Lejac Indian Residential School

RESIDENTIAL SCHOOL Magazine

2013-12-25T17:38:00.001-08:00

A NEW MAGAZINE! Go here: https://www.facebook.com/ResidentialSchoolMagazine

Verne Solonas (then & now)

2013-12-14T19:09:00.000-08:00

Verne Solonas (March 2010)

Verne Solonas (far right Dec.1964)

Who'll Stop the Rain?

2013-12-13T19:33:00.003-08:00

3RD DRAFT....

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by Marc Klijnsmit (Nov. 2013)

SAMPLE

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HERE IS A BEAUTIFUL SAMPLE CREATED BY OUR TECH GUY. I LUV THIS EXAMPLE OF WHAT OUR MAGAZINE COVER PAGE COULD LOOK LIKE.

2013-11-25T18:23:00.001-08:00

We are having a problem naming the magazine. Seems there are other publications called HOPE so we are asking people for their ideas on Facebook to try and come up with a suitable name for the magazine. Thank you.

Did I ever say

2013-11-18T17:07:00.004-08:00

welcome to our member Richard Abraham.

STOP HEY WHAT'S THAT SOUND.....

2013-11-18T16:27:00.003-08:00

Measle Epidemic 1963

2013-11-17T16:56:00.001-08:00

Hi Jim. Here are those hockey sticks you were talking about which you used for IVs for the boys. Pretty amazing how many uses you can get out of a stick. That was a good idea. This looks like Intermediate dorm. I remember all us boys being sick in bed....almost the whole dorm. We all got food poisoning after eating turkey on one of our Band trips. Even our supervisor got sick. That was in 1968....Mr. Kenny was our Intermediate dorm supervisor. (Verne)

HOPE Magazine

2013-11-17T13:49:00.002-08:00

We are launching a magazine called HOPE Magazine focusing on the positive side of things at residential school. We are looking for stories from former students and people who worked at a school. If you have a story you want to tell please contact Verne Solonas at:

Verne Solonas
General Delivery
McLeod Lake, BC
V0J 2G0
Email address: jackman2@telus.net
Phone: (250) 750-4662

Thank you and best regards all.

FROM THE PAST

2013-11-15T10:49:00.001-08:00

Vern,

About a year ago I found Dr. John Godel who cared for us at Lejac in the early sixties. He lives on one of the small islands off Vancouver Island. This is part of a letter I sent to him prior to contacting him. He was a wonderful doctor and went on to serve the people in Africia. You can type his name into Google and see a 10 minute Video on his life’s work. We were lucky to have had his services at Lejac. Jim

To Dr. John Godel

Dear John,

Now here is a voice from your past, early 60’s, Lejac Indian Residential School, Bro. James Callanan.

I fondly remember your weekly visits to care for the children and the staff at the school. I remember the night I called you and asked you to come out to the school because I was afraid I would have one of the children die by the next morning without your intervention. You came to the rescue and you had to send one of the Lejac staff back to the Vanderhoof hospital to get a bunch of IV equipment because about 6 of the boys were totally dehydrated. While we waited for the IV equipment to arrive back at the school you took an extra stethoscope out of your satchel and handed it to me and began to teach me how to recognize pneumonia. I still have that Stethoscope. I think you found 7 or 8 pneumonias among the 50 boys we had down with the measles. When the IV equipment turned up I got some hockey sticks and taped them to the beds and then taped coat hangers to the hockey sticks so we could hang the IV bottles. You then taught me how to run the IV’s. What an experience and what a responsibility. I was all of 23 years old at the time. I think I went almost 3 days without sleep trying to keep the boys alive and nursed back to health. One of the boys ended up with a large patch of white hair in the center front of his head. It appeared over night and stayed with him permanently. Thank God that was the only permanent damage as a result of the epidemic.

Another time you came to my rescue was when I built a Heathkit guitar amp for the boys dance band and I could not get the darn thing to work. I phoned you and took it in to your house. After about an hour or so testing you figured I had one faulty radio tube. I picked one up at the local radio store and was in business. Again thanks.

Jim Callanan

(received November 15, 2013)

WHO WE ARE

2013-11-14T20:43:00.001-08:00

My name is Verne Solonas, the Administrator for this blog. 'tina' is short for The Indians of North America and we have four blogs including Lejac Indian Residential School, Sekani, Make Me Do Anything You Want (a music blog) and of course TINA (The Indians of North America) which is a closed blog but available upon request as it is not for everyone.

