Buried Stories
Ottawa, 1879
After visiting many industrial boarding schools in America, I am of the firm opinion that they provide an excellent model for us. If these children only go to day schools, we will not be able to change them. They will simply go home to their reserves and live with their families in the old ways. Like the Americans, we must take them away to schools where they will live and learn to be good farmers, maids, factory workers and so on. When we separate them from their families, they can learn much more. They will soon give up their habits of living out on the land and staying up until all hours during hunting season. Through order and firm guidance, we will make them into good little men and women — neatly dressed hard workers with good manners. I recommend that the Department of Indian Affairs begin by establishing no more than four boarding schools of this sort in the Canadian North-West.