LEJAC DOCUMENTARY....

A friend contacted me by email and recommended we try CFTK at Terrace who apparently did the documentary in 1970. We have since been in contact with the station and will get back to you on that film on a later date. administrator

'Lejac' , CBC, 1970-71

CBC made a documenatry film of Lejac residential school in about 1970-71 which aired on CBC in July 1971. It was a half hour documentary special featuring life at the school from day to day. I tried to find that film but was unsuccessful. Maybe one of you can locate it. Best of luck! Administrator

LINK.....

There is a Lejac Group on Facebook you might be interested in. Lots of photos there some of which we have on disk. I was quite interested in the older pictures from the 1930s and on. The name of the Group is Lejac Residential School Memorial Project. You need to be invited to the Group. If you can't find anyone to invite to the Group please email me at jackman2@telus.net. Cheers and Best Regards. administrator

WELCOME....

to all our Followers. Sorry also I have not kept this up to date but we have been very busy.

FROM LEJAC TO VANCOUVER...

I remember the first major trip we did with the Lejac Marching Band. It must have been 1964 or 65. We had already done a trip north to Dawson Creek, Taylor and Fort St. John. However this was our first venture south. We spent the first night in Pr. George at the Catholic high school.

We arrived in Kamloops early afternoon the next day where we let all the boys out for a wander in the city for a good leg stretch. The first thing I knew the boys were putting pennies and nickels into the parking meters just to see the arrow move up the dial. Of course the boys had never seen a parking meter, nothing like that in places like Tachie, Talka or McLeod Lake. The other big fascination was pigeons. As one of the boys said "Gee! Sure friendly bird" then proceeded to try and catch one. We ended up at the big Okanagan band tattoo. There were bands from all over BC including the Canadian Forces Band. The boys had perfected most of the moves developed by the RCMP Musical Ride. They did some rather complicated figure marching all done to the music they played, mostly Irish rebel songs. It was quite a site to see. In the stadium in Vernon the Canadian Forces Band members watched the Lejac band. They stood up and applauded about half way through the routine and remained standing until the boys were finished because they were so impressed with the performance. For me that was a very proud day. We also performed in Penticton and Kelowna. We were housed in the Armed Forces base in Vernon and ate in the cafeteria.

Another fond memory was our drive over the Hope Princeton Highway. We met and passed an old antique car with a rumble seat. A few miles later they passed us and all the boys started to encourage our bus driver to "catch ‘em up and pass ‘em back". This went on back and forth for quite a few miles.

The boys were also counting the rural mail boxes at the end of people’s driveways as this was also a new experience since there were no RR mail boxes up in our area at that time. They also had their first experience of fast food as we made a few stops at McDonalds and Dogs & Suds to feed everyone.

In Vancouver we gave each of the boys $20.00 and took them into Eaton’s department store. With Bruce McCormick in the lead and myself taking up the rear we took the boys onto the escalator and headed up to the sixth floor only to turn around and take them all the way down to the basement. We then set them loose to go and find a treasure to spend their money on. What an experience for a group who had never seen a building so large or ever ridden on an escalator.

We tried to take the boys to Marine Land in Stanley Park but unfortunately the park attendants were on strike. We did however manage to take the boys to the Vancouver Planetarium. As we sat there for the show it felt like it was night and they took the roof off the building and we were looking at the stars. I do believe a few of the boys fell asleep during the show.

All in all it was a wonderful experience for all, and a real eye opener for the boys.

ST. JOSEPH'S.....

I’d heard of Williams Lake residential school before. By 1965. Then one year they came to our school and all I remember was they had a Scottish pipe Band which was all girls. And they played for us in our Rec room one day and it was loud. This was about 1966. And their drums sound different than ours.

Williams Lake is approximately 150 south of Prince George in northern British Columbia. Lejac at Fraser Lake is about 100 miles west of Prince George. And almost every year there was an exchange between the two residential schools at Lejac and St. Joseph’s, the residential school just south of Williams Lake. St. Joseph’s brought their pipe Band or their girls or boys teams to Lejac for the weekend. Sometimes Lejac travelled the 250 miles which was an all-day trip just to get there and spend the whole weekend at their school bringing the Band or teams for a weekend of fun and games.

One year, in about 1968, we put together a hockey team made up of all us Intermediate and Senior boys and then travelled to Williams Lake to play hockey against their team. It was one of the first time I ever went on a road trip for anything. That evening we were sent to one of their dorms and we were told to pick a spot on the floor in between their bunks and that’s where we slept. Me and Gilbert we hung out together sometimes at residential school and we met one of the boys from Williams Lake residential school who we latched onto. We asked him everything about their school and how they do things there. His name was Rene Elkins. He was me and Gilbert our guide at Williams Lake.

Gilbert Chingee is an older boy from McLeod Lake in Senior Dorm at our school. Gilbert is Lester’s older brother.

That Saturday we played hockey against their team at the arena in town. It was a pretty even game. Can’t remember who won. But I remember their coffee wasn’t as good as ours. Also their school wasn’t as big as Lejac. Our school was H-U-G-E!

One year, maybe in 1967 they sent their girls to Lejac for the weekend. There was this big huge grudge match between their girls and our girls. In the game of ringette. We had a court up at the old barn at Lejac where students from all the classes enjoyed games of ringette or sometimes did gymnastics. And the girls had a game that Saturday. The barn was packed as all the students from our school watched the game. Some of us students climbed the balcony overlooking the court.

And man were they rough!! Their girls and our girls took it all very personally and they were just about scrapping! Banging each other into the walls, hitting each other hard as they could and trying not to lose. Sister Ann Rosario was very tall. She was the Senior Girls dorm supervisor. She was also the referee for the game and had to try and keep the girls separated and apart, trying to maintain some degree of control. These girls were all on the verge of breaking out into outright fist fights were it not for Sister Ann. Their girls were very tough and so were the girls of Lejac. None of them took any crap. Those were the girls.

PEOPLE

Not everything was always fun at Lejac. In about 1966 we were in class one day when there was a sudden banging on the fire escape door. Our teacher answered the door and all of a sudden she ran out after speaking to whoever was there. Later a substitute teacher came in and explained to us what had happened.

Bill Leslie is our bus driver. He and his wife, Mrs. Leslie, lived in one of those houses next to our school. They said she was sweeping the floor when something happened to her and she had passed away. Someone found her lying on the floor where they live. Our Substitute and us all said a prayer for her that day in class.

That happened again later.

Randy Williams was an older boy in Grade 7 when I was still in Grade 6 in about 1968. His mom used to work in the laundry room before Mrs. Robison came. Mrs. Williams was a Native woman except I don’t know from where. Then one day that year, Brother asked a bunch of us boys from our school to attend church with him on Saturday at Fort Fraser. Fort Fraser is about 7 miles east of Lejac. I guess they had his funeral services at Fort Fraser. He was only 12 years old.

Then in 1970 the boys from Tachie had to go to Thomas’ funeral. Thomas Hansen started Lejac maybe in 1966 or ‘67. He was an older boy always joking and doing funny and crazy stuff. He was always making us laugh. Except he quit Lejac maybe in 1970 and right around that time he had an accident at Tachie where he lived.

So Brother and all the boys from Tachie all went to his funeral. That really put us all in the dumps!