The Chooutla Indian School
History – established in 1904. Near Fortymile, the school was set-up by the federal government after outcries of underfunding were directed at the Church Missionary Society in England who were not suffice for the task. Education was implemented not only to provide “solid education” but also semi-industrial and typical boarding school education, not limited to religious studies (by the time the Church of England took much of the departments over by 1911). The grounds originally housed shacks but the Department of Indian affairs intervened and sought out upgraded facilities in the fall of 1911. It was under the supervision (until his death in 1906) of a Bishop Bompas, a major figurehead in the missionary community in Carcross – where the original motive was to foster an education for orphaned children of the Yukon and neglected children within the territory. The school was often a crowded place to be.
Objects and methods – of the housed 35 native children, most were considered to be taught under the doctrine of the missionary Staff: Christianity, and the life, first to be founded within the kids at the school, then (hopefully) extending and being utilized efficiently in their own communities upon graduation. In a practical way, Girls are taught domestic things such as house-keeping and sewing while Boys are on the gardening and carpentry side of things. The work of the Staff overall is to ensure “that the knowledge of Jesus of Nazareth” is incorporated into everyday praise and work, honoring...
