The Shingwauk Files: Search Begins for Documents of Residential School Death Camps

The Shingwauk residential school dining hall circa 1890. (Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association/The Shingwauk Project)

 

The Shingwauk Files: Search Begins for Documents of Residential School Death Camps 

Across Canada, Native children were stolen from their families by the churches and government Indian Agents. Parents who hid their children were sentenced to jail. Native children died of starvation, disease, abuse, torture, medical experiments, and murder by church staff in these residential schools. Now, there is documentation of unmarked graves and mass graves that document the genocide. There are new demands for trials of those responsible like the Nuremberg trials.

Brenda Norrell
Censored News

Residential school survivors and their families in Canada are now identifying those responsible for the abuse, torture and murder of Native children in residential schools, in order to hold them responsible for genocide.

Mohawk Nation News said, "Each unmarked grave is a separate crime scene and criminal investigation. We know who did the crime. We want to know the specifics of the individuals involved, just like the Nuremberg trials."

Among the files now being examined are those of Shingwauk Residential School, an Anglican Church-run school in Sault Ste. Marie, in Ontario near the border of Canada and the United States. There are 110 children and staff buried in the cemetery. The students who died here, whose names are known, are shown below in memory.

Although many documents were destroyed by the churches, the Library and Archives of Canada has preserved some documents from Shingwauk.

The document above shows that an arrest warrant was issued, and a bounty hunter hired, to return a boy who had run away and refused to return. Other documents show that teenage girls were abducted from school for immoral purposes.

The deplorable conditions at the school in the early 1900s are described in the documents: The lack of coal, the abominable smell from the toilets, and the windows closed in summer because of the lack of screens.

Shingwauk Residential School established in 1874

The 2,291 documents in the Canadian Archives, however, are focused primarily on the need for funds, and do not reveal the abuse that was carried out at Shinwauk.

Survivors Tell their Stories

Susie Jones, 78, of Walpole Island, was one of the children stolen from her family. She was less than five years old.

Jones was Susie Kicknosway when she was taken from her home a few months before she turned five in 1941. She and her two brothers were sent to the Shingwauk Indian Residential School. Over the years, her parents would become strangers. She would be there until she was 16 in 1953, writes Jane Sims, in Chatham Daily News. 

Jones described the outward and inward scars -- the routine use of the strap, the cuffs to the head -- the sadness, the abandonment.

She described how the children would be punished together because they wouldn’t tell on each other. Stripped of their language and identity, they became numb.

"If we spoke our language, we got strapped, or we got our mouths washed out with soap. A lot of different methods of punishment."

They were poorly fed and poorly treated.

"The scars haven’t healed."

"What’s happened to my generation is we’ve gone through these traumas — and there’s never been any healing for any one of them,” she said. “Now our grandkids are lost and we’re going through that trauma as grandparents and parents.

Shingwauk Cemetery with 110 Graves

The cemetery has 110 graves of students and staff. (Please see the list of names below.)

The students who died here were as young as five years old. The average age of students when they passed was 13 years old, according to known public records.

Tuberculosis and related illnesses claimed the most lives of students, 48.5%, then brain-related illnesses (10%), pneumonia, drowning, and typhoid fever.

https://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/shingwauknarratives/chapter/student-death-cemetery-register/

Children were stolen and incarcerated in residential schools

"One thing that became very clear was that Shingwauk and other residential schools were not actually schools at all," writes the University of Toronto, Centre for Indigenous Studies. 

"Their purpose was not to provide education to children. Many of the survivors reflected that childhood at Shingwauk was more akin to growing up in a prison or under military rule, rather than being at a school. The events that took place at Shingwauk were horrific, and it is our duty to learn what transpired there and at other residential schools so that the truth can be revealed."

Mass Graves and Unmarked Graves in Canada

Marieval Residential School Cemetery, 751 unmarked graves found

Chief Cadmus Delorme of the Cowessess First Nation said that 751 unmarked graves were found at Marieval Residential School, operated by the Roman Catholic Church.

