User:Kitamaat/sandbox

= Elizabeth Emsley Long =

With the newly built Home for Boys and Girls at Kitamaat, B.C., the Women's Missionary Society (WMS) went through their cache of mission workers to run the Home. In 1896, the WMS appointed Elizabeth Emsley Long to be the matron of the new schooling institution at Kitamaat, B.C. The Home for Boys and Girls was constructed with the financial support of the WMS. The WMS was also instrumental in the Crosby Home for Girls at Fort Simpson being built and established.

Prior to her appointment to Kitamaat, "In the 1890s, Elizabeth Emsley Long was sent to the Wesleyan Methodist School in remote Fort Simpson where 'she not only had to cook, sew and play the organ, but to teach and nurse the sick" (Whitehead, Margaret. "Women Were Made For Such Things:  Women Missionaries in British Columbia 1850-1940" In Atlatis.  Vol. 14 No.1  Fall/Autumn 1988.  Like many early schooling institutions on a  select few Indigenous communities in Canada in the 1800s, the curriculum at the time "simply listed 'domestic sciences' or 'sewing' for female students, indicating that they were confined in their vocational training almost exclusively to skills suitable for a future as wives, mothers and homemakers." Her duties while at Fort Simpson (later Port Simpson) under the direction of Reverend Thomas Crosby would have given her first hand experience schooling non-English speaking children the gospel and the domestic sciences such as housekeeping, knitting and European style cooking by the time she left for Kitamaat.

Reverend George Raley would have been surely relieved to learn that Reverend Crosby was relieving one of his cache of workers to assist in the training of the Kitamaat children. Long was accompanied by Patrick Russ (Tsimpshian)add link), who a number of years earlier accompanied Susannah Lawrence, who was the first white woman and missionary at Kitamaat. Russ was fluent in Chinook and was her interpreter.  The Chinook language was crucial for the work the early missionaries felt they had to carry out. Raley was satisfied with the results he was witnessing. According to Raley, "The Home is specially helpful in effecting the remedy for girls being trained in what will be useful to them not only at the present time but also when they marry.  Miss Long is trying to inoculate them with a love of cleanliness and order, she is training them in sewing, cooking and other departments of household industry."  Long did not limit her time with just children, she also exposed adults in the community to the gospel.

The curriculum at the Home at Kitamaat was schooling the girls in what was expected of British women at he time, with the goal of emulating such women. She would have had the support of Reverend George Raley's wife Maude, who would have been volunteering her time in support of her husband. She was accompanied by Patrick Russ (Tsimpshian) who a number of years earlier accompanied Susannah Lawrence who was the first white woman and first missionary to live at Kitamaat. Patrick Russ was Lawrence's interpreter, as he was fluent in Chinook. The Chinook trade language was crucial for the work the early missionaries felt they had to carry out.

Another key curriculum component in this Home was mastering the English language. Mastering the English language was an important benchmark to ensure that assimilation was happening, which was the same in all of these institutions built specifically for Indigenous children. As Long stated in an article written for Na-Na-Kwa, she succinctly states the importance of the English language. "They are allowed to talk only in English during meals and sewing lessons." Na-Na-Kwa No 5 April 1896) (add link)

Being the Matron of the Home for Boys and Girls at Kitamaat, Long was a regular contributor to Na-Na-Kwa, which was a periodical that was printed at this institution.

Elizabeth Emsley Long died in 1907. A year after her death, a new Home for Boys and Girls was constructed at Kitamaat, B.C. with financial backing from the WMS. Reverend George Raley named the new Home the Elizabeth Long Memorial Home.