Regina author, Douglas Stewart. Photo courtesy of Manfred Joehnck.
There was some good, but mostly bad things happened at the Regina Indian Industrial School, which operated from 1891 to 1910.
It was one of the first to open in Canada, and one of the first to close. Regina author, Douglas Stewart, spent the past two and years gathering information about its history, which he has now turned into a book.
Stewart was a former education professor at the University of Regina. He was also part of the group that was successful in having a small cemetery on the school’s site declared a provincial heritage site.
He says the school’s mandate was to teach trade skills to the boys and to teach the girls how to be good homemakers. Stewart says there were success stories.
“There were a number of young people at the school who learned a trade, and as far as I could tell, did quite well after they graduated,” he said.
But there were many failures, the attempt to remove culture, language and heritage had a devastating impact on the children.
Stewart says there were also allegations of older boys at the school sexually assaulting some of the girls, however he says there are no documented sexual abuse allegations against the Presbyterian ministers who ran the school. Stewart says one of the most disturbing facts was the rampant death rate.
“I realized there were would be deaths at the school, but I didn’t realize the magnitude of these deaths. By 1898, after the school had been open for seven or eight years, the death rate was 21 per cent,” he said.
Most the deaths were from tuberculosis, which spread rapidly through the dormitory style environment. The school was closed in 1910, it was then turned into a jail, and later a home for delinquent boys. It burned to the ground in 1948, destroying most of the records.
Work is continuing on the small cemetery, which holds the remains of about 36 children who attended the school. It is being turned into a sacred site and a gathering place for Indigenous people.
The book is called “The Regina Indian Industrial School 1891-1910.” Stewart’s book is available at benchmarkpress.ca and through select retailers.