Old Sun Community College First Floor

“It is the opinion of the writer that…..the Government will in time reach the end of its responsibility as the Indians progress into civilization and finally disappear as a separate and distinct people, not by race extinction but by gradual assimilation with their fellow-citizens”. – Duncan Campbell Scott 1931, Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs

The first floor of Old Sun served multiple purposes during the building’s operation as a residential school. When not attending classes or performing chores, boys and girls were separated along gender lines. Throughout much of Old Sun’s history, the boys’ playroom was located on the south side of the building, while the girls’ rooms were on the north side. Each playroom had an adjacent washroom which featured a central row of sinks and open showers. Some younger children found the presence of older students in these spaces somewhat intimidating – especially when bathing/washing.

The dining area was centrally located between the playrooms and now serves as the cafeteria for Old Sun Community College. As with the playrooms, boys and girls sat on the east and west sides of the room, respectively, while staff ate in a separate dining area. Students at the school were required to help with cooking, cleaning, and other chores. Survivors’ recounted that serving staff members was a desirable job because students could sneak scraps of the better quality food enjoyed by school employees. In contrast, residential school children would be served foods such as lumpy porridge, oftentimes with soured powdered milk, and be made to take spoonful’s of cod liver oil as well as pills of unknown substances.

The first floor also contained the various utility rooms for the school. The hallway behind the dining room led to the kitchen, laundry rooms, and the boiler room where students worked cleaning dishes, doing laundry, and shoveling coal.

Old Sun Girls Playroom

The girls playroom was originally painted a pinkish color with concrete floors. Former student Angeline Ayoungman remembers that when a bathroom pipe was fixed the concrete used to repair the affected area was a different color than the rest of the plain concrete floor. Since the children had no toys, they used this discolored patch to stage games upon. Children would also occasionally steal items like scraps of paper and hair pins to use as makeshift toys.

Survivors have recounted that they never truly “played” the way children normally do. This was because the Blackfoot language spoken by newly arriving students was forbidden in the school. As a result, many children found it difficult to connect and play with each other as they feared punishment for accidentally speaking their language. School intercoms provided an effective means of surveillance. As survivor Allan Stevens described, “there was an intercom, it was connected to the principle’s office.. so he knew when [they] spoke Blackfoot and would call that person to go upstairs and [they] would be strapped.” It is therefore understandable that enjoying recreational time would have been difficult.

The boys’ playroom was a plain, open space with a communal washroom and shower on the west side – making it a mirror image of the girl’s playroom. The bathroom was a large undivided room featuring a row of sinks. A communal shower located directly across from the toilers containing six shower heads. Aside from a single toilet and sink off the dormitories, these were the only facilities available to the large number of students attending the school. Play was limited as students were not given toys or games. Bullying was also prevalent among students at the school. Growing up in the abusive environment of the residential school, some students learned these types of behaviours. This not only contributed to the intergenerational trauma Indigenous communities still suffer today, but also to high rates of mistreatment, bullying, and abuse between students themselves. The rigorous separation of gender and age within the schools contributed to the divides between students.

Adjacent to the playroom was the washroom. The bathrooms featured communal sinks and showers. When students would come to IRS as small children it was common practice for them to be washed by a staff member, often using harsh soaps and chemicals, and have their hair cut. Survivors remember having coal oil and powder put in their hair which would sting and hurt. To this day, many former students are unaware of the products that were used. As most students were unfamiliar with showers and had been bathed by family members at home, this was a traumatic and jarring experience. Sometimes students would be made to wash themselves in the sinks instead of showers. The floors were also slippery, and this would lead to falls occasionally resulting in serious injuries.

When students arrived they were also assigned numbers. Students were referred to by their number, rather than their name. Corresponding hooks in the bathroom marked where students kept their toothbrushes, and in the cupboards in the dormitories the clothes students wore from home were kept in numbered bags.

Sanitation and Hygiene

Unsanitary conditions existed at the original Old Sun school building in 1907 and continued to plague the new school that served as its replacement in the late 1920’s. In fact, sanitary conditions were so bad at the old building that calls were made by noted residential school whistle blower Dr. Peter H Bryce to tear the building down in 1907. He noted that privies (outhouses) were located between 50 and 150 ft from the main building and that the surrounding grounds were prone to flooding which resulted in the contamination of six wells. It is therefore not surprising that many students were constantly sick.

Problems continued after the construction of the replacement brick building. During the schools first year, Indian Agents reported leaky toilets and bathtubs, sinks falling off walls, and water tanks not properly releasing water. Throughout the 1940’s, basins and toilets were continually clogged, leading to strong odours cited as being “beyond description” (Blackfoot Agency, Vol. 6351, Reel C-8707). Pools of water caused by pipe blockages due to roof drainage issues were also observed in the boy’s playroom and washroom, resulting in unsanitary conditions. An engineer brought in to assess the situation later that year declared that the entire sewage system would need to be overhauled to address the issue.

School Supplies and Equipment

The Department of Indian Affairs (DIA) inaction in addressing various building issues directly impacted the experiences of school children attending residential schools. Infrastructure was often left unfinished or incomplete for long periods of time. Seven years after the Edmonton Indian Residential School opened, seating had yet to be installed, forcing students to sit on washbasin stands to rest. At Old Sun, plaster fell from the walls and ceilings of the boy’s playroom as repeated requests for bricking or cementing were ignored. Requests for basic items such as toothbrushes and bedding were also regularly denied by the DIA. Schools that were in the public eye, however, were often granted requests for items like new mattresses as government officials believed it was important that the DIA be seen in a positive light.

Left click and drag your mouse around the screen to view different areas of each room. If you have a touch screen, simply drag your finger across the screen. Your keyboard's arrow keys can also be used. Travel to different areas of the first floor/basement by clicking on the floating arrows.

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This image gallery shows historic and modern photos of Old Sun's 1st floor. Click on photos to expand and read their captions. If you have photos of the first floor of Old Sun that you would like to submit to this archive, please contact us at irsdocumentationproject@gmail.com.

Laser scanning data can be used to create “as built” architectural plans which can support repair and restoration work to Old Sun Community College. This plan was created using Autodesk Revit and forms part of a larger building information model (BIM) of the school. The Revit drawings and laser scanning data for this school are securely archived with access controlled by the Old Sun Advisory Committee.

Some of the threats faced by Indigenous students attending residential schools came from the buildings themselves. The architectural plans contained in this archive, which have been constructed using the laser scanning data, illustrate how poorly these schools were designed from a safety perspective. There were three specific areas that placed the health and safety of students at great risk: Fire Hazards and Protection Measures; Water Quality, and Sanitation and Hygiene. As you explore the archive, you will find more information about the nature of these hazards and their impact on students.

Boilers and the Risk of Fire

Archival documents reveal that fires were common at all three of the schools preserved in this archive. Many of these fires originated in basement boiler rooms where coal was burned to heat water as part of the hydronic heating systems used by each school. Other high-risk locations included kitchens and laundry areas.

Old Sun Indian Residential School suffered its first fire within a year of its completion (1931). A fire caused by a defective heating element in one of the boilers had resulted from a small explosion. Investigators noted that the boilers in the basement of Old Sun were unmonitored at the time of the incident, suggesting that it could have been prevented. A second incident involving boilers occurred in 1947, and resulted in an extended holiday break for students as repairs had to be undertaken to restore heat and hot water to the building. Rather than address the recurring mechanical issues with the boilers, the superintendent investigating the incident instead approved a night watchman to keep an eye on the boilers.