Residential Schools

A vital account of the life and many names of Robert Cree, and his plan for a peaceful, sincere, and just path to reconciliation in an angry and chaotic world.

His mother called him “Bobby Mountain.” Elders called him “Great Man.” His people called him “Chief.” Oil men called him “Mr. Cree.” But the government called him “Number 53.” Robert Cree was all of these while facing his people’s oppressors and freeing the ghosts of tortured spirits.

The Many Names of Robert Cree is his first-person account of survival in a brutally racist residential school system designed to erase traditional Indigenous culture, language, and knowledge. It is also the story of an epic life of struggle and healing, as Cree takes the wisdom of his ancestors and a message of reconciliation to the halls of government and to industry boardrooms.

In the storytelling tradition of his people, Cree recounts his early years in the bush, his captivity at a residential school, his struggles with addiction, his political awakening as one of Canada’s youngest First Nation Chiefs, and the rising Indigenous activism of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. He also recounts the oil industry’s arrival on his poverty-stricken reserve and the ensuing struggle to balance economic opportunity with environmental challenges.

Throughout, Cree’s leadership is rooted in his unshakable commitment to the sacred traditional teachings of his people. His beliefs give him the strength to focus on hope, dignity, and building a better future for his community. Now a respected Elder and spiritual leader, Cree champions forgiveness as a powerful force that can bring healing and transformation for all.

Additional Information
264 pages | 6" x 9" | Paperback 

How colonial medical policies are linked to health inequities that persist in First Nations a century later.

Tuberculosis, once a leading cause of death in Europe and North America, was understood to be preventable and even curable by the early twentieth century. Yet despite growing knowledge about the disease and interventions that would slow its spread, tuberculosis deaths among First Nations in Canada remained staggeringly high. Government policies rooted in colonialism exacerbated a tuberculosis epidemic. Wilful Neglect explores the devastating consequences of the Department of Indian Affairs’ failed responses to tuberculosis among First Nations in Canada from 1867 to 1945. Even when medical treatment for tuberculosis became widely available, and despite the codification of the federal government’s obligations in treaties and other legislation, the basic health needs of First Nations remained unmet. The government instead prioritized an assimilationist agenda, including the placement of Indigenous children in residential schools, which became hotbeds for the spread of the infection. Drawing on the department’s own annual reports, memoranda, and budgets over more than seventy years, Jane Thomas traces key moments, decisions, and individuals involved in shaping federal health policy, laying bare the repercusions of racializing a disease. Health policies developed by colonial governments without the involvement of First Nations have always failed. Wilful Neglect demonstrates a direct link between the federal government’s historical health policies and the disparities that continue into the present.

Reviews
“Wilful Neglect is a compelling national case study of the federal government’s complicity in the deaths of thousands of First Nations individuals during the tuberculosis epidemics of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.” - Hugh Shewell, Carleton University

Educator Information
Table of Contents
Figures and Table • ix
Foreword • xi
Shawn Batise
Acknowledgments • xv
Abbreviations • xxi

Introduction • 3

1 “The promises we have to make to you are not for today only but for tomorrow”: Setting Precedent Through Legislation, Treaties, and Government Practice, 1867–1883 • 25

2 “There is a ready compliance on their part with regulations”: Assimilation at All Costs Through Civilizing, Christianizing, and Sanitizing the Infected, 1884–1903 • 47

3 “We are giving the best attention we can to the medical needs of the Indians”: Dr Peter Bryce’s anti-TB Crusade, 1904–1913 • 70

4 “We have been trying to get off rather cheaply”: Treatment of “Indian Tuberculosis,” 1914–1928 • 109

5 “The activities of the medical branch cannot fairly be judged by the visible results”: Vaccine Trials, Pilot Projects, and a New Medical Services Branch, 1929–1937 • 139

6 “A comprehensive and progressive program is long overdue”: New Funding and Treatment Facilities, 1938–1945 • 172

Conclusion: If Preventable, Why Not Prevented? • 193

Afterword • 199

Appendix A: Individuals Responsible for the Department of Indian Affairs (1867–1945) • 202
Appendix B: Department of Indian Affairs Medical Expenses (1868–1904) • 206
Appendix C: Timeline of United Church Mission Hospitals Opened in Canada • 208
Appendix D: Canadian Tuberculosis Association Expenses (1902–1945) • 210
Appendix E: Department of Indian Affairs Medical Expenses (1905–1945) • 212
Notes • 217
Bibliography • 271
Index • 289

Additional Information
318 pages | 6" x 9" | Paperback 

Offering readers a unique history of an Indian Day School and a profile of Anishinaabe resilience.

The atrocities of the residential school system in Canada are amply documented. Less well-known is the history of day schools, which some two hundred thousand Indigenous youth attended.

The Curve Lake Indian Day School operated for over ninety years, from 1899 to 1978. Implementing Indigenous community research practices, Jackson Pind, alongside the Chief and Council of Curve Lake First Nation, conducted a search of the federal archive on operations at the school. Students by Day presents the findings, revealing that the government failed in its fiduciary duty to protect students. Harmful and discriminatory policies forced children to abandon their language and culture and left them subject to many types of abuse. To supplement this documentation, Pind also interviewed survivors of the school, who shared their often difficult testimony. He situates Curve Lake’s development and operations within the wider context of Canadian assimilation policies, noting the lasting impacts on Anishinaabe identity and culture.

Not only recovering the archive, written and oral, but building on files repatriated to the community, Students by Day is a story of Indigenous resilience, activism, and hope in the face of educational injustice.

Reviews
“An incredible achievement. Students by Day is innovative and collaborative, pushing Indigenous historical research forward in ways that will offer real, tangible improvements to communities and individuals.” - Lianne C. Leddy, author of Serpent River Resurgence: Confronting Uranium Mining at Elliot Lake

“Students by Day is an intricate uncovering of day schools’ history, navigating archives and life stories. It sets a gold standard for community-centred research, reminding us of the centrality of love to culture, people, and politics.” - Niigaan Sinclair, author of Wînipêk: Visions of Canada from an Indigenous Centre

“With care, clarity, and accountability, Jackson Pind’s book listens to Curve Lake First Nation and honours survivors’ experiences. Students by Day is not only powerful history; it’s a model for community-based research that serves Indigenous resurgence.” - Crystal Gail Fraser, author of By Strength, We Are Still Here: Indigenous Peoples and Indian Residential Schooling in Inuvik, Northwest Territories

Educator Information
Table of Contents

Figures vii
Foreword: Day Schools xi
Drew Hayden Taylor
Acknowledgments xv

1 Introduction to Place: Growing Up in Michi Saagiig Anishinaabeg Territory 3

2 Researching Indian Day Schools in Canada 15

3 The New England Company and the Creation of the Indian Day School 30

4 Mismanagement and Mistrust: The Methodist Missionary School in Curve Lake 45

5 A Legacy of Neglect: The United Church of Canada’s Indian Day School 86

6 Beyond the Classroom: Educational Philosophies and Opportunities 122

7 Experiencing Indian Day School: Education and Integration 150

8 A Class in Resistance: Curve Lake First Nation’s Fight for Education 173

Afterword 197
Jack Hoggarth

Appendix: Letter of Support from Curve Lake First Nation 201
Notes 203
Index 255

Additional Information
256 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 9 photos, 5 drawings | Hardcover 

From veteran hockey reporter Patrick Johnston and Gino’s longtime friend Peter Leech comes the authorized biography of Gino Odjick.

