The story of the Chippewas of the Thames Indian Residential School Monument

By Kelly Anne Smith

CHIPPEWAS OF THE THAMES FIRST NATION— Members of Chippewas of the Thames and visitors are often seen pausing for reflection on the benches of the Mt. Elgin Industrial Institute – Indian Residential School Monument.

Gatherings also take place at the monument on Orange Shirt Day on September 30, now also shared with the National Truth and Reconciliation Day, and on June 21 for National Indigenous Peoples Day, to commemorate the unveiling.

From 1841 to 1949, the Indian Residential School operated on the territory of Chippewas of the Thames.

To honour the children who attended and the survivors, in 2012, the Chief of the Chippewas of the Thames First Nation designed the Mt. Elgin Industrial School – Indian Residential School Monument.

Now the Anishinabek Nation Regional Deputy Grand Council Chief for the Southwest Region, Joe Miskokomon explains the symbolism in the monument and relives the day of its unveiling.

Starting right from the beginning of the walkway because he says, that’s the beginning of the story.

“On each side of it, there is a little hip wall. That little L-shaped wall is actually the footing from the foundation of the Mt. Elgin Industrial School that was built in 1841.  We excavated those stones. We found them by digging through this walkway. And we found a two-inch steel waterline,” he explains.”I knew the waterline led to what was part of the barns at Mt. Elgin Industrial School, there to water the cattle. I knew that line also went into the Residential School. I asked the backhoe operator to follow the line that would lead to the school. That school, nobody knew where it was. It was demolished in 1949, there for almost a hundred years.”

Regional Deputy Grand Council Chief Miskokomon explains the symbolism as a person walks through the entrance of the monument with layers of brick.

“You are starting as an Anishnaabe – as a Brown person – as you walk through; the whole idea of Residential Schools was to take the Indianess away from the child until they lost their culture, lost their language, lost their heritage; and then, you end up with just concrete – or a white person. So, it’s losing yourself as you walk in.”

In the monument that is surrounded by a cedar hedge garden, there are seven tablets to depict the Seven Grandfather Teachings – Wisdom, Truth, Honesty, Love, Respect, Bravery, and Humility, says the former Chippewas of the Thames Chief.

“The first one is of a deer and reads in Anishnaabemowin, Wisdom. Above is a picture of little boys crouching and peering through wheat in a field. As you go around clockwise, there are pictures of some of the survivors of that day but they also depict the school children lined up ready to go into the boys’ side and the girls’ side.”

There is a brass plaque cast with a sampling of the names of the children that went to the school. Regional Deputy Grand Council Chief Miskokomon said that not all the children’s names were found and verified.

“The tablets would not be sufficient enough to carry all the names [of the children].”

He estimates thousands of children were forced to live at Mt. Elgin.

“At the front of that initial tablet is a bench for reflection. People come and sit on the bench. There are four benches around those tablets. One to the east direction. And the floor, from the outside of the tablets, the floor has the four coloured directional. The North would be white; the South would be red; East would be yellow; and the West would be black,” he recollects. “As you walk back out, you actually come back out onto the First Nation again. We’re into nation-building. We are into reconstructing our people.”

Solar power lights up the monument at night from the top and upwards from the floor and shines on the plaques. Being self-light and off-grid is being independent, says Regional Deputy Grand Council Chief Miskokomon.

“As a matter of fact, I just talked to a councillor today. We were rushed on this. We got very little financial support. We did get some support from the Truth and Reconciliation [Commission]. For the amount that we received, we had to contribute a significant amount.”

The monument goes down in the ground about 5 or 6 feet to the base to be structurally sound to hold it up. Regional Deputy Grand Council Chief Miskokomon says everything that was done on the monument was done by First Nation workers, including the contracting, engineering, and excavation.

“It’s made to look cold – not a warm and inviting place. It’s made with that intention. Using black marble for etchings, using grey for the gloominess of that facility, to depict the atmosphere surrounding that institution,” he notes. “So now, we know with stories coming out recently that it’s actually true what occurred in those institutions. Not only at the Mt. Elgin but many of the Residential Schools right across this country.”

June 21, 2012, was the big reveal.

“We had a cloth draped over the top of that monument. When it was time to unveil that monument, we had school children from the community that were on both sides of the monument holding onto the cloth. Then we had a survivor in front of that tablet,” he recollects. “When it was time to unveil, all of it was done at the same time by pulling back that cloth.”

“To the very right, was the biggest tent you could possibly rent. We had somewhere between 3,500 and 4,000 [people in attendance]. Because we had sent the invitation to all over. And one of the farthest people that came were Algonquins from Quebec. We had people from all over southwest Ontario,” he continues. “On that day, there was the former National Chief Phil Fontaine as a guest speaker, Elijah Harper was a guest speaker, and the then current National Chief Shawn Atleo was a guest speaker.”

Regional Deputy Grand Council Chief Miskokomon tells the political twist that also happened that day.

“I had invited Minister Duncan of Aboriginal Affairs [and Northern Development] to be a guest. He declined saying he had ‘House Duty’. At the very same time, Chippewas were negotiating a major land claim. I wanted to try to get a piece of land claim policy taken out that wouldn’t require us to surrender the land. He declined, knowing full well that’s what we wanted to do, and stayed in Ottawa. Subsequently, I asked if I could have an appointment with the minister to discuss this issue,” he tells. “They wrote me back and said, ‘Yes.’ I could have a meeting with the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs at five-o-clock on the very same day that the opening of the monument was taking place.”

“So, we started in the morning with a Sunrise Ceremony and then we gave people breakfast and started feeding them, people started coming in and that went on. Then we needed to get the ceremony started and we got it started. The unveiling had not quite taken place. We had a health break around noon. All of the speeches were done,” he adds. “I walked the national chief to his vehicle. He needed to leave right away to catch a flight. My First Counsel and I jumped in my truck, left and drove to St. Thomas. At that point, we had already chartered a flight at the St. Thomas Airport. We jumped on a little charter and flew to Ottawa and we walked into Parliament at five-o-clock and said, ‘We’re here to meet the Minister of Aboriginal Affairs.'”

Regional Deputy Grand Council Chief Miskokomon says he never saw the unveiling or the festivities afterward but the Chief made a political point that day in Parliament.

“It was in recognition, and honouring not only the survivors that were on the monument, their pictures on the monument in marble but the thousands of children that came before them. And now, most of those survivors are gone. I think there are only one or two survivors left from our community.”

Regional Deputy Grand Council Chief Miskokomon says that during the unveiling, the whole Chief and Council stepped back to allow for the survivors to share their oral histories as the spokespersons of the new monument.

“They had a story and it was legitimate and it was clear in their mind. There were no arguments about authenticity,” he states. “This is for the survivors. Not only of residential schools but let’s not forget the survivors of day school. They had it just as rough.”