April 1, 2021
The Columbia Valley Pioneer • B1
Commemorating the Closure: 50 years since St. Eugene’s Mission shuttered
Land Acknowledgement ����������������������������������������������������������B2 Creation Story of the Project ����������������������������������������������������B3 Locals Reflect on Evolution of Residential Schools ������������������B4 Healing Through the Storytelling of Hoop Dancing �����������������B5 ICAT Training Available to All Nations ������������������������������� B6-7 Upcoming “Right to Tell” documentary ������������������������������������B8
Photo by Blaine Burgoyne
B2 • The Columbia Valley Pioneer
April 1, 2021
Land Acknowledgment The Columbia Valley Pioneer is located on the traditional territories of the Ktunaxa and Sécwepemc people and their families. We acknowledge the rich cultural histories that encompass the lands where we now live and are grateful to work. Our team acknowledges the land, culture and people from the Columbia Valley. We thank Akisqnuk First Nation Chief Ryan Nicholas in Windermere, Shuswap Indian Band Chief Barb Côté, Métis Nation B.C. board member Debra Fisher and The Columbia Valley Métis Association président Monica Fisher for sharing knowledge with us and with the community about the Columbia Valley. We are grateful for the other Ktunaxa bands, including Aq’am Chief Joe Pierre Jr. in Cranbrook, Tobacco Plains Chief Heidi Gravelle in Grasmere and Lower Kootenay Indian Band (Yaqan Nukiy) Chief Michael “Jason” Louie in Creston for supporting the vision of the Ktunaxa Nation Council and sharing knowledge within our region. It’s important to continuously build healthy relationships for all Canadians and our goal as a team is to raise awareness about the importance of cultural safety, reflect on the atrocities of the past and to honour the language and culture of local Indigenous communities going forward. We hope this project can act as a learning resource for some of the local accounts of Indigenous people from the region. Maarsii / Kukstemc / Hu suki‰“‰ukni. Su’kni
Photo by Blaine Burgoyne, @indigenous_view
April 1, 2021
The Columbia Valley Pioneer • B3
Creation Story for this Project By Breanne Massey Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
St. Eugene’s Mission residential school survivor Gordon Sebastian rests at the horseshoe near the hoodoos on the Aq’am reservation (top). Photo by Blaine Burgoyne Shuswap Indian Band members La Verna Stevens (left) and Louie Basil Stevens (right) reflect on their time at St. Eugene’s Mission but believe focusing on the future is the best way to move forward. Photos by Breanne Massey
Editor / Photo Editor . . . . . . . . . Breanne Massey Writer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Breanne Massey Photographer. . . . Breanne Massey / Blaine Burgoyne
Our team began this project to raise awareness about the longstanding effects of systemic racism that have occurred on Canadian soil as a result of the Indian Residential School System that hosted the apprehension of ~150,000 children in 150 years. While the doors of residential schools may have closed in the 1990s, the trauma of experiencing residential school and surviving has not escaped the memories of Indigenous elders that were ripped away from loving families and communities for “education.” Neither the closing of the residential schools, nor the deaths of countless children who were apprehended, could remove the scars that continue to linger on several generations of Indigenous lives, families and communities throughout Canada. Common experiences reported at residential schools included physical, psychological and sexual abuse of First Nations children who were forced to assimilate. Our team wishes to open the circle, where we live and work, for all nations to acknowledge the original peoples on the lands and pay our respects to ancestors, elders, traditional knowledge-keepers, chiefs and councils, band members and to the future generations of children from the Columbia Valley. Our goal is to share stories that reflect the truth about Indigenous communities in the East Kootenay region of B.C., as well as to recognize the traditional territories of the Ktunaxa and the Sécwepemc supersede any current political boundaries within the area. The Kootenay Indian Residential School, also commonly referred to as the St. Eugene’s Mission, operated between 1912 and closed its doors on June 26, 1970. The Ktunaxa Nation Council had planned a commemorative ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary of the closure of the school to take place near Cranbrook between Sept. 18 and 20, 2020, at what is now known as the St. Eugene’s Golf Resort and Casino, but was forced to cancel the event due to the novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Chiefs and councils remain optimistic about hosting a commemorative event this year, in 2021, if the public health officer’s safety guidelines for COVID-19 permit the community to do so. In an effort to honour some of the stories shared with our team through the Local Journalism Initiative, we would like to pay our respects to survivors, both alive and bereaved, and commemorate that it’s been 50 years since the St. Eugene’s Mission near Cranbrook, B.C. has been closed with the stories shared within this project.
This supplement was published for the first-time ever with the support of The Columbia Valley Pioneer Newspaper, Misko Publishing Limited Partnership and News Media Canada.
N E W S PA P E R
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B4 • The Columbia Valley Pioneer
April 1, 2021
Locals reflect on evolution of residential schools
By Breanne Massey Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
The decision to close the Kootenay Indian Residential School near Cranbrook in 1970 changed the region forever. But the lasting effects of intergenerational trauma have lingered in the hearts of survivors, the homes of their families and in the communities who have collectively lost ties to their traditional languages and cultures. “Personally, it had affected my family deeply,” explained Shuswap Indian Band (SIB) Chief Barbara Cote wrote to the Pioneer by e-mail. “My mother was a residential school survivor and had many sad stories she shared with us. It would take them three days to go by buggy, and there was a corner they got to where they could see St. Eugene’s Mission School and they called it the wailing corner, because that was when she and her four siblings would start crying as they knew they wouldn’t see their mom for 10 months. Their mom would make them new clothes and moccasins for their first day of school, and when they got to school, their hair was cut and they were given uniforms. When June came around to go home, their clothes were too small for them. My mother was abused at the school, and this led to hiding her pain with alcohol until she was 46 and it was really tough for us, four, children as we never knew what we were coming home to. When she became sober, she was the most wonderful mother and grandmother. She was so positive and happy and all that met her instantly loved her.” Indian Affairs former federal deputy superintendent Duncan Campbell Scott amended the Indian Act to implement mandatory attendance for Indigenous children at residential schools in 1920. National crimes rooted in colonialism and assimilation were etched into Canadian history forever when Métis, First Nations and Inuit children were forcibly removed from their families to attend residential schools in spite of the high mortality rates. There were at least 22 residential schools mandated by the Government of Canada distributed throughout the province of B.C. and operated by the Roman Catholic, Methodist, Anglican, Presbyterian, and the United Churches of Canada. It is estimated that 150,000 Indigenous children were forcibly removed from their Canadian homes and their communities by law enforcement where many survivors report physical,
to action to address the legacy of rampant abuse and forced assimilation by urging all Canadians to protect child welfare, preserve traditional languages and culture, promote legal equity and strengthen information about missing children. Moving forward, some of the survivors and those affected by intergenerational trauma, hope to look ahead and focus on the future. “My hope for the future of families who are commemorating the Ryan Nicholas Barb Cote Deb Fisher 50th (anniversary of the closure of the Kootenay Indian Residential emotional, sexual, psychological and purpose of the six-year-long IRS was spiritual abuse which has deprived to document the realities of survivors, School this summer) is that we can formany from pursuing their cultural tra- families, communities along with those give and that the truth comes out at ditions. from churches, former school employ- last,” said Cote. “There were three gen“It’s hard for someone like me to ees, the government and all Canadians erations in my family that were taken watch our parents of Residential School affected by the residential school sys- away and not allowed to practise our culture and language. I hope we can Trauma, knowing lots of our Ktunaxa tem. Nation members have turned to alcohol Through the report, approximately have this celebration this summer and / drugs to help ease the pain they were 6,750 survivor and witness statements take our children and grand-children put through in the times the St. Eugene were taken from across the nation, re- to be part of their families’ past, and Mission was open,” Akisqnuk First Na- porting more than a century of abuse that we celebrate our past to see how tion Chief Ryan Nicholas wrote to the at the IRS. In an effort to advance the we have survived and continue to learn Pioneer by e-mail. “Knowing my gener- process of reconciliation, TRC chair Jus- and teach our future generations on ation will not see the Ktunaxa Nation tice Murray Sinclair Presented 94 calls being proud of who they are.” recover from the abuse received by the Priests and the Nuns in the St. Eugene’s Mission.” The Kootenay Indian Residential School, The St. Eugene Mission School, also also known as the St. Eugene’s Mission known as the Kootenay Indian ResidenSchool, near