J.H. McIntosh, Esq.,
Calling Lake, Alta.
Driftpile, Alberta,
July 24th, 1935
Dear Sir,
Last winter J.B. Gambler, an Indian of Calling Lake, has taken his children away from the Wabasca R.C. School without the assent of the Principal and when the Magistrate acting as Truant Officer went to him to regain possession of the children he used abusive language and threatened to shoot him.
As the above mentioned J.B. Gambler is in receipt of a monthly ration, I have to order that the same be cut off entirely until such time as I am able to reverse my decision. This cannot be expected until the children are back at school at Wabasca and Gambler’s amends presented to the Principal and Magistrate there.
Your account dated 7th of July is being passed as submitted.
Yours faithfully,
W.P L’Heureux,
Indian Agent.
n 2013, Gwen Schmidt found this letter in a shed that she inherited near Calling Lake, in northern Alberta. She showed it to Curtis Cardinal, who posted it online.
After it went viral, Cardinal told the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network that he thinks Jean-Baptiste Gambler, who died in 1957, likely found a way to keep from sending his children back to the school. Let’s hope.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
From the 1880s until the 1990s, many parents had to choose between starving and sending their kids to schools where they were terribly mistreated.
Recollections of parental anguish are some of the saddest parts of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report issued this week.
Isaac Daniels told the commission that, in 1945, an Indian agent came to his home on the James Smith Reserve in Saskatchewan and spoke to his father in English, which Daniels couldn’t understand.
“So that night we were going to bed, it was just a one-room shack we all lived in, and I heard my dad talking to my mom there, and he was kind of crying, but he was talking in Cree now. He said that, ‘It’s either residential school for my boys, or I go to jail.’ He said that in Cree. So, I overheard him. So I said the next morning, we all got up, and I said, ‘Well, I’m going to residential school,’ because I didn’t want my dad to go to jail.”
Stephen Maher: A 1935 letter found in shed reveals suffering and anguish residential schools created | National Post
Calling Lake, Alta.
Driftpile, Alberta,
July 24th, 1935
Dear Sir,
Last winter J.B. Gambler, an Indian of Calling Lake, has taken his children away from the Wabasca R.C. School without the assent of the Principal and when the Magistrate acting as Truant Officer went to him to regain possession of the children he used abusive language and threatened to shoot him.
As the above mentioned J.B. Gambler is in receipt of a monthly ration, I have to order that the same be cut off entirely until such time as I am able to reverse my decision. This cannot be expected until the children are back at school at Wabasca and Gambler’s amends presented to the Principal and Magistrate there.
Your account dated 7th of July is being passed as submitted.
Yours faithfully,
W.P L’Heureux,
Indian Agent.
n 2013, Gwen Schmidt found this letter in a shed that she inherited near Calling Lake, in northern Alberta. She showed it to Curtis Cardinal, who posted it online.
After it went viral, Cardinal told the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network that he thinks Jean-Baptiste Gambler, who died in 1957, likely found a way to keep from sending his children back to the school. Let’s hope.
_______________________________________________________________________________________
From the 1880s until the 1990s, many parents had to choose between starving and sending their kids to schools where they were terribly mistreated.
Recollections of parental anguish are some of the saddest parts of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission report issued this week.
Isaac Daniels told the commission that, in 1945, an Indian agent came to his home on the James Smith Reserve in Saskatchewan and spoke to his father in English, which Daniels couldn’t understand.
“So that night we were going to bed, it was just a one-room shack we all lived in, and I heard my dad talking to my mom there, and he was kind of crying, but he was talking in Cree now. He said that, ‘It’s either residential school for my boys, or I go to jail.’ He said that in Cree. So, I overheard him. So I said the next morning, we all got up, and I said, ‘Well, I’m going to residential school,’ because I didn’t want my dad to go to jail.”
Stephen Maher: A 1935 letter found in shed reveals suffering and anguish residential schools created | National Post