Indian Residential Schools in the Yukon Territory

Choutla School

Dateline: February 29, 2024.

    This history was written by the school's principal, Michael C. F. Gibbs, in 1966. It was intended to be a part of a history of the Anglican Diocese of Yukon, which originally was to be a Centennial project.

    The name of the school appears with various spellings in historical newspaper accounts, as well as simply "Carcross mission school" or "Carcross Indian School" - the most common spellings were "Choutla", "Chooutla", or "Chootla".

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History of Choutla School

    The Choutla School has been in existence since 1903, though its roots go back into the Nineteenth Century. Moreover, its history includes changes of the school's function and location.

    The first school at Carcross was started by Bishop Bompas in 1903. It, like its creator, was typical of the nineteenth century. The Bishop, by times as a missionary, had, in his forty years, been a school teacher. The missionary school in the nineteenth century Canadian west served many purposes. The missionary might run a day school during a stay with a group of Indians to speed the process of bringing them the Gospel. The ability to communicate was a prerequisite to this work. To such a "school" would come mostly children, since they were most free from daily duties, and possibly easier to teach, but adults might also attend. Where a mission was more settled the Church would offer a variety of social services and might have a school with a missionary school teacher. Attendance at such a school might be somewhat irregular among day students who could be expected to leave when their nomadic families moved away from the mission station. There might also be added some residential students - sometimes when a missionary persuaded a family of the benefits of education to their child, but mostly when the missionary found an outcast or orphan child and either the school or else the household of one of the mission's staff became a home.

    It has become fashionable to the twentieth century cynic to sneer at the work of the nineteenth century missionary. Cynicism, of course, involved a distortion of reality. Of the nineteenth century missionary school in Western Canada it should be remembered that the social sciences were not available to their directors. In some nineteenth century schools at least a child would feel more warmth of affection than in the professional schools of today. The story is told of Bishop Bompas that one one occasion he broke into one of the missionary classrooms when he heard a teacher chastising a child, took it away and comforted it. Such an incident belongs to the nineteenth century - neither chastising nor comforting is present in many of our school systems.

    In 1891 Bishop Bompas began his work as Bishop of Selkirk and chose tom live at Forty Mile, from which he directed his team of fellow missionaries throughout the northern end of his diocese. He started a school there, but this was not the only one inn the diocese, as other schools were started at other stations. (The Bishop was school master at Fort Yukon for two weeks from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. until partly relieved by the school mistress from Rampart House. He had an afternoon class of middleaged men who read the New Testament in their own language.)

    It was in 1900 that the Bishop moved down to Carcross. He came to minister to the Tagish Indians. At this time these people, under the leadership of Skookum Jim, were in the process of moving from their settlement at Tagish to Carcross, which hitherto been only a camping and hunting place fer them. Perhaps this was why the Bishop did not provide for a school until 1903. However, it is likely that before that time he had held informal classes for the local children. He had been teaching for long periods prior to this move to Carcross, and with his age and the pressing affairs of his diocese it may have been that he was slow to commit himself again to the regular teaching duties of a school.

    In 1903 he bought a building from Mr. P. R. Peele, the Customs Officer, who had built it behind the railway station on the lakeshore. This the Bishop intended to use for a achool: The school at Forty Mile had been provided with a schoolmaster and his wife, but by 1903 they had left and a Miss Ellis had become matron. Now the Bishop brought her and some ten or so of her students (all girls) to his new school. Unfortunately, Mr. Peele's home was across the railway bridge from the mission house and the Bishop was afraid for the students' safety, since the bridge had not been built for pedestrian traffic. He therefore exchanged the Peele house for the N.W.M.P. detachment house which was on the other side of the river.

