T'Shama

Kerry Abel is a professor of history at Carleton University. She is the author of Drum Songs: Glimpses of Dene History, co-editor of Aboriginal Resource Use in Canada: Historical and Legal Aspects, and co-editor of Northern Visions: New Perspectives on the North in Canadian History.

The author, who served from 1945 to 1959 as the boys’ supervisor at
St. George’s Indian Residential School near Lytton, B.C., recounts the
highlights of that experience by describing what the children at the
school taught him about their society, values, and characters. The
predominant image of life at the school is a happy one filled with
boyish pranks and exuberant learning, while the author’s respect and
affection for his charges shines through every chapter.

Although the book is not long, readers are provided with a variety of
interesting anthropological details such as fishing techniques, food,
and medicine, as well as stories told in the various nations of the
region. It is written in a lively, anecdotal style that makes pleasant
reading. Undoubtedly it will be criticized by those who prefer to stress
the negative aspects of the residential school experience for Native
peoples, but this author’s perspective also deserves to be heard.