Cont'd......

-----Original Message-----

Date: Tue Jan 25 14:41:02 PST 2011

From: jackman2@telus.net

Subject: Re: Lejac Experiences

Taylor

Hi Taylor:

First of all I wanted to thank you for your comments in your first email about the BLOG. I'm always surprised when I find out that someone actually reads my stuff! There was a fella from Prince Rupert who sent me an email few months back and said his Mom was in one of the photos we posted. That is why we created the BLOG, partly for self-therapy I suppose, but also for people to stimulate memories from their childhood. Hope it's all good.

Feel free to use any of my ideas or photos from the BLOG for your presentation. Whatever helps and brings some understanding of what went on there. Yes, the Nuns and Brothers had no formal training for the most part and then come to Lejac and have to look after a dorm full of kids (about 30 to 35 to a dorm) and they never got any time off. Every day it was the same day in, day out. Can you imagine for a moment working every day 365 days a year! I'd go bananas. Some of them figured it out but I know some must've had problems adjusting.

I should qualify that. I remember being watched one Christmas by some ofthe former Lejac students who left and were brought in from the Prince George College and were paid to supervise kids over the holidays. These were thechildren who couldn't make it home for Christmas or Easter. So they must've at least had the holidays to themselves (the Nuns, Brothers and Priests). I just remember the school being rather deserted over the holidays.

One of my supervisors had a frank discussion with us on one occasion. Mr Kenny. He complained about how little he was making, and that he had to sleep in a small bedroom in the corner of Intermediate dorm. Bill Robertson, our senior dorm supervisor explained to us once we got older, in about 1970, that it was the Church who watched all us kids but the government who paid for it all.

As for assimilation, I know Mr. Kenny for all the problems he had, had us learn as much of our own Indian language as part of Boy Scouts. In Boy Scouts, we earned badges for learning how to sew, make a fire, water survival, and even things like knowing how to speak a second language. He encouraged the older boys who knew their own language to teach us younger ones at least phrases in a second language so we could earn those badges. And many of us passed. My mother was Carrier from Fort St. James (today they are known as Nak'azdli) so I learned phrases in Carrier. Lejac was in Nadleh Whut'en territory. We used to call it Nautley which is how English-speaking people refer to it and for the longest time, Nadleh was known as Nautley. Today all the signs on the highway say 'Nadleh'.

My father was Sekani and there were a few of us Sekani kids at Lejac but it was mostly Carrier. All students at Lejac were either Carrier or Sekani. One year, in about 1969, they sent us a young boy (a teenager) from the Yukon. They said he ran away from every residential school he got sent to. And so as a last resort, they were sending him to Lejac to see if he could adjust. We were asked by our supervisor, Mr. Kenny, to make sure we talk to him and be nice to him. First day he showed up some of the older boys sat with him to find out where he was from and just to try make him feel at home. He didn't last very long before he ran away again. He was the only non-Carrier or Sekani I know of who went to Lejac.

And actually, after I sent this response to this reader, I remember there were two girls from one of the Bands around Fort St. John at Lejac in the mid to late 1960s. I think their last name was 'Chipesia' and would be either from Doig or Blueberry.

We were not allowed to speak our own language in the 1940s and 50s but they did not discourage it by the late 1960s. It was all partly due to the fact that the whole residential school system was undoing great change during the mid to late 1960s. They started bringing in Lay Apostles (normal people like you and I) who were neither Nuns, Brothers or Priests, to be supervisors and part of the Staff. Before bringing in the Lay Apostles to watch the students, it was only the Nuns, Brothers and Priests who watched the dorms.

The funniest thing ever is I got my fist taste of Indian rights from residential school, and why Indians were fighting to get recognition.We were warned by our supervisors in 1970 to be careful and keep an eye out for any strangers who might come to our school. We asked them why. And they said that there was a movement out of the States called AIM (American Indian Movement) and they might come to our school and try to talk to us about the movement and that some of the stuff they practice is based on violence (true). Nobody ever came but it sure scared a lot of us!

We had a lot of sports for fall, winter, spring and summer. Fall time we went hiking a lot. Boy Scouts was introduced in 1967 so that took up a lot of our time all year long. We also had band. Where we each learned to play instruments and prepare for road trips and parades. Band was so much fun. Everyone looked forward to it because not only did you have road trips in the spring and summer but you also got out of 'chores' after school and sometimes in the evenings. Even girls started joining the Band by 1969-70. They went on parade with us at Prince George in the spring of 1970.

A typical day starts at 7:00 am when all students arose. Everyone got dressedand you had to literally race for the washroom because there were only limited sinks to wash in or you ended up standing in line. Everyone then made their way downstairs to Rec Room where we kicked around in the mornings until breakfast. After breakfast, some of the boys had to stay and sweep and mop the dining room. Also, pick up all the dirty dishes and place them in carts and bring it down to the dishwash room. Then race back upstairs and get ready for first morning class which started about 8:30 am. We had school all day long until 3:30 pm with a recess in mid-morning, another one in mid-afternoon, and lunch off. We studied science, social studies, math, art and catechism. During lunch hour most kids went outside and the younger ones headed for the play ground where we had swings, slide and sandbox. The older ones sometimes headed out to the fields and kicked around until classes started again.

After school everyone headed outside once again or up to dorm until supper which was at 6 pm. All the meals were announced by a bell outside the kitchen which you could hear all over the school. There were two TVs on the boys side, one in Rec room and one upstairs in senior dorm. We spent part of our free time watching TV. Spring time everyone was outside most days and evenings. The different sports we had were hockey, broomball, soccer, softball, hurling, curling, lacrosse and we even had a sports day every early June where everyone in the whole school competed. We had dances, and every Friday night they showed a movie down at the showhall and everybody in the whole school went! Friday night was a big event every week! Some kids bought pop and junk food for the movies from the concession we had in Rec Room. We had a lot of stuff happening all the time and sometimes I think it was because the supervisors needed to find stuff to do themselves.

Lights out in dorm was at 9 pm every night except Friday and Saturday nights (in seniors) when the TV often stayed on until 2 am, or whenever everybody fell asleep.

To get back to assimilation, I don't think the teachers and Staff set out to assimilate us, that is just what happened because they were teaching us only the things they knew. Assimilation was incidental. The goal of the church may have been based on assimilation to teach the Natives non-Native ways and values but by the late 1960s we were told that it's okay if you spoke your own language, they even promoted it in Boys Scouts. But when it came to things like AIM the message there was be careful what you learn.

I got the sense by the time I left in 1971 was these guys (Bill Robertson, Jim Lundy, Brother James) were really just trying to protect us! And they really never ever had any training, all the training was on the job! And they did the best they could with what they had. Of course, as we found out later, some people took advantage of the situation. I'm referring to a fella by the name of (name deleted) who was the Junior dorm supervisor and was accused of molesting some of those boys.

I hope that all this helps. I don't mind talking about any of this stuff if you still need more information. Cheers.

Verne