IN THE LAST FEW YEARS THE IMPACT OF the Indian residential school system has become the subject of much discussion both within First Nations communities and the media. Victims of Benevolence (Cariboo Tribal Council) by Elizabeth Furniss is a new study of government investigations into the care of students at the Williams Lake Indian residential school, focussing on the death of a runaway boy in 1902 and the suicide of a young boy in 1920. "This is the story of a young boy named Duncan Sticks. Duncan was born in 1893 into the family of Johnny Sticks at Alkali Lake. At a young age Duncan was taken to the Indian residential school near Williams Lake, British Columbia, where he spent the remaining years of his life. Duncan was unhappy at the school. When he was seven years old Duncan ran away from the school. That time he managed to make it back safely...to his family at Alkali Lake, some forty kilometres away. He was sick when he got home, and when he became healthy again his father returned him to the school. In February 1902, when he was eight years old, Duncan once again ran away from the school. He was outside, working under the supervision of a teacher, when he and eight other boys ran off. The others were caught, but Duncan disappeared into the woods. His body was found the next day by a local rancher. Duncan had died by the roadside thirteen kilometres from the school. This is also the story of a young boy named Augustine Allan from Canim Lake. Augustine committed suicide while at the residential school in the summer of 1920. He and eight other boys had made a suicide pact and had gathered together to eat poisonous water hemlock. Augustine died, but the other eight survived.
"Why did these boys die? What was happening at the Williams Lake residential school? Why were children running away, or attempting suicide?" 0-9696639-0-0

[BCBW, 1993] "First Nations";