Mohawk Institute Residential School

Last updated
Mohawk Institute Residential School
MohawkInstitute-1932.jpg
The Mohawk Institute c.1932.
Location
Mohawk Institute Residential School
Brantford, Ontario

Coordinates 43°07′39″N80°14′25″W / 43.12760°N 80.24039°W / 43.12760; -80.24039
Information
Type Canadian Indigenous residential school
Established1828
Closed27 June 1970
Principalsee § Principals
Enrolment90 to 200
LanguageEnglish

The Mohawk Institute Residential School was a Canadian Indian residential school in Brantford, Ontario, Canada. The school operated from 1831 to June 27, 1970. Enrollment at the school ranged from 90 to 200 students per year.

Contents

History

Operated by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in New England (commonly known as the New England Company) from its founding in 1828 as the "Mechanics' Institute" (a day school for boys on the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve) until 1922, when the Canadian federal government took control. [1] The Mohawk Institute was established on 350 acres of farmland, all of which was or had been part of the Six Nations reserve at some point. [2]

In 1831, the New England Company operated this residential school for boys, and starting in 1834, Indigenous girls attended this school as well. [1] They were from Six Nations, along with some from the New Credit, and Moraviantown, Sarnia, Walpole Island, Muncey, Scugog, Stoney Point, Saugeen, Bay of Quinte and Kahnawake reserves.

While the school was originally near the Mohawk village, in 1837 the colonial government of Upper Canada ordered Six Nation residents to resettle south of the Grand River, kilometres from the school. [1] Between 1854–1859, the building was destroyed by fire and rebuilt a few hundred metres from its original location. [1] Around the same time, the school acquired more land, and farming became a prominent part of life for children at the school. In 1885, the school began to accept students from reserves beyond Six Nations. [1]

On April 19, 1903, the main school building was again destroyed by fire. In May, the barns of the Mohawk School were also destroyed by fire. On June 24, 1903 the playhouse which had been serving as the boys' dorm since the main fire in April was also burned down. All three of these fires have been attributed to students at the school. [3] The school buildings were rebuilt the following year. The new school building contained separate boys and girls wings, principal's and teachers quarters, as well as administrative offices. [1] This new school building was designed to hold 150 students and the new complex also included the development of barns, stables, and other agriculture related out buildings. [2]

In 1922, management of the school was formally taken over by the Canadian government, though the New England Company retained ownership, and the agreement required that the principal be Anglican. [1] A chapel was added to the school in 1930. [2] By 1955, enrollment reached 185 children. [1]

In 1963, farming was discontinued as the children were now given a full day of education without requiring manual labour. [1] Enrollment decreased as schools were built on reserves throughout Ontario, and in 1970, the school was closed. Six Nations assumed ownership of the building the following year.

Abuse

Many former students have described suffering physical, sexual and emotional abuse at the school. [4] [5] [6] The poor quality of food served to students led to the school's nickname, The Mush Hole.

In 1914 two former students from the Mohawk School charged the school's principal for cutting off their hair, imprisonment, and physical abuse. The case went to trial on March 31, 1914 where the students were awarded $400 for two of the claims and the principal was fined. [3]

Students frequently ran away from the Mohawk Institute, so the staff built a prison cell to hold captured runaways in the basement. It resembled a dark closet, and students were often left there for days at a time. One former student, Lorna, who attended the Mohawk Institute from 1940 to 1945, recalled being given shock treatment for wetting the bed. "They used to bring in a battery—a motor of some sort or some kind of gadget, and he’d put the girl’s hand on it and it would jerk us and it would go all the way through us from end to end—it would travel. And we would do that about three times." [7] Another former student, Dawn, said sexual abuse took place in the boiler room in the basement: [8] "You couldn’t hear their screams over the noise of the boiler."

Sally General, a former student who attended the Mohawk Institute from age four to thirteen, recalled having all of her hair cut off, along with all of the other students. They were branded[ who? ] "Mush Hole Baldies". Sally also remembered being locked in a dark room with her friend and being told by staff that "the rats were gonna get us". [8] They would cry for hours, not knowing why they were being punished. It wasn't until she learned English that she realized she was being punished for not knowing or speaking English. Sally was also sexually abused. After one assault, she began to bleed and went to the nurse. When she told the nurse what happened, the nurse gave her a beating, told her she was lying, and that she should never say anything like that again.

