We were not allowed to speak our language. If we were… if some staff member overheard us, they would report us, and we would go to court or whatever he [likely referring to the principal] called it, because we were not allowed to speak our language. We were supposed to lose our language,
But anyway, my first experience really was loneliness, because I was taken away from a place where I was loved. All of us, all my siblings were loved very much by our parents and to me they were model parents. But anyway, I missed all that.
First, we eat. When done eating, we are taken to the gym where the junior boys are. They put on boxing gloves on us to fight, it takes about a good two hours, I don’t know how many we fight, we take turns.
This computer reconstruction approximates how the chapel at Old Sun would have appeared at Old Sun Indian Residential School. It was created using historic photos as well as descriptions provided by former students.
They said they told us to fold up our clothes and tie them with a belt, and from the fire escape to throw them right to the ground floor, and there, when it was time, we followed the older boys.
I think the only good experience’s out of it is when I joined the army, I was already trained. I think that’s about my story. Like I said I was already trained cause we are always doing this we had to stand in line for breakfast and what not. We had to stick by rules.
I mean kneel down, on our knees for a good half of the night. The guys were passing out and a lot of us guys the next day couldn’t even walk because of the cement floor and being on the knees and what not.
The big girls started batting around then when I walked by, a girl batted. She hit me with the bat. As I was lying there, the supervisor finally noticed. They took me to what they called the dispensary.
He hit me with it on my arm and I thought, “there he finished hitting me.” But he hit me again on the same arm, and then, one after the other one, he kept on hitting me and then my back. I don’t know how many times he hit me with the stick on my back.
I ran away with these girls. My dad used to work for Indian Affairs, he had to go look for us…