June Spotted Eagle- I Don’t Think He Liked Me

This other story it happened in the dinning room. Ah, every Tuesday night there were movies for everybody huh. In the evening between 7 or 8. Then the parents used to come and watch. The kids could sit with their parents. Then when the movie is going to end, we just know when the movie is going to be over, we hear God Save the Queen. When we hear it, the kids start crying because they know the parents will be leaving.

And I remember one time with my mom and my father I snuck upstairs with them on the boy’s side, those stairs, I snuck upstairs with them. I was thinking, “I’m just going home with my parents.” But anyways at the hallway Mr. Cole caught me. He just grabbed me, lifted me up and carried me to the dormitory even though I was bawling and kicking my feet. I know my one shoe fell off and I lost it, but I did find it later. I know sometimes Mr. Cole lets some kids go home with their parents but he never allowed me to go, I don’t think he liked me [laughter].

One time at grade 2, we were in the classroom. It used to be in the old library, it’s not one anymore for along time. Just across, there was a classroom, grade 2 with Mr. Warm, our teacher’s name. We still all sitting. That, that Mr. Cole came into the room. I just felt a pinch on my ear, and he just touched my ear with his big hand. And it hurt. I didn’t even do anything.

As we got older, maybe Grade 8 or 7 in that Quonset that was separate from the main building, we used to have dances every Thursday evening. It was fun, they used to play that song Splish, Splash [laughter]. One time we went to a concert- on not a concert, a track and field at Kainai, St. Pauls school. We slept there ‘cause it was late, too late to come back. So we stayed there. There we had a dance with them, the Kainai kids [laughs] and Mr. Cole- oh, not Mr Cole, Mr. Miller. They kept asking him, “do you have Splish, Splash?” [laughs].
“No, we don’t, we never heard of that song.” And I still hear it now and I still like that song, I still hear it sometimes [laughs]. Well it’s, as I got older well, when I was still here (at Old Sun Residential School), it wasn’t that bad… not like when I was young.

That’s all.

– June Spotted Eagle

Notes:

Oral interview with June Spotted Eagle. Conducted, translated, and transcribed by Angeline Ayoungman. Old Sun Community College, May 16, 2022.