    Life in the Bishop's school wae very much a family affair. One gets the impression that the Tagish Indian students were irregular in their attendance - they left when their families moved away on their seasonal trips. The children from Forty Mile were probably the only regular students. Of these, one was the daughter of a chief - according to the parish record, Among the day students, for a short time in 1904, was the daughter of Mr. Peele, Vivian, who records her memory of ths school:

    "In 1904 I returned to Carcross to spend three weeks as the guest of Bishop and Mrs. Bompas at the school with Miss Ellis. By this time the Bishop had traded the school for a log house across the river close to the church. I remember very well walking down the road each morning to the school with the Bishop wearing his moccasins and a school bag over his shoulder. There were about twelve girls at the school and I sat with them around the dining table, with the Bishop at one end as our teacher, and, although not of school age, I learned a little of the three 'R's. After putting a few sums on the blackboard for the older girls, the Bishop would fold his hands and drop his head for a short nap. This always started the girls laughing and giggling, all of them too young to know that he was tired and worn after spending the better part of his life ministering to their people.

    "It was here that I first met Daisy Mason, who, having lost her mother, had been brought to the school as a boarder by her father, Skookum Jim Mason. This was the beginning of an acquaintance that was to last until her death in 1938.

    "I remember going with Daisy on a Saturday aftornoon to the new home of Dawson Charlie, not far from the achool, and having fun in his gymnasium, particularly with a punching bag suspended from the ceiling. He had gone out to Seattle for furnishings and when they arrived it was found that the rug was much too long for the living room. Money was no object, so instead of sending out for a shorter rug, he had one end of the house torn out to enlarge the room.

    "Another guest at Bishop's Palace was the Rev. H. A. Cody, newly arrived in Yukon to help with the work around Coreross, As there was no school in the afternoon and the two girls in the house (Annie Snyder and Jessie Black) had their work to do and Mrs. Bompas had her engagements, I was able to go in the rowboat with the Bishop and Mr. Cody across the lake for supplies or down to another settlement to visit the sick or a family. In the following year Mr. Cody came to Whitehorse with his bride to be our rector and he was there wasn we left in 1908."

    In 1906 Bishop Bompas died and his work at the mission was taken over by the Rev. J. Hawksley until 1910, when he was transferred to Dawson and another of the CHS missionaries, Archdeacon Canham, in virtual retirement, took his place. John Hawksley was to return later when, in 1914, he became the first Indian Superintendent for the Yukon.

    When Bishop Bompas died his mission school at Carcross was not the only school for Indians in the Yukon. For many years the church was to be involved in schools throughout the territory. Most of the other schools were, however, closer to the missionary day school in function - providing little nore than religious instruction and the tools of education - reading, writing, and arithmetic, following loose timetables and closing when families moved off on hunting expeditions. (The school at Forty Mile had ceased to function as the diocesan residential school when Bishop Bompas moved south.

    Bishop Stringer failed to obtain permission to purchase the site of the Carcross school. However, at the first Synod of the Diocese in 1907, a resolution was passed calling on the Dominion Government to appoint a Superintendent, and to continue to undertake financial responsibility for Indian Education. If the Dominion Government would make financial allowance, the Church would resume responsibility for Indian Education, and Carcross was recommended as the most suitable location - the Carcross Boarding School being an establishment for formal Indian education.

    In Eastern Canada, during the latter part of the nineteenth century, a pattern for Indian education was gradually being established. The provinces had failed to provide education in any great measure for Indians, and consequently, the Federal government had felt the responsibility - in part re-stated in treaties made with Indians in the Prairies and west - to fill this deficiency. Meanwhile, an educational theory for Indians - teach useful trades rather than expend time on academics - had been put into practice in "industrial schools". It was felt that for this training to be effective, the children should be resident in the schools and therefore provision had to be made for their spiritual development. This theory was accepted by both Churches and government and a number of such schools were started across the country in the latter half of the nineteenth century. The government might build a school where one was felt to be needed and the Church would operate it. The government's involvement included buying books and school supplies and a per capita grant to the Church to assist in the other costs of operation, including teachers' salaries.

