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Appendix 2: Canada’s Residential Schools

The Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement (IRSSA) provides the most comprehensive listing of Canadian residential schools for Aboriginal people. At the time of approval, the Settlement Agreement listed 130 residential schools and residences. The Settlement Agreement also outlined a process by which additional schools could be added to the list of approved institutions. At the time of writing, nine institutions had been added to the list.¹

The IRSSA list of approved schools has a number of limits.

It was developed in the early twenty-first century as part of a process through which individuals were compensated for their experiences at residential schools that they attended. Therefore, the list did not include schools that closed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
The original list did not include the dates of operation for the schools. Due to limitations in the records, there are difficulties in determining opening and closing dates. Some schools, for example, might informally open when a missionary began boarding one or more students in his home. Continuity in the operation of schools could be interrupted. For example, schools that burned down might not reopen for several years. The precise date of closure might be difficult to pinpoint: the Blue Quills school, for example, is still in operation as a post-secondary educational facility.
There were several anomalies in the list. The Methodist school at Red Deer, Alberta, which closed in 1919, and the Methodist school in Edmonton, which opened in 1924, are listed as one school. Similarly, the Anglican school at The Pas, Manitoba, which closed in 1933, and the Anglican school in Dauphin, Manitoba, which opened in 1957, are listed as one school (in part because both were known as the “McKay school”). There are separate listings for Roman Catholic schools at Fort Pelly and Kamsack, Saskatchewan, although these appear to refer to the same institution.²
It was not uncommon for schools to be known by a variety of names: one might relate to its geographic name, one might refer to a Christian saint, and another might refer to the region in which the school was located. The industrial school at Lebret, for example, was referred to as the “Lebret school,” the “Qu’Appelle school,” and the “St. Paul’s school”—all at the same time. It later became known as the “Whitecalf school.” There is also duplication in names: there were three St. Marys, four St. Pauls, and at least eight St. Josephs.
The question of religious affiliation is not always straightforward. At first, most of the schools were quite clearly the initiatives of Catholic and Protestant missionary organizations. That affiliation formally ended in 1969. However, for a number of years after that, church-appointed principals remained in offices, and the religious denomination that had been previously associated with the school continued to provide pastoral care.
All these issues combine to complicate any attempt to list the schools on the Settlement Agreement with their opening and closing dates, location, and religious affiliation.

Appendix 2.1 presents the schools listed on the Settlement Agreement by province (in alphabetical order). Because of the number of schools with the same name, the schools are listed by location. (When more than one school was located in a single location, there are multiple entries for that location.) Appendix 2.1 also addresses the anomalies that appeared in the Settlement Agreement list: separate listings have been created for schools that were combined on the Settlement Agreement list, such as those at Edmonton and Red Deer. The Kamsack and Fort Pelly Roman Catholic schools have been combined, as have the Roman Catholic schools at Cross Lake, Norway House, Notre Dame, and Jack River, which appear to have been part of a linked administrative structure. Where possible, the opening and closing dates are based on archival documents. Where this was not possible, secondary sources were consulted. In most cases, the dates represent only the opening and closing, and do not reflect periods when the school might have been temporarily closed. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada attempted to be as comprehensive as possible. For this reason, the dates may not correspond to those used in assessing claims under the Common Experience Payment program and the Independent Assessment Process, which employ criteria relating to the degree of federal involvement in the operation of the facility.

Appendix 2.2 lists residential schools that were funded by Indian Affairs in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, but were not included in the Settlement Agreement. The information on these schools comes from the Indian Affairs annual reports, particularly the table of schools published annually.