The following text has been excerpted from the White Goose Flying Report, a local adaptation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s report written by the Calgary Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee (CAUAC).

The Story of Jack White Goose Flying and Residential Schools in Calgary

In 1899, a seventeen-year-old young man from the Piikani Nation in Brocket, Alberta (Treaty 7 territory) died of tuberculosis at Calgary’s only residential school: St. Dunstan’s Anglican/Industrial School (1896-1907). He was buried on a hill above the school overlooking the Bow River (south of present-day Bonnybrook Wastewater Treatment Plant in Ogden). His grave was piled with stones and surrounded by a white picket fence. There his grave remained, outlasting the school at which he had been a resident.

While many Indigenous children in southern Alberta died while attending residential schools, at St. Dunstan’s they were sent home when they contracted an illness or injury and died with their families. Jack’s circumstance is the only known exception at this school, although his name and his story were forgotten over time his grave remained.

In 1956 the Calgary Albertan newspaper ran a story asking for help in identifying the name of the person buried there. This brought the grave's existence to the attention of local historian Hugh Dempsey and his father-in-law Senator James Gladstone. James had attended St. Dunstan’s at the same time as Jack. With a name now in hand Dempsey took it upon himself to maintain the site.

By 1971 the destruction of the grave was imminent due to industrial development in the area. Dempsey and the Reverend David Carter with the help of city Alderman John Ayer, secured permits to have the remains moved to one of The City’s cemeteries. The Land Department was also aware of the grave and purchased a cemetery plot. On September 30, 1971, the remains of Jack White Goose Flying were re-interred in Queens Park Cemetery.

Jack’s story bears witness to the fact that residential schools existed in Calgary and surrounding areas. Seven generations of Indigenous children (150,000 in number) were removed from their families and went through the Indian residential school system. This occurred predominantly in the western and northern parts of Canada. They were taught that “their lives were not as good as the lives of non-Indigenous people, their languages and cultures were irrelevant, their people and their ancestors were pagans, heathens and uncivilized, and that they needed to be assimilated.”

Evidence presented through the TRC process has established that the residential school system was created intentionally to eliminate parental involvement in the social, spiritual, cultural and intellectual development of Indigenous children. At least 4,100 children died while attending school due to illness, abuse, starvation, and living conditions — more than one in 50 students — and the TRC estimates the actual toll could be 6,000 or higher. At least 821 of those deaths were in Alberta (CBC News). At the St. Barnabas (Sarcee) Residential School at the nearby T’suu Tina reserve, a 1920 medical survey found that, of the 33 pupils at the school “all but four were infected with tuberculosis.’” (National Center for Truth and Reconciliation)

Alberta had the most residential schools of any province, at 26 (by some counts 30). One Calgary school was discovered within city limits in Ogden (St. Dunstan’s Industrial School). There were several residential schools surrounding Calgary including two in the Piikani Nation, two in the Kainai Nation, two at the Siksika Nation, one known as Dunbow School, or St. Joseph’s (close to High River), one at the Stoney Nation and one at the Tsuut’ina Nation. In total, 10 residential schools in and around Calgary took Indigenous children from their families for 111 years. The last of these schools remained under government control, including Kainai, which assumed tribal/band control in 1975.

Many survivors living today still experience the aftermath of the traumatic effects of the residential school system. In June, 2015, Calgary City Council asked its citizen advisory committee, the Calgary Aboriginal Urban Affairs Committee (CAUAC), to deliver recommendations on which of the 94 Calls to Action identified in the Indian Residential School Truth and Reconciliation Summary Report were actionable by local government. The White Goose Flying Report is a summary of their recommendations. CAUAC believes that if The City of Calgary were to implement the three categories identified (encompassing 43 of the total 94 Calls to Action recommended by the TRC), The City would be moving toward sustainable reconciliation.

Sources:

The White Goose Flying Report: https://www.calgary.ca/content/dam/www/csps/cns/documents/cauac/white-goose-flying-calls-to-action-cauac.pdf

CBC: City consulting with Treaty 7 Nations on Green Line alignment https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/green-line-lrt-first-nations-consultation-1.3913119

CBC: More than 800 residential school students died in Alberta — advocates say it's time to find their graves
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/residential-school-graves-alberta-1.6046329

National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation
https://memorial.nctr.ca/?p=1507