In the 1980s and ’90s, National Hockey League games were very different from the nimble, skill-focused displays we see today. One of the greatest differences—and one of the sport’s more popular facets at the time—was the widespread presence of “enforcers”: hulking, battle-scarred players whose main task was to police the sport by chasing down and brawling with opponents who had broken unwritten codes determining which aspects of violence counted as dishonorable or unjustified.

When hard-hitting Vancouver Canucks player Gino Odjick emerged in the early 1990s, he quickly became one of the game’s most feared enforcers and revered teammates, a sign of a new era for the team, racking up 296 penalty minutes in the 45 games he played in his rookie season. Hailing from Kitigan Zibi, an Algonquin community near Maniwaki, Quebec, Gino was one of the few Indigenous players in the NHL at the time. But it was Gino’s ferocious play contrasted by his genuinely affable and openhearted personality off the ice that won him a special place in the hearts of Canucks supporters.

Yet legends often obscure the human stories behind them. Patrick Johnston and Peter Leech look beyond Gino’s legendary persona, drawing on insights from family members, friends, and teammates to recount Gino’s early years in a loving household that was always ready to welcome foster children. Gino’s father, Joe, had suffered the lonely traumas of the residential school system, and the experience had instilled a commitment in the family to those who were less fortunate.

The book also details Gino’s eventual struggles with alcohol abuse, and how he responded by taking on the role of empathetic mentor to young Indigenous people, travelling from community to community to hear their stories and offer hope. He never wavered in this role, even as he confronted serious illnesses, including chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) and the rare blood disorder that he survived for years longer than expected, but that eventually led to his death at age fifty-two.

Gino is a moving tribute to a beloved hockey legend.

Reviews
"Gino was the greatest teammate; he had such a huge heart and knew his role better than anyone in the league. Gino loved being a Vancouver Canuck and gave back to the community in so many ways. He will be greatly missed by his family, friends, and fans. This book will give people insight into his remarkable life."—Geoff Courtnall

“Gino provides a compelling account of the life of a beloved Vancouver Canuck. From his humble beginnings in Quebec to NHL stardom and beyond, Odjick was dedicated to the well-being of teammates and the Indigenous community. This is an excellent tribute to an exceptional man.”—Randi Druzin, author of Between the Pipes and Behind the Mask

Additional Information
288 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | b&w insert | Hardcover 

Behind the Bricks is the story of the Mohawk Institute, Canada’s first and longest-running residential school and a model for the entire residential school system.

From the outside, the Mohawk Institute looks like a large and welcoming school building. When one looks behind the bricks of the school, however, a much different story becomes apparent. Conceived and overseen by Six Nations community member Richard W. Hill Sr., Behind the Bricks is an important work that provides deep insight into the Mohawk Institute, Canada's first, and longest-running, residential school, operating from 1828 to 1970 in Brantford, Ontario. Many see the Mohawk Institute as a model for the residential school system.

Behind the Bricks brings together Indigenous and non-Indigenous experts. The book begins with an overview that traces the history and context of the school, and the remainder of Behind the Bricks touches on a broad array of topics from the experiences of students, to archaeology and architecture, to the role of religion, and beyond, drawing on a wide variety of sources including government documents, church records, and oral history.

Behind the Bricks examines the policies and motivations that shaped the experiences of all three parties involved with the school, the government, the church, and the students and their communities.

A thorough and thoughtful history that provides deep insight into over a century of institutional operation, Behind the Bricks is an essential work that tells us not only about the Mohawk Institute, but the entire residential school system, providing a window into the past with the goal of working towards a future of truth and reconciliation.

With contributions by: William (Bill) Acres, Diana Castillo, Sarah Clarke, Jimmie Edgar, Wendy L. Fletcher, Bonnie Freeman, Tara Froman, Alexandra Giancarlo, Cody Groat, Evan J. Habkirk, Richard W. Hill Sr., Keith Jamieson, Sandra Juutilainen, Magdalena Miłosz, David Monture, Teri Morrow, John Moses, Alison Norman, Thomas Peace, Jennifer Pettit, Paul Racher, and Bud Whiteye.

Reviews
"As we continue to reckon with the legacy of colonial schooling, this timely collection helps to model how to put truth before reconciliation." — Sean Carleton, University of Manitoba

Educator Information
Table of Contents
Preface
Richard W. Hill, Sr.

Introduction
Jennifer Pettit

The Russ Moses Residential School Memoir
John Moses and Russ Moses

Part One: Historical Overview and Context of the Mohawk Institute

1. “To Shake Off the Rude Habits of Savage Life”: The Foundations of the Mohawk Institute to the Early 1900s
Jennifer Pettit

2. “The Difficulties of Making an Indian into a White Man Were Not Thoroughly Appreciated”: The Mohawk Institute, 1904 to Present
Jennifer Pettit

Part Two: Teachers, Curriculum, and Tools of Control

3. The Indian Normal School: The Role of the Mohawk Institute in the Training of Indigenous Teachers in the Late 19th Century
Alison Norman

4. Teaching Control and Service: The Use of Military Training at the Mohawk Institute
Evan Habkirk

5. “New Weapons”: Race, Indigeneity, and Intelligence Testing a thte Mohawk Institute, 1920-1949
Alexandra Giancarlo

Part Three: The Building, The Grounds, and Commemoration

6. A “Model” School: An Architectural History of the Mohawk Institute
Magdalena Miłosz

7. The Stewardship, Preservation, and Commemoration of the Mohawk Institute
Cody Groat

Part Four: Survival and Resistance

8. Ten Years of Student Resistance at the Mohawk Institute, 1903-1913
Diana Casillo

9. ęhǫwadihsadǫ ne:ˀhniˀ adigyenǫ:gyeˀs ganahaǫgwęˀ ęyagǫnhehgǫhǫ:k/They buried them, but they the seeds floated around what will sustain them.
Teri Lyn Morrow, Bonnie Freeman, and Sandra Juutilainen

Part Five: The New England Company and the Mohawk Institute

10. A Model to Follow?: The Sussex Vale Indian School
Thomas Peace

11. Robert Ashton, The New England Company, and the Mohawk Institute, 1872-1910
Bill Acres

12. The Lands of the Mohawk Institute: Robert Ashton and the Demise of the New England Company’s “Station,” 1891-1922
Bill Acres

Part Six: Student Experiences and Voices

13. Life at the Mohawk Institute During the 1860s
Thomas Peace

14. Collecting the Evidence: Restoration and Archaeology at the Mohawk Institute
Sarah Clarke, Paul Racher, and Tara Froman

15. Collective Trauma and the Role of Religion in the Mohawk Institute Experience
Wendy Fletcher

16. Concluding Voices – Survivor Stories of Life Behind the Bricks
Richard W. Hill, Sr.

Closing Poems
Jimmie Edgar
Bud Whiteye
David Monture

Acknowledgements

Appendix One: History of Six Nations Education by Jamieson
Keith Jamieson
Appendix Two: Mohawk Institute Students Who Became Teachers

Suggested Reading

Additional Information
402 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 89 Illustrations | Paperback 

Kunuuksayuukka: The Spirit of Winter Storms is a story of Inuvialuk (Western Arctic Inuk) Elder Rose Kirby's early life, beginning from her vibrant traditional life on the land, to being taken away on a "ship of tears" to residential school in Aktlarvik (Aklavik), before moving around different DEW Line sites following her father Joseph Saraana Thrasher's work. Known for her powerful memory and storytelling skills, Rose vividly recounts stories from her childhood and even infancy.

Kunuuksayuukka: The Spirit of Winter Storms honours the important lessons that Rose has learned from her Elders and family, through watching how they interacted with one another, as well as with the larger natural world. Rose uses Kunuuksayuukka-the spirit of winter storms-and its slow disappearance from her life, to describe her own transition from traditional, nomadic life on the land to moving into housing settlements created by tan'ngit (white people).

