewage into the San Jose River each day, the river which flowed from there into Williams Lake. The board threatened to close the school within two months if the school did not create a sewage treatment plant for the school. Following these threats, the government arranged for the construction of a new sewage lagoon that same year.

Also in 1965, a school inspection led to the fire protection of the school being described as "wholly inadequate". The building was made of combustible materials and had no sprinkler system, and the existing fire equipment was described as in "poor maintenance".

In 1967, the engineer's shack at the school was destroyed by a fire.

Later years

In 1967, the government noted that the school was significantly above its maximum student capacity of 257, with an enrollment of 307. The principal of the school refused to reduce enrollment and instead told the government to provide money to expand the school.

In 1968, a University of British Columbia professor asked if they could conduct a medical test on the students at the school for a medical study, which involved taking the fingerprints of students. The school willingly participated, and while the study did not harm the students, the school did not obtain consent from the parents before subjecting the students to the study.

In 1968, a new gym was constructed at the school.

School closure

On March 31, 1969, the federal government took over control of the school from the Roman Catholic Church, along with all of the schools in the Canadian Indian residential school system.

In 1981, St. Joseph's school was closed and turned into an adult education centre.

In 1987, the old school building was torn down.

Sexual abuse

In 1959, Oblate priest Harold McIntee began to work at the school. While at the school, he would sneak into the boys dormitory at night and fondle the students. When the boys asked him to stop, he claimed that he was checking them for lice. He remained at the school until 1963, when he transferred to a different school. In 1988, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigated McIntee's actions, resulting in McIntee being charged and convicted of sexual assault in the cases of 17 boys over a period of 25 years, of which thirteen charges related to his work at the school. He was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of probation.

From 1961 to 1967, Father Hubert O'Connor served as principal of the school. In 1996, he was convicted of committing rape and indecent assault on two young aboriginal women during his time as principal. His affair with one of the indigenous girls caused her to give birth to a child, for which O'Connor arranged an adoption. During the trial, O'Connor claimed that the sexual relations were consensual. He was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison. After serving six months in prison, he won a new trial, and the charges were later dropped in exchange for O'Connor going to a healing circle in Alkali Lake, British Columbia.

In 1964, Oblate priest Glenn Doughty began working at the school. In 1990, he was arrested and charged with five counts of indecent assault and five counts of gross indecency. In 1991, he pled guilty to four charges that related to his conduct at St. Joseph's School. He was sentenced to one year in prison. In 2000, he was charged with 36 further offences relating to his time at St. Joseph's and at Kuper Island Residential School, which resulted in another three years in prison.

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Edward Gerald Fitzgerald worked as a dorm supervisor at the school. In 2003, he was charged with ten counts of indecent assault, three counts of gross indecency, two counts of buggery, and six counts of common assault, in relation to his time at the Fraser Lake school and the St. Joseph School. However, by this point, he lived in Ireland, which had no extradition treaty with Canada at the time. As a result, he did not stand trial for the charges.

Several other former school employees faced investigations in the 1980s and the 1990s, but the remainder of the charges were not pursued in court.

Legacy

SJM Project

In April 2013, survivors of the St. Joseph's school gathered together for reunion and reconciliation, and founded the SJM Project. The SJM Project erected a monument at the cemetery of the former school site.

Orange Shirt Day

Main article: Orange Shirt Day

During this reunion, survivor Phyllis Webstad told the story about her first day in residential school in 1973, when the new orange shirt that her grandmother had bought her was taken away from her and never returned. The SJM Project arranged for schools in the Williams Lake area to wear orange shirts on September 30, in memory of the residential school victims.

The observance of Orange Shirt Day quickly spread across Canada, and in 2021 it became a national statutory holiday, officially titled the "National Day for Truth and Reconciliation."

Cemetery

When the mission first opened, it contained the only cemetery in the area until Williams Lake was granted official town status in 1920 and began its own cemetery. Today, the grounds of the cemetery and the foundations of the former school building are mostly untended, and are marked as a historic site of the province of British Columbia.

Following the discovery of 215 unmarked graves at the Kamloops Indian Residential School, the Williams Lake First Nation began a search of the former residential school site, using ground-penetrating radar, in order to look for unmarked graves.