    The first Synod of the Diocese of Yukon recommended that the government should establish such a school at Carcross. Such a school would be a far cry from Bishop Bompas' family-type school, which was more like a foster home. Enrolment in his school had never been more than about twenty - it was scarcely a significant program of Indian education in the Territory. The students might have to perform certain chores, but these were the chores of the member of a family. The industrial school, on the other hand, was dedicated to the concept of teaching the White man's work habits. It must be admitted that, with the scarcity of funds available, such a school depended for much of its food and fuel on the efforts of its students as they learned agricultural and forestry skills.

    By 1908 the Dominion Government had agreed to establish such schools. It was to cost some $16,000, and could accommodate 40 students. The site chosen was about two miles from Carcross, on, roughly, the site of the present school. The land, 160 acres, was bought from a Mr. Shermer, who had been farming there so that the industrial school's agricultural operations would not have to start entirely from scratch.

    The new school was completed in 1911. The first Principal was E. Dyfed Evans. It was called the Choutla Indian School. No doubt it was a far cry from Bishop Bompas' school and at least one student still living, who experienced both, preferred the earlier home. The industrial school was more an institution, less personal; the White man's ways were being instilled rather than assimilated as in a home; funds were limited and the school cannot have been very glamorous; it was largely isolated, even from the life of Carcross.

    Mr. Evans left after two years, and Mr. and Mrs. C. F. Johnson came to the school - Mr. Johnson to be manager, Mrs. Johnson as housekeeper (matron); the Rev. W. T. Townsend coming as principal shortly afterwards. Mrs. Johnson had gone to the Hay River Mission in 1896. The Rev. T. J. Marsh, uncle of a recent Bishop of the Yukon, had built and was working at that mission, In 1898, Charles F. Johnson came up to Hay River with one of the parties of miners on the way to the Klondike. He wintered there, became interested in the work of the mission, and stayed; marrying in 1901. In 1908, he sent his family out to Chicago, while he went with Bishop Stringer to Herschel Island - the famous trip when they were forced to eat their mukluks. In 1913 Bishop Stringer asked Mr. Johnson to manage the Choutla school. Mrs. Johnson was a life member of the W.A. and when, in 1919, she caught pneumonia and could not be saved, her grave was marked with a wooden W.A. cross. (It can still be seen though her name is no longer legible.) The pews in St. Saviour's were dedicated as a memorial to her. C. F. Johnson later married again. In 1922, when a married Principal came to the school, he and his new wife went up to Dawson to take charge of the hostel started there for destitute children not eligible for Carcross. Mr. Johnson was an efficient and popular manager. He ran the farm well and bought game from the Indian people to supplement the students' diet, which some of his successors apparently would not.

    The Rev. W. T. Townsend was principal of the school from 1913 to 1917. He seems to have been a very active man. The "Northern Lights", started in 1913 by Mr. Evans in the interests of the Choutla Indian School, began in 1914 to be printed at the school with students performing typesetting and printing duties. It did not confine itself to school news however, but sought items throughout the diocese. From its pages we can read of Mr. Townsend's trips to take services at Tagish and Atlin, or how, in 1917, he took Bishop Stringer up the aerial tramway for a service at the Venus mine. It was Townsend also who spent his holiday in the fall of 1916 hunting moose to supplement the school's food budget. He took with him Fred Boss, one of the pupils (still living in Skagway) and together they "secured" four moose in less than a week. His successors were less active and their students did not eat so well.

    Townsend seems also to have had a deep concern about his work. In his report to the Third Synod of the Diocese, July 1915, he states that the day has passed when "it is necessary to prove that education is an advantage for all classes and for both sexes. The various Governments in civilized countries are more and more coming to realize that they owe to every child in their several domains, ...a certain amount of free education. We would naturally think that to no class do we owe a deeper debt in this line than to the aborigines of our country; yet in reality, up to a short time ago the Canadian Government did little in providing for the education of the Indians. The burden was borne, as far as it was borne at all, by the various churches." The government was now recognizing its responsibilities. Should the government undertake the task of Indian education alone - without the churches? He cites the example of India where education without morality resulted from purely secular training. More tellingly, perhaps, he suggests that, although it happens occasionally even in religious institutions - to the delight of cynics - misuse of advantages (presumably of staff over students) would be much more common in a secular setting.