Through almost 300 pages, Rose's book weaves through candid stories of human relationships, loss, love and care for one another, humour, pain, strength, and resilience. Most importantly, it is a heartfelt tribute to Inuvialuit culture, language, history, life, and experiences-all through the eyes of an Inuvialuk who has learned to move with the changing world as she grew up. This book is a must-read for anyone who wants to learn about how Inuvialuit lived long ago.

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6.00" x 9.00" | 25 b&w photographs | Paperback 

The first comprehensive study of Indian residential schools in the North.

In this ground-breaking book, Crystal Gail Fraser draws on Dinjii Zhuh (Gwich'in) concepts of individual and collective strength to illuminate student experiences in northern residential schools, revealing the many ways Indigenous communities resisted the institutionalization of their children.

After 1945, federal bureaucrats and politicians increasingly sought to assimilate Indigenous northerners--who had remained comparatively outside of their control--into broader Canadian society through policies that were designed to destroy Indigenous ways of life. Foremost among these was an aggressive new schooling policy that mandated the construction of Grollier and Stringer Halls: massive residential schools that opened in Inuvik in 1959, eleven years after a special joint committee of the House of Commons and the Senate recommended that all residential schools in Canada be closed.

By Strength, We Are Still Here shares the lived experiences of Indigenous northerners from 1959 until 1982, when the territorial government published a comprehensive plan for educational reform. Led by Survivor testimony, Fraser shows the roles both students and their families played in disrupting state agendas, including questioning and changing the system to protect their cultures and communities.

Centring the expertise of Knowledge Keepers, By Strength, We Are Still Here makes a crucial contribution to Indigenous research methodologies and to understandings of Canadian and Indigenous histories during the second half of the twentieth century.

Reviews
"By Strength, We Are Still Here demonstrates an intergenerational process of love and strength. Fraser's methodology, theory work, and incredibly thorough research are in and of themselves lifegiving, vital, and serve as an example to all other scholars." — Omeasoo Wahpasiw

"By integrating survivor testimony with archives, Fraser points towards the Indigenous resistance revealed in the ellipses and gaps in the colonial record. This is very important work." — Chris Trott

Educator Information
Table of Contents

Glossary

A Note on Region and Terminology

Introduction—By Strength, We Are Still Here.

Chapter One—“If anyone is going to jail for this, I’m taking it”: Our Relatives Speak

• Education in Nanhkak Thak Before the Arrival of Settlers
• Indian Day and Residential Schools
• The Construction of Inuvik

Chapter Two—Calls Grow. “Listen! It’s louder now. From here, from there. Indian voices, Métis voices, demanding attention, demanding equality!"

Chapter Three—“The long process of tearing our family apart”

Chapter Four—“Making us into nice white kids.”

Chapter Five—“The hazards that can result from too permissive or undisciplined sexual behaviour.”

Chapter Six—“To find that inner peace, it was so important for us all.”

Chapter Seven—“These are our children and they are very precious to us.”

Conclusion—“We knew the value of strength.”

Appendix A

Endnotes

Additional Information
320 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | 69 b&w illustrations, index, bibliography | Paperback 

From Tanya Talaga, the critically acclaimed and award-winning author of Seven Fallen Feathers, comes a riveting exploration of her family’s story and a retelling of the history of the country we now call Canada

For generations, Indigenous People have known that their family members disappeared, many of them after being sent to residential schools, “Indian hospitals” and asylums through a coordinated system designed to destroy who the First Nations, Métis and Inuit people are. This is one of Canada’s greatest open secrets, an unhealed wound that until recently lay hidden by shame and abandonment.

The Knowing is the unfolding of Canadian history unlike anything we have ever read before. Award-winning and bestselling Anishinaabe author Tanya Talaga retells the history of this country as only she can—through an Indigenous lens, beginning with the life of her great-great grandmother Annie Carpenter and her family as they experienced decades of government- and Church-sanctioned enfranchisement and genocide.

Deeply personal and meticulously researched, The Knowing is a seminal unravelling of the centuries-long oppression of Indigenous People that continues to reverberate in these communities today.

Additional Information
480 pages | 6.12" x 9.25" | Hardcover 

Bullied and abused at the Fort Alexander Indian Residential day school, Diane Morrisseau fought back and left school at the age of fifteen. Despite her strength, a childhood of trauma and abuse led her into the arms of Edgar Olson, and by sixteen, the young Ojibway-Anishinabe woman had given birth to her first child and married the man who would become her tormentor for the next eighteen years.

For almost two decades, Diane Morrisseau was chained to a brutal husband who abused not only her, but their children. By threatening Diane with their death and hers should she ever try to leave, he ensured that she would continue to endure his cruelty. Notoriously violent, her abuser was aided and abetted by the systems of colonialism that failed to protect Diane during her childhood. Edgar was able to keep Diane and her children trapped in a cycle of violence for years, without being held accountable by law or society.

Despite this, Diane found the strength to walk away. This book is the story of how she did so, and how she rebuilt a life beyond her abuser. Through Al-Anon, Anishinabe traditional healing ceremonies, counselling, and care for others, Diane found a new path illuminated by compassion and purpose.

Diane Morrisseau recounts her traumatic history with one aim: to help other victims of violence know they are not alone, and that escape is possible. The author’s entire career, and this book, testify to her desire to extend to others the hope that eluded her in the depths of her desperate circumstances.

Devastatingly frank about the abuse she suffered, the mothering her children missed because of it, and the systems that allowed it all to happen, Diane today has reconciled the past with a present where she continues to live out the values that matter to her most.

All royalties from sales of this book will be donated to Archway Community Services.

The story of an Ojibway-Anishinabe woman who, against incredible odds, rescued herself and her children from a life of brutal beatings, sexual servitude, and almost unimaginable hardship.

Reviews
"Selected as one of the most anticipated feminist books of 2024."— Ms. Magazine

"A courageous and harrowing story. Morrisseau uses her painful personal journey to frame the horrific history of residential schools. Evocative and illuminating."
— Angela Sterritt, author of Unbroken: My Fight for Survival, Hope, and Justice for Indigenous Women and Girls

"I is, in many ways, a difficult story to read – but it is one that needs to be told. Readers will learn about a courageous woman and the circumstances that enabled an abusive relationship, and hear her message for how to recognize the situation and take steps toward a better life."— Don McCaskill, co-author of In the Words of the Elders

"A fervent call to action, an impassioned plea for compassion and empathy, and a formidable rallying cry that seeks to instigate transformation [… One Second at a Time] serves as a bridge, seeking to connect human souls through shared understanding and collective responsibility."— From the foreword by Marlyn Bennett

"Raw and brutally honest. Morrisseau bravely shares the details of her life with a violent man. Validating and inspiring, her story affirms the complicated healing journey of abuse survivors. It’s a must read for anyone working in the field of gender-based violence."— Kendra Nixon, director of Research and Education for Solutions to Violence and Abuse (RESOLVE)

"Diane Morrisseau has taken us into her confidence with her story, allowing us to truly understand as a society how the relationship between Indigenous people and settlers has created immense hardships for Indigenous people, families, and communities."— Marion Maar, professor, Northern Ontario School of Medicine University

Educator Information
All royalties from sales of this book will be donated to Archway Community Services.