Cranbrook was run as an tial School near Cranbrook, was run by industrial school by the Roman Catholic the Roman Catholic church as an induschurch between 1898 and 1970. Ktutrial school between ~1912 and 1970. naxa, Secwepemc and Okangan, as well as “The Schools were formed to try Blackfoot children were forced to attend and erase our traditional way from our the school for approximately 10 out of 12 Ktunaxa People and other First Namonths of the year where families were tions,” added Nicholas. “It will take up split up and forced assimilation took place to seven generations to bring all the for decades. Photo by Blaine Burgoyne Traditional ways and languages back as strong as they were before the St. Eugene Mission was opened. I know lots of the elders that went to the St. Eugene’s Mission (who) won’t even go into the hotel and casino. Some won’t stay in the main mission part of the hotel either, they will only stay in the newly added part of hotel. As the next generation, after the Missions were closed, it’s up to us to bring the matters of our parents forward and to start the healing process for future generations to continue on, while moving forward for the Survival of our Ktunaxa People and First Nation all over Canada.” Métis Nation of B.C. (MNBC) Kootenay-elected board member Debra Fisher could not be reached before the Pioneer went to press. The Truth and Reconciliation Report Commission of Canada completed as a part of the Indian Residential Schools (IRS) Settlement Agreement which began on September 19, 2007. The
April 1, 2021
The Columbia Valley Pioneer • B5
Healing Through the Storytelling of Hoop Dancing By Breanne Massey Local Journalism Initiative Reporter Students from Edgewater Elementary School (EES) have recently begun hoop dancing lessons with their Aboriginal Education Support Worker (AESW) Debra Murray. The purpose of incorporating a culturally safe learning program for Indigenous students in the community is to encourage social-emotional well-being to work towards leading healthy lives as young adults. Roughly 13 years ago, Murray organized a performance by hoop dancer Jessica McMann at the community hall. More recently, Dallas Arcand Jr. performed in the community and drew a crowd. “We had hoop dancers come into the valley to put on a show, and then we started putting on a program for J.A. Laird students,” said Murray, while indicating the cultural program is funded through a partnership and grant initiative with Michelle Shewell from Problem Gambling. “I was encouraged to bring the hoop dance back to the kids, and the kids were really interested in that dance and the story of that dance.” Ultimately, this led to a tertiary performance at the library roughly a year ago before the building was sold. Now, EES AESW Murray and Problem Gambling partner Shewell have applied for additional grants to keep the program running. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Calgary-based business Wild Mint Arts has been offering teachings about hoops and the importance of hoop dancing through lessons on Zoom. Participants from EES are also learning about the medicine wheel. According to a popular Anishinaabe storyteller, there was once a young boy who did not enjoy running or hunting activities that were typically expected of young men. The boy spent a lot of time alone, quietly observing animals in the outdoors. As a result of the boy’s lack of interest in activities for young men, his father disowned him and the young boy continued to watch the way that animals moved in nature. After some time had passed, the young boy began to mimic the movement of animals and created hoop dancing some years ago. After children from his community saw this style of dancing, the boy became popular and offered performances as well as lessons to others from the nation. Today, hoop dancing is viewed as a healing dance that’s used to tell stories through the use of hoops to make shapes that represent animals, symbols, spheres or designs. Dancers use their hands or their feet to move the hoops into different configurations during a performance. “It’s a healing dance and it tells a story, so for the children, picking up their hoops — it means they’re picking up their lives, and it’s their story,” explained Murray. “It can be fun or it can be an expression of what they want to see and know. There’s a ceremony with it.” She added hoop dancing can help build confidence in young Indigenous participants, which helps them self-locate amidst the ongoing racism in each community by encouraging dancers to build up their own knowledge and exhibit strength to others. Murray remains optimistic that the youth from EES will feel empowered to learn songs, drumming and dancing in an effort to learn coping skills for intergenerational trauma that has lingered from the residential school system. “We can’t go through all of that and not be affected,” Murray explained.
