Old Sun Annex

The Annex at Old Sun Community College. This Area of the School Presently Contains Various Administrative Offices. It Originally Served as the Priest’s Primary Residence During the Time that Old Sun Functioned as an Indian Residential School.

“It has been strongly impressed upon myself, as head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men.” – Sir John A. MacDonald, 1879

The Minister’s Quarter’s

Cropped photo of the exterior, showing a car parked in front of the annex at Old Sun. 1930s. NA-2966-4. Courtesy of the Glenbow Archives.

The annex at Old Sun Community College is currently used as a meeting space for staff. The main floor has a private office, an office with board room, and a small kitchen area. Upstairs, there are three offices, a bathroom, and an additional room. The annex’s half basement is used for storage.

When Old Sun operated as a residential school, the annex served as accommodation for the minister, who was also principal of the school, and his family. The kitchen and boardroom functioned as a private kitchen and formal dining area where the minister could entertain guests. The rooms upstairs served as bedrooms. Students at the school were not generally allowed access to the annex, except when brought there specifically by the minister.

For the creation of this archive, many of the survivors returned to Old Sun to share their memories, and were interviewed in the boardroom which used to be the dining room for these quarters. For many survivors, it takes great strength and resilience to return to the school and revisit their memories.

Notes:
The content of this page is pending approval by Old Sun Community College.

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This gallery contains modern day and archival images of the annex of Old Sun. If you have photos of the annex that you would like to submit to this archive, please contact us at irsdocumentationproject@gmail.com.

Leica BLK scanning under the stairs to the basement of the annex during digital documentation of Old Sun. August 2020. Photo source: Madisen Hvidberg.

Old Sun School, annex to the right with separate entrance visible. [193-?]. P75-103-S7-188 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada.

Boardroom office of the Siksika Studies department at Old Sun Community College, formerly the dining room of the minister's quarters. Photo from digital capture of Old Sun, August 2020.

Upstairs office in the annex of Old Sun, formerly a bedroom for the minister's quarters. Photo from digital capture of Old Sun, August 2020.

Entrance to the annex of Old Sun. Photo from digital capture of Old Sun, August 2020.

Old Sun School, this brick building was opened in 1929. 1930s. NA-2966-4. Courtesy of the Glenbow Archives.

Rev. Robert Crocker and family, who would have been living in the annex. 1955. NA-4817-50. Courtesy of Glenbow Archives .

Old Sun School, annex to the right.[193-?] P7538-1022 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada

Rev. Cole and Frazer with hens. Cole would have been living in the annex (on the left side of Old Sun) and Mr. Fraser in the maintenance house. June 1950. P7538-998 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada.

Rita Jane Many Guns- What I Don’t Want My Kids to Go Through

These are the things when I got older and I thought when I start having kids, “I am going to make sure my kids speak English. I did not want my kids to go through what I went through not knowing a word of English when I went to school.” That’s where I made a mistake, it’s just the opposite, my kids speak English and they don’t speak Blackfoot. It just seems they lost their language but because I wanted them to speak English when they went to school. I didn’t want them to experience what I experienced [speaker very emotional].

And not only that, I’ve seen my friends that were abused in school. I get, I get so scared. One time my friend, I don’t what she did. The supervisor, he was a man, I think his name was Mr. Hamilton, he just grabbed her by the hair and he dragged her down the stairs. I was so scared and my friend was screaming, no one helped her.

Those kind things, I think back on, what we went through school. And the other thing what I find very humiliating, I guess, degrading. When we bath, we all have to shower in front of everybody in the bathroom or where there’s about six of us at the same time we bath. I hated to go take a bath. And everyday we are given vitamins, those olive oil. We stand, line up, the supervisor just walks along and squirts them in our mouths. I hated them I just about throw up and if you get caught, you’ll get into trouble, even those vitamins if you get caught not swallowing them, you’ll get punished for it.

Now I feel good that my kids didn’t have to go to residential school to experience all this what I experienced.

– Monoot’taki, Rita Jane Many Guns

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Notes:

Oral interview with Monoot’taki, Rita Jane Many Guns. Conducted, translated, and transcribed by Gwendora Bear Chief. Old Sun Community College, May 6, 2022.