Male children at the Mohawk Institute were forced to get a circumcision and have their tonsils removed. [8]

Principals

The following individuals served as principals of the Mohawk Institute during its operation: [1]

Principal NameYears
Rev. Abraham Nelles1831–1870
Rev. Robert Ashton (Also Chaplain of Mohawk Chapel from 1885–1915)1870–1903
Major Alfred Nelles Ashton (son of Robert Ashton)1903–1914
Alice M. Boyce (Acting Principal)1914–1915
Rev. Cyril M. Turnell1915–1918
Alice. M. Boyce1918–1922
Sydney Rogers1922–1929
Rev. Horace W. Snell (Also Chaplain of Mohawk Chapel)1929–1945
Rev. William John Zimmerman (Principal/Administrator and Chaplain of Mohawk Chapel)1945–1970

Today

The Mohawk Institute in 2013. MohawkInstitute.jpg
The Mohawk Institute in 2013.

Following the closure of the Mohawk Institute in 1970 the Woodland Cultural Centre opened on the site in 1972, as an organization focused on research, history, and later the arts. [9] Woodland's cultural and historical interpretation programming utilizes the historic Mohawk Institute building to teach about the history of residential schools in Canada. [10]

In 2013 a leak in the roof of the residential school building caused significant damage to the historic site. As a result of this leak a community input process was established within Six Nations of the Grand River to determine what the local community wanted to do with the building, 98% of participants voted to save the historic building. [11] In March 2014 the "Save the Evidence" campaign was started to raise money to preserve the Mohawk Institute and to raise awareness about the history of residential schools. [9]

Following the 2021 discovery of previously unknown burials at the Kamloops Indian Residential School in British Columbia, Six Nations of the Grand River chief Mark Hill called on the Canadian federal government to support a search for missing children who could have been buried on the Mohawk Institute's grounds. [12] The search began around November 2021. As of September 2022, about 1.5% of the total area of the grounds had been searched. [13] Separately, the survivors group leading the investigation into deaths at the former residential school have identified 97 deaths with ties to the Mohawk Institute through review of documents. [14]

Legacy

The history and student experience at the Mohawk Institute has contributed to the works of a number of authors and artists including:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brantford</span> City in Ontario, Canada

Brantford is a city in Ontario, Canada, founded on the Grand River in Southwestern Ontario. It is surrounded by Brant County but is politically separate with a municipal government of its own that is fully independent of the county's municipal government.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph Brant</span> Mohawk leader (1742–1807)

Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant was a Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York and, later, Brantford, in what is today Ontario, who was closely associated with Great Britain during and after the American Revolution. Perhaps the best known Native American of his generation, he met many of the most significant American and British people of the age, including both United States President George Washington and King George III of Great Britain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohawk people</span> Indigenous First Nation of North America

The Mohawk, also known by their own name, Kanien'kehà:ka, are an Indigenous people of North America and the easternmost nation of the Haudenosaunee, or Iroquois Confederacy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">County of Brant</span> City in Ontario, Canada

The County of Brant is a single-tier municipality in the Canadian province of Ontario. Although it retains the word "county" in its name, the municipality is a single-tier municipal government and has no upper tier. The County of Brant has service offices in Burford, Paris, Oakland, Onondaga and St. George. The largest population centre is Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Six Nations of the Grand River</span> Indian reserve in Ontario, Canada

Six Nations is demographically the largest First Nations reserve in Canada. As of the end of 2017, it has a total of 27,276 members, 12,848 of whom live on the reserve. These nations are the Mohawk, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, Seneca and Tuscarora. Some Lenape live in the territory as well.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canadian Indian residential school system</span> Schools to assimilate Indigenous children