Table of Contents
Foreword: A Tapestry of Truths / Marlyn Bennett
Preface
Prologue
A Note on the Text
1 A Perfect Home
2 Day School
3 Posting of the Bands
4 Mrs. Olson
5 Holes in the Walls
6 Breakdown
7 Scars
8 Breaking Free
9 Seeing the Trees
10 Freedom at Last
Acknowledgments
About the Authors

Additional Information
198 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | Paperback

Young Dominique Rankin was intended to succeed his father as Algonquin Hereditary Chief and Medicine Man. Before that could happen, the Government of Canada’s policies of Indigenous assimilation wrested the boy from his home to entrust him to the infamous Indian residential school system. There, like thousands of Indigenous children across North America, Dominique would endure a terrible ordeal. Only upon leaving the school years later would the young man finally be free to begin a long journey of healing and self-discovery that would reunite him with his heritage and his true destiny.

Weaving the Prophecy of the Seven Fires’ teachings with the powerful narrative of his own tumultuous life, Chief Dominique Rankin delivers a vibrant testimony on respect, forgiveness, and healing. In this poignant memoir, the residential school Survivor, Elder, Medicine Man, and former Grand Chief of the Algonquin Nation bares all—the dark and the light alike—to unshroud a chapter of our sombre collective past and to illuminate a path to a better, brighter future.

Additional Information
160 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

“My name is Sam George. In spite of everything that happened to me, by the grace of the Creator, I have lived to be an Elder.”

The crimes carried out at St. Paul’s Indian Residential School in North Vancouver scarred untold numbers of Indigenous children and families across generations. Sam George was one of these children. This candid account follows Sam from his idyllic childhood growing up on the Eslhá7an (Mission) reserve to St. Paul’s, where he weathered physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. He spent much of his life navigating the effects of this trauma – prison, addiction, and challenging relationships – until he found the strength to face his past. Now an Elder and educator with the Indian Residential School Survivors Society, this is Sam’s harrowing story, in his own words. An ember of Sam’s spirit always burned within him, and even in the darkest of places he retained his humour and dignity.

The Fire Still Burns is an unflinching look at the horrors of a childhood in the Indian Residential School system and the long-term effects on survivors. It illustrates the healing power of one’s culture and the resilience that allows an individual to rebuild a life and a future.

This frank and powerful personal story of trauma and resilience will bring a greater understanding to all readers – Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike – of residential schools and the impact they had on those who were forced to attend them.

Reviews
"I am glad that Sam George has lent his voice to the many voices of survivors now surfacing from residential "schools". I love the way Sam describes his traditional life before he was forced to go to the school and then later goes back to his culture to overcome the trauma he endured. Sam did time in jail for a crime he committed, but the real crime is that our Indigenous way of life was interfered with, and that created the dysfunction in our communities. This book shows that we had it right all along – Indigenous culture is our saviour."— Bev Sellars, author of They Called Me Number One: Secrets and Survival at an Indian Residential School

"Brutally frank yet disarmingly subtle, sensitive, and funny, The Fire Still Burns by Sam George offers an unflinching look at the human dimensions of Canada’s attempted genocide of Indigenous Peoples through residential schooling." — Sam McKegney, author of Carrying the Burden of Peace: Reimagining Indigenous Masculinities through Story

Educator Information
Table of Contents
Preface / Sam George
Acknowledgments
A Note on the Text
1 Your Name Is T'seatsultux
2 In Them Days
3 Our Lives Signed Away
4 The Strap
5 A Girl Named Pearl, a Boy Named Charlie
6 Runaway
7 I Tried to Be Invisible
8 Finding Ways to Feel Good
9 On Our Own
10 Oakalla
11 Haney Correctional
12 Longshoreman
13 Misery Loves Company
14 Drowning
15 Tsow-Tun Le Lum
16 I’m Still Here
Afterword: On Co-Writing Sam George’s Memoir / Jill Yonit Goldberg
Reader’s Guide
About the Authors

Additional Information
152 pages | 5.00" x 8.00" | Paperback

In this quietly powerful and deeply human book, Ruth DyckFehderau and twenty-one James Bay Cree storytellers put a face to Canada’s Indian Residential School cultural genocide.

Through intimate personal stories of trauma, loss, recovery, and joy, they tell of experiences in the residential schools themselves, in the homes when the children were taken, and on the territory after survivors returned and worked to recover from their experiences and to live with dignity. The prose is clear and accessible, the stories remarkably individual, the detail vivid but not sensational.

Together they reveal the astonishing courage and strength of children along with the complexity and myriad methods of their oppressors. A tough, often funny, and ultimately uplifting book that’s not quite like anything else out there.

This book is published by Cree Board of Health and Social Services of James Bay and distributed by WLU Press.

Reviews
“These previously unwritten stories of lived, traumatized experiences are testament to the storytellers’ courage and strength and resilience. When the rich Cree traditional and spiritual relationship with land and with family is harmed by separation, hatred, and fear - a harm resulting in anger and loss of values, identity, and self-worth - these storytellers find ways to heal. Through their stories, you learn about culture as treatment, about the power of forgiveness and love, and about peaceful co-existence in community as essential to healing, belief, and advancing true reconciliation.” —Chief Willie Littlechild, Ermineskin Cree Nation, Former Truth and Reconciliation Commissioner, Former residential school student athlete, Order of Canada; Order of Sport, Member of Sports Halls of Fame, Canada and North America

“These Cree stories, told with utmost respect and a feeling of safety, are gifts. They are medicine.” —Joanna Campiou, Woodland/Plains Cree Knowledge Keeper

“This is a difficult but necessary book. There’s a power to truth and to the realities of the Indian Residential School system, but for those wanting to see strength and movement toward hope, this is the book for you. These stories hold that hope close to the heart. What shines through is a love of the land, a love of community, a love of the Cree language, a love of family – exactly what colonial forces like the IRS system tried to destroy but couldn’t.” —Conor Kerr, Metis/Ukrainian author, Avenue of Champions, Giller Prize longlist

Additional Information
320 pages | 7.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

Power through Testimony documents how survivors are remembering and reframing our understanding of residential schools in the wake of the 2007 Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), a forum for survivors, families, and communities to share their memories and stories with the Canadian public. The commission closed and reported in 2015, and this timely volume reveals what happened on the ground.

Drawing on field research during the commission and in local communities, the contributors reveal how survivors are unsettling colonial narratives about residential schools and how the churches and former school staff are receiving or resisting the “new” residential school story. Part 1 details how residential schools have been understood and represented by various groups and individuals over time and how survivors’ testimonies at the commission are changing those representations. Part 2 examines whether the stories of abuse and trauma now circulating are overpowering less sensational stories, preventing other voices and memories from surfacing in local communities. Part 3 explores how the churches and former school staff have received this new testimony and what their response means for future relations with Aboriginal peoples across the country.

Power through Testimony shows that by bringing to light new stories about residential schools and by encouraging the denunciation of other historical wrongs, the TRC was more than a symbolic act. Ultimately, however, the contributors question the power of the TRC to unsettle dominant colonial narratives about residential schools and transform the relationship between Indigenous people and Canadian society.

As one of the first books published on Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission, Power through Testimony will be of interest to students and scholars of Aboriginal studies, anthropology, and colonial studies and all Canadians interested in transitional justice and human rights.

Educator Information
Contributors: Janice Cindy Gaudet, Cheryl Gaver, Robyn Green, Jula Hughes, Lawrence Martin/Wapistan, Charles R. Menzies, Arie Molena, Ronald Niezen, Simone Poliandri, and Eric Taylor Woods

Additional Information
252 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

A residential school survivor finds his way back to his language and culture through his family’s traditional stories.

When reflecting on forces that have shaped his life, Solomon Ratt says his education was interrupted by his schooling. Torn from his family at the age of six, Ratt was placed into the residential school system—a harsh, institutional world, operated in a language he could not yet understand, far from the love and comfort of home and family. In kâ-pî-isi-kiskisiyân / The Way I Remember, Ratt reflects on these memories and the life-long challenges he endured through his telling of âcimisowin—autobiographical stories—and also traditional tales.

