Old Sun Junior Dormitories

I want to get rid of the Indian problem….Our objective is to continue until there is not a single Indian in Canada that has not been absorbed into the body politic and there is no Indian question and no Indian Department.” – Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs.

Revisiting Old Sun’s Dormitories Using 3D Computer Modeling 

Throughout its life, the architecture of Old Sun has been continuously modified to accommodate its evolving functions – first as a residential school, and later as an Indigenous post-secondary institution. In order to understand how different areas of the building appeared at various points in its long history, 3D computer models were recreated for key areas like the classrooms, chapel, and dormitories. Computer scientist Dr. Katayoon Etemad utilized the laser scanning data along with historic pictures and accounts from survivors to reconstruct how the Junior Girls Dormitory might have appeared during the 1960’s. The process used was iterative, meaning that Dr. Etemad began by creating a basic computer model using archival images. Angeline Ayoungman and Gwendora Bear Chief would then review the model and suggest changes. Dr. Etemad would make the necessary alternations and send the model back to Angeline and Gwendora for further comment. This “back and forth” process continued until Ayoungman and Bear Chief were satisfied with the outcome.

From the color of mattresses and the arrangement/spacing of beds to the cupboards where the personal belongings of students were locked away, each minute detail was meaningful. The result is a close approximation of how this room would have appeared to students attending the school during the 1960’s.

Old Sun Junior Girls’ Dormitory

The Junior Girl’s Dormitory was located at the north end of the third floor. This area of the school was later renovated to be split into two of the classrooms currently used for Old Sun Community College courses.

When in operation as a residential school, this large dormitory space housed girls between 4 and 13 years of age. The dormitory would have accommodated about 30 single beds, with just enough space to walk between them. The beds had thin mattresses with grey wool blankets, called ikiikinai’piisti, which means lonely blanket in Blackfoot. Students were sent to bed at 7:30PM, regardless of the day or time of year. Since the windows in the dormitories did not have any coverings, this made it difficult for students to sleep during the summer months when darkness comes much later in the evening. Once sent to bed, children were not allowed to engage in any activities in the dorms.

One wall of the dormitory featured floor to ceiling brown cabinets. When students arrived at the school, they would be assigned a number and their original clothes would be put in a white sac and stored in these cupboards. Vivian Ayoungman, a former student of Old Sun, said “you put your clothes, language, and culture in a bag and tie it up and leave it in there because you won’t need it for the week.”

The school would issue students two sets of clothes to wear while in attendance, and students would be given back their original clothes Thursday night which would be wrinkled when students wore them Friday morning to go home in. Some girls would stay in the dormitories for the weekend, reporting that the rules were less strict.

Adjacent to the dormitory was a staff sleeping room, which had a supervisors’ viewing window for the dormitory. Through this window students, their activities, and their language could be constantly monitored by staff. Children were constantly supervised but in a way which did not give them any comfort of having adult caregivers.

The only personal space in the dormitory was a hook with the students’ number on it, as students would be referred to by their number instead of their name for attendance. In the back corner of the room was one small washroom with a toilet in it, and a single sink along the wall open to the rest of the dormitory. While students had limited privacy, the strict rules of the school also meant students were constantly lonely. This was especially true for the junior dormitories where children were younger and more scared, survivors remember that children would often cry themselves to sleep here.

Old Sun Junior Boys’ Dormitory

The classrooms located on the south end of the third floor once served as the Jr Boys’ dormitory. Renovations have since divided the single large space of the dormitory into two separate lecture spaces used for Old Sun Community College courses.
This large dormitory space was occupied by boys aged 6 to 12 and would have accommodated about 30 single beds, with just enough space to walk between them. Ernest Barry Yellow Fly remembers if students were making noise, “the supervisor would walk around the dorm where we slept. He would take off his shoe, his shoes, he would hit us on the head. He would walk to each one of us, hitting us on the head. Then he would shut the light off.”

The boys dormitory was organized the same way as the girls dormitory, and contained the same floor to ceiling cabinets, thin grey mattresses, ikiikinai’piisti (lonely blanket), and numbered hooks. As with the girls, the boys were under almost constant surveillance by the supervisor via a small viewing window.

Overcrowding

By the early 1940’s, overcrowding at residential schools such as Old Sun had reached an all time high. Adjustments were made to accommodate students including moving extra beds into rooms formerly used as bathrooms. Following a fire at Old Sun in 1928, school administrators housed ill students at a nearby hospital instead of the school’s infirmary (located on this floor) in case beds were needed for extra students. Likewise, in 1937, Principal Balter requested 24 institution bed packages (bed frame, mattress of five and a half feet, pillow) for Blue Quills, but it was denied despite the school having seven more students than the bed capacity allowed. To accommodate those students, the school took beds from the sick ward, an unsustainable arrangement.

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