The Lansdowne Letters: A

He had just endured a confusing one-day orientation in Sault Ste. Marie
followed by more confusing days stranded in Nakina.

He was about to face unexpected challenges that would have had some teachers
on the shortwave radio at the Hudson's Bay Post chartering a flight back to Nakina ASAP.


During his "indoctrination" by officials from the Education Division
of the Indian Affairs Branch of the Department of Citizenship and Immigration,
my father was informed that he would likely be teaching
twenty to thirty Ojibwa and a few Cree children
from Kindergarten through Grade 6,
many of whom could speak no English ~
But all this would have to be confirmed after his arrival in Lansdowne House.

He found out that he would likely be staying
with the Roman Catholic teacher at the Roman Catholic mission
or possibly living by himself at the Department of Forestry building ~
But all this would have to be confirmed by the Indian Agent after his arrival in Nakina.

My father also learned that his school was located on the "Mainland,"
which was really the tip of a long peninsula sticking out into Lake Attawapiskat;
and, if he boarded on the Father's Island at the mission,
he would have to commute by canoe between the two ~
Fortunately the Department of Indian Affairs would pay for him
to rent a canoe from the Hudson's Bay post if that proved necessary.



When my father left Sault Ste. Marie by train for Nakina,
he anticipated waiting a day, two at the most,
for a chartered plane to fly him into Lansdowne House.

Instead, a series of unfortunate events stranded him in Nakina for four nights:
bad weather in Nakina, followed by bad weather in Lansdowne House,
followed by his pilot breaking his leg playing baseball.

My father spend much of his time
waiting on the weather and on a new pilot from Sudbury
trying to track down the Indian Agent
who was supposed to arrange his flight and his accommodations.

While marking time in Nakina, my father played chess with at the telegraph office,
socialized with a teacher from the nearby Aroland Reserve,
and talked to a number of Indians.



He dug up more information about his new position,
some of it conflicting:
No, he would not be teaching Ojibwa children,
he would be teaching Cree children.
He would have only twenty-one students
from Kindergarten to Grade 4.
But maybe fewer ~
His students could be heading for the winter traplines
because no teacher had shown up.

My father found the news on the mission encouraging:
It had both electric lights and indoor plumbing,
whereas the forestry house had neither.
He fervently hoped he would land at the mission,
for he had begun to dread the thought
of living alone in the forestry building. 

And land at the mission he did, off-loaded
from a cargo canoe on a strip of sand
by a fringe of bush on the Father's Island.


A French Canadian Oblate brother emerged from the bush
to help my father drag his trunk and baggage up to his new home.

My father wrote of his new home:
"We have a nice unpretentious little two-room cottage to live in.
The front room we use for a living room,
washroom, cloakroom, and general store room.
The back room we use for a bedroom, a library, and study." 




  Nice and Unpretentious:  Back Room (left), Front Room (middle),
   Dad in the Bedroom/Library/Study (right)
    Photo by Uno Manilla
   © M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
      All Rights Reserved





And of his new roommate:
"My roommate, or rather my bunkmate companion for the winter,
is a very nice chap by the name of Uno Manilla.
You will probably think the same as I thought at first,
that he is either Italian or Spanish.
Actually, he is of Finnish extraction.
He is very young, but he has taught Indians before."




In 1960 Northern Ontario had 54 Indian schools 
scattered across its wilderness of rock, lake, and muskeg.
My father's was one of the 38 single-classroom schools
and one of three new Indian schools built that year. Table
Father Ouimet lent him old handmade desks stored in his attic,
and my father hired Indians to ferry them over to his school
in Father Ouimet's 18-foot freighter canoe.

My father made the rounds of the Hudson's Bay,
the Department of Transport, and the Nursing Station 
scrounging card tables and chairs
from the avid, card-playing white community.

A little later he spotted plywood sitting on the DOT dock
that belonged to the Department of Indian Affairs.
Inspired, he had two Indians to carry a sheet up to his school,
and then he borrowed two low sawhorses from Bill Mitchell at the Bay.
The result was a kindergarten table for his youngest students.

After some scrounging and improvising, my father had seats for his students,
but would he have any students to sit in those seats?



That was the beginning of a number of challenges
my father had to overcome at his new Indian school.

He could not foresee the problems ahead of him:
shoddy construction, falling ceilings,
malfunctioning and dangerous oil stoves,
and slow and incomplete shipments
of equipment and supplies flown in by bush plane ~
not to mention him having to haul all the water used in the school
and having to periodically hand-pump 400 hundred gallons of oil
from 45-gallon barrels into the school oil tanks.

However, my father quickly realized
that if you wanted to be a successful teacher in the North,
you had to be ready to tackle anything.








Till next time ~
Fundy Blue



Boars Head Lighthouse
Tiverton, Long Island, Bay of Fundy
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

Notes:  
1.  Shortwave Radio:
     The only way to talk with someone on the Outside was by shortwave radio.  The one my father
      typically used was located at the Hudson's Bay Post.  The only other means of communication
      was via the telegraph or mail.

2.  The Hudson's Bay Post:
     The "Bay" was a commercial establishment where the Ojibwa traded their furs for supplies.
     Anyone could purchase goods at the Bay.   

3.   ASAP:
      The acronym "ASAP" stands for "as soon as possible." Its use originated in the US Army. 

4.  The Roman Catholic Mission: 
     The Roman Catholic church had an OMI Mission on Couture Island just off the peninsula
     containing the Hudson's Bay Post and the Department of Transport buildings in Lansdowne
     House.  The mission included a church, rectory, school, recreation hall, sawmill, the "cottage"
     Uno and my father rented, and a graveyard.  OMI means Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate.
     The OMI fathers and brothers are sometimes referred to as Oblate fathers and brothers.

5.  Department of Forestry Building:  The Department of Forestry building was for use as a place
     to fight forest fires in the area.

6.  The Father's Island:
     Officially the "Father's Island" was called Couture Island after Father Joseph-Marie Couture,
     a Jesuit missionary who traveled the region by canoe and dogsled.  In 1938 the Oblate fathers
     took over the far northern Roman Catholic missions.  The Nipigon Museum Blog 

7.  Father Maurice Ouimet and Brother Raoul Bernier:  
     The Oblate priest and brother at the Roman Catholic Mission in Lansdowne House.
     They were members of the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate,
     a missionary religious congregation in the Roman Catholic Church.
  
8.  White Community: 
     The white community consisted of the Mitchells (HBC), Brian Booth (HBC), Uno Manilla
      (RC teacher), the McRaes (DOT), the MacMahons (DOT), Father Ouimet (OMI),
      Brother Bernier (OMI), Margaret Kelly (nurse) and my father Donald MacBeath (CE teacher).
      The Ojibwa community would not have had tables or chairs to lend to the school.

9.  Liquid Capacity Conversions:
      400 gallons = 1514 liters


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