Written over the course of several decades, Ratt describes his life before, during, and after residential school. In many ways, these stories reflect the experience of thousands of other Indigenous children across Canada, but Ratt’s stories also stand apart in a significant way: he managed to retain his mother language of Cree by returning home to his parents each summer despite the destruction wrought by colonialism.

Ratt then shifts from the âcimisowina (personal, autobiographical stories) to âcathôhkîwina, (sacred stories) the more formal and commonly recognized style of traditional Cree literature, to illustrate how, in a world uninterrupted by colonialism and its agenda of genocide, these traditional stories would have formed the winter curriculum of a Cree child’s education.

Presented in Cree Th-dialect Standard Roman Orthography, syllabics, and English, Ratt’s reminiscences of residential school escapades almost always end with a close call and a smile. Even when his memories are dark, Ratt’s particularly Cree sense of humour shines, making kâ-pî-isi-kiskisiyân /The Way I Remember an important and unique memoir that emphasizes and celebrates Solomon Ratt’s perseverance and life after residential school.

Reviews
"Sol is an international treasure the whole world should enjoy." —Buffy Sainte-Marie

"The Way I Remember is inarguably the most important book yet to be published for the preservation of the Cree language and an understanding of the importance of the oral tradition to Cree culture and education." —Jesse Archibald-Barber, First Nations University of Canada

"As he looks back over his life journey reclaiming, breathing new and old life back into our beautiful language, Solomon credits the late Reverend Edward Ahenekew for helping me "to put the pieces together." kista meena dear Solomon, ekosi aytotumawiyak. This is an important book because you have also put pieces together for us so that we can have a good journey. Kinahnaskomtin." —Maria Campbell, author of Halfbreed

"A gift to future generations...Full of humour and resilience in equal measure, these Cree/English stories offer us a glimpse into a world as it was, and future that could be" —Chelsea Vowel, author of Indigenous Writes

Educator & Series Information
Presented in Cree Th-dialect Standard Roman Orthography, syllabics, and English.

This book is part of the Our Own Words series.

Additional Information
264 pages | 6.00" x 9.00" | Paperback

In May 2021, the world was shocked by news of the detection of 215 unmarked graves on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School (KIRS) in British Columbia, Canada. Ground-penetrating radar confirmed the deaths of students as young as three in the infamous residential school system, which systematically removed children from their families and brought them to the schools. At these Christian-run, government-supported institutions, they were subjected to physical, mental, and sexual abuse while their Indigenous languages and traditions were stifled and denounced. The egregious abuses suffered in residential schools across the continent caused - as the 2021 discoveries confirmed - death for too many and a multigenerational legacy of trauma for those who survived.

"Tsquelmucwilc" (pronounced cha-CAL-mux-weel) is a Secwepemc phrase loosely translated as "We return to being human again." Tsqelmucwilc is the story of those who survived the Kamloops Indian Residential School, based on the 1988 book Resistance and Renewal, a groundbreaking history of the school - and the first book on residential schools ever published in Canada. Tsqelmucwilc includes the original text as well as new material by the original book's author, Celia Haig-Brown; essays by Secwepemc poet and KIRS survivor Garry Gottfriedson and Nuu-chah-nulth elder and residential school survivor Randy Fred; and first-hand reminiscences by other survivors of KIRS, as well as their children, on their experience and the impact of their trauma throughout their lives.

Read both within and outside the context of the grim 2021 discoveries, Tsqelmucwilc is a tragic story in the history of Indigenous peoples of the indignities suffered at the hands of their colonizers, but it is equally a remarkable tale of Indigenous survival, resilience, and courage.

Additional Information
240 pages | 6.00" x 8.00" | B&W photos throughout | Paperback

We all share a common humanity. No matter how long or difficult the path ahead, we are all one.

Reconciliation belongs to everyone. In this profound book, Chief Robert Joseph, globally recognized peacebuilder and Hereditary Chief of the Gwawaenuk People, traces his journey from his childhood surviving residential school to his present-day role as a leader who inspires individual hope, collective change, and global transformation.

Before we get to know where we are going, we need to know where we came from. Reconciliation represents a long way forward, but it is a pathway toward our higher humanity, our highest selves, and an understanding that everybody matters. In Namwayut, Chief Joseph teaches us to transform our relationships with ourselves and each other. As we learn about, honour, and respect the truth of the stories we tell, we can also discover how to dismantle the walls of discrimination, hatred, and racism in our society.

Chief Joseph is known as one of the leading voices on peacebuilding in our time, and his dedication to reconciliation has been recognized with multiple honorary degrees and awards. As one of the remaining first-language speakers of Kwak'wala, his wisdom is grounded in Indigenous ways of knowing while making space for something bigger and better for all of us.

Additional Information
200 pages | 5.25" x 8.00" | Hardcover

A new commemorative edition of Theodore Fontaine's powerful, groundbreaking memoir of survival and healing after years of residential school abuse.

Originally published in 2010, Broken Circle: The Dark Legacy of Indian Residential Schools chronicles the impact of Theodore Fontaine’s harrowing experiences at Fort Alexander and Assiniboia Indian Residential Schools, including psychological, emotional, and sexual abuse; disconnection from his language and culture; and the loss of his family and community. Told as remembrances infused with insights gained through his long healing process, Fontaine goes beyond the details of the abuse that he suffered to relate a unique understanding of why most residential school survivors have post-traumatic stress disorders and why succeeding generations of Indigenous children suffer from this dark chapter in history. With a new foreword by Andrew Woolford, professor of sociology and criminology at the University of Manitoba, this commemorative edition will continue to serve as a powerful testament to survival, self-discovery, and healing.

Reviews
"Broken Circle is a life story of Mr. Fontaine and he said it like it was; 'his personal story affirms the tragedy that occurred during this era and the impacts it has on our Indigenous people today'. Mr. Fontaine's humbleness and care for his people was remarkable and no words will ever express what he meant to his people on Turtle Island." —Chief Derrick Henderson, Sagkeeng First Nation

“Theodore Fontaine has written a testimony that should be mandatory reading for everyone out there who has ever wondered, 'Why can’t Aboriginal people just get over Residential Schools?' Mr. Fontaine’s life story is filled with astonishing and brutal chapters, but, through it all, time, healing, crying, writing, friends and family, and love—sweet love—have all graced their way into the man, father, son, brother, husband, and child of wonder Theodore has always deserved to be. What a humbling work to read. I’m grateful he wrote it and had the courage to share it. Mahsi cho." —Richard Van Camp, Tłįchǫ author of The Lesser Blessed and Moccasin Square Gardens

Additional Information
224 pages | 5.50" x 8.50" | 2nd Edition | Paperback

The Assiniboia school is unique within Canada’s Indian Residential School system. It was the first residential high school in Manitoba and one of the only residential schools in Canada to be located in a large urban setting. Operating between 1958 and 1973 in a period when the residential school system was in decline, it produced several future leaders, artists, educators, knowledge keepers, and other notable figures. It was in many ways an experiment within the broader destructive framework of Canadian residential schools.

Stitching together memories of arrival at, day-to-day life within, and departure from the school with a socio-historical reconstruction of the school and its position in both Winnipeg and the larger residential school system, Did You See Us? offers a glimpse of Assiniboia that is not available in the archival records. It connects readers with a specific residential school and illustrates that residential schools were often complex spaces where forced assimilation and Indigenous resilience co-existed.

