In the first five years of this Sault school for girls, 83 per cent of its students either died or left

City Council will be asked to recognize a less-than-honourable chapter in Sault Ste. Marie's history – the Wawanosh Home for Girls.

At its most recent meeting, the local Municipal Heritage Committee agreed to recommend a sandstone monument at the residential school's original location on Great Northern Road at Willoughby be designated under the Ontario Heritage Act.

If approved by City Council, designation will recognize the importance of the monument next to Royal Canadian Legion Branch 25, and provide a process to ensure it is preserved over time. 

As SooToday's Darren Taylor reported earlier this month, the Legion is working with Sal-Dan Developments, proposing a new Legion branch and apartment building there.

Started in 1879 by Rev. E. F. Wilson, the Wawanosh Home was one of Canada's first residential schools for girls.

Its history is less than noble.

Rev. Wilson accepted 78 girls during the first five years of the school's existence.

Only one girl remained there the full five years.

Nine others either died or left due to illness.

Most of the others just quit and returned to their reserves.

The following background information was presented earlier this month to the Municipal Heritage Commitee:

History of the Wawanosh Home

While Reverend Wilson did accept girls at Shingwauk, only a few came that first year and none thereafter.

In reality, there was little space for female students at this boys’ home.

To accommodate girls, a separate residential school building was established on a 15-acre site five kilometres away, just north of the village centre.

It was named the Wawanosh Home for Girls.

Construction of this grand two-storey stone building commenced in spring 1877 and the first 10 girls arrived that fall, before work was completed.

The building fund was depleted in 1878, prompting new subscriptions for funding.

As the federal government was now more involved in native affairs (following passage of the recent Indian Act of 1876), it agreed to make an annual grant to the Wawanosh Home, provided enrolment was not less than fifteen.

The home was officially opened on Aug. 19, 1879 with 14 girls in residence.

In his quest to expand and streamline school facilities, Reverend Wilson soon realized that the isolated Wawanosh Home with its limited enrolment should be sold off.

He formulated plans in the late 1880s to move the girls to larger facilities at the main Shingwauk site on the St. Marys River.

There was little support for this school expansion program, probably due to the recession in the 1890s.

Reverend Wilson resigned as principal in March 1893, owing to ill health and frustration over not being able to consolidate the boys' and girls' homes.

This task would be achieved by others, a few years later.

The Wawanosh School for girls was opened in 1879 at a site not far from the Shingwauk school in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

An 1883 study showed that 83 per cent of the girls who had attended the school had either died or left the Wawanosh Home in less than five years.

When a new addition was built for the girls in 1900 it was discovered that there was no way to heat it.

In 1900 the girls' school moved to the Shingwauk site.

In 1935, the two schools were merged to create the Shingwauk Residential School, which was housed in a new building.

Chief Wawanosh

Chief Wawanosh (other known names: Joshua Wawanosh, Joshua Waywaynosh) was born along the shores of Lake Superior in the 1780s, but moved south and settled on Lake Huron in the Sarnia/Walpole Island region.

The name for the school was likely chosen due to the time Rev. E. F. Wilson spent in the Walpole Island area.

He fought in the War of 1812, and became chief shortly after the fact.

One of the chiefs for St. Clair Regional Band was Joshua Wawanosh.

Wawanosh had a remarkable and checkered career as a leader of the St. Clair Chippewas.

He became a chief shortly after the war of 1812 in part because of his military service on behalf of the Crown in the war of 1812.

By the mid-1820s, Crown officials and other Chippewa chiefs recognized Wawanosh as the head chief.

During his time as head chief, Wawanosh maintained four reserves of land for his people, all in what is now Lambton County.

He remained monolingual in Ojibwe his whole life, and died in 1871.

The Wawanosh Home experienced difficulties with funding both prior to opening due to a lack of funds delaying construction, which began in 1877, for two years and a low enrolment after opening.

The school would be moved to the site of the Shingwauk School in 1900 and the two schools were officially merged in 1935 with the construction of a new building.

The residential school remained there until 1901 when the girls were moved to the Shingwauk Residential School site on Queen Street.

The Wawanosh home was demolished in 1965.

The Wawanosh Home was part of the residential school system which operated in Canada from the early 1800s until 1996, and aimed to assimilate Indigenous children into Euro-Canadian culture.

The residential school system has been acknowledged as a National Historic Event by the Government of Canada.

The monument serves as a reminder of what once stood on the site, and of the legacy of the residential school system in Sault Ste. Marie and Canada.

Designating the monument as a heritage property would fall under the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 79, which calls for the commemoration of residential school sites and history and working with Indigenous organizations to recognize what has happened.

Description of heritage attributes

Key attributes that express the value of the monument as a reminder of the Residential School system and its connection to Sault Ste. Marie’s history include:

• the monument serves as a reminder of what once stood on the site, and of the legacy of the residential school system in Sault Ste. Marie and Canada
• it is constructed of local sandstone similar to other historical monuments and plaques in Sault Ste. Marie and is designed to be aesthetically pleasing and is in fairly good condition
• the monument mentions both the first matron and superintendent of the school and the fact that the Wawanosh Home was one of the first all-girls residential schools in Canada