    He then tries to estimate the possibility of success in the work. In this he makes a point which is still true today: "The average citizen expects more from the Indian boy or girl who has had certain advantages than from a White child with the same advantages." "What per cent of educated Indians does the average citizen expect to be a success? - one hundred per cent. Let one fail and at once you hear the expression "What's the use?"

    He states his aim as "to train in each boy and girl enough self-respect, not to despise that from which they came, but to aspire to do something for themselves; and the knowledge and love of God sufficient to keep them in the straight path. Coupled with this we aim to give them an ordinary education, and a training in some branch of work (so far as our limited means allow), to help them in making their living."

    This Synod had much to say about Indian education and the schools. The Bishop notes in his Charge the problens of the dayschool with nomadic peoples. "Half our work, and more than half our responsibility is among the Indians." He mentions the scourge of tuberculosis about which the missionaries should be providing information to the people. Later in the Synod, Mr. Townsend's report moved Bishop Stringer to state that Indian education was a matter about which opinions were quite varied. He felt that the training given should suit them to return to their own people. However, he says, "The same thing applies to the Indian pupil as applies to the university student or graduate of Eastern Ganeda who is dissatisfied with farm life. But is it, for that reason, bad? - this is in answer to the Rev. C. Swanson who had spoken against the teaching of agriculture to Indians.

    The bishop also stated that the death rate among students at the school is less than that of the villages. The record of funerals in the Carcross parish register bears him out in this: between 1903 and 1915, nine children between the ages of six and 16 were buried, of whom three were members of the school, From 1915-1931, a further seven children of school age were buried in Carcross, and of these, four were students, though two of the others were recorded as ex-pupils. In evaluating these statistics it should be remembered that students probably brought tuberculosis with them to the school. The Bishop had rightly described it as a scourge - in the period 1900-1931, of the 41 Indian funerals in Carcross, 17 of the deaths were ascribed to T.B. (the influenza epidemic of 1920 accounted for another four.) If it seems strange that the rate of deaths at the school seems to have increased after 1915, this can be accounted for in part by the fact that T.B. was not quickly checked. In 1912 there wore 1389 Indians resident in the Yukon, by 1925 this number had increased to 1528. Thereafter the population decreased until in 1929 it was only 1264, a reduction largely due to tuberculosis. The Carcross population in winter 1926 was said to be less than ten. Some Indians did feel that the industrial school was the cause of their children's deaths. Partly this was because they did not understand the nature of the disease and that a child might take it with him into the school. In part, however, it seems possible that at times the diet may have been somewhat inadequate.

    It is interesting to see that in 1915 questions were being raised about Indian education that, in spite of the development of the social sciences, have not been conclusively answered to this day. It is perhaps also significant that more space is given in the report of the Fifth Synod in 1923 to the Bishop's remarks about Sabbath Observances than to the Choutla School, which was reported as maintaining good progress. Even less appears in the report of the Sixth Synod, 1928, though Synod placed itself on record as being dissatisfied with conditions existing amongst Indians. One gets the feeling that the school was either forgotten or an embarrasement to the diosese in this period.

    From 1915-1930 there were nine different principals of the school - hardly a strong administration. The staff usually numbered six. In 1928 enrolment was 34, but hereafter it was difficult to maintain the 30 which was the maximum for which the government would pay its per capita grant. In 1920-21 the enrolment had been 35. One of the Northern Lights editions of 1927 gives a history of the school. It notes as the object of the school as being to provide leaders in the Indian camps. The Bishop chooses suitable children on his travels through the Yukon to go to the school. "His aim is to get the best both in health and intellect." At the school half the day is spent in the classroom and the other half is spent learning housekeeping and sewing for the girls and gardening, blacksmithing and rough carpentry work for the boys. "Nor is it forgotten that mere cleverness without the Christian character will never save a man or woman." The staff believes that knowledge and trust in Christ "can save the decreasing Indians of the Yukon and make them good and useful citizens of the greater Canada of the future." This history also notes that the Government supplies some of the materiais for maintaining the buildings, the school books, drugs, and gives a yearly per capita grant. The Church supplies clothing, travelling expenses and makes up the deficit which is never less than $2500. a year - a well-known Yukon businessman, on seeing the financial report of the school, gave his opinion that he would not have believed it possible to run an institution of this kind "so cheaply in any part of the Territory". It is, perhaps, not surprising that it was found to be difficult to maintain maximum enrolment.