These recollections of Assiniboia at times diverge, but together exhibit Survivor resilience and the strength of the relationships that bond them to this day. The volume captures the troubled history of residential schools. At the same time, it invites the reader to join in a reunion of sorts, entered into through memories and images of students, staff, and neighbours. It is a gathering of diverse knowledges juxtaposed to communicate the complexity of the residential school experience.

Reviews
“Remembering Assiniboia is a thoughtful, community based project rooted in the needs of the Assiniboia Residential School community. This book is a must read for those working on the history of Residential Schools and those engaged in community based restorative justice projects.” — Krista McCracken

"Did You See Us? was born out of a reunion, and readers are invited to the reverberations of this coming together. It offers multi-vocal perspectives primarily from survivors but also from non-Indigenous staff, archival documents, and settler community members. As the Truth and Reconciliation Commission begins to accumulate anniversaries, now more than ever the testimonies of residential school survivors are much needed." — Jane Griffith

Educator Information
Table of Contents
Dedication

Land Acknowledgement Statement/ Theodore Fontaine

Preface / Theodore Fontaine

Section One: The Residential Years (1958-1967)

Section Two: The Hostel Years (1967-1973)

Section Three: Assiniboia and the Archives

Section Four: Staff Remembrances

Section Five: Neighbours

Section Six: Winnipeg Remembers

Section Seven: Reunion and Remembrance

Additional Information
272 pages | 6.00" x 8.50" | bibliography

One of the few accounts by care-givers in an Indian Residential School describing the horrific conditions.

In 1970, the authors, Nancy Dyson and Dan Rubenstein, were hired as childcare workers at the Alert Bay Student Residence (formerly St. Michael's Indian Residential School) on northern Vancouver Island. Shocked when Indigenous children were forcibly taken from their families, punished for speaking their native language, fed substandard food and severely disciplined for minor offences, Dan and Nancy questioned the way the school was run with its underlying missionary philosophy. When a delegation from the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs visited St. Michael's, the couple presented a long list of concerns, which were ignored. The next day they were dismissed by the administrator of the school. Some years later, in 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Reports were released. The raw grief and anger of residential school survivors were palpable and the authors' troubling memories of St. Michael's resurfaced. Dan called Reconciliation Canada, and Chief Dr. Robert Joseph encouraged the couple to share their story with today's Canadians.

St. Michael's Residential School: Lament and Legacy is a moving narrative - one of the few told by caregivers who experienced on a daily basis the degradation of Indigenous children. Their account will help to ensure that what went on in the Residential Schools is neither forgotten nor denied.

Additional Information
200 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

Andy and Phyllis Chelsea met during their years spent at the St. Joseph’s Mission School in Williams Lake, BC. Like the thousands of others forced into the church-run residential school system, Andy and Phyllis are no strangers to the ongoing difficulties experienced by most Indigenous peoples in Canada. The couple married in 1964 but brought the trauma of their mission school years into their marriage. The Chelseas’ struggle with alcohol came to an abrupt halt in 1971 when their daughter, Ivy, then aged seven, stated that she and her brothers did not want to live with their parents because of the drinking, that they would stay with their Grandmother, their Kye7e. Andy and Phyllis chose sobriety to preserve their family. This decision sparked a lifetime of activism for the couple, which included overcoming the challenges caused by Canada’s disregard for their community. Throughout the twenty-seven years Andy was Chief of the Alkali Lake Esk’et First Nation, the Chelseas worked to eradicate alcoholism and took steps to overcome the rampant intergenerational trauma that existed for the people of Alkali Lake. Their efforts, their story and the perseverance of the members of their village have inspired Indigenous groups facing similar struggles throughout the world.

Resolve: The Chelsea Story and a First Nation Community’s Will to Heal explores the harrowing, personal journey of the Chelseas. By combining personal interviews and historical records, biographer Carolyn Parks Mintz shares the Chelseas’ transition from residential schools to state-sanctioned reservations to international recognition of their activism in the face of ongoing repression. A simultaneous celebration of strength and a condemnation of systemic racism, Resolve is a personal and deeply moving story that calls for a closer look at the status of Canada’s reconciliation efforts from the Chelseas’ perspective.

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2020/2021 resource list for grades 10 to 12 for English Language Arts, Social Studies, and Social Justice.

Caution: Alcoholisms, trauma, physical and sexual abuse.

Additional Information
240 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

Quebec author An Antane Kapesh's two books, Je suis une maudite sauvagesse (1976) and Qu'as-tu fait de mon pays? (1979), are among the foregrounding works by Indigenous women in Canada. This English translation of these works, presented alongside the revised Innu text, makes them available for the first time to a broader readership.

In I Am a Damn Savage, Antane Kapesh wrote to preserve and share her culture, experience, and knowledge, all of which, she felt, were disappearing at an alarming rate because many Elders – like herself – were aged or dying. She wanted to publicly denounce the conditions in which she and the Innu were made to live, and to address the changes she was witnessing due to land dispossession and loss of hunting territory, police brutality, and the effects of the residential school system. What Have You Done to My Country? is a fictional account by a young boy of the arrival of les Polichinelles and their subsequent assault on the land and on native language and culture.

Through these stories Antane Kapesh asserts that settler society will eventually have to take responsibility and recognize its faults, and accept that the Innu – as well as all the other nations – are not going anywhere, that they are not a problem settlers can make disappear.

Additional Information
216 pages | 5.25" x 8.00" | Translation and Afterword by Sarah Henzi

This groundbreaking anthology from territory that is now Saskatchewan, kisiskâciwan, includes rich oral narratives from Cree, Saulteaux, Nakoda, Dakota, Dene, and Métis cultures; early writings from Cree missionaries; speeches and letters by Treaty Chiefs; stories from elders; archival discoveries; and contemporary literary works in all genres.

Historically and culturally comprehensive, voices include Big Bear, Thunderchild, Louis Riel, Gabriel Dumont, Edward Ahenakew, Maria Campbell, Buffy Sainte-Marie, Rita Bouvier, Harold Johnson, Gregory Scofield, Warren Cariou, Louise Halfe, and many more.

Educator Information
The collected works in this anthology would be useful for high school and college/university courses.  All the works in this anthology are connected to Saskatchewan in some way.  Some themes include Residential Schools, family, resilience, the Sixties Scoop, and coming of age.

Recommended resource for Grades 10-12 for these subjects: Drama, English Language Arts, Social Studies.

Caution: Some of the works in this anthology contain mature subject matter, such as discussion of abuse, violence, sexuality, etc. 

Additional Information
300 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

Authenticity Note: This work is labelled as containing Authentic Indigenous Text because of the contributions from Indigenous Peoples.

Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation is a nonfiction book for middle readers that examines how we can foster Reconciliation in an accessible way. Centered around the writings of Monique Gray Smith, this teacher guide is a comprehensive support for educators focusing on Indigenous teachings and looking to build an inquiry-based unit plan about Reconciliation. Activities such as essential questions from the author, metaphors for learning and cross-curricular plans are laid out clearly, with instructions and appropriate vocabulary for teachers and students to embark on this journey of Reconciliation together.

Educator Information
This resource helps teachers embark on a journey of Reconciliation in the classroom. The author, Tasha Henry, holds a Master of Education in Language, Culture and Teaching from York University and has been teaching for over twenty years.

Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2019-2020 resource list as being a useful Teacher Resource with regard to English Language Arts, Social Justice, and Social Studies.

Find the student resource here: Speaking Our Truth: A Journey of Reconciliation 

Additional Information
46 pages | 8.50" x 11.00"

Indigenous perspectives much older than the nation itself shared through maps, artwork, history and culture.

The Royal Canadian Geographical Society, in partnership with Canada's national Indigenous organizations, has created a groundbreaking four-volume atlas that shares the experiences, perspectives, and histories of First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples. It's an ambitious and unprecedented project inspired by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's Calls to Action. Exploring themes of language, demographics, economy, environment and culture, with in-depth coverage of treaties and residential schools, these are stories of Canada's Indigenous Peoples, told in detailed maps and rich narratives.

This extraordinary project offers Canada a step on the path toward understanding.

The volumes contain more than 48 pages of reference maps, content from more than 50 Indigenous writers; hundreds of historical and contemporary photographs and a glossary of Indigenous terms, timelines, map of Indigenous languages, and frequently asked questions. All packaged together in a beautifully designed protective slipcase.

Educator Information
Recommended for ages 13+.

The Indigenous Peoples Atlas of Canada includes a four volume print atlas, an online atlas, an app, and more!

Additional Information
322 pages | 10.50" x 12.87"

In this poetic, poignant memoir, Dene artist and social activist Antoine Mountain paints an unforgettable picture of his journey from residential school to art school—and his path to healing.

In 1949, Antoine Mountain was born on the land near Radelie Koe, Fort Good Hope, Northwest Territories. At the tender age of seven, he was stolen away from his home and sent to a residential school—run by the Roman Catholic Church in collusion with the Government of Canada—three hundred kilometres away. Over the next twelve years, the three residential schools Mountain was forced to attend systematically worked to erase his language and culture, the very roots of his identity.

While reconnecting to that which had been taken from him, he had a disturbing and painful revelation of the bitter depths of colonialism and its legacy of cultural genocide. Canada has its own holocaust, Mountain argues.

As a celebrated artist and social activist today, Mountain shares this moving, personal story of healing and the reclamation of his Dene identity.

Educator Information
Recommended in the Canadian Indigenous Books for Schools 2019-2020 resource list as being useful for grades 9 to 12 in the following subject areas: English Language Arts, Social Studies.

Included in this story are personal stories of residential school and addiction.

Additional Information
272 pages | 5.50" x 8.50"

Residential Schools, With the Words and Images of Survivors, A National History honours the survivors, the former students, who attended residential schools. Designed for the general reader this accessible, 112-page history offers a first-person perspective of the residential school system in Canada, as it shares the memories of more than 70 survivors from across Canada as well as 125 archival and contemporary images (65 black & white photographs, 51 colour, some never before published).

This essential volume written by award-winning author Larry Loyie (Cree), a survivor of St. Bernard Mission residential school in Grouard, AB, and co-authored by Constance Brissenden and Wayne K. Spear (Mohawk), reflects the ongoing commitment of this team to express the truths about residential school experiences and to honour the survivors whose voices are shared in this book.

Along with the voices, readers will be engaged by the evocative, archival photographs provided by the Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre with the assistance of curator Krista McCracken. The book begins with the moving introduction by Larry Loyie, and moves to seven chapters that explore the purpose of this school system; cultures and traditions; leaving home; life at school the half-day system; the dark side of the schools; friendship and laughter coping with a new life; changing world–the healing begins; and an afterword. A detailed, full colour map showing residential schools, timeline with key dates, glossary, and a helpful index (including names of survivors and schools) make this vital resource a must-have for secondary, college, and universities, libraries, and the general reader.

Reviews
"A broad and comprehensive review of the history of First Nations, Métis, and Inuit peoples in Canada told from the perspective of First Peoples in a very accessible way. Any educator, regardless of personal background or heritage, would find this timely resource very useful in any classroom." — Gary Fenn and Domenic Bellissimo, executive assistants, Ontario Secondary School Teachers’ Federation

"Written with a gentle hand, this book describes a history that few Canadians understand or even know about. From the first page, those in search of the truth are engaged in a journey of learning, as they come to understand the true battle of Aboriginal peoples to preserve their cultures and pride. This story is a true account of resiliency and human spirit." — Tracy Zweifel, executive director, Sagitawa Friendship Society, Alberta

Awards

- 2016 Winner of Golden Oak award in Ontario's Forest of Reading program

Educator Information
This must-have resource includes a detailed, full-colour map showing residential schools, a timeline with key dates, and a glossary.

Recommended for grades 7-12, but would still be useful for adults and college/university courses studying residential schools and Indigenous history.

This book has been evaluated and approved by ERAC (Educational Resource Acquisition Consortium, British Columbia).

Additional Information
112 pages | 10.43" x 8.26"

Since the 1980s successive Canadian institutions, including the federal government and Christian churches, have attempted to grapple with the malignant legacy of residential schooling, including official apologies, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC). In Residential Schools and Reconciliation, award winning author J. R. Miller tackles and explains these institutional responses to Canada’s residential school legacy. Analysing archival material and interviews with former students, politicians, bureaucrats, church officials, and the Chief Commissioner of the TRC, Miller reveals a major obstacle to achieving reconciliation – the inability of Canadians at large to overcome their flawed, overly positive understanding of their country’s history. This unique, timely, and provocative work asks Canadians to accept that the root of the problem was Canadians like them in the past who acquiesced to aggressively assimilative policies.

Excerpt
From the Conclusion:
"Canadians cannot approach reconciliation thinking that fine words and amicable gestures are enough. First Nations want their claims settled and many are interested in concluding treaties. Until Canada moves effectively to meet their desires, the country lacks the measures of social justice for Native peoples that are precondition for progress towards reconciliation...The cause of reconciliation is not hopeless; there are encouraging signs of individual and local initiatives designed to bring about reconciliation on a small scale...If enough of these small actions develop and spread, they could create the popular support for large-scale state measures that will redress the hard, material wrongs that stand in the way of reconciliation. Should that blissful day ever come, Canada will be able to advance meaningfully towards the goal of reconciliation."

Reviews
Professor Jim Miller of the University of Saskatchewan pulls back the curtain on the historical blame game. Residential Schools and Reconciliation documents Ottawa’s handling of Aboriginal issues. This is not ancient history. It just happened."
— Holly Doan, Blacklock’s Reporter. Saturday, November 18, 2017

As colonial nations around the world seek pathways to post-conflict reconciliation, J.R. Miller’s timely work is an important reminder of both the potential obstacles and the healing possibilities of such initiatives.
— Leigh Anne Williams, Publishers Weekly, February 12, 2018

Additional Information
368 pages | 6.00" x 9.00"

Canada's relationship with its Indigenous people has suffered as a result of both the residential school system and the lack of understanding of the historical and current impact of those schools. Healing and repairing that relationship requires education, awareness and increased understanding of the legacy and the impacts still being felt by Survivors and their families. Guided by acclaimed Indigenous author Monique Gray Smith, readers will learn about the lives of Survivors and listen to allies who are putting the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission into action.

Educator Information
Recommended for grades 4 to 8.

A teacher guide for this resource is also available: Speaking Our Truth Teacher Guide

Additional Information
160 pages | 7.50" x 9.00"

This is the Final Report of Canada's Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its six-year investigation of the residential school system for Aboriginal youth and the legacy of these schools. This report, the summary volume, includes the history of residential schools, the legacy of that school system, and the full text of the Commission's 94 recommendations for action to address that legacy.

This report lays bare a part of Canada's history that until recently was little-known to most non-Aboriginal Canadians. The Commission discusses the logic of the colonization of Canada's territories, and why and how policy and practice developed to end the existence of distinct societies of Aboriginal peoples.

Using brief excerpts from the powerful testimony heard from Survivors, this report documents the residential school system which forced children into institutions where they were forbidden to speak their language, required to discard their clothing in favour of institutional wear, given inadequate food, housed in inferior and fire-prone buildings, required to work when they should have been studying, and subjected to emotional, psychological and often physical abuse. In this setting, cruel punishments were all too common, as was sexual abuse.

