Sally was born in North Spirit Lake located due north of Dryden in 1951 and she had one younger biological sibling named Lefty. At two years of age, her mother passed away. As her father was being treated with TB, Sally and her brother had no parents who were able to care for them. Sally was then sent to her father’s grandparents Angus Ray and Ellen Rae on the North Spirit Reserve, and her younger brother was sent to her mother’s parents.

Sally clearly remembers the life she had while living with her grandparents. They were nomadic, living in tents and moving frequently. They lived by fishing with nets, trapping and snaring animals for food and clothing, blueberry picking, cutting wood and washing their clothes. She remembers wearing a warm rabbit jacket and moccasins made with moose hide. The moccasins had fur around them. Sally recalls that her grandfather gave her a gun when she and her cousins went to check the snare lines for rabbits. The gun was used as protection from wolves. She remembers cutting wood while her grandfather was resting or asleep. Their way of life was satisfying and they were self-sufficient.

Sally’s memories of Residential School (RS) are unique in that she describes, in detail, her experiences as she remembers them as a young child.

When she was just five years of age, the people remember seeing a plane for the first time. They had never seen a plane before, and thought that it was a “cross in the sky” and it was the coming of their Higher Power, “Kechemanido”.

When the plane landed, the pilot emerged and handed out candy to the children. Shortly after, the pilot took the Sally and the other children away in the plane. The pilot locked the door of the plane so that no one could escape. Sally clearly remembers all the children crying. They did not take any of their belongs with them.

When the plane landed, she saw a large yellow “container” which she now knows was a bus. The children were transported a long distance in the bus. While on the bus they were given peanut butter sandwiches and juice. Sally remember staring outside of the bus and seeing the trees go by. She wanted to get out of the bus, but could not. Many children cried loudly as the bus proceeded to its destination.

The children arrived in Kenora, to St. Mary’s RS. Many Indigenous elders have commented that St. Mary’s was not a good school.

Upon arrival, all the children were put into a single file to stand. Sally was relieved when she recognized her first cousin. Her cousin told Sally not to say anything, and to do as she was told. But Sally did not understand English anyway.

The children walked in a single file and their hair and clothing was checked. In retrospect she now knows that they were checked for lice, but at the time, the children were not cognizant of what was happening.

Sally frequently mentioned during the interview of the bewilderment that she felt.

The children were then bathed and given pajamas to wear. That was her first experience of warm water. While on the Reserve, the children bathed in the rivers and lakes and the water was always cold. The pajamas had a number on them, and Sally’s number was thirty-eight. Her cousin told her, in her native language, that thirty-eight was now her name. She was to never forget that number. That was her first English word. Whenever he heard that “name”, she was to do exactly as she was motioned or told to do. In addition, the children wore the same pajamas all the time. She does not remember how frequently they bathed, but she knew that it was not very frequent and the children had to wait their turn in order to take a bath.

Sally remembers the first night very clearly. The children were put into two large dormitories, where each had about 50 bunk beds. All the children were crying, and few if any, slept well that night. For the first time in her memory, Sally slept alone, as she remembers always sleeping with her grandmother.

In the dormitory for younger children were three people who were nuns and who would hit the children when they cried. That was the first time that Sally recalls being physically stricken. Sally cried that entire night.

Everything was confusing for the children, especially because they did not understand English. It was strictly forbidden for the children to speak their native language.

Often the children were standing in a circle and when they heard a school bell, typical of the loud school bells used at that time. They had never a bell before and were confused as to what to do. Eventually they learned to “follow the crowd”. As the bell went off, someone would proceed in a certain direction and all would follow. Again, for the first few months, Sally did not understand what was happening and knew very little of the routines and schedules.

The students were awoken at 6:00 am and at 7:00 am, every day of the week, was church service. The services were in Latin which Sally eventually understood was different than English. Often during the services, people would bow their heads, and not knowing why, Sally did the same.

As the service took place early in the morning, and the children did not understand the practices or customs, many feel asleep. They were brusquely awoken.

It was all so confusing. Just follow the crowd, do as the others did, or get hit.

The church services lasted between one to one and half hours. After church service, at 9:00 am, the children were fed breakfast. The opening meal of the day consisted of oatmeal, pancakes and occasionally, eggs. Initially it was very strange eating this food. They had never seen it before, and it tasted funny.

When the children sat at the breakfast table and the meal was served, it was strictly forbidden to touch the food until grace was said. During grace, the students bowed their heads in prayer. Sally did and other younger children did the same only because they saw others do alike. At five years of age, one is not very cognizant of the surroundings, one just follows the crowd.