    During this period (1915-30) several events affecting the life of the school took place. In 1920 there was the terrible influenza epidemic which hit the school on March 13 and by the 17th all the students and four of the staff were in bed. In 1921 the financial administration of the school passed to the Missionary Society of the Church of Canada. The editions of the Northern Lights give many interesting glimpses of life at the school. The paper records that the Government does not allow the children home for the summer, but in 1920 there is mention of going for a picnic in the school motor boat, or in 1922 a week's holiday by the lake for the girls. In 1925 a Delco generator was obtained to provide electricity for the school. In 1924 it was decided to transfer most of the Northern Lights printing to Whitehorse. Although it continued to give school news, gradually more space was devoted to other parts of the diocese and less news was provided byn the school.

    The Northern Lights of these years also gave news of the early graduates of the school. There can be little doubt that there was a fair degree of success. Students had to leave when they were eighteen years old. In 1916 James Wood left to become teacher at the Moosehide Day School. In 1932 it is recorded that he won a prize in a Dawson show for his exhibit of potatoes - there were at that time six Indian students raising gardens in Dawson. Jacob Njootli, another graduate, taught 20 students at Rampart House Day School. Johnny Johns has become one of the foremost big game outfitters in the world; Peter, his brother, was once offered a job on the Whitehorse Star - arising out of his training printing Northern Lights while at the school. Maggie Daniels taught at Rampart House in 1925. In 1928 there were two students in Grade VIII, which was no mean achievement on a half-day classroom system.

    In 1930 the Rev. H. C. M. Grant came to the school as principal and provided an unbroken administration for the next 18 years. He inherited a poor situation. By 1931 enrolment was down to 26 pupils when there should have been 40. Archbishop Stringer, appraising the situation, said nothing could be done as no more pupils could be obtained. "This was because of a prejudice against the school." But by 1936, the school was filled to capacity and entrance applications were being turned down. The Synod Report of that year notes a resolution by Mr. Grant that the problem of after-care of pupils of Indian Residential Schools is of the greatest importance. Bishop Geddes asked clergy in Indian Missions to see only the best children in the various centres were recruited for the Carcroas Indian Residential School.

    In his report on the school, Mr. Grant notes that where is a growing body of opinion questioning the half-day system. He defends it on the grounds of health - the need of these children for fresh air. Also the value of their training in the classroom may be less than that of their vocational training. Finally, he suggests that the work of the school does not go far enough and that when the child leaves the scnool, a reaction sets in - there needs to be follow-up work.

    With the increased enrolment the staff was augmented to eight. Life at the school seams to have been relatively easy in these years. The children still could not return home in the summer and hay-making camps were held during these months. Then in April 1939 a fire broke out, burning the whole school building to the ground. Thanks to the Generosity of the people of Carcross, it was possible to maintain the school even after the fire. For three years Mr. Grant continued in eight buildings rented from Mr. Matthew Watson in Carcross. Then in 1942 the Church bought some temporary buildings costing $24,000 with dormitory accommodation for 45. The Government would not rebuild the school partly because of the war and partly, perhaps, because it wanted time to consider the whole question of Indian residential school education. Mr. Grant left in 1948 at about the time the Government decided to build a new residential school. His Leaving marked the end of the old industrial school system, for it came as the Indian Affairs Branch was initiating new policies in Indian Education.

