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Beauval Indian Residential School (1895-1983) near the northern village of Beauval, Saskatchewan was a Canadian residential school operated by the Roman Catholic Church for First Nations children. It was run by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Grey Nuns.
Contents
The school was located on what is now the La Plonge 192 (Indian Reserve) across the Beaver River from Beauval. La Plonge 192 is part of the English River Dene Nation and had 115 residents in 2011.
A fire on September 19/20, 1927 and an influenza epidemic in 1936 took the lives of many of the students.
History
The Beauval Indian Residential School opened in 1895 and closed in 1983. It then became the Meadow Lake Tribal Council’s Beauval Indian Education Centre which closed in 1995. The main building was demolished in the summer of 1995.
In 1911 when Bishop Charlebois visited the school he wrote that all the 44 children there were taught both French and English but that the use of French dominated. The school had less than 50 students in 1927 when the wooden building was destroyed by fire. The second floor housed the girls dormitory and on the third floor (just under the roof) was the boys dormitory. The 19 boys that perished may have been all the boys living in the school (almost half of the student population). By 1931 the school had been replaced by a brick structure and in 1936 a flue epidemic took the lives of more students.
Fire of 1927
"The fire started at the centre of the building close to the furnaces. It spread into the hallway and into the boys dormitory and closed the outside exits. The children tried to save themselves through an inside staircase but were stopped by the flames. The whole boys dormitory was in flames. The older girls were heroic in guiding the younger girls to safety. Father Francois Gagnon almost suffocated. In the blink of an eye the building was totally engulfed in flames. The furnaces had been checked just three days previously. Sister Lea (Bellerose) and 19 boys, from the ages of 7 to 12, died." wrote the principal of the school Father Mederic Adam. (translation) "The burnt remains of the twenty victims were buried in two caskets." wrote Father Penard.(translation)
The following list of boys who died in the fire was taken from the memorial monument.
Epidemic of 1936
"In the course of last winter an epidemic of influenza and measles ravaged the north-west part of the Vicariate. It first started in Beauval and struck almost all the population. Our Indian school and the rectory were immediately converted into hospitals and despite the efforts of the religious personnel there were 60 victims, 20 at the school and more than 40 among the families of the Mission. With an equal violence the epidemic arrived rapidly to our other Missions of the north particularly Île-à-la-Crosse, Buffalo River (Dillon) and Portage La Loche. In each of these Missions the death toll was around 50 people." wrote Bishop Lajeunesse in 1937 (translation).