Digitally Preserving Former Indian Residential Schools in Alberta

Carriage House First Floor

The First Floor/Basement of Poundmaker’s Lodge Carriage House. Posts Have Been Added to Stabilize and Support the Main Floor of the Building. Click on the triangle to load the point cloud.

“The purpose of the Amendment to the Act was to prevent the Indians from being exploited as a savage or semi-savage race, when the whole of the administrative force of the Department is endeavoring to civilize them.” – Duncan Campbell Scott, 1916

Utility and Storage Areas

Students working in the kitchen of the main school building, between 1926-1937. PR1985.0100 from The Provincial Archives of Alberta, Open Copyright.

The basement level of the carriage house housed served as a utility room. In the main school, the basement or first floor housed similar rooms as Old Sun’s first floor and UnBQ’s first floor, including the boys’ and girls’ playrooms, the washrooms, the dining rooms, kitchen, boiler room, and utilities. Building operations based in the basement of the Edmonton IRS speak to broader trends of unsafe operations at residential schools across Canada, particularly regarding fire safety.

Fire Hazards and Prevention

In October 1948, Principal Reverend E. J. Staley reported that a fire started in a laundry room cupboard from unknown causes [1,2]. The basement was significantly damaged as was the wiring and machinery, and holes were cut in the ceiling when crews were putting out the fire. While Nealy approved repairs to the school, he was firm in directing Agent Gooderham to keep costs as low as possible [1,2].

During her statement to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission at the Alberta National Event sharing panel, Isabell Muldoe of Gitxsan Nation, a Survivor of Edmonton Indian Residential School (EIRS) who was transported from her home in Haida Gwaii, recalled,

The doors were always locked. Locked going upstairs to the dorm, to the sewing room. Every door was locked. And today, well, lately, I’ve been wondering what would have happened if there was a fire? We would have been trapped. [3].

The danger recalled by Isabell Muldoe with regards to fire safety is well substantiated by fire inspection reports from EIRS. This is compounded by the lagging response to known dangers and the focus on the financial bottom line by both the government and the churches administering the schools [2]

Water Quality and Quantity

Issues concerning water quality and quantity plagued Edmonton Indian Residential School. Hardness of well water required that it be hand pumped through soda to obtain soft water. Reports from 1928 reveal that the soda levels added were often too high to make the water both palatable and healthy. The absence of a back up water tank or cistern also made the school vulnerable to water outages. As a result, when well pumps broke (as they frequently did) students would have no access to water. In April 1937 Principal Woodsworth reported that the pipes burst in the main water pump, leaving them with no access to water for one day, and emergency repairs eight times in a twelve-month period (Edmonton Agency, Vol. 6351, Reel C-8707). Five years later, the start of the school year was delayed because of well trouble and an insufficient water supply (Edmonton Agency, Vol. 6351, Reel C-8707). In 1947, J.T. Faunt, Assistant Principal, reported that there was no drinking water on the upper floors, no basins or water taps on the dormitory floors (Edmonton Agency, Vol. 6351, Reel C-8707)

Notes:

[1] Department of Indian Affairs (1919-1937). Edmonton Agency – Edmonton Industrial School – Administration [administrative records]. Headquarters central registry system: School files series (RG10, Volume 6350, Reel C-8706). Library and Archives Canada. Ottawa. 

[2] Wallace, R. and N. Pietrzykowski. 2022. Digital IRS Archival Research Unpublished report prepared by Collective Heritage Consulting for P. Dawson, University of Calgary. On file in Department of Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Calgary, Calgary.

[3] Isabell Muldoe. NCTR: SP205. (March 29, 2014). Alberta National Event, sharing panel (Edmonton). https://archives.nctr.ca/SP205_part06

 

The following virtual tour was created using panospheres from the Z+F 5010X laser scanner. Use your mouse or arrow keys to explore each image. Click on an arrow to "jump" to the next location.

This image gallery shows modern photos of the carriage house. Click on photos to expand and read their captions. If you have photos of the Edmonton IRS that you would like to submit to this archive, please contact us at irsdocumentationproject@gmail.com.

Basement of the carriage house during digital capture. October 2020. From Madisen Hvidberg.
Basement of the carriage house during digital capture with Z+F 5016 terrestrial laser scanner. October 2020. From Madisen Hvidberg.
Basement of the carriage house during digital capture with Z+F 5016 terrestrial laser scanner. October 2020. From Madisen Hvidberg.
Stairs into the basement of the carriage house during digital capture with Z+F 5016 terrestrial laser scanner. October 2020. From Madisen Hvidberg.
Basement of the carriage house during digital capture. October 2020. From Madisen Hvidberg.
Students working in the kitchen in the basement of the main school building, between 1926-1937. PR1985.0100 from The Provincial Archives of Alberta, Open Copyright.
Students in the kitchen in the basement of the main school building, between 1926-1937. PR1985.0100 from The Provincial Archives of Alberta, Open Copyright.
Students dressed to act out a wedding, likely taken in the dining room or playroom within the basement of the main school building between 1926-1937. PR1985.0100 from The Provincial Archives of Alberta, Open Copyright.

Laser scanning data can be used to create “as built” architectural plans which can support repair and restoration work to The Edmonton Indian Residential School Carriage House. The main school building was lost to fire in 2000. 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 Poundmaker’s Lodge Treatment Center.

Basement Plan

Gary Williams- If your Kid Dies Here it’s Unnoticed

We had the basement where they, it’s almost like a recreation room where you can watch TV if you want to do. It’s sort of a rec room, or a just socializing room, but you can’t talk to one another. It’s kind of weird. You can go outside and play out in the yard, because there were supervisors standing all around you know, making sure the rules aren’t broken. And even though that was happening, we had lots of outings, outside time.

So, uh, what happened after that? On a Monday morning, they took us into our classrooms. The next floor up from the basement because they had steel stairs all the way up the fourth floor, I think, or third floor… fourth floor. The second floor was, on the boy side, was two separate units. One was both classrooms it might have been. Again, I’m on one side and my brother was on the other side and I didn’t see him. At one point, I knew, we went to school and then we sort of went away for a while, and then we came back later in the evening. That was how it was scheduled.

Anyway, so one side of the dorm, which held about, maybe 20 chairs on both sides, was 40 all together, and that was sort of the class for the younger generation, younger people. I’m quite sure that a lot of the other students that were 11 and 12, I think, they had evening classes. We went along like that for five days a week, and we, and we went on weekends we can socialize, not socialize but have an outside time. We did a lot of that, or else you can you can go and study in classrooms if you wanted to. Sort of I would say kill time I guess until dinnertime in the evening.

Again, you know same food again, and, anyway the two were, the two classrooms, I mentioned that. But the upper, the third floor is our bedroom dorms same kind of setup, lower kids on the other side. You know like the old saying goes, that you like, you hear all the time in a different uh, that you know you can’t really talk to one another or socialize with your own native tongue people. That was kept you know, if you did you would be punished, and we tried to follow the rules as good as we can so we couldn’t be punished.

So that went on for three months I guess, till Christmas time. At times I would write a letter back to home, and they would drop it into the mailbox here so that they can deliver it in town or get the post person to. There was no phones, so, like the people say, if your kid dies here, it’s unnoticed.

Even though I was here amongst all that, I could feel and sense the sacredness or private stuff, not knowing stuff that’s happening in the middle of the night because we’re younger… we wasn’t involved in that.

 

-Gary Williams

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Notes:

Oral interview with Gary Williams. Conducted by Peter Dawson at Poundmaker’s Lodge, St Albert, May 4, 2022. Transcribed by Erica Van Vugt and Madisen Hvidberg. University of Calgary, Jan 23, 2024.

Image: AB Archives, PR198510010110. Edmonton Indian Residential School, St. Albert, Title: [no names or description provided]. ND.

Explore Floors and Rooms

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