The Canadian Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous peoples. The network was funded by the Canadian government's Department of Indian Affairs and administered by various Christian churches. The school system was created to isolate Indigenous children from the influence of their own culture and religion in order to assimilate them into the dominant Euro-Canadian culture. Over the course of the system's more than hundred-year existence, around 150,000 children were placed in residential schools nationally. By the 1930s, about 30 percent of Indigenous children were attending residential schools. The number of school-related deaths remains unknown due to incomplete records. Estimates range from 3,200 to over 30,000, mostly from disease.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation</span> Mohawk community in Ontario, Canada

The Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte (MBQ) are a Mohawk community within Hastings County, Ontario. They control the Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory, which is a 7,362.5 ha (18,193-acre) Mohawk Indian reserve on the Bay of Quinte in southeastern Ontario, Canada, east of Belleville and immediately to the west of Deseronto. They also share Glebe Farm 40B and the Six Nations of the Grand River reserves with other First Nations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Molly Brant</span> Canadian aboriginal leader

Molly Brant, also known as Mary Brant, Konwatsi'tsiaienni, and Degonwadonti, was a Mohawk leader in British New York and Upper Canada in the era of the American Revolution. Living in the Province of New York, she was the consort of Sir William Johnson, the British Superintendent of Indian Affairs, with whom she had eight children. Joseph Brant, who became a Mohawk leader and war chief, was her younger brother.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kamloops Indian Residential School</span> Defunct Canadian residential school

The Kamloops Indian Residential School was part of the Canadian Indian residential school system. Located in Kamloops, British Columbia, it was once the largest residential school in Canada, with its enrolment peaking at 500 in the 1950s. The school was established in 1890 and operated until 1969, when it was taken over from the Catholic Church by the federal government to be used as a day school residence. It closed in 1978. The school building still stands today, and is located on the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation.

Cross Lake First Nation is a band of Cree First Nations people in Canada governed under the Indian Act. Its members occupy several reserves within the town of Cross Lake situated on the east shore of Cross Lake in the province of Manitoba. In October 2008, its recorded registered membership was 6,969, of which 4,953 people of this First Nation lived on their reserve. Cross Lake is the principal community of the Pimicikamak indigenous people that made treaty with the British Crown in 1875. Its indigenous language is Woods Cree. Cross Lake was the site of a residential school operated under Canada's assimilation policy. In 2008, Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized for the damage caused by this policy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thomas Indian School</span> United States historic place

Thomas Indian School, also known as the Thomas Asylum of Orphan and Destitute Indian Children, is a historic school and national historic district located near Irving at the Cattaraugus Indian Reservation in Erie County, New York. The institution was first established in 1855 by missionaries Asher Wright and his wife Laura Wright to house the orphaned and kidnapped Seneca children of the reservation under the federal policy of forced assimilation. The complex was built in about 1900 by New York State as a self-supporting campus. Designed by the New York City firm Barney and Chapman, the campus contains the red brick Georgian Revival style main buildings and a multitude of farm and vocational buildings.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory</span> First Nation territory in Ontario, Canada

Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory is the main First Nation reserve of the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte First Nation. The territory is located in Ontario east of Belleville on the Bay of Quinte. Tyendinaga is located near the site of the former Mohawk village of Ganneious.:10

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spanish Indian Residential Schools</span>

The Spanish Indian Residential Schools was a set of single-sex Canadian Indian residential schools for First Nations, Métis, and Anishinaabe children that operated in Spanish, Ontario from 1913 to 1965 by the Jesuit Fathers, the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, and the Government of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Elgin Indian Residential School</span> Indian Residential School in Muncey, Ontario, Canada (1851-1946)

The Mount Elgin Indian Residential School, also known as the Muncey Institute, was a Canadian Indian Residential School which operated from 1851 to 1946 and then briefly after 1967 in Muncey, Ontario.

Rebecca Jamieson is a Canadian Tuscarora educator and education administrator. Since the late 1970s she has worked to improve access to education on Six Nations of the Grand River, the most-populous First Nations reserve in Canada. Jamieson helped to found Six Nations Polytechnic (SNP), an indigenous educational institution, and has been its president and CEO since 2009.