More than 30,000 Survivors have been compensated financially by the Government of Canada for their experiences in residential schools, but the legacy of this experience is ongoing today. This report explains the links to high rates of Aboriginal children being taken from their families, abuse of drugs and alcohol, and high rates of suicide. The report documents the drastic decline in the presence of Aboriginal languages, even as Survivors and others work to maintain their distinctive cultures, traditions, and governance.

The report offers 94 calls to action on the part of governments, churches, public institutions and non-Aboriginal Canadians as a path to meaningful reconciliation of Canada today with Aboriginal citizens. Even though the historical experience of residential schools constituted an act of cultural genocide by Canadian government authorities, the United Nation's declaration of the rights of aboriginal peoples and the specific recommendations of the Commission offer a path to move from apology for these events to true reconciliation that can be embraced by all Canadians.

In June 1967, Norway House Indian Residential School of Manitoba closed its doors after a somewhat questionable past. In 1954, when Florence Kaefer was just nineteen, she accepted a job as a teacher at Norway House. Unaware of the difficult conditions the students were enduring, Florence and her fellow teachers nurtured a school full of lonely and homesick young children. After a few years, Florence moved to Vancouver Island with her new husband where she continued to teach, thinking often of the children of Norway House.

Many years later, after the death of her husband, Florence unexpectedly reconnected with one of her Norway House students, Edward Gamblin. Edward had been only five when he was brought to Norway House and Florence remembered him as a shy and polite young boy. Leaving the school at sixteen, Edward faced some challenges in a world that was both hostile and unfamiliar to him. But Edward found success and solace in his career as a musician, writing songs about the many political issues facing Aboriginal people in Canada. On a trip to Manitoba, Florence discovered Edward's music. She was captivated by his voice, but shocked to hear him singing about the abuse he and the other children had been subjected to at Norway House.

Motivated to apologize on behalf of the school and her colleagues, Florence contacted Edward. "Yes, I remember you and I accept your apology," Edward told her. "Reconciliation will not be one grand, finite act. It will be a multitude of small acts and gestures played out between individuals." The story of their personal reconciliation is both heartfelt and heartbreaking as Edward begins to share his painful truths with his family, Florence and the media. Three years after Edward's death in in 2010, Florence has continued to advocate for truth and reconciliation. BACK TO THE RED ROAD is more than one man's story: it is the story of our nation and how healing can begin, one friendship, one apology at a time.

Additional Information

After her beloved Grandmother dies, EdNah, a seven-year-old Pawnee girl, goes to live with a father she hardly knows on a Navajo reservation miles away. Heartbroken but resilient, she begins to create a new life for herself in this unfamiliar place.

Just as EdNah starts to feel at home in her new surroundings, she is sent away to a strict government-run Indian school. With her world turned upside down once again, EdNah must learn to rely on herself and her newfound community of friends.

Told in the unconventional voice of a seasoned storyteller, Rattlesnake Mesa is a true account of a girl coming-of-age during a complex time in America’s past. Both heartbreaking and humorous, you will be moved to tears and laughter as you experience EdNah’s spirited celebration of life as a healing.

Like thousands of Aboriginal children in Canada, and elsewhere in the colonized world, Xatsu'll chief Bev Sellars spent part of her childhood as a student in a church-run residential school.

These institutions endeavored to "civilize" Native children through Christian teachings; forced separation from family, language, and culture; and strict discipline. Perhaps the most symbolically potent strategy used to alienate residential school children was addressing them by assigned numbers only-not by the names with which they knew and understood themselves.

In this frank and poignant memoir of her years at St. Joseph's Mission, Sellars breaks her silence about the residential school's lasting effects on her and her family-from substance abuse to suicide attempts-and eloquently articulates her own path to healing. 'Number One' comes at a time of recognition-by governments and society at large-that only through knowing the truth about these past injustices can we begin to redress them.

Awards

• 2014 Burt Award Third Place Winner

Educator Information
Grades 10-12 BC English First Peoples resource for the unit Place-Conscious Learning - Exploring Text through Local Landscape.

Additional Information
256 pages | 5.67" x 8.20"

When residential schools opened in the 1830s, First Nations envisioned their own teachers, ministers, and interpreters. Instead, students were regularly forced to renounce their cultures and languages and some were subjected to degradations and abuses that left severe emotional scars for generations. In Finding My Talk, fourteen aboriginal women who attended residential schools, or were affected by them, reflect on their experiences. They describe their years in residential schools across Canada and how they overcame tremendous obstacles to become strong and independent members of aboriginal cultures and valuable members of Canadian society. Biographies include: Eleanor Brass, Journalist, Plains Cree, Saskatchewan, Rita Joe, Poet/Writer, Mi?kmaq, Nova Scotia, Alice French, Writer, Inuit, Northwest Territories Shirley Sterling, School Administrator/Storyteller, Nlakapmux, British Columbia, Doris Pratt, Education Administrator/Language Specialist, Dakota, Manitoba, Edith Dalla Costa, School Counsellor, Woodland Cree, Alberta, Sara Sabourin, Community Worker, Ojibway, Ontario. Dr. Agnes Grant worked with the Native Teacher Training programs at Brandon University, Manitoba, for thirty years. As an administrator and professor, she spent much of her time in remote communities. Dr. Grant is the author of No End of Grief: Indian Residential Schools in Canada and three other books. She lives in Winnipeg.

Authenticity Note: This book has received the Authentic Indigenous Text label because of the contributions of the fourteen Indigenous women who share their stories in it.  It is up to readers to determine if this will work as an authentic text for their purposes.

One of the first books published to deal with the phenomenon of residential schools in Canada, Resistance and Renewal is a disturbing collection of Native perspectives on the Kamloops Indian Residential School(KIRS) in the British Columbia interior. Interviews with thirteen Natives, all former residents of KIRS, form the nucleus of the book, a frank depiction of school life, and a telling account of the system's oppressive environment which sought to stifle Native culture.

Winner of the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize (BC Book Prize) in 1989.

Now in its 8th printing.

Authenticity Note: This book has received the Authentic Indigenous Text label because of the interviews and contributions of Indigenous peoples in this work, whom the author thanks and acknowledges in the introduction of the book. It is up to readers to determine if this an authentic work for their purposes.

Kiss of the Fur Queen is a powerful and beautiful tale of siblings and tricksters, culture and trauma, and finding yourself in a world that tries to tell you who you are.

Born into a magical Cree world in snowy northern Manitoba, Champion and Ooneemeetoo Okimasis are all too soon torn from their family and thrust into the hostile world of a Catholic residential school. Their language is forbidden, their names are changed to Jeremiah and Gabriel, and both boys are abused by priests.

As young men, estranged from their own people and alienated from the culture imposed upon them, the Okimasis brothers fight to survive. But wherever they go, the Fur Queen--a wily, shape-shifting trickster--watches over them as they fulfill their destiny to become artists.

Educator Information
Grade 11/12 English First Peoples resource for the unit Further Steps toward Reconciliation - Understanding Residential Schools through Text.

Note: This novel contains mature and challenging material (profanity, coarse language, depictions of sex, sexual abuse, violence, etc.). 

This resource is also available in French: Champion et Ooneemeetoo.

Additional Information
328 pages | 5.17" x 7.98"

Behind Closed Doors features written testimonials from thirty-two individuals who attended the Kamloops Indian Residential School. The school was one of many infamous residential schools that operated from 1893 to 1979. These storytellers give voice to the thousands as they remember and share with us their stolen time at the school; many stories are told through courageous tears.

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202 pages | 11.50" x 8.00" | Paperback