Kamloops + other residential schools, as reported to Native people in Chinook (Part 10: the kids are still happy)
Today we have another early report from the still-new Kamloops Industrial School, saying everyone is still quite idealistic about the place’s prospects.
This is the consistent picture from the planning phases through the first years of the schools in BC Indigenous communities: people were open to the prospect of gaining social advantages via a Settler-style education. As is mentioned below, they figured that the chance to learn English was valuable.
Within a decade or so, we start to see a clear picture of rejection and resistance. And I find it significant that even in today’s early report, the writer finds the need to specify that the kids aren’t crying or running away…
Now, from Kamloops Wawa, February 1896, #137, page 36:
Wiht kopa Disimbir <21>, iht aias tlus
‘Also on December 21, a wonderful’
lisivik iaka nim <Monseigneur
‘bishop named Monseigneur’
Grouard>, chako kopa Kamlups; iaka il[ip]
‘Grouard came to Kamloops; first he’
klatwa kopa skul, kah mitlait alta <50>
‘went to the school, where there are now 50’
tanas tilikom, <25> tanas man pi <25> tanas
‘children, 25 boys and 25’
kluchmin. Lisivik tlus tomtom pus iaka nanich
‘girls. The bishop was happy when he saw’
kata klaska tlus mitlait kopa skul, kata tlus
‘how well they are doing at the school, how clean’
klaska iktas, kata klaska siahus drit
‘their clothes are, how their faces are really’
tlus pi drit yutl.
‘clean and really happy.’
And from page 37:
Chako tumolo, Sint Stivin iaka son,
‘When it got to be tomorrow, Saint Stephen’s day,’
nsaika wiht shanti lamas kakwa kopa Krismas
‘we again sang a mass like on Christmas’
son. Sitkom son, kanawi tanas mitlait kopa
‘Day. At noon, all of the children who are at’
skul chako kopa Savwash ilihi, klaska ayu
‘the school came to the Indian reserve, they’
mamuk, ayu wawa kanamokst mamuk nanich kopa
‘worked hard and told much together to show to’
tilikom kata klaska chako tolo kopa pipa.
‘the people how they are coming to be masters in writing (and reading).’
Kanawi tilikom drit tlus tomtom pus klaska
‘All of the people were really happy when they’
nanich klaska tanas aiak chako komtaks ikta
‘saw their children are quickly learning things’
kopa skul. Wiht kanawi ukuk tanas klaska
‘at the school. All of these children, too, are’
tlus tomtom kopa skul. Wik klaska sik tomtom, wik
‘pleased with the school. They aren’t downhearted, they don’t’
klaska krai pus kilapai kopa klaska haws, kakwa
‘cry to go back home, so’
kanawi tilikom drit tlus tomtom kopa ukuk skul.
‘all of the people are very happy with this school.’
Chako pulakli, klaska shanti kopa binidikshon;
‘Come evening, they sang for the Benediction;’
ilo tilikom shanti, kopit ukuk tanas klaska
‘it wasn’t the rest of the] people singing, just those children’
shanti kanawi shanti kopa binidikshon.
‘sang all the songs for the Benediction.’
