"Arts, Faculty of"@en . "Social Work, School of"@en . "DSpace"@en . "UBCV"@en . "Woodward, Mary Twigg Wynn"@en . "2012-03-13T18:14:24Z"@en . "1949"@en . "Master of Social Work - MSW"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "The subject of this is juvenile delinquency among the British Columbian Indian girls, but it is presented against a background of the living and opportunity conditions of the native Indian, especially the girl who leaves her home and comes unguarded to the metropolis. The study attempts to throw light on the causes of Indian delinquency and the current method of treating Indian offenders from a specific sample of cases. The main research material is taken from the Girls' Industrial School records of the girls of Indian blood (twenty in all), who were committed there between the years 1944 to 1948.\r\nThe project was undertaken in full knowledge of the scant material available, but this very lack of material forms one of the findings of the study. So far as the records take the story, Indian delinquent girls show the same causes for their anti-social behaviour as White delinquent girls, but because they are Indian and part of a greater problem, negligible inquiries are made into the reasons for their actions, and their behaviour is explained as 'typically Indian'. Secondly the findings show that Indian girls are treated as an extraneous group. Their rehabilitation into society is unsuccessful because the British Columbian authorities are overwhelmed by the administrative difficulties involved, attention is at present concentrated on other delinquent problems which are not so complex. The conclusion is drawn that the fate of these Indian girls must promote greater awareness of the part social work could play in helping other Indian children. The conditions under which the Indians live are a discredit to Canadian welfare standards. It is evident that not only personal social services are needed, but-as with other delinquency problems - standards in homes, health and education must be raised. At present Indian delinquency is too isolated as a purely legal offence, a new approach is needed which will recognize it as a welfare problem as well as a criminal problem."@en . "https://circle.library.ubc.ca/rest/handle/2429/41366?expand=metadata"@en . "JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AMONG INDIAN GIRLS An Examination of the Causes and Treatment of a Sample Group, and the Resulting Social Implications. by MARY TWIGG WINN WOODWARD Thesis Submitted i n P a r t i a l Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree of MASTER OF SOCIAL WORK in the Department of Soc i a l Work 1949 The University of B r i t i s h Columbia ABSTRACT The subject of this i s juvenile delinquency among the British Columbian Indian g i r l s , but i t i s presented against a background of the l i v i n g and opportunity conditions of the native Indian, especially the g i r l who leaves her home and comes unguarded to the metropolis. The study attempts to throw light on the causes of Indian delinquency and the current method of treating Indian offenders from a specific sample of cases. The main research material i s taken from the G i r l s ' Industrial School records of the gi r l s of Indian blood (twenty in a l l ) , who were committed there between the years 1944 to 1948. The project was undertaken in f u l l knowledge of the scant material available, but this very lack of material forms one of the findings of the study. So far as the records take the story, Indian delinquent g i r l s show the same causes for their anti-social behaviour as White delinquent g i r l s , but because they are Indian and part of a greater problem, negligible inquiries are made into the reasons for their actions, and their behaviour is nexplained\" as 'typically Indian'. Secondly the findings show that Indian g i r l s are treated as an extraneous group. Their rehabilitation into society i s unsuccessful because the British Columbian authorities are overwhelmed by the administrative d i f f -i c u l t i e s involved} attention i s at present concentrated on other delinquent problems which are not so complex. The conclusion i s drawn that the fate of these Indian g i r l s must promote greater awareness of the part social work could play in helping other Indian children. The conditions under which the Indians l i v e are a discredit to Canadian welfare standards. It i s evident that not only personal social services are needed, but-as with other delinquency problems - standards in homes, health and education must be raised. At present Indian delinquency i s too isolated as a purely legal offence} a new approach i s needed which w i l l recognize i t as a welfare problem as well as a criminal problem. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Grateful acknowledgement i s made to Miss Aym Peck, Superintendent of the G i r l s 1 Industrial School, who so kindly made available a l l the School records of the Indian g i r l s . Without her co-operation and interest this study would not have been possible. TABLE OF CONTENTS Part I Introduction Page Chapter 1. Delinquency - An Aspect of Human Welfare The Indians of Canada. The relationship between s o c i a l conditions and juvenile delinquency. The process of c o l l e c t i n g material concerning delinquent Indian g i r l s . The welfare problem. Part I I - The Indian Surroundings. Chapter 2. The Social Heritage The s o c i a l background of the Indian g i r l s . Statusj r e l i g i o n j education; i n t e l l i g e n c e ; employment; health and character. Chapter 3. The Family Bond The Indians and the family concept. The parental pattern! some case i l l u s t r a t i o n s . The mentality and character of parents. The influence of re l a t i v e s i n the home. The l i v i n g conditions. Part I I I - Treatment Services for Indian G i r l s Chapter 4. Indians i n the Vancouver Juvenile Court The l e g a l position of Indian G i r l s . The f a c i l i t i e s of the Court. A survey of apprehensions and Court decisions . Chapter 5. Indians i n the Rural Juvenile Court gg The problem of Indian delinquency. The f a c i l i t i e s and administration oif r u r a l court. The short-comings of co-operating agencies judged from a study of records. Suggestions f o r improvement. Chapter 6 . The In d u s t r i a l School for G i r l s 71 The School and i t s functions. The response of Indian g i r l s to t r a i n i n g . Their release and after care treatment. Recommendations with a view to developing 'cottage home' t r a i n i n g . Part IV Implications Page Chapter 7. A Canadian Responsibility 84 A summary of the d i f f i c u l t i e s inherent in Indian delinquency. Some recommendations for govern-ment services. The contribution of the social worker. The lost culture. I V TABLES. AND,. CHARTS. IN THE TEXT Pages Table 1: School Attendance of Twenty Indian G i r l s 15 Table Zt Grade Attainment i n Relation to Age. 16 Table 3s Apprehension Record f o r Indian G i r l s . 47 Table 4: Committal Record for Indian G i r l s 62 JUVENILE DELINQUENCY AMONG INDIAN GIRLS Ah examination of the causes and treatment of a sample group, and the r e s u l t i n g s o c i a l implications. CHAPTER I INDIAN DELINQUENCY - AM ASPECT OF HUMAN WELFARE There i s a small r a c i a l group of people scattered throughout the provinces of Canada who l i v e i n a semi-primitive unenlightened state. They are the native Indians. Because as a whole t h e i r stand-ards of l i v i n g are primitive compared ?fith the rest of the country's population, the Dominion government with a view to re-education has undertaken sole r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for the task of governing them. For t h i s purpose reserve lands have been set aside i n each province where the Indians may l i v e under the guardianship of the Indian Department, and free from the dangerous influences of c i v i l i z a t i o n . The provinces are divided into t e r r i t o r i e s with an Indian agent at the head of each who i s responsible f o r the management of Indian a f f a i r s i n that agency. Besides t h i s the government has developed a special system of edu-cation, health, end assistance i n order to promote t h e i r welfare. The great plan to enlighten the Indians and bring t h e i r standards up to an acceptable l e v e l has not succeeded. At present they l i v e exactly as they did f i f t y years ago. They are governed by a statute, the Indian Act, which i s f u l l of r i g i d outdated regulations such as the denial of liquor and the confusing reservation status r u l e s , that hinder any progress. Their standards of l i v i n g are unbelievably low as evidenced by the exi s t i n g prevalence among them of poverty, under-nourishment, disease and f i l t h . The educational standards and attainments of the Indian schools are unfavourable compared with the pr o v i n c i a l schools and the children do not benefit from the p r o v i n c i a l c h i l d protection laws. Professional people i n medicine, education and s o c i a l work who have come into contact with the Indians, are beginning to r e a l i z e that the national policy has hampered rather than helped t h e i r struggle to gain a more advanced c i v i l i z a t i o n . They see the end results of the Indian way of l i f e i n , the warped growth physically and mentally of the children, the loose morality and apathy of the adults, end the d i r t end discomfort which p r e v a i l i n the homes. The basic causes of juvenile delinquency stem from such s o c i a l conditions as these. I t i s a symptom of diseased and mal-adjusted youth and i t i s everyman's concern, because i t i s the duty of the community to guide and teach young people of a l l r a c i a l origins to l i v e i n harmony with society so that they may become good c i t i z e n s . Delinquents are children who i n some way have not received the planning and protection of the community i n which they l i v e . Because they have been denied certain basic needs of c h i l d -hood, they are unable to adjust themselves to society, and thus they form a grou $> of youthful outcasts. Like a l l forms of behaviour, delinquency i s complex. So many factors must be taken into account before the reasons f o r a delