Item R00005958 - Building Maintenance, Supplies, and Accounts

St. Michael’s Indian Residential School (IRS) was located on Cormorant Island in Alert Bay off the north coast of Vancouver Island. The IRS operated from 1894 - 1974 (80 years) and closed on December 31, 1974.

Other names identifying the residential school from 1893 - 1929 were Alert Bay Boys’ Home, Residential School for Boys, Indian Girls’ Home at Alert Bay, Boarding School for Girls, Boys Industrial School, Alert Bay Industrial School, and Alert Bay Girls’ Home and from 1929 - 1974 as Indian Residential School, Alert Bay, St. Michael’s Indian Residential School, Alert Bay Indian Residential School, St. Michael’s Hostel, St. Mike’s, St. Michael’s Student Residence, Alert Bay Student Residence, and St. Michael’s Indian School.

The Government of Canada was responsible for funding the Alert Bay Boys’ Home and was managed and operated on behalf of the government by the Church Missionary Society. The Government of Canada was responsible for funding the Alert Bay Girls’ Home and was managed and operated on behalf of the government by the Anglican Diocese of British Columbia, Anglican Church in Canada. From 1922 until 1929, both the Alert Bay Boys’ Home and Girls’ Home were funded by the Government of Canada and managed and operated by the Indian and Eskimo Residential School Commission of the Missionary Society of the Church of England in Canada. From 1929 until March 31, 1969, the school was managed by the Missionary Society of the Church of England in Canada (MSCC), which later changed its name to the Missionary Society of the Anglican Church of Canada. The MSCC had three different administrative organizations involved at the school:
1) The Indian and Eskimo Residential School Commission until 1946,
2) the Indian School Administration until 1963, and
3) Residential Schools and Hostels Division until 1969.
The federal government took over the management and operation of the IRS on April 1, 1969, until closing in December 1974. On June 8, 1912, an agreement was signed between His Majesty, the King, represented by the Superintendent General of Indian Affairs of Canada and the Right Reverend John Charles Roper, D.D., Bishop of Columbia, Victoria, for the management and operation of the IRS. In 1948, an agreement between the government and the Missionary Society of the Church of England in Canada required children from the IRS to attend classes at the Indian Day School (IDS). On May 1, 1962, an agreement between Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada and Missionary Society of the Anglican Church of Canada for the management and operation of the IRS was signed.

No information regarding which grades were taught at the IRS.

Students from the following bands attended the IRS: Ahwamish, Aiyansh, Bella Bella, Bella Coola, Campbell River, Canyon City, Cape Mudge, Gilford Island, Gitlakdamix, Greenville, Hartley Bay, Kincolith, Kitamaat, Kitasoo, Kitkatla, Kitselas, Kitsumkaylum, Kitwancool, Kitwanga, Klemtu, Klowitsis, Kwawawain, Kwawkewlth, Kwawwawaineuk, Kwickeutaineuk, Lakalzap, Mamalillikulla, Masset, Matilpi, Metlakatla, Nakwakto, Nimpkish, Nishga, Nuwhitti, Oweekayno, Port Essington, Port Simpson, Quatsino, Quawshelah, Skidegate, Squamish, Tanateuk, Tsawataineuk, Tsimpsheen, Tumour Island.

Statistics for student enrolment are inconsistent with a low of 32 in 1916 and a high of 228 in 1959.