Spanish Indian Residential Schools

The Spanish Indian Residential Schools was a set of single-sex Canadian Indian residential schools for First Nations, Métis, and Anishinaabe children that operated in Spanish, Ontario from 1913 to 1965 by the Jesuit Fathers, the Daughters of the Heart of Mary, and the Government of Canada.

In 1883, the director Reverend Regis Beaudin wrote to the ministry of Indian affairs with an update of students performance and of the death of 3 boys in 1882.

[6] The reason the decision was made to move the boys school to Spanish was there was a ”strike” by the native workers.

Housing 180 boys,[1] the school was located on a 600-acre site on the North Shore of Lake Huron.

Students also came from the regions around Parry Sound, Ottawa Valley, Marathon, Chapleau, Temagami, New Liskeard.

There were also students from out of province at the schools including children from Northern Quebec, Akwesanse, Kahnawake, Kanestake, and Nelson House.

Parents of students at the schools complained about the quality and nutritional value of the meals being fed to the children.

[10] Indigenous activist and founding member of the National Indian Brotherhood, Wilmer Nadjiwon, spoke publicly about his mistreatment and the repeated sexual abuse he experienced at the St. Peter Claver Residential School.

[13] Beginning in 2010 artist Stacy Sauve began covering a tree across from the St. Joseph school site as a form of memorial.