Chief Delorme said it is a crime to remove gravestones and it is being treated as a crime scene.

Chief Bobby Cameron of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous First Nations, comprised of 74 sovereign First Nations in Saskatchewan, joined Chief Delorme for the press conference on Thursday.

Chief Cameron said First Nations children must come home to their communities.

"This was a crime against humanity."

Chief Cameron said First Nations will tell this story of these concentration camps, of this torture and genocide.

"Canada will be known as the country who tried to exterminate First Nations."

Describing the horror of these schools, Chief Cameron said, "They even had to dig graves for their own fellow students."

The horrific Residential School stories are slowly surfacing. This photo was taken of Aboriginal kids been picked up and loaded on a small truck, and taken to the Kamloops Residential school. (Photo credit: Les Williams, Kamloops). Most of the kids weren't dressed appropriately and were transported long distances in freezing weather, some kids were as young as 3 years old.

Last month the remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, were found buried on the site of what was once Canada's largest Indigenous residential school near Kamloops, British Columbia, operated by the Roman Catholic Church.

Hospitals conducted sterilizations and medical experiments

For survivors and their families in Canada, the search continues for the location of the gravesites, and documents needed to hold those responsible for criminal acts, acts of genocide.

Currently, the search for gravesites includes the hospitals in Canada that conducted sterilizations, and medical experiments, on Indian children from residential schools.

This includes the Nanaimo Indian Hospital, an Indian Affairs and United Church experimental facility (1942-1970) on Department of National Defense land.

It includes the Allan Memorial Institute at McGill University in Montreal, which is still in operation since its opening in 1940. It is an MKULTRA experimental centre, where mind control and torture experiments were carried out in the program created by the United States CIA. 

The Indian Act in Canada: Stolen Children and Imprisoned Parents

The Indian Act of 1884 was amended in 1920. Parents who hid their children, from seizure by Indian agents, were imprisoned. The Indian agent was given the legal power to seize Native children. This kidnapping of Native children from their homes continued by the Canadian government until the 1960s.

Indian Act. R. S., c. 43, s. 1. 1884
11. The Governor in Council may make regulations, which shall have the force of law, for the committal by justices or Indian agents of children of Indian blood under the age of sixteen years, to such industrial school or boarding school, there to be kept, cared for and educated for a period not extending beyond the time at which such children shall reach the age of eighteen years.”

In 1920, the Act was amended to combat low attendance by making it compulsory for status Indian children to attend residential schools, with consequences to those who hid their children. If children were not readily handed over, the Indian Act gave power to the Indian agent to enter the family dwelling and seize the children, often with the help of the local constabulary or by the constabulary alone. Parents or guardians who tried to hide the children were liable to be arrested and or imprisoned.

Mohawk Institute 1831

The Canadian Archives include this document comparing the residential schools, which began in 1831, with the Mohawk Institute at Brantford, Ontario.

Shingwauk Residential School Principals

Principal Name	Years
Rev. E.F. Wilson	1873-1893
Rev. James Irvine	1893-1894
James Lawler	1894
George Ley King	1897-1906
Rev. Benjamin P. Fuller	1910-1929
Rev. Charles F. Hives	1929-1941
Rev. Canon Arthur E. Minchin	1941-1948
Rev. Douglas C. Wickenden	1948-1954
Rev. Roy Phillips	1954-1966
Robert Martin	1964-1965
David Lawson	1966-1967
Alan Wheatley (administrator)	1967-1968
Rev. Noel Goater (administrator)	1968-1970

Source: Wikipedia

Shingwauk Narratives: Sharing Residential School History 

by Shingwauk Residential Schools Centre

Statistics based on known burials in the Shingwauk Cemetery

Total number of burials: 110

Total number of students: 72 (65%)

Student age range: 5-20 years old

The average age of students when they passed: 13 years old

Common causes of death: Tuberculosis and related illnesses (48.5%), brain-related illnesses (10%), pneumonia, drowning, typhoid fever

