The Toronto Globe and Mail published an article on the history and the tragedy of this school on July 24, 2012. The introductory section is reproduced below. One may read the complete article at the
Globe & Mail.
The true purpose of this school, the largest building in the British Columbia Interior when built, was to disenfranchise natives of the BC Interior and Southern Alberta from their culture and their language. Run by Catholic missionaries, it instructed 5000 less than willing children from the Okanagan, Shuswap and Blackfoot Nations in addition to the area’s Ktunaxa Nation.
Unlike every other school built by the Canadian government at the time, this school was not designed by government architects but by Allan Keefer, a private Ottawa architect. Erected in 1910, this was the first "comprehensive Indian Industrial and Residential school to be built in the Canadian West". After closure in 1970 the British Columbia embarked on an abortive attempt to repurpose the school as a facility for the mentally handicapped.
The building remained empty for twenty years before the Ktunaxa people took it upon themselves to turn it into a
world class destination resort, with golf course, casino, hotel, restaurants, lounges and more.
Residential school goes from
tragedy to triumph
ROD MICKLEBURGH
CRANBROOK, B.C. — The Globe and Mail
Published Tuesday, Jul. 24 2012, 8:59 PM EDT
Last updated Sunday, Sep. 09 2012, 10:28 PM EDT
For more than half a century, the hated brick building of the St. Eugene Mission swallowed up native children and spit them back out, traumatized and damaged from their years of family separation, cultural assimilation and worse.
Even after the Catholic-run residential school closed its doors for good in 1970, deep physical and emotional scars remained.
As the abandoned building deteriorated, most natives wanted it torn down. But the old school, whose three storeys loom over the reserve of the St. Mary’s Band of the Ktunaxa Nation Council, did not succumb to the wrecker’s ball.
Instead, in a remarkable, one-of-a-kind turnaround, the St. Eugene Mission has been transformed into a handsome, upscale hotel, with an adjacent casino and championship, 7,000-yard golf course.
After a faltering start that saw several brand-name hotel partners fall by the wayside and the fledgling development file for bankruptcy, the St. Eugene Resort is on its feet, 100-per-cent native-owned and closing in on its 10th anniversary.
From the painful, destructive legacy of native residential schools, there is no reclamation project quite like it.
Read on at the Globe & Mail