Photos by Breanne Massey
B6 • The Columbia Valley Pioneer
April 1, 2021
Indigenous Culture and Awareness Training tentatively available to all nations this spring The doors of the St. Eugene’s Mission closed on June 21, 1970 for ~30 years before reopening as a resort
St. Eugene’s Golf Resort and Casino is targeting to reopen this spring tentatively on April 1, 2021.
point of view as opposed to someone else coming around and telling those stories for us. By telling our own stories — what makes our resort special is that it’s got the Indigenous history that it does.”
By Breanne Massey Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
After closing its doors in March of 2020 as a precaution for implementing safety measures, the St. Eugene’s Golf Resort and Casino is targeting to reopen this spring tentatively on April 1, 2021. St. Eugene’s Golf Resort and Casino had operated as a year-round resort until the global COVID-19 Jared Teneese pandemic forced the leadership team to re-evaluate their daily operations. Going forward, the resort will open each spring for the summer season, then close annually for Thanksgiving each autumn. St. Eugene’s Mission Resort, a former residential school that operated between ~1912 and 1970 where approximately 5,000 students from Grade 1 to 8 attended near Cranbrook, became known as the St. Eugene Golf Resort and Casino in 2003 thanks to the vision of former St. Mary’s Chief and former chief commissioner of the B.C. Treaty Commission Sophie Pierre and Aq’am elder Mary Paul. The duo turned a dark chapter in history into an opportunity for the nation to reclaim and restore the building after it had been empty and “derelict” for roughly 30 years. Pierre was recognized as CANDO’s 2002 Individual Economic Developer of the Year in 2002. In 2020, St. Eugene’s Mission school commemorated 50 years since the last student left the residential school on June 21, 1970 when it closed.
Photo by Blaine Burgoyne
Sophie Pierre Barry Zwueste, St. Eugene’s Golf Resort and Casino chief executive officer (CEO) added the renovation of the building was valued around $20 million. The casino opened in 2001 and the hotel opened in 2002. Pierre, who served as the provincial treaty commissioner in B.C. between 2009 and 2015, penned an essay called “Neé Eustache: The Little Girl Who Would be Chief” in “Response, Responsibility, and Renewal: Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation” to explain why the community made the decision to reclaim and renovate the building from a residential school into a resort. She is currently the acting chair on the board for the resort. “Because the industry and the resort is Indigenous owned, we’ve always made a point of showcasing our communities and our nation. That is the intent of this particular (cultural awareness) program that you’re writing about now,” Pierre explained by phone. “We want to be able to tell these stories from our
Indigenous Culture and Relations Workshop Ktunaxa knowledge holders and elders offer cross cultural training to promote diversity in corporate culture that aims Barry Zwueste to build relation ships with Indigenous people. The hands-on Indigenous cultural awareness training program offered at the resort focuses on the legacies of the past, explores the present and aims to generate self-sufficiency and respectful relationships with First Nations communities in the future. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s final report encourages the corporate sector in Canada to adopt the United Nations Declaration on the Right of Indigenous Peoples as a framework for applying polities, standards and operational activities that involve Indigenous people as well as their lands and resources. Upon completion of the workshop, participants will understand the importance of local languages and land acknowledgements, awareness about meaningful engagement with Indigenous communities, how to advocate for Indigenous rights in business as well as gain understanding about the importance of Indigenous relationships to resources like land, water, air and wildlife.