    In 1946 there was a Joint Parliamentary Committee to inquire into the administration of Indian Affairs. Many Indians giving evidence before this committee were opposed to residential schools. It became Government policy to try to enrol as many Indian students as possible in provincial day schools. Its first steps, however, were to improve the existing facilities. Enrolment in residential schools increased from 8900 in 1944-45 (54% of all Indian students) to 10,500 in 1954-55 (37% of all Indian students). In 1963 the number had fallen to 81300, but in 1964 it was up to 10,300 again (but now only 18% of the student population). The total pupil population in 1939 was 26,100. In 1950, soon after the new policy began, it was 23,400 and in 1964 it wes 55,500, of which 32,700 attended day schools. Even allowing for an increased Indian population, it is obvious that education was becoming available for a larger percentage of Indian children than ever before. Progress was also marked in terms of achievement - in 1940 40% of Indian students were in Grades I or II, less than 5% reached Grade VII; in 1964, 15% were in Grade I or II and the distribution is much more even - Grade IX had 4% and appreciable numbers reached Grades XII and XIII.

    How was this progress achieved? One clue lies in the figures of expenditures on Indian education by the Federal Government. In 1945 the total was $2 million, by 1955 it was 10 million, and in 1964, $31 million. The per capita grant system of financing residential schools came to an end and budgeting allowances were established for each school in terms of heads of expenditure. In 1954 teachers at the schools ceased to be Church employees and became Federal employees. The churches were accorded the privilege of making nominations. Before these improvements, in 1953 a Church salary listing shows First Class teachers earned $90 per month plus room and board (supervisors could be paid $65). Now qualifisd teachers could be obtained more readily (though even Federal salaries did not always draw the qualified - in 1964 there were some 100 unqualified teachers out of a total of 1500).

    The effect of this policy on the Carcross school was that a new building was started in 1953. The delay after the original decision to bulid a school in 1948 was caused by deliberations about location. The old site was chosen and work began in 1953. The contract went to Marwell Construction of Vancouver for $569,000. The plans were basically the same as those for the Norway House United Church Residential School. The student capacity was to be 120 (In 1948 the first plans were for 80). It was completed in 1954.

    The 1950s were not very happy years for the school. Apart from the upheaval of the building program and moving into the new building, there was again a succession of principals. In spite of the increasing monies made available by the Government, funds were still tight and salaries low. The principal had to work out his relationship with a teaching staff, now neither employed by the Church nor always sympathetic to the Church's aims. The principal, too, had to understand that the success of his school was now to be measured in terms of classroom progress. The criticism of the old system put forward by the Indian people coupled with ths sudden Government interest in the work expressed in terms of extra money and personnel took the initiative away from the Church and put it into the hands of civil servants who sometimes, as with new brooms, were careless of the feelings of those who had struggled with the work before. The Church was not in a position to face the change. For many years the Anglican Church was the Church in the Yukon. After the war many other branches of the Church began to arrive. Anglicens saw the people they had worked with and for leaving to join the other churches and sects. Unfortunately battle was joined over Indian students - a battle which further lost respect for the Chursh and made Government even less ready to treat it as full partner in the work.

    In 1960, with enrolment at 160, and tha policy of integrated education (not possible in Carcross) going ahead, new hostels were opened in Whitehorse for children in Grade V and up. One of the hostels was bullt for Roman Catholic students. The Anglicans and the local Baptist society, who had won a number of Indian families to their faith, could not agree on the operation of the other hostel. The Government, tired of inter-Church battles and perhaps desirous of proving it could run a residence successfully without Church management, decided to create a "Protestant" hostel to be operated by the Department with a staff having civil services status.

    The 1960s have seen a gradual reduction of inter-Church hostility and a better understanding by Church-appointed staff of their relationship to the Government. Sadly, this reduction in hostility and tension has also been attended by a reduction in the interest and influence of the Church. The Government as it commits increasing sums to the operation of the school, questions whether the Church management is any longer nesessary. Day schools have been opened throughout the territory and enrolment has fallen from 160 in 1964 to 80 in the 1966-67 year. Very few children ars now in residence for lack of a school close to their home. Most come because of the lack of a proper home. There is a feeling that special services bo any single ethnic group (eg. Indians) are not justified and increasingly territorial departments are serving Indian people as well as the white and Métis. The Carcross Residential School classroom program has been supervised since 1964 by the Territorial Department of Education, though teachers are still employed and supplies made available by the Federal Government. No child is now admitted without approval of the Territorial Welfare Department if welfare is the reason for admittance (the Church ceased to control admissions when the Government took over full financing of the school). Future developments look like extending this Territorial involvement.