Emily C. General (1908–1991) was a member of the Six Nations of the Grand River reserve in Canada. Born to Alexander General, a Cayuga, and Sophia Jones, who was Mohawk, she was a leader in the community, particularly through her career in education. Prior to becoming a teacher, General fought the RCMP's forced removal of twenty-one children from the community first to the Mohawk Institute Residential School and then to Chapleau Residential School, located 900 kilometres away from their community.

St. Anne’s Indian Residential School was a Canadian Indian Residential School in Fort Albany, Ontario, that operated from 1902 to 1976. It took Cree students from the Fort Albany First Nation and area. Many students reported physical, psychological and sexual abuse, and 156 settled a lawsuit against the federal government in 2004.

Lacie Kanerahtahsóhon Burning is a Kanien'kehá:ka and Onöñda'gega multi-disciplinary artist raised on Six Nations of the Grand River in Southern Ontario, Canada. Burning is currently based out of Vancouver, British Columbia where they are completing a Bachelor of Fine Arts at Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Santee Smith</span> Canadian educator

Santee Smith Tekaronhiáhkhwa is a Canadian Mohawk multidisciplinary artist, dancer, designer, producer, and choreographer. She has used her voice and research to create dance works representing Indigenous identities. She is an advocate for Indigenous performances and is one of Canada's most dominating dance artists. Santee Smith has amassed multiple awards throughout her career and in 2019, she was appointed Chancellor of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada.

The Canadian Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous children directed and funded by the Department of Indian Affairs. Administered by various Christian churches and funded by the Canadian government from 1828 to 1997 Canadian Indian residential school system attempted to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture. Over 4,000 students died while attending Canadian residential school. Students' bodies were often buried in school cemeteries to keep costs as low as possible. Comparatively few cemeteries associated with residential schools are explicitly referenced in surviving documents, but the age and duration of the schools suggests that most had a cemetery associated with them. Many cemeteries were unregistered, and as such the locations of many burial sites and names of residential school children have been lost.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 "Anglican Residential Schools".
  2. 1 2 3 Auger, Donald J. (2005). Indian Residential Schools in Ontario. Nishnawbe Aski Nation. pp. 171–180.
  3. 1 2 "Mohawk Institute Indian Residential School IAP Narrative" (PDF). National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. May 31, 2013. Retrieved March 11, 2023.
  4. 'We're never going to heal', December 15, 2008
  5. Tales of the Mush Hole retold
  6. "Douglas George-Kanetiio" in Native Americans Today: A Biographical Dictionary , Bruce Elliott Johansen (ed)
  7. Eshet, Dan (2015). Stolen Lives: The Indigenous Peoples of Canada and the Indian Residential Schools. Facing History and Ourselves. pp. 143–146.
  8. 1 2 3 Douglas, Ron (Director) (2009). Unseen Tears: The Native American Boarding School Experience in Western New York. Native American Community Services of Erie and Niagara Counties. OCLC   613983241.
  9. 1 2 Koblun, Jason (2017-03-01). "Update on Mohawk Institute renovations". Two Row Times. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  10. Brown, Louise (July 2, 2016). "Giving a voice to residential school ghosts | Toronto Star". thestar.com. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  11. Peeling, Mike (2016-12-28). "Brant News' Community Hero Award: Save the Evidence campaign | BrantNews.com". BrantNews.com. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  12. Hunt, Shauna (3 June 2021). "Calls grow for search of grounds at former Ontario residential school". CityNews .
  13. Evans, Leighanne (28 September 2022). "Timeline: The search for graves at the former Mohawk Institute". CTV News Kitchener.
  14. Villella, Stephanie (2 September 2022). "Survivors' Secretariat identifies 97 deaths in connection to former Brantford residential school". CTV News Kitchener.
  15. "Exhibit explores abuse of Six Nations youths". Rochester Democrat and Chronicle. October 23, 2013. Retrieved 2017-05-12.
  16. Toms, Colleen (2016-09-06). "Opening the Doors to Dialogue exhibit at Woodland Cultural Centre | BrantNews.com". BrantNews.com. Retrieved 2017-05-12.