The Four Who Froze

This prayer card honors Rose Prince of the Carrier Nation who spent much of her life in the Lejac Residential School. Some believe that she will one day become a recognized saint in the Roman Catholic Church. I have no problem with her potential sainthood. What I do have a problem with is the sickly twisted history that this picture illustrates.

The back of this prayer card reads, in part:

"Heavenly Father, you shared so deeply with Rose Prince, of the Carrier Nation, your gift of serenity, and shared with her your love for your creation. Grant through her intercession that we may share your serenity and your peace of soul, and may we too rejoice in the beauty of creation that surrounds us on every side."

I  believe the picture on the right is of three of the four students from

the Lejac Residential School that froze to death as they attempted to return home at -30C. Please notice how they are dressed.

'They found the bodies in the slush and ice of Fraser Lake. Four children, aged eight and nine, lying according to Canadian Press reports huddled in each others arms “capless and lightly clad,” frozen in the final dark embrace of a January night. The temperature was -30 C.

Maurice Justice and Allen Willie were eight years old. Johnny Michael and Andrew Paul were nine. All four were runaways from the harsh confines of the church-run Lejac Residential School. It was Jan. 2, 1937, when their bodies were found roughly six miles from the school and less than one from the Nautley Reserve, which was their believed destination. They had just wanted to go home'.

They are dressed as white children of the times were. They were not allowed to wear native clothes. They were not allowed to speak their language. And they most assuredly would not have had access to what I believe is a 'Talking Stick' such as Rose is holding.

If they had ever shown up for class dressed as Rose is in the prayer card they would have been viciously beaten, possibly thrown into isolation and fed bread and water for a time. It would not have been unusual for them to be raped  by various staff members. But the rape would not have been punishment... just fun for the staff.

The Residential Schools were a government directed, church assisted, attempt at Cultural Genocide. Pretty little girls did not wear their traditional garments and carry Talking Sticks. Pretty little girls and handsome young boys did however get beaten, raped, tortured and killed in the Residential Schools.

History is history only if it is taught and remembered.

I will not forget.