If you wish to submit any articles, photos or stories please contact me at:

jackman2@telus.net

WHERE OUR ADDICTION STARTED

2013-11-14T16:17:00.003-08:00

Addictions are most often the result of trauma. As children we see or hear things which cause us huge amounts of stress. Things such as something bad happening to someone you love. Or being in a place without your parents especially your mom who always comforts and holds you when you are hurt or scared. Growing up on an Indian reserve I saw a lot of bad things such as people drinking and fighting which horrified us kids. Especially Friday nights when all the parents returned home from the hotel drunk and lot of times would end up with people screaming, hollering at each other in an all-out brawl. The way we dealt with it was when our parents left next day to get back to their partying us kids rounded up all the bottles we could find and pooled all our money together and head to the store on the highway where we bought candies and pop. That was our way of covering up the trauma from the night before and to say 'It's all okay' and to re-assure ourselves that everything is fine. Because Saturday night is probably going to be just like Friday night all over again!

We learned things as children. We learned to cover up the pain and the trauma....by doing things which made us feel good and to forget. But we also started ourselves down a road toward addiction which is how we dealt with stress and trauma when we got older. We tend to make bad choices as adults because we never grew up properly and in many regards we are still like children. We never matured like we should have, we develop physical problems because of our smoking, drinking and our drugs. We don't think of God because we think he doesn't care for people like us. And we shoot off the handle at all the little things. We blame others which of course means we don't have to look at ourselves or do anything to make our lives better because IT'S NOT OUR PROBLEM.

Addiction is people acting out their trauma. Most often from their childhood. Problem is if you don't nip it in the bud and get help it gets worse and worse. And each time you deal with it, and each time 'you fall off the wagon' it's harder and harder to get back on. That is the life of an addict. That is true whether you are addicted to drugs, alcohol, gambling, sex, TV, or what have you. There is no way out except to make that decision to fix it! Because 'hey we are all broke'.

WHAT ARE WE DOING?

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SLIDE SHOW

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SLIDE SHOW

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SLIDES

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WELCOME MEMBERS

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Welcome to our newest member Naomi Jules. Cheers folks hope you are all keeping warm! Administrator

WELCOME

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....to our newest Member James. Cheers all.

Slide show

2013-08-01T22:53:00.002-07:00

Verne Solonas

I ran into a guy at Walmart yesterday who came in as a supervisor at Lejac just when I was leaving there in 1971. I think he started working at Lejac around 1972. He said he has a lot of pictures and so I'm going to try n track him down again to see if I can interest him in doing a slide show somewhere with his and my collections

Facebook

2013-08-01T22:51:00.000-07:00

Verne Solonas

Hi Jordana: Please feel free to use whatever pictures, stories or material you wish for your school and projects, Hope you are able to get something out of it. I am glad you enjoy the blog. One thing, do you mind if I use your comments to post on the blog? It is always nice to see others' reaction when I use other peoples' comments right on the blog which of course demonstrates that people are visiting it. Thank you Jordana. Have a nice day

OUR NEWEST MEMBER

2013-07-22T18:35:00.004-07:00

WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST MEMBER AMBER

FACEBOOK

2013-07-19T11:54:00.000-07:00

Conversation started Thursday
11:16pm

Jordana Irene Luggi

Hello Verne,

I am sure you know my dad - David Luggi. I'm his eldest daughter and a student at Emily Carr. Whilst doing research on Lejac Residential School (for an art project I am completing for next month and submitting to an exhibition in September on Canada's residential school system) and I love the Lejac Residential School blog and all of the photos on it. I would very much like to use some images, if possible. If not, just wanted to let you know I love the blog.

All the best,
Jordana

ROSE PRINCE

2013-07-11T15:53:00.000-07:00

Frank PEEBLES
Citizen staff
fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca

July 2, 2013

The body of Rose Prince did not cool for hours following her last breath, according to the nurse at her side when she died of tuberculosis on Aug. 19, 1949. After doctors did an extraordinary battery of tests to ensure Prince was in fact dead, she was laid to rest during a Catholic funeral befitting her devout faith. The service was held on what would have been her 34th birthday, and her resting place was a graveyard near the Lejac Residential School, where she spent her childhood as a student then carried straight on living and working there in her adult years.

This grave was not her final resting place, however, and when the time came to move her during a cemetery transfer in 1951, one man's macabre curiosity set off shock waves felt all the way to Rome. Jack Lacerte was there, the only remaining survivor of the many witnesses to something divine. Now an elder, and a decorated retiree of the RCMP, he remembers that moment like he just walked in today from the field overlooking Fraser Lake where he, his father Phillip Lacerte, brother Victor Lacerte and a Stoney Creek Reserve friend of Phillip's were digging up 15 or 20 caskets in a small, discontinued Lejac graveyard in a cow pasture and ferrying them by horse and stone-boat to a larger, better maintained cemetery nearby. It was about a week's worth of work.

