Old Sun Boiler Room

The boiler room and former coal shoot at Old Sun Community College. This large space continues to house the utilities used to heat this large masonry building. A metal door leading to the coal shoot contains graffiti from students and staff that dates back to the early days of Old Sun Indian Residential School.

“If these schools are to succeed, we must not have them too near the bands; in order to educate the children properly we must separate them from their families. Some people may say this is hard, but if we want to civilize them we must do that.” – A Federal Cabinet Minister, 1883

Heating, Water and Plumbing

While there have been technological updates and modernization of the utilities, the boiler room retains much of its original appearance since its operation as part of Old Sun Indian Residential School.

Graffiti covered door in the boiler room. August 2020.

Students at the school were responsible for tasks related to the operation of the school such as laundry, washing dishes, harvesting food from the gardens, serving staff meals, taking care of livestock, and shoveling coal. Children working at these tasks would be assigned them both as daily living chores but also as punishments like having to clean the floor with a toothbrush, which as Mandel Old Woman recounts was a task given to students as young as the age of four years old. Other punishments included locking children up in isolated rooms or in remote areas of the school, likely including the boiler room.

While most of the boiler room at Old Sun is one area, the coal room is separated by a thick steel door, which is original to the 1932 construction of the school. Engraved on the door is a variety of graffiti from children who were in attendance of the school, including names, pictures, and dates that are legible as far back as the 1930s. This door provides a physical connection to the Old Sun residential school and the experiences survivors had while in attendance.

Fire Hazards and Protection Methods

Ruins of Old Sun School after fire, 1928. Courtesy of Glenbow Library and Archives Collection, Libraries and Cultural Resources Digital Collections, University of Calgary.

Archival documents reveal that fires were all too common at many Indian Residential Schools. The original Old Sun School at Siksika, for example, was constructed largely of wood and was lost to fire in June 1928. In this instance, Government investigators determined that the fire was caused by spontaneous combustion within the diary and storage cellar spaces within the building. In other schools, fires originated in basement boiler rooms where coal was burned to heat water as part of the hydronic heating systems. Other high-risk locations included kitchens and laundry areas.

Old Sun Indian Residential School (brick version) 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 required 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 approved a night watchman to keep an eye on the boilers.

Many residential schools were located in remote rural areas and therefore were not easily served by municipal fire departments. As a result, the suppression of school fires required easy access to well-maintained fire extinguishers and dependable sources of water. Unfortunately, Government documents reveal that cost-cutting measures prevented many identified fire hazards from being addressed, placing students at significant risk.

To keep students safe, dormitories and classrooms required unobstructed fire routes to exterior stairways (fire escapes). However, there were no national standards in Canada requiring the installation of fire escapes for most of the residential school era. Instead, contractors took it upon themselves to make recommendations about when and where fire escapes should be installed. The general rule of thumb was that fire escapes should be fitted above the second floor of large multi-story buildings.

Water Quality and Quantity

Government inspections and reports indicate that water was not available in sufficient quantities to address fire suppression, nor was it of a sufficient quality to be considered usable as drinking water by students and staff at Old Sun.

Well water quality and supply issues were well documented problems at all three of the schools preserved in this archive. At Old Sun, emergency repairs to well pumps and valves were required approximately one year after the school had opened. In October and November of 1932, reports indicate that the school was left without water for several hours. While well pumps proved to be a constant source of trouble, hydrological investigations revealed that a drop in the water table combined with an inlet pipe that had been laid incorrectly meant that major repairs were necessary. Even after repairs were undertaken, the supervising engineer reported that well tests indicated that only 2/3 of the water necessary for daily operation of the school were being produced. In some cases, it appears that water was withheld by some residential school administrators as a means of controlling and exercising power over the children.

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This image includes modern images of the boiler room. If anyone has historic photos of the boiler room at Old Sun that they would like to submit to this archive, please contact us at irsdocumentationproject@gmail.com or submit through "Submit your Memories" button at the top of the page.

Leica BLK scanning coal room during digital documentation of Old Sun. August 2020. Photo source: Madisen Hvidberg.

The previous, wooden, Old Sun school which burnt down from a fire started in the boiler room. [192-?]. P7538-673 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada.

The previous, wooden, Old Sun school which burnt down from a fire started in the boiler room. [192-?]. P7538-672 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada.

The previous, wooden, Old Sun school which burnt down from a fire started in the boiler room. [192-?]. P7538-638 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada.

Students Hilda Lowhorn, Ruby Stimson, Edna Studhorse, Ronald Cutter and Wallace Bearchief assist Laundry Matron Mrs. J. Champness to hang clothing on the line, outside school. 1945. P75-103-S7-170 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada.

Four girls make butter in the kitchens down the hall from the boiler room. [194-?]. P75-103-S7-165 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada.

Girls in kitchen washing dishes. From left to right, Daisy Olds, --, Donna Jean Bear, ---. 1955-1957. NA-4817-19. Courtesy of Glenbow Archives .

Back of the new Old Sun school, showing door into the boiler room next to the base of the chimney. [193-?]. M55-01-P52 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada.

The boiler room in Old Sun. August 2020. Photo source: Madisen Hvidberg.

Students spent much of their time doing maintenance and chores for the school. Here, workshop boys build a brooder house. [194-?]. P75-103-S7-192 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada.

Students spent much of their time doing maintenance and chores for the school. Here, workshop boys build a brooder house. [194-?]. P75-103-S7-187 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada.

Students spent much of their time doing maintenance and chores for the school. Here, a student stands in the schools' potato field. Crops would be stored in the root cellar near the boiler room. August 13, 1949. P7538-1000 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada.