April 1, 2021
The Columbia Valley Pioneer • B7
Aq’am elder Mary Paul’s portrait has been painted and hung up in the lobby of the resort with some information about her involvement with the project. Photos by Breanne Massey.
The workshop is designed to support organizations who need to learn how to attract Indigenous employees in business opportunities, build positive relationships with Indigenous employees, how to work effectively with Indigenous governments and businesses to be effective. It is recommended that groups have between six to 24 people to participate. Each workshop includes an interpretive centre and building tour, cross-cultural workshops, traditional games and Indigenous team-building activities.
with a handful of other residential school survivors that attended St. Eugene’s Mission, while it was operational, provide guided tours with personal reflections to guests staying at the resort. Residential school survivors offer tours of “There are so many people who visit that didn’t the building to visitors even know what a residential school was and what A tour of the resort is available and is now being happened here,” explained Zwueste. “We’re on a bit of offered by former residential school survivors from a mission to educate people and to not exploit people, within the Kootenay region. and to present the past, present and future. The future Margaret Teneese, archivist with the Ktunaxa Na- is equally important. This is a Ktunaxa-owned resort tion Council and a residential school survivor, along with a strong business stream. Prices start at $349 for single hotel occupancy and tailored packages can be customized through the resort.
B8 • The Columbia Valley Pioneer
April 1, 2021
Upcoming “Right to Tell” documentary
—Submitted photo
By Breanne Massey Local Journalism Initiative Reporter The portfolio of the Ktunaxa Nation Theatre Dance Troupe Society (KNTDTS) has recently expanded in the midst of the global COVID-19 pandemic. Janice Alpine, KNTDTS manager, has been tirelessly working with producer Eldene Stanley as well as Ktunaxa performers and videographers on a new initiative: conducting socially distanced interviews with the families of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). The purpose of their project is to explore the long-standing effects of MMIW, as well as how it is tied to the trauma of attending residential schools in an effort to raise awareness about intergenerational trauma. “Most recently, now, we’re looking at wellness,” Alpine told the Pioneer by phone. “We do some work with the MMIWG and operate safe-place sessions for individuals that have been affected traumatically with MMIWG. We combine that in with residential school traumas, not only in our community, but a lot of communities are affected. When COVID-19 came, we needed to go into a different method, which is actually video-taping and going into interviews. It’s called “Right to Tell”. We have a videographer — everybody that is working with us is Ktunaxa.” The project will include interviews with survivors from Aq’am, Yaqan Nukiy, Tobacco Plains and Akisqnuk First Nations from the Canadian members of the Ktunaxa Nation Council who consent to voluntarily share their stories for recording.
“At the end, what we plan to do, is put a video together and present it for the 50th anniversary of the residential school closure, which was supposed to happen last June (but was disrupted due to COVID-19 pandemic safety guidelines),” explained Alpine, adding the completed video with interviews will be available at St. Eugene’s Resort and Casino (formerly the Kootenay Indian Residential School) to aid participants that attend cultural awareness training near Cranbrook. “We want to tell the story of residential schools.” The KNTDTS is targeting a September completion date to distribute the individual interviews with culturally safe protocols in anticipation of the proposed 50th anniversary celebration of the residential school in the Kootenay region of B.C. with the hope of interviewing residential school and MMIW survivors as well as their families. “We’ll be looking at the RCMP as well as the coroner, as well as Victim Services,” added Alpine. “The video itself will be shared with the public. We want to raise awareness on these issues, and work internally with these communities as well — bringing that to the forefront. Allowing our people to start thinking about it. The people need to understand the things that were done (to them) weren’t done through any fault of the people. “Recognizing what has happened, and these are some of the things that stand out in how we address ourselves in public. The way we do certain things, like maybe what the government brings to us. Issues that affect general society, and how we address it.” If you’re interested in being interviewed for this project, please contact Alpine at: ktunaxanationdancetroupe@gmail.com