In 1841, the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate were invited by the Bishop of Montreal, Ignace Bourget, to create missions among the Indigenous peoples of Canada.

To solve this problem, they encouraged the Indigenous to cease their nomadic ways and create farming settlements, preferably in a location far away from other white people, so that the missionaries could act without interference.

[4] As the Oblates continued their work in the Oregon Territory, they came into conflict with the Catholic priests who had preceded them, and following a decade of conflict, they made the decision to move to New Caledonia (the British portion of the Oregon territory) beginning in 1858, and request that Rome give them the autonomy to conduct their work as they pleased, without interference from local Catholic authorities, which was granted in 1864.

In 1864, two Oblate priests made a journey to the Cariboo, where they proposed Quesnel, British Columbia or Soda Creek as the ideal sites for the future mission.

Father James McGuckin selected Pomeroy's farm, because it was located halfway between the major Secwepemc settlements at Soda Creek and Alkali Lake; it was also fairly close to Quesnel, a gathering place for the Dakelh and Tsilqot'in.

[11] The priests were aided in their efforts by reports of a miracle in which a Soda Creek woman was raised from the dead in order to receive baptism, after which she once again died.

[10] The promise of an education and laws that made it mandatory for First Nations peoples to attend, many kids having been taken from their homes by force, many times when parents were not home to put up a fight, was an important factor in the Indigenous peoples' decision to convert to Catholicism, as they were eager to obtain an education for their children and the Oblate priests took it as an opportunity to wreak havoc on their communities and culture .

Despite Father Marchal's troubles, he was not aided or replaced, as all other available priests were either needed to run the school, or were not interested in visiting Indigenous settlements.

[24] By 1877 nearly every farmable tract of land in the Cariboo had been preempted by white settlers, leaving nothing for the Indigenous people, leading to considerable unrest.

[26][28] Beginning as early as 1878, the Oblates of the St. Joseph's Mission began to apply pressure on the federal government to fund a school for the Indigenous children of the Cariboo.

Mission founder Father McGuckin claimed that it was necessary for the Indigenous children to obtain a religious education in order to keep them from civilized temptations and keep them in the Catholic faith.

Durieu refused and instead offered to run the residential school on a contract basis, $130 per Indigenous child per year, to a maximum of 50 students.

The Oblates promised the federal government to teach "two or three trades" to its students, which for boys meant carpentry, blacksmithing, and some agricultural skills, and for the girls, housekeeping, buttermaking, sewing, and knitting.

The government's cheques also began to arrive late, further complicating the matter; and both school buildings were in poor condition and in need of replacement.

Bishop Pierre-Paul Durieu founded the Indian Total Abstinence Society of British Columbia in 1895 at Saint Joseph's Mission to encourage prohibition on all reserves.

Without converting them, Father Thomas appointed some chiefs to serve as the church's representatives to ensure good behaviour among the Tsilhqot'in, a task they were willing to do.

Father Thomas waited 13 years before first administering communion to "worthy" Tsilqot'in at Anaham, and in time his efforts at converting the Tsilhqot'in were successful.

When the principal returned to the school at 5:00pm, he was informed that Alkali Lake boy Duncan Sticks was still missing and declined to continue the search.

Later that day, a local rancher named Anthony Boitano searched for and found Duncan Sticks' body, frozen to death.

However the Indian Affairs representative doubted the accuracy of his record, as he had recently been dismissed for drunkenness, and claimed that the mistreatment in the book was "slight indeed compared to the time I went to school.

"[50][51] Duncan Sticks' sister said in an interview during the coroner's investigation that the children were served rotten beef, and if they refused to eat it, they would be tied up and blindfolded and starved for a day.

Many other students echoed the point about food, and additional complaits surfaced of being stripped naked and beaten then held in solitary confinement for as long as twelve days.

[50][49] The principal stated that students had run away from school regularly, saying the food quality was poor and that the boys were denied water after dinner to prevent them from wetting their beds.

Indian Affairs told the children it was their own fault for not asking for more food, and that it was wrong to resist discipline, and that the Indigenous people themselves were the problem.

The Oblate Brothers took over teaching trades, while the Sisters of the Child Jesus taught academic subjects to the boys in addition to their duties to the girls.

In 1944, 23 boys ran away from school to attend the Alkali Lake Stampede, which resulted in the local Indian Agent demanding that a new principal be appointed.

In 1946, Father Alex Morris was appointed the principal of St. Joseph's, and he created a rule forbidding priests and nuns from addressing each other in French in front of the Indigenous children.

After serving six months, he won a new trial, and the charges were later dropped in exchange for O'Connor attending a healing circle in Alkali Lake, British Columbia.

[10][75][84][85] During this reunion, survivor Phyllis Webstad told the story about her first day in residential school in 1973, when the new orange shirt that her grandmother had bought her was taken away from her and never returned.

[91] In 2013, Chief Bev Sellars wrote "They Called Me Number One" about her experience attending the St. Joseph's Residential School, which won the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature.