Norway House Residential School Timeline
1840
Reverend James Evans, of the Methodist Church, establishes Rossville Mission at Norway House, Manitoba, and soon opens a day school for the Cree children there.
1875
The Cree and Salteaux nations living around Lake Winnipeg negotiate Treaty 5 with the federal government, which establishes reserves at Norway House and other locations.
1898
The Methodist Church asks the government for funds to build a boarding school at Rossville. The Department of Indian Affairs funds the school’s construction and approves a $75 per capita to a maximum of 50 children.
1899
The residence opens in the fall with 56 boarders and a staff of three.
Vocational training consists of cutting wood, fetching water from the lake, tending the garden, cooking, baking, sewing, washing, and ironing.
Boarders attend the day school along with 50 to 60 day children.
The school’s first principal, E.F. Hardiman, finds it difficult to enforce attendance.
1902
The school suffers simultaneous epidemics of whooping cough, bronchitis, and pneumonia, with some chicken pox as well. Three children die.
1903
A schoolroom for older children is built for the residence; junior children continue to attend the day school.
Staff at the residence numbers six.
During the 1906/1907 school year, nine children die from tuberculosis.
1906
Charles Clyne runs away after being severely punished; his feet freeze and he is permanently disabled. The supervisor who had beaten him leaves the school and church employment.
1910
The residence building is in poor repair and the threat of fire from the wood-burning stoves is great; school officials decide to rebuild.
The Norway House band surrenders 40 acres of their reserve as a site for the new residence.
Principal Lousley complains of truancy.
1911
On April 1, the Department of Indian Affairs and the Methodist Church sign an agreement governing management of the boarding school.
1913
On February 26, the school burns down. The children, who number approximately 50, continue to receive classes. They are billeted in local homes, the hospital and the Hudson Bay Company store.
1915
The Department of Indian Affairs rebuilds the boarding school on the 40 acres allocated by the band, a short distance from the old school site. The new building, designed to accommodate 80 boarders, opens October 15.
Ninety-two children enrol the first year.
The school is ill prepared for so many children. Food and clothing are short, and children shows signs of malnourishment.
Principal Lousley has a boy tied up to prevent him running away, prompting an investigation by the Department of Indian Affairs.
1916
The school is overcrowded; children are sleeping two to a bed.
The community of Berens River refuses to send their children back after they arrive home with signs of frostbite and complaining that they had been fed rotten fish.
The school has five head of cattle and one team of horses.
Principal Lousley is dismissed.
1917
The new principal, George Denyes, begins to expand the school’s half-acre garden plot.
1918
A number of children orphaned by the Spanish flu epidemic are taken into the school.
1919
Denyes reports that the boys have cleared 30 of the school’s 40 acres and have brought several acres under cultivation. They also have 24 head of cattle, 24 hogs, and two teams of horses.
1922
The boundaries of the school property are altered to accommodate a roadway.
Enrolment reaches 100.
1923
Enrolment is 105.
By federal order-in-council, 571.2 acres of Crown land on Hope Island are turned over to the school for its use.
The Indian Agent reports that the school children are spending too much time “building fences and breaking new ground” instead of in the classroom.
1924
The exact boundaries of the lands provided to the school by the Norway House Band are defined.
1925
Management of the school transfers from the Methodist Missionary Society of Canada to the Board of Home Missions of The United Church of Canada.
The school petitions the Department of Indian Affairs to increase enrolment to 110, but the Department refuses.
1930
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police lays charges against Principal Shroup after he uses severe corporal punishment on a boy. The presiding judge dismisses the charges but warns the principal to punish with a strap.
1931
In an attempt to improve children health, Shroup begins to decrease enrolment. He also introduces outdoor exercise drills and has a slide and an outdoor rink built.
The school is put on the half-day system, with classes in the morning only.
1933
The school is hit by a whooping cough epidemic when the children return from summer holidays. The disease may have been brought from Oxford House, one of the children’s home communities.
Shroup increases the dairy herd to provide milk for the children.
Enrolment has dropped to 89.
1934
Principal Shroup asks permission from the Department of Indian Affairs to keep children over 16 in school to help run it.
Shroup is dismissed.
1935
The school is quarantined due to an outbreak of chickenpox.
1940
There is an outbreak of typhoid fever, which may have originated in God’s Lake.
1942
Principal Caldwell introduces goats to provide milk for the school.
The Hudson’s Bay Company signs an agreement, drawn up by the school, to hire Norway House Residential School graduates.
1946
On May 29, the school burns down in a fire that starts in the furnace room. With the aid of two boys, children and staff escape safely. The children are billeted in local homes until they can return to their communities.
Enrolment is 105.
1948
The Department of Indian Affairs begins to survey for the construction of a new building.
1952
The new boarding school, with room for 120 children in residence and two dorms in separate buildings to reduce the risk of fire, reopens in September.
Farming ceases and the half-day system is abandoned.
1955
Anglican children who cannot be accommodated by Prince Albert Residential School in Saskatchewan begin to attend Norway House.
1957
Norway House Residential School and the Rossville Day School amalgamate.
1964
There are 138 children in residence and another 242 who are children at the day school.
1965
The Executive of the Manitoba Conference agrees to close the school within two years, to give them time to find alternative accommodation for residential children.
1967
On June 30, Norway House Residential School closes and the building converted to a day school classroom.
The 40 acres assigned to the school revert to Norway House Reserve Number 17.
Management of the day school passes to the federal government.
1968
The Crown-owned property on Hope Island is transferred to Manitoba on August 30.
1969
In July, Manitoba takes over the school system at Norway House from the federal government.