    A matter of growing concern is the question of the salaries and working conditions of the non-teaching staff. When new staff realize their salarles are not paid by the Church but by the Government, they find it difficult to understand why they ara rex quired to accept less pay than would be offered to a civil servant, while working considerably longer hours. Unfortunately the school could not provide accommodation for the extra staff that would be required if a 40-hour week were introduced for supervisors. By now most of the other staff are on a 40-hour week. The 40-hour week would be desirable perhaps if the attitude to the work did not change. The children would not gain if the staff's first concern was to become their selary and hours.

    In concluding this history it would be well to assess the work of the Choutla School. Briefly, its first aim was to provide Indian leaders to go back to their people. To this end the students were hand-picked (though some may have been enrolled for welfare purposes). The early school seems to have had some success. The school in the ‘twenties and ‘thirties seems to have perhaps met less success. This may have been due to a growing hostility toward the school on the part of Indian parents, which would be passed on to the children. Perhaps not enough was done to allow for the parents' growing consciousness of the possibilities of education, and to bring them into the picture of their child's schooling, Also, conditions at the school probably deteriorated due to lack of sufficient funds. Basically. there was not sufficient questioning of the role of the school during this period to keep it in step with the developing needs of the Indian people. However, when the school is criticized for not changing the pattern of the Indians' life more quickly - "the school has been here 60 years and look what little progress the Indian people have made" criticism - the charge can be answered by two facts: first, enrolment at Choutla was never more than 40, which hardly constituted a material education program for an Indian population always in excess of 1200 in the Territory, and second, the increasing contact the Indian had with White men outside Church circles taught him concepts destructive to the Church's influence. The undermining of spiritual values proceeded at a far greater pace than the Church could contend with.

    The new school in 1954 did constitute a part of a major education program for the Indian - the school held four times as many students as the old school, and at that it was not the only residence in the Territory. Most criticisms of the residential schools would be justified in this period; the school bullt for 120 waa overcrowded with an enrolment of 160, not enough funds were available so that living conditions were poor, there was not enough staff and salaries were not such as to attract competent men and women to the work (the reserve of vocationally-minded people was rapidly depleted - even of those whose motivation was not money many could not afford to live on residential school salaries). To the Indian the new system was worse than ever before - he had complained about residential schools to the Committee in 1946 and now bigger ones were being built. He had wanted his children to have a proper education, not a half-day system, but his children no doubt found it difficult at first to adjust to the disciplined classroom regime.

    It is possible that some of these evils wers unavoidable in the Government's plan and it must be admitted that within ten years conditions were vastly improved. The Church, though, came in for a great deal of criticism for its part in this plan. Outsiders, seeing the Church management, did not always realize the Government involvement and direction. Had the Church been asking in 1955 the questions that Mr. Townsend had asked in 1915 it is possible that it might have withdrawn from the field rather than appear to approve conditions in the new school. On the other hand, it might be argued that it felt its duty to be to work from within to improve conditions. In any event, one does not have the impression that the Church realized how quickly the need for the residential school would pass and at times it fell into the sin of trying to maintain the status quo. This was understandable inasmuch as the larger enrolment was a greater captive group to minister to than was now availabie in the settlements. Also, when one is running the gauntlet of criticism, there is a danger of continuing when one's purpose has ended.

    Mr. Townsend's questions of 1915 are still being asked. There are still those who expect more of an Indian than a White child. There are still those who question the value of formal education for the Indian for whom Bishop Stringer's comment provides a good answer. Looking back one can see the 1915 idea of educating leaders was practical, but the Church never developed from it. Is there still a need for an Indian residential school at Carcross? Not so much today as a need for a home from which accidental products of our easy-going society can be cared for, since we cannot expect their parents to do so.

