The Lansdowne Letters: Requisitions ~ Argh!

Teaching Indian children in the remote village of Lansdowne House
in the wilderness of Northern Ontario over fifty years ago
was a challenging undertaking for my father.

During the time I have been sharing his letters on my blog,
I have written about the challenges he faced.

Don MacBeath
Graduation,  Acadia University, 1950
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue
All Rights Reserved

He headed North to teach Indian children
for the first time after a one day introduction course
he attended in Sault Ste. Marie.













My father later said of this experience in a handbook he wrote:
"Far from being encouraging and informative, the introduction I received
was a veritable nightmare of half-truths, outright falsehoods, rumours, 
and misrepresentation of facts which, instead of being informative, helpful,
and reassuring, left me so mixed up, frustrated, and apprehensive
that I almost resigned then and there."

When he reached Lansdowne House after a multi-day weather delay in Nakina
and looked at his belongings off-loaded on Father Ouimet's beach,
my father realized that he was truly on his own.
His new job would test him in ways he had never been tested before. 

On His Own

The Beach on the Father's Island

Lansdowne House, Northern Ontario, Fall 1960

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

Some years later my father wrote a short handbook for northern teachers
while attending St. Francis Xavier University in Antigonish, Nova Scotia.
At that time he planned to return to the North and resume
his education career with the Department of Indian Affairs.

My father hoped to publish the handbook and use it with all teachers
working for the Sioux Lookout Indian Agency.
If the handbook proved a successful instrument,
he hoped it would be adopted by other Indian agencies as well.

However, life for my father took a different direction,
and regrettably, the handbook was never published.

My Father's Handbook

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

I refer to my father's handbook often when I am writing,
because it contains information about what my father thought
and felt about his teaching experiences in the North.

Curiously, in the handbook, he never addressed his school's physical problems
that he constantly had to solve - from the lack of furnishings, to the falling ceilings, 
to the cantankerous and dangerous oil stoves.
My father's new school, I might add,
because the previous one had burned down the year before.
He also didn't refer to the constant battle he had to wage
trying to move the government bureaucracy to action.

My father rarely complained and usually made light of his problems.
His following terse letter says so little and so much. 


Thursday, January 12, 1961 
My father wrote to our extended family:

This has been a bad week, 
and I am going to have to make this letter short also.  

Tomorrow is mail day, and I have just discovered 
that I have to make up several requisitions 
and submit a couple of reports in tomorrow’s mail.  
I promise that I’ll have a much longer letter next week.

I have been having a lot of trouble with my school, stoves, and oil supply, 
and I have to make out a detailed report, 
so Mr. Foss can act on it for me and get things fixed for me if he can.

Bye now.  I will start a nice long letter tomorrow 
and have at least seven pages next week.
Love, 
Don.

My Father's School

Church of England Day School

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

I think what kept my father from resigning on the spot in Sault Ste. Marie

was that he had a wife and five young children dependent upon him

and the position paid more than a teaching job on the Outside.

Whatever his reasons, I am grateful that Dad went on to Lansdowne House.
My experiences there had a profound and lasting impact on my life.
Some of them were wonderful and others were devastating;
but they were all enriching and unforgettable.

Till next time ~
Fundy Blue


Bay of Fundy out of Westport, Brier Island
© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

Notes:  

1.   Mr. F. Foss:  
      Mr. Foss was the Indian Schools Inspector who visited the two Indian schools
      (Anglican and Roman Catholic) in Lansdowne House two or three times a year.
   


For Map Lovers Like Me:

Aerial Photograph of Lansdowne House

The Mainland and The Father's Island (Couture Island), 1935

You can clearly see the Father's beach where Dad's luggage was offloaded from a canoe.

Credit: Canada. Dept. of Indian Affairs and Northern Development / Library and Archives Canada / PA-094992

Original of Above Photo

Credit: Canada. Dept. of Indian Affairs and Northern Development / Library and Archives Canada / PA-094992

A Quick Sketch of Lansdowne House by My Father

© M. Louise (MacBeath) Barbour/Fundy Blue

All Rights Reserved

Lansdowne House, Ontario

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