List of student home communities by region:

Southwestern Ontario (38%)- Moraviantown, Muncey, Sarnia, Walpole Island

Manitoulin Island (12%)- Little Current, Sheguiandah, Sheshegwaning, Sucker Creek, Whitefish River

Mid-Ontario (10%) – Cape Croker, Rama, Saugeen, Christian Island

Quebec (10%)- Kahnawake, Oka, St. Regis

Northeastern Ontario (10%) – Michipicoten, Missanabie, Spanish River

Northwestern Ontario (5%) – Fort William, Lake Nipigon

Alberta (1%) – Blackfoot Crossing

Name	Date of Death	Approx. Age	Cause of Death	Home Community	Role	Notes
Mrs. William Stratton	1871			Sault Ste. Marie	Community member	Buried before the land was donated to the school
Mabel Laurie Wilson	Sep 30, 1873		Pneumonia	Sault Ste. Marie	Staff family	Originally buried in Collingwood, body later moved to Shingwauk Cemetery
Hannah Weezhoo	Jan 30, 1876	13	Brain disease	Walpole Island	Student
Solomon Corning	May 18, 1876	8	Tuberculosis	Sarnia	Student
Susan Stratton	Apr 30, 1876			Sault Ste. Marie	Community member	Also worked for the Wilson’s as a nurse
baby Stratton	Nov 5, 1876			Sault Ste. Marie	Community member
John Rodd	Nov 28, 1877	16	Cerebro spinal meningitis	Sarnia	Student
Frederick Oshkapukeda	May 17, 1879	15	Tuberculosis	Lake Nipigon	Student
Louis Morris Minwahsin	Sep 18, 1879	13	Tuberculosis	Michipicoten	Student
Sarah Fauquier	Nov 4, 1881			Sault Ste. Marie	Bishop’s wife	Died in New York State, buried at Shingwauk Spring 1882
Frederick Dawson Fauquier	Dec 7, 1881	64		Sault Ste. Marie	Bishop of Algoma	Died in Toronto, buried at Shingwauk Spring 1882
Charlie Penahsewa	Jan 5, 1882	11	Typhoid fever	Sheshegwaning	Student
Benjamin Beaconsfield Chegauns	Jan 16, 1882	14	Tuberculosis	Michipicoten	Student
Peter Jacobs	Feb 8, 1882	9		Sarnia	Student
William Saguhcheway	May 16, 1882	19	Inflammation of the bowels	Walpole Island	Student
Simon Altman	Jun 4, 1882	11	Pneumonia	Walpole Island	Student
Henry Grey Austin	Jun 1882 or Apr 9, 1883
Martha Mark	Apr 1, 1885	8	Tuberculosis	Christian Island	Student
Annie Howe	Sep 7, 1885	7	Tuberculosis
Matilda Esquimau	Feb 18, 1886	5 mo.				Possibly the daughter of John Esquimau or Joseph Esquimau
Charles Mortimer Greene	Jan 23, 1888				Clergy family
Jane Warner	Mar 3, 1888	10		Walpole Island	Student
David Etukitsininani	Apr 23, 1888	17	Tuberculosis	Blackfoot Crossing, Alberta	Student	Wilson brought him and another Blackfoot boy to Shingwauk after the Northwest Rebellion in 1885
Florence Pritchard	Jan 12, 1889
Peter Jones Stone	Feb 26, 1889	11	Scrofula		Student
Mary Kadah	Sep 8, 1889	17		Sheshegwaning	Student
Blanche Madden	Jan 7, 1890	5			Student
Asa Peters	May 6, 1890	10	Tuberculosis	Walpole Island	Student
Josephine Sampson	May 23, 1890	14	Tuberculosis	Sheshegwaning	Student
Edward Waukay	Jun 3, 1890	17	Tuberculosis	Cape Croker	Student
