Qu'Appelle Indian Residential School

As one of the early residential schools in western Canada, it was operated from 1884 to 1969 by the Roman Catholic Church for First Nations children and was run by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Grey Nuns.

[1] It was located on what is now the Wa-Pii Moos-toosis (White Calf) Indian Reserve of the Star Blanket Cree Nation adjoining the village of Lebret.

[5]"With the assistance of the Grey Nuns, a few Oblate fathers, and lay instructors, Hugonard was to make Qu’Appelle Industrial School a model Catholic educational facility for native people and the largest such institution in Canada.

[7] A bronze statue of Joseph Hugonard (sic) by Toronto sculptor Charles Duncan McKechnie was installed in 1926.

[7] "The program of studies was oriented towards christianity (sic) and the pupils enjoyed manual work, art, singing and music and various sporting activities.

[7] The curriculum included "reading, writing, arithmetic, spelling, geography, history, music, singing and drawing.

"[7] For the boys the emphasis was on "animal husbandry and farm related subjects, with additional training in tailoring, shoemaking, printing and painting.

...Like many other residential schools, Qu’Appelle had chosen to subsidise inadequate government funding with child labour."[16]Fr.

de Bretagne "re-organized the school program, the farm operations, the manual training facilities" and "obtained funds to permit the creation of a 24-piece military band which won many prizes in provincial festivals.

[19][20] Art Obey spent "15 years [as] Director of Recreation and Sports at the Lebret Indian residential School, Sask."

[28] Further: Graduates: Photos of some students, teachers, the school and their activities may be in copies of the Indian Record and Indian Missionary Record at the Engracia De Jesus Matias Archives and Special Collections at Algoma University, through the Centre de Patrimoine, in Sister Marcoux's history,[15] and Library and Archives Canada's Residential Schools: Photographic Collections - Saskatchewan.. Four Saskatchewan students of the Lebret Indian school have won the Tom Longboat Award, an award that honours outstanding First Nations athletes and sportsmen in each province.