    Should the Church be involved? No, if the basis of partnership with government is the Church's ability to find staff who will work longer hours for less pay than civil servants. Yes, if the spiritual welfare of the child is recognized as of utmost importance and the Government will adequately provide for the material needs. Yes, if it is accepted that Government's role is to make policy while the Church's role is to care for and protect the individual whose needs do not always fit into that policy. Yes, if the Church is prepared to accept such a role after continuing self-examination and prayer and is prepared to move out when the need for its involvement passes.

    It is interesting to note that the Choutla School is the last remaining formal Anglican involvement in social service and education in the diocese. Its history points up the moral that the Church is best in this field when it avoids highly institutionalized or organized projects. Tho most effeative work was probably done by Bishop Bompas; the school of 1911-20 was good until the institution took charge and the Church lost its sense of direction, and the school of 1954 was bad until it became a smaller institution.

Chronology - Choutla School

1903 - Building bought for school on hotel side of bridge (from P. R. Peele). Exchanged same year (1904?) for RCMP barracks - cemetery side of bridge. Miss Eliis plus six children from Forty Mile came to Carcross.

1906 - Bishop Bompas died; Hawksley, principal.

1908 - Cost of new school est. at $16,000.

1909 - Miss Ellis left and Miss Collins became Matron.

1911 - Archdeacon Canham, Principal. Government bullt new school for 40 students, 160 acres of land. E. D. Evans appointed Principal; eight staff.

1913 - Jan., first edition of Northern Lights - printed at and for school. E. D. Evans resigned due to poor health of daughter, Canham acting principal. Mr. & Mrs. C. F. Johnson came Oct., Rev. W. T. Townsend, new principal.

1917 - Townsend leaves. Rev. A. C. Field comes as principal.

1918 - A. C. Field leaves.

1919 - Dr. Grassett-Smith

APPENDIX

    Following is a description of a day with the children in Choutla Indian School, written by one of the members of the school staff:

    The first stir among the children begins at 6 a.m. when the getting-up bell is rung. The ringing of the second bell, at 6:30, is followed by a great activity - a scattering to the work assigned to each. A large amount of sweeping and dusting, of chopping wood, etc., has been done by 7:15, when the breakfast” bell sounds, and, after forming into lines (girls in the sewing room, boys in the corridor) all march down to the dining room and take their seats at table.

    Breakfast is followed by morning prayers, and then all scatter again, and soon there is a hum of busy workers, some in the kitchen, some inn the dormitories and other rooms, while boys go to their outside work and to the furnace room (in winter). The school bell at 9 o'clock summons all the juniors to the school room. Lessons continue until 12, and at 12:15 all go down to dinner, after which they have an hour's play out of doors, except those engaged in kitchen work. At 2 the seniors take their places in the school room, whilst the juniors (girls) assemble in the sewing room for their sewing class.

    A run out doors before supper, which is served at 5:30, then an hour's play in the sewing room. Evening prayers at 7, after which the children retire to their dormitories, and when the bell for the putting out of lights has been rung, silence soon reigns.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

1. "Apostle of The North" - A. J. Cody
    - For details relating to Bishop Bompas.

2. "Five Pioneer Women"

3. The Whitehorse Star
    - Background 1900-1910.

4. Anglican Diocesan Magazine - "Northern Lights"
    - Printed at the Choutla School 1913-24.

5. Proceedings of the Synods of the Anglican Diocese of Yukon
    - For many details relating to the operation of the school in the period 1913-38.

    For more recent events I relied upon correspondence files in the Diocesan Office, Newsletters, and the memory of people recently connected with the operation of the school. I received considerable assistance from a number of ex-students of the school living in the Carcross area, which filled in some of the more skeletel information derived from records. I referred to certain government publications, in particular, Indian Affairs Branch publications relating to Indian education and Indians of the Yukon and Northwest Territories.

                            M. C. F. Gibbs, C.A.
                            Principal.