Caroline Waukay	Jun 9, 1890	11	Tuberculosis	Cape Croker	Student
William Esquimau	Apr 2, 1891	11	Tuberculosis	Little Current	Student
Mary Petuhwepejhik	Dec 13, 1891	12		Sheshegwaning	Student
Llwellyn Jackson	Jul 10, 1893	10		Sarnia	Student
John Clifford Madden	Aug 13, 1896	Infant	Cholera
Andrew Stacey	May 19, 1897	11	Drowning	Kahnawake	Student
John Stratton	Dec 28, 1898
Robert White	May 1, 1899	19	Pneumonia	Walpole Island	Student
Alexander Knaggs	Jun 30, 1899	14	Pneumonia	Walpole Island	Student
William Stonefish	Mar 13, 1901	14	Typhoid fever	Moraviantown	Student
Mary Semo	Mar 6, 1902	15	Tuberculosis	St. Regis	Student
Isaac Shebahgezhis	Sep 9, 1902	10	Tuberculosis	Spanish River	Student
Isaac Kezhihgobinis	Oct 3, 1902	12	Typhoid fever	Sucker Creek	Student
Henry Kechego	May 21, 1903	12	Tuberculosis	Muncey	Student
Albert Penance	Jul 30, 1903	14	Heart failure	Walpole Island	Student
Isaac Thomas	Mar 5, 1904	12	Tuberculosis	Walpole Island	Student
Elliot Sampson	Nov 3, 1904	14	Tuberculosis	Walpole Island	Student
Simon Jacobs	Feb 22, 1905	19	Tuberculosis	Moraviantown	Student
Julia Jacobs	Apr 6, 1905	13	Tuberculosis	Walpole Island	Student
Lawson Musouesh Kodawa	Oct 9, 1905	14	Tuberculosis	Whitefish River	Student
Sara Skilliter	Dec 9, 1905	7	Typhoid fever	Fort William	Student
Julia Masug	Feb 15, 1906	13	Congestion of brain	Walpole Island	Student
Andrew Johnson	Mar 7, 1906	17	Tuberculosis and typhoid fever	Walpole Island	Student
Dora Isaacs/Jacobs	Mar 27, 1906	13	Tuberculosis	Walpole Island	Student
Edward Wilfred Lacelle	May 7, 1906	1	Meningitis
Frank Grey	Jan 12, 1907	7	Meningitis	Sarnia	Student
Jacob Grey	Apr 30, 1907	9	Peritonitis	Sarnia	Student
Willis R. Fisher	Jan 14, 1911	15	Tuberculosis	Sarnia	Student	Died at the hospital
Peter Stacey	Jul 30, 1911	20	Drowning	Kahnawake	Former student	Was working as a miner at time of death, drowned near Bellevue Park
Kathleen Fuller	1912				Staff family
Sinclair Spaniel	Mar 14, 1912	15	Tuberculosis	Spanish River	Student
Frank Spaniel	Mar 14, 1912	17	Tuberculosis	Spanish River	Student
Leslie E. Fuller	Nov 28, 1912	16			Staff family
baby McGillivray	Mar 1912	still born
Lucy Kezhekobsuse	Jan 14, 1913	10	Tuberculosis	Whitefish River	Student
Thomas S. Skilliter	Jul 12, 1913	18	Tuberculosis	Fort William	Student
Fred “Michael” Fuller	Nov 18, 1913		Tuberculosis		Staff family
Isaac Cornwall	Jul 23, 1914	85	Old age
Andrew Wahcaneh	Jan 10, 1916	18	Tuberculosis	Muncey	Student
Ruby Curley	Mar 2, 1916	9	Tuberculosis meningitis		Student
Wilfred Lacelle	Jun 25, 1916	7	Pneumonia		Staff family
Carrie Vincent	Apr 18, 1917	7	Tuberculosis	Missanabie	Student
Mary A. Fuller	Sep 10, 1917	51	Pernicious anemia		Staff
Margaret Emery	Feb 12, 1918
Charles Ningishkung	Feb 9, 1919	13	Pneumonia	Rama	Student
Frank Oshkapukeda	Feb 13, 1919	13	Pneumonia	Lake Nipigon	Student
