Item R00009364 - General Administration

St. Joseph’s (Fort William) Indian Residential School (IRS) was initially located on the Fort William Indian Reserve on the banks of the Kaministiquia River near the town of Fort William from 1870 - 1909. On January 8, 1909, the IRS relocated to the town of Fort William on the northwest corner of Frankin and Arthur Street. The IRS was in operation from 1870 - 1970 (100 years). Effective September 1968, St. Joseph’s (Fort William) Indian Residential School operated only as a hostel until it officially closed on June 30, 1970.

Other names identifying the residential school include Immaculate Conception Orphan Asylum, St. Joseph Convent Orphanage School, St. Joseph’s Indian Home, Fort William Orphanage Boarding School, St. Joseph’s Home, St. Joseph’s Orphanage, St. Joseph’s Indian Industrial School, Fort William Orphanage, Fort William Indian Boarding School, St. Joseph’s Residential School, Fort William Indian Residential School, and St. Joseph’s Boarding School (no dates identified).

The Government of Canada was responsible for funding the school, which was managed and operated by Roman Catholic nuns affiliated with the Society of the Sacred Heart of Mary from 1870 - 1884. From 1885 - 1970, it was managed and operated by the Sisters of St. Joseph. In 1959, the federal government officially declared St. Joseph’s (Fort William) IRS a private institution continuing to pay for the maintenance and education of Indigenous children. In 1911, an agreement was signed between the federal government and the Bishop of the Diocese of Sault St. Marie for the management and operation of the IRS. Students attending the IRS came from Fort William Band, Savanne, Nepigon, Pays-Plat, Pic River, White River, Long Lake, and Gull Bay Reserve.

No information available on grades taught at the IRS currently exists.

Student enrolment at the IRS ranged between a low of 7 in its first year, 1870, and 135 in 1951.