Students spent much of their time doing maintenance and chores for the school. Here, a a senior boy discs stubble. Fall 1923. P7538-684 from the General Synod Archives, Anglican Church of Canada.

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.

Rachel First Rider- The Bad Ones

My name is Rachel First Rider, my Blackfoot name is Iitotaika’nah. This morning I’m going to talk about when I lived here at school, when they first brought me here. I don’t know, I might have been the age of eight or seven years old, when they brought me here to live… I don’t really know. I was young and such but when I got older, then they put me with the children and the workers, the white ladies, the teachers, we cooked for them. The one I was with has now passed away was my friend and younger sister Komehtaki, Elsie Black. This was the one I was with in the place where we slept when I reached senior girl dorm level.

Then we started working in the kitchen when it was 6AM, they would wake us up and we would go downstairs. At the kitchen we started preparing the food the children were going to eat, and the workers here. These are the things… I really didn’t get much schooling, they just… I learned to cook. I had already left school, when I left school, that’s when I didn’t cook anymore. That, the cook the one who supervised us, always got mad at us when we uhh… she would slap us.

Kamehtaki and I, we would try to do good work then. There were times, so we wouldn’t talk, she would tape our mouths so we wouldn’t talk anymore and had to keep on working and cooking. These, the porridge, when night came, nighttime, they started cooking all night… all night and the porridge was cooked, this is what the children ate. That and, we would go to the place where they made bread, we would help a little with the bread the children ate. These are how we all know how to cook. There have been a lot I have cooked for and that was how I learned to cook. I was about ready to leave school when I stopped cooking, then I left school.

There was another time, before I started cooking, I don’t know how old I was then. We then started going to school, before I started working in the kitchen. In the morning we go to pray then go eat. Eat breakfast. We go to school. When recess came, we were chased outside. The doors were closed, we couldn’t run back in. Those trees, they were all there, the swings we were all chased there. We weren’t supposed to be near the school. it wasn’t so hard in the summer. When it was hard was in winter. They locked us out even if there was a cold wind, we just tried to find a place where there was no wind. If we get caught, we get chased to the field where we played, we just wait for the bell to ring and come inside. These are things that were so hard back in the past. When it was very cold, we were acclimatized to the weather. The people I went to school with, we got used to the cold weather and now we don’t really have a cold winter. In the past, we got locked out it was pitiful. And we are so glad to go inside and be warm.

Then, this when we go to eat, they would make us stand for a long time. If a boy or girl got into trouble, we all got blamed and when we finished eating, we were told to get up and stand up. I think one hour, that’s how long we stood for. We were very tired from standing, we don’t talk, we don’t stand by the chairs for support. If we caught by the care-givers, white ladies or the white man, we get strapped when we walk out. These are the things that were hard, that we stood for a long time. This is why I don’t like to stand, now I can hardly get up.

For me, when we get strapped, those… We say, a lot of people say, those things we got strapped with are from tractor, what they call a belt. That’s what they look like. They strap our hands… hands are just red, this what we hated. When we are told to line up sometimes if children get into trouble, we get blamed too and we would all get strapped too.

And also, I encountered this, a place where we stayed, the playroom, it’s called side bathroom, I don’t know. If we got into trouble, they put us in there where the tub was. We pull our pants down, we lie face up- no we didn’t lie face up, were laid face down on the tub and with a big brush they smacked our back side. We couldn’t sit down when done. I would cry loudly so they stop strapping me. With the late Ahpakistowaki, Theresa Royal, she was the one that put me first and went I came out, she would ask me “did it hurt?” I answer “yes I’m still crying so they can’t finish strapping me.” She would say, “I’m just going cry loudly.”

These are the things I think about… why are they so mean? And this one who took care of us, when my daughter was going to school here, the older one Joyce, this supervisor came here and she worked here for a little while. I lived in Kainai at that time, you know. I thought I should have gone there and beat her up. She was really abusive to us, those caregivers.

Two people took good care of me, my late sister, Statamooni, Henrietta Low Horn and Soyiitapiaki, Hazel Black Rider. These are the ones who took care of me when I first started school. These are the things I don’t like to talk about… these things because they were too bad, how we were abused. Now she’s gone, Kamihtaki, Elsie, that’s the one I was abused with and the ones I know when we all get strapped when one got into trouble. They tell us, if we are hanging out with them, they tell us “You are also in trouble” and strap us too. These things were bad, now they tell me.

There are times I like to talk, my mouth is also taped, also Kamihtaki’s so we couldn’t talk. That’s how bad that white lady was. When we went go to pray the kids would laugh at us because our mouths were taped shut. These are the things. It really… we can’t speak English, I didn’t even know how to speak English when I first came to school. Now I know. It was really hard, they tell us not to speak Blackfoot. They strapped us for this when they caught us speaking Blackfoot. They were really bad, there was lots of these people. White people, white ladies, how they treated us they think its ok, “This child will get straight if we strapped them.” They say, “now if we strapped them when they get into trouble.” No, it’s not like that we say now. People when we touch a child we get charged.

These white ladies, they must have all passed away. Some of them I know have passed, the ones that strapped us and abused us. This one teacher would grab the back our necks and twist the skin, she hurt us so much. Or the ruler, she would hit us on the fingers. These are the bad ones who treated us bad, white men, white ladies… how badly they abused us when we lived here at the school.

These are the things I don’t like to talk about, I get a lonely feeling and I get really emotional when I talk about it. Then I think, “well I have to talk about them so maybe I won’t think about it.” I’m old now I just talk but anybody… I won’t talk about it. The white ladies if they say, “how was it?” I have a lot of white friends and they say, “how was it when you lived there?” I tell them, “no, it’s not good to talk about it.”

I don’t have any more to say.

[emotional breakdown]

– Iitotaika’nah, Rachel First Rider