God's Explorers

A Television Documentary by Susan Cardinal

Church and State: The Joint Venture

The signing of the Indian Treaties was the catalyst that sent the Oblates in a direction that would come back to haunt them. The residential school era was launched with the blessing of both church and state. This joint venture gave the Oblates enormous power over the Dene, and it also tied them to Ottawa’s money.

Raymond Huel, history professor at the University of Lethbridge says,

 "On the one hand the government has the responsibility for Indian education but doesn’t have the manpower, and the Oblates have the manpower but they don’t have the money. So the two come together. It becomes a joint venture with the religious groups actually running the schools and the federal government paying for it."

Ironically, the Oblates – once reputed as being champions of Dene rights – would become branded as destroyers of native culture. The residential schools became sprawling complexes capable of housing dozens of children - collected by boat from remote camps along the Mackenzie River and deposited in a world they had never seen before. Discipline was rigorous. Many children were traumatized and never got over it.

"What the native people found out is that what the missionaries also required was a total cultural transformation of the native people," says Father Guy Lavallée, omi, a Métis priest from Manitoba. 

"I think the Oblates came here with good intentions but … with non-violent intentions, they practically destroyed a people … the native people. By asking them to change their religion, the missionary attacked the very soul of the native people."                                 

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"The Church was loved by the people. The Church was powerful. But we hit the Titanic with modern society"

Bishop Denis Croteau, omi

Bishop of the Mackenzie Valley in "God's Explorers"

omi - Oblates of Mary Immaculate

God's Explorers' funding agencies and broadcasters