Solomon Kahgee	Jul 18, 1919	12	Tuberculosis	Saugeen	Student
Mary Tobico	Jul 1, 1923	14	Tuberculosis	Saugeen	Student
Roy Richards	May 11, 1924	15	Tuberculosis		Student
Ida Annie McNeil	Jan 18, 1925	50			Staff
Evelyn Boonus/Barnes	Mar 15, 1927	14	Endocarditis	Saugeen	Student
Percival Lacelle	Aug 20, 1928	16	Tuberculosis		Student	Family was living in Sault Ste. Marie? Died in a house on Parliament Street
Gowan Gilmor	Sep 1, 1928	78	Old age		Clergy
Peter Beavois	Nov 20, 1929	8	Drowning	Oka	Student
Louise Isaac	Dec 30, 1929	12	Tuberculosis	Ground Hog	Student
Lily Nicholas	Feb 15, 1936	14	Scarlet fever	Quebec	Student
Myrtle Riley	Jun 6, 1936	15	Tubercular meningitis		Student	Possibly buried at Walpole Island not Shingwauk
Norma Soney	Oct 29, 1937	10	Pneumonia	Walpole Island	Student	Possibly buried in Wallaceburg not Shingwauk
Maurice John Greaves	Dec 6, 1937	25	Strep		Staff
Howard Greenbird	Dec 10, 1937	7	Whooping cough	Walpole Island	Student
Mary Martin	Dec 16, 1937	7	Tubercular meningitis	Oka	Student
Lulu Margaret Bottrell	Feb 9, 1938				Staff
Beulah Henry	Nov 18, 1938	13	Appendicitis	Muncey	Student
Alfred Greaves	Feb 15, 1940	61	Brain abscess		Clergy	Died at Muskoka Hospital for Consumptives
Dudley Shilling	Aug 15, 1940	16	Drowning	Rama	Student
Leo Eugene Kicknosway	May 8, 1942	15	Acute dilation of stomach	Walpole Island	Student
Doreen Wilson	Sep 8, 1942	14	Brain abscess	Quebec	Student
Fred Nahwahgezhik	Nov 2, 1943	15	Rheumatic fever and pancarditis	Sheguiandah	Student
Benjamin Philip Fuller	Dec 7, 1945	81	Intestinal obstruction		Principal	Died on Manitoulin Island
Agnes McGraw	Oct 28, 1950
Alice Elizabeth Fuller	Apr 14, 1955				Staff family
Francis Bertram Wilson	Dec 11, 1956				Student
Seymour Hayes	Jun 24, 1957
Annie Morrow	Sep 28, 1967				Clergy family
David John MacKenzie	Apr 23, 1970
Helena Ann Hayes	Mar 18, 1973
Benna Fuller	Jan 28, 1977	89	Stroke		Staff
Noel Thomas	1983					Cremains
Dorothy Lillian Ford	Aug 19, 1983					Cremains
Wilfred Greaves	Mar 27, 2016	94			Clergy family

Links

Censored News: The list of 28 unmarked graves at residential schools published in 2008, based on historical data and eyewitness accounts: https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2021/06/location-of-mass-graves-at-residential.html 

Censored News: Watch the broadcast of the press conference: 751 unmarked graves at residential school in Saskatchewan: https://bsnorrell.blogspot.com/2021/06/saskatchewan-751-unmarked-graves-found.html

Susie Jones story https://www.chathamdailynews.ca/2015/03/11/susie-jones-now-78--was-taken-from-her-family-and-home-on-walpole-island-and-transferred-to-a-residential-school-in-sault-ste-marie-when-she-was-four

Mohawk Nation News article

https://mohawknationnews.com/blog/2021/06/28/canada-why-did-you-murder-genocide-us/