"I must have been about nine or 10 at the time," said Lacerte. "My dad opened each and every casket. He didn't do anything to the bodies inside, just opened the lid and looked in. To me, there was no need for that, but he opened them all. He had been there a long time, working at Lejac school, working for the Catholic Church, so he knew the story for almost all these graves - who would be bones, who would be less decomposed."

Lacerte said the opening of the wooden box containing Rose Prince startled his dad.

"There was a real hissing sound that came from Rose Prince's casket when dad pried the lid open with the shovel. That didn't happen with the others. It kind of took dad by surprise. Dad knew she had been dead for years, so he was astounded when he looked in. He called us all over to look. I remember the blouse she wore was crispy white, it looked freshly laundered. It was actually kind of scary. Her face, her body, everything looked like she'd just laid down to sleep, like she'd only been in there an hour."

The band of labourers transported the casket up to the new cemetery and called out the people inside the school. Lacerte estimated a group of six or seven priests and about a dozen nuns came outside and stared at the pristine corpse of Rose Prince.

"It was breathtaking," Lacerte said. "Everyone was astounded."

It would have been a puzzling scene for anyone to observe, but for those of the Catholic persuasion, it was profound. Incorruptibility of an un-enbalmed dead body is not considered an outright miracle but is considered an act of the supernatural. It is one of the foundational conditions by which someone advances toward sainthood.

The first incorruptible saint was St. Cecilia who died in the year 177 but her non-decayed body was not discovered until more than 1,400 years later. Other famous incorruptible saints include St. Vincent de Paul, St. Albert, St. Francis Xavier, St. Bernadette, and the most recent was St. Maria Goretti who died in 1902.

Should Prince be forwarded through the various steps of beatification, she would become the first aboriginal incorruptible in the world.

A great deal must happen before Prince is added to the list of those canonized by the Pope as a supremely holy servant of God. Some of the other considerations include miracles attributable to the candidate that can be verified and if the candidate was martyred for their faith.

Father Vincent James presides over the Fraser Lake parish where Prince is interred. He said the Roman Catholic Church is never in any hurry to rush a canonization. The research takes its own course through time. For example, he said, the first aboriginal saint in Catholic history, Canadian-Mohawk St. Kateri Tekakwitha, died in 1680 and was not canonized until last year.

"We sent materials to Rome some time back, and a priest came here about six years ago and talked to us and told us we had a gem here but it would take a lot of work to get there. I have seen a lot of progress since then and in that way it is moving ahead," James said.

The most compelling evidence to Rose Prince being a saint was the medical ailments of Fraser Lake mine worker Nick Loza. It was disclosed by Loza and Father Jules Goulet that dirt from Prince's grave was used in a healing touch ceremony on his bad back. He was so wracked with pain from his condition that doctors had given up hope of repair. Yet, after the application of the dirt, the pain subsided and Loza was back doing regular physical labour soon afterwards.

Other healings have been attributed to Prince.

"If someone claims a miracle it has to be examined," said James. But even if official confirmation from the Pope never happens, the Father of Fraser Lake is pleased with what is already happening in the name of Rose Prince. An annual pilgrimage started by Goulet in 1990 with a few hundred people has grown to thousands who now attend each July from all over Canada and even other parts of the world.

"If even one person finds healing, it is worth it," James said. "And for those who come, it helps them in their lives, and that's what it is all about. And everybody's welcome, and many do come, not just Catholics, who just want to come share this time with us. It gets to be a busy place."

Known now as Rose of the Carrier, Prince is a religious icon but also a major figure of peace and reconciliation for the many aboriginal people touched by Lejac, a residential school with a tragic and horrific history. Prince is one of the few positive chapters in the Lejac story. Although he has long since renounced religion of any kind, Lacerte is also looking forward to attending the pilgrimage again this year.

"I don't feel resentment or hatred. I walk my own path now," he said, following his and his family's own victimization via the Lejac Residential School legacy. "What I would like to see is Rose exhumed again and placed on display, as many [incorruptible saints are] so the people can see for themselves, and feel closer to that amazing thing that I got to see."

The 2013 Rose Prince pilgrimage happens July 5 to 7 at Lejac, a few minutes east of Fraser Lake.

Boys at Lejac, 1962

2013-04-26T14:43:00.002-07:00

Thank you Jim for this photo of the boys standing along the fence on the Boys Side at Lejac Residential School, 1962. Is that Francis Holland from Burns Lake in the middle?