page_title: Pelican Lake Indian Residential School
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Pelican Lake Indian Residential School / History
caption_attribution_description: English: A large 2-3 story red brick building, with white windows and a white roof.
context_page_description: The Pelican Lake Indian Residential School, also known as known as Pelican Falls Indian Residential School, or Sioux Lookout Indian Residential School, was a Canadian Indian Residential School that operated from 1929 through 1969. While it was in operation the school took Ojibway and Cree students from both Treaty Three and Treaty Nine territories in northern Ontario and eastern Manitoba. Former students of the school have reported experiencing physical, psychological, and sexual abuse while attending the school.
context_section_description: Also known as Sioux Lookout Indian Residential School, Pelican Lake Indian Residential School was established in 1926 and officially opened in 1929. The school was one of the approximately three dozen schools operated by the Anglican Church of Canada. It was the state-enforced Indian Residential School for Ojibway and Cree students from both Treaty Three and Treaty Nine territories in northern Ontario and eastern Manitoba. When it initially opened it housed a total of 125 both boys and girls, but this number increased to 150 by the late 1940s. As like most residential schools, the school was designed in a way that the male and female students had limited interaction with each other.  Usually students were removed from their families and brought to the school when they were six years old and stayed until they were twelve.
  When it first opened, the school was a half-day in the classroom, and half-day doing general labor. This labor was gendered with young boys doing physical labour such as carpentry and the girls doing more domestic tasks such as laundry and cooking. In 1947 the school transitioned to a full day school system. As documented by the Church itself, the conditions of the school were poor.  In 1946 the General Synod of the Anglican Church of Canada set up an Indian Work Investigation Commission to review and raise the standards in its schools. After a three-year investigation it was recommended that Pelican Lake be closed as it was deemed substandard. The Anglican Bishop at the time successfully lobbied to keep the school in operation.
  Pelican Lake Residential School closed in 1969.
caption: Pelican Lake Residential School.
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