UnBQ First Floor

“It has always been clear to me that the Indians must have some sort of recreation, and if our agents would endeavour to substitute reasonable amusements for this senseless drumming and dancing, it would be a great assistance.” – Duncan Campbell Scott, Deputy Superintendent of Indian Affairs, 1921

The first floor of UnBQ is currently used for administrative and operational functions of the university. Many of the smaller rooms on this floor are used as offices for current staff, including the main office for the university. The west side of this floor features two classrooms with an office in between. The east side also has two classrooms but with access to the fitness center on the second floor of the gymnasium. Along the main hallway of this floor are mostly staff offices, bathrooms, and storage rooms. The university library is located at the north end of the center wing. The library has an upper level which was added to the north end of the building to increase shelving space. The addition also connects this wing via an interior stairwell downstairs to the boiler room on the basement.

When Blue Quills operated as a residential school, there were still two pairs of classrooms on either side of the floor. Grades 1,2 and 3,4 shared the classes on the west side of the school, and grades 5,6 and 7,8 were on the east. School work was often challenging for students, who usually arrived at the school not knowing English. Verna Daly remembers that she “was ahead of some of my classmates because [she] knew how to write, this and that, and [she] had learned English at the Charles Camsell Hospital” before arriving at Blue Quills at the age of five. Margaret Cardinal recalls being physically punished by teachers in her for not being able to read English well in her grade three class.

The current library originally functioned as the school chapel. The chapel could be accessed directly via a corridor leading from the front entrance, so community members could attend services without having to walk through the school. As with students, women and men were separated on either side of the chapel; the girls’ to the west and the boys’ to the east. The rooms located directly to the left and right of the entrance were visiting rooms for students and staff who lived on site. Positioning them near the entrance meant that visitors were not required to walk through the rest of the building. Sherri Chisan, President of UnBQ, shared that the visiting room for staff had comfortable padded, seating, and was richly decorated. Across the hallway, the room where students met with family members was largely bare with plain benches.

Notes:

This page is pending approval from UnBQ IRS Advisory group.

Left click and drag your mouse around the screen to view different areas of each room. If you have a touch screen, simply drag your finger across the screen. Your keyboard's arrow keys can also be used. Travel to different areas of the third floor by clicking on the floating arrows.

This image gallery includes modern and archival photos of UnBQ's first (main) floor.