In Sally’s own words, “it was a tough Catholic faith”.

After many months of church service, Sally remembers that she began to memorize the sermon. She eventually knew what the priest was going to say before he said what he chanted the sermon. Latin then became her third language, after her mother tongue and English. However, on one occasion, she was harshly strapped on the hands and her derriere for repeating mass. As the words of mass were considered sacred and were only spoken by the Priest. Sally was eight years old when this happened and she clearly remembers that it hurt.

It was sternly forbidden for the children at RS to speak in their mother language. Even at her young age, she did not want to lose her ability to express herself in Ojibway. So Sally spoke to herself in her language, in her mind.

Classes started for the children at approximately 9:30 am. The students studied the English language, to understand simple words as “come here” and “run”. They were taught the colours and numbers.

During recess time, they were allowed to play with toys and dolls. Sally remembers a doll that had blue eyes. She thought this was so strange as she had never seen blue eyes before.

When she was outdoors, and out of site of the guardians, Sally created her own world with people made of flowers and dogs made of sticks. These people and dogs had names and they communicated to each other through Sally’s voice. Sally once stole some play dough and she created more people with the play dough.

Many children who have been neglected and abused do create their own world. They do this to survive their unfortunate circumstances. Today, psychologists consider this to be healthy and a natural means of survival. The human imagination is very powerful.

At St. Mary’s RS, Sally remember three individuals who worked there. She remembers Sister Damier (correct spelling not known) who had a nice soft voice that made the children want to approach her. Though she seemed nice to Sally, she never hugged or touched the children. Sister Chengier however, was not very nice at all and would hit the children. Sister Chengier was the nurse who hit the children and exposed them to more pain by giving the children needles. Sally did not know what a needle was, but learned quickly that it hurt. They were strongly discouraged from crying.

Finally Sally remembers Dr. Perry (or Parry). What followed with her relationship with him was unspeakable and unimaginable abuse.

In April of Sally’s first year at RS, the nuns told her that her father had passed away. Luckily Sally’s first cousin was with her and she was able to comfort and hold Sally. The nurses expressed no empathy with Sally on the death of her father.

That first summer, Sally was not able to return home. As she cried too often, it was decided that she stay in the dorm at the school. This compounded the neglect she experienced as a young child in that she was rarely embraced as children need to be at that age. During the summer, as a six year old child, she slept along with other children in a large dormitory deprived of human interaction.

After her second year of RS, the summer of 1958, Sally was allowed to return home for the summer. When she arrived, she was so elated to see her grandparents that she talked a “mile a minute”. She felt ecstatic. She ate fresh fish, moose meat and received medicine from the land.

Conversely, many other children who returned home were not as fortunate. They were welcomed with open arms by their family, but they had lost their ability to express themselves in their language and converse with their family.

At the end of the summer, when the plane came back to take the children to school, many ran away and hid in the woods. Sally’s grandmother asked Sally not to run away and hide, as she feared that Sally’s grandfather would be put in jail. Only with great reluctance did Sally board the plane.

Feelings of alienation first ensued when she returned to school and that still linger with her today. She felt that she was no longer a person of her culture like her grandparents and extended family back home, and she was someone who did not belong to the Europeans at RS, even though she now knew many of their customs and their language. She was “caught in the middle”. The staff at RS treated her as not a true European, and the family at home, thought that she too was strange.

Today, Sally feels uncomfortable returning home to her Nation, North Spirit Lake. She is different. She has to prove that she is an Indigenous person. She has to struggle to find her identity. In 1994, she was elected as the first woman Chief of North Spirit Lake.

Here in Dryden, though she speaks English fluently and is very articulate, she feels different. She is not a full member of the community. She struggles for over fifty years to understand and prove herself to both cultures.

Sally is aware that many students at DHS, who come from remote communities, feel very lonely. She encourages others by relating her story. While she spent the eight years at RS, she was not able to write letters, or to phone her family. There was such a disconnect between the remote communities and RS that many parents did not know that their children had died. Many children ran into the bush in the wintertime and their bodies were later found frozen in the snow. The family members were only informed of their child’s passing when other children from the Nation returned home and told the parents of the tragic events that unfolded.

The children here can phone regularly, write letters and use social media like Facebook. However, these are not adequate to assuage the loneliness and isolation that children from the North experience while they live in European urban areas like Dryden.