The Survivors Speak

44 • Truth & Reconciliation Commission
that I had it. As soon as I walked into that school, they took all my clothes, and they
took the teapot. And I never saw it again. And I got a haircut; I was issued school
clothing. 113
When Dorothy Ross went to school at Sioux Lookout, her clothes were taken from her
and thrown away. “I was hanging on to my jacket really tight. I didn’t want to let go. So
once I set my jacket somewhere, I lost it. ’Cause what if my mom comes, I was looking for
my mom, I need my jacket. They took that away from me.” 114
On her arrival at the Presbyterian school in Kenora, Lorna Morgan was wearing “these
nice little beaded moccasins that my grandma had made me to wear for school, and I was
very proud of them.” She said they were taken from her and thrown in the garbage. 115
The schools could not always provide students with a full range of shoe sizes. Geraldine
Bob said that at the Kamloops school, “you got the closest fit whether it was too big or too
small; so your feet hurt constantly.” In the same way, she felt the clothing was never warm
enough in winter. “I just remember the numbing cold. And being outside in the playground
and a lot of us would dig holes in the bank and
get in and pull tumbleweeds in after us, to try to stay
warm.” 116
Stella August said that at the Christie, British
Columbia, school, “we all had to wear the same shoes,
whether they fit or not, and, and if they didn’t fit, if we
were caught without our shoes, we’d get whacked in
the ear with our shoe.” 117
Other students recalled the school-issued clothing
as being uncomfortable, ill-fitting, and insufficient
in the winters. William Herney said that at the
Shubenacadie school, the students would often huddle
together in an effort to keep
Stella August.
warm.
It was, it was just like a circle. The inner circle was the three-, the four-, five- year-olds
and seven-year-olds in that circle, small ones, and the older you are, the outer circle
you were, and the oldest ones wanted the outest, and the, the outer circle, the farthest
out. We would huddle up in there, just huddle in close together to give that body
heat. And the young ones were protected from the elements. And, well, we huddled
up around there for maybe an hour, an hour and a half, and until suppertime, when,
when the bell rang, you were all piled in there. 118
Margaret Plamondon said the children at the Fort Chipewyan, Alberta, school were not
dressed warmly enough for the winter recess periods.
And then it doesn’t matter how cold it is, at recess, and you can’t wear pants, you
have to wear a little skinny dress, and it doesn’t matter how cold it is, you were out
there, and they wouldn’t let you come in, even if you’re crying and you’re cold. You