Honouring the Truth Reconciling for the Future

The history • 87The language policy disrupted families. When John Kistabish left the Amos,Québec, school, he could no longer speak Algonquin, and his parents could not speakFrench, the language that he had been taught in the school. As a result, he found italmost impossible to communicate with them about the abuse he experienced at theschool. “I had tried to talk with my parents, and, no, it didn’t work.... We were wellanyway because I knew that they were my parents, when I left the residential school,but the communication wasn’t there.” 285Culture was attacked as well as language. In his memoirs, Stoney Chief John Snowtells of how at the Morley, Alberta, school, the “education consisted of nothing thathad any relationship to our homes and culture. Indeed Stoney culture was condemnedexplicitly and implicitly.” He recalled being taught that the only good peopleon earth were non-Indians and, specifically, white Christians. 286 Andrew Bull Calfrecalled that at the residential school in Cardston, Alberta, students were not onlypunished for speaking their own languages, but they also were discouraged from participatingin traditional cultural activities. 287 Evelyn Kelman recalled that the principalat the Brocket, Alberta, school warned students that if they attended a Sun Dance thatwas to be held during the summer, they would be strapped on their return to school. 288Marilyn Buffalo recalled being told by Hobbema, Alberta, school staff that the SunDance was ‘devil worship.’ 289 One year, Sarah McLeod returned to the Kamloopsschool with a miniature totem pole that a family member had given her for her birthday.When she proudly showed it to one of the nuns, it was taken from her and thrownout. She was told that it was nothing but devilry. 290School officials did not limit their opposition to Aboriginal culture to the classroom.In 1942, Gleichen, Alberta, principal John House became involved in a campaign tohave two Blackfoot chiefs deposed, in part because of their support for traditionaldance ceremonies. 291 In 1943, F. E. Anfield, the principal of the Alert Bay, BritishColumbia, school, wrote a letter encouraging former students not to participate inlocal Potlatches, implying that such ceremonies were based on outdated superstition,and led to impoverishment and family neglect. 292Even when it did not directly disparage Aboriginal culture, the curriculum underminedAboriginal identity. Thaddee Andre, who attended the Sept-Îles, Québec, schoolin the 1950s, recalled how as a student he wanted “to resemble the white man, thenin the meantime, they are trying by all means to strip you of who you are as an Innu.When you are young, you are not aware of what you are losing as a human being.” 293It was not until the 1960s that attitudes began to change about the place ofAboriginal language and culture in residential schools. 294 Alex Alikashuak said that atthe Churchill school, which operated in the 1960s, there were no restrictions on theuse of Aboriginal languages. He recalled, “The only time, real time we spoke Englishwas when we were in the classroom, or we’re talking to one of the administration staff,and or somebody from town that’s not Inuit, but otherwise we, everybody spoke our