The Survivors Speak

14 • Truth & Reconciliation Commission
In the late 1940s, Vitaline Elsie Jenner was living with her family in northern Alberta.
“My, my mom and dad loved me, loved all of us a lot. They took care of us the best that they
knew how, and I felt so comfortable being at home.” This came to an end in the fall of 1951.
My parents were told that we had to go to the
residential school. And prior to that, at times, my
dad didn’t make very much money, so sometimes
he would go to the welfare to get, to get ration, or
get some monies to support twelve of us. And my
parents were told that if they didn’t put us in the
residential school that all that would be cut off. So,
my parents felt forced to put us in the residential
school, eight of us, eight out of, of twelve. 30
Many parents sent their children to residential
school for one reason: they had been told they would
be sent to jail if they kept their children at home. Ken A. Vitaline Elsie Jenner.
Littledeer’s father told him that “if I didn’t go to school,
he’d go to jail, that’s what he told me.” As a result, he was enrolled in the Sioux Lookout,
Ontario, school. 31
Andrew Bull Calf was raised by his grandfather, Herbert Bull Calf. When he was enrolled
in residential school in Cardston, Alberta, his grandfather was told “that if he didn’t bring
me, my grandfather would be ... would go to jail and be
charged.” 32
When Martha Minoose told her mother she did
not wish to return to the Roman Catholic school in
Cardston, her mother explained, “If you don’t go to
school, your dad is going to go to jail. We are going to
get a letter written in red that’s very serious.” 33
Maureen Gloria Johnson went to the Lower Post
school in northern British Columbia in 1959.
I went there with a bus. They load us all up on a bus,
and took us. And I remember my, my mom had
Andrew Bull Calf.
a really hard time letting us kids go, and she had,
she had a really hard time. She begged the priest,
and the priest said it was law that we had to go, and if we didn’t go, then my parents
would be in trouble. 34
In the face of such coercion, parents often felt helpless and ashamed. Paul Dixon
attended residential schools in Ontario and Québec. Once he spoke to his father about his
experience at the schools. According to Dixon, “He got angry and said, ‘I had no choice,
you know.’ It really, it really hit me hard. I wasn’t accusing him of anything, you know, I