Battleford Industrial School shown in 1895. The Residential School in Battleford was one of the first to open in Saskatchewan. It operated in the former Old Government House building from 1883 to 1914. (Battleford Industrial School/Facebook)

By Angela Brown

Town council

Parks Canada to install plaque at Old Government House site about residential school history

Mar 5, 2024 | 8:23 AM

The Town of Battleford council has given its consent to a request from Parks Canada to have a plaque installed at the site of the former Old Government House, south of Battleford, to identify it as the former site of the Battleford Industrial School, a residential school that operated from 1883-1914.

“At the site right now, there are storyboards that explain the history of the building and the site,” Mayor Ames Leslie said following Monday’s council meeting, adding that Parks Canada came to the realization that there was no mention of the residential school in their storyboards on the building.

“They have reached out to the Town of Battleford since we own the property, [asking] if we would be willing to work with them to add a storyboard talking about that the site was also a residential school.”

Parks Canada will cover the cost of installing the plaque and Leslie believes the initiative is important to document the history of the Battleford Residential School.

“I think it’s the true history of what that building was used for,” he said. “It’s a dark history, but it’s still [important] to identify that there was a residential school in the town of Battleford, and it was in that building.”

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Leslie added that members of council said they didn’t realize that there was a residential school there and that many people out there would like to know the whole history and the story of it.

It was also noted during council that the town is planning to have an engineering study completed in the area around the tall smokestack on the grounds of the Battleford Industrial School ruins as the land near the smokestack is caving in a bit.

“Proactively, we’re trying to do it this spring,” Leslie said. “We’ll work with our engineering firm to make sure if anything has to be done, to make sure we can solidify that area. So that will move forward. I just brought it up tonight that we wanted to make sure that Parks Canada is aware, just in case for some reason the wheels of the federal government move quicker than we are able to get the study done.”

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Angela.Brown@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @battlefordsnow