User:Sharayiah/sandbox

Saint-Joseph's mission was built back in 1867 on July 5th, this was established to help the local natives, and to spread Christianity to the indigenous. St. Joseph's was not established a residential school until 1886. Currently the only thing left of the residential school is the historic cemetery remains.

The first year it opened was in 1872, and only 11 male students were enrolled. Native children in Williams Lake were obliged to attend St. Joseph's due to the fact that they did not attend the schools in town. Since the town of William's lake was so spread out, it was a job to be able to travel back and forth between the residential school and home. So, most native communities lived at the St. Joseph's Residential School.

St. Joseph's school was well-built, the rooms had many beds laid out, with tinted green walls, and every room was quite tidy. When people would visit the children at the residential school, the visitors would be fed fine meals like roast beef and chicken in a separate room as the cafeteria. In the room you could see little windows, but in those windows you could see children peering through watching you eat. When the conversation of children being taken away from their homes was brought up, there was a feeling of tenseness in the room, and a feeling of defense.

During the residential schools there were many events that occurred. Some events that happened were the death of a runaway boy as well as the suicide of another that both ran away from the Willaims Lake Residential School.

Years late, St. Joseph's mission came out with a series of scandals, shocking those who enrolled their children. Some of the scandals consisted of: the conviction of a molester who has received a jail sentence. Another scandal was an employee who was given the job of a disciplinarian, who had become a prostitute. The most shocking scandal that occurred at St. Jospeh's was that Father O'Connor, who had been a priest since 1955, was charged with having an affair with a native girl, causing her to give birth to a child.

In 1957 the residential school was donated to the Department of Indian Affairs after it had burned down. The "Oblate Brothers of St. Joseph" gave up their roles and ended up becoming counselors, teachers, recreation facilitators, and social workers. A swimming pool was then opened at the mission, as well as a new gym, church, and rectory. St. Josephs reopened in 1981 being called "Cariboo Indian Education and Training Centre" with 272 students being enrolled.

The residential school was then operated by the Roman Catholic Church until it closed on March 31, 1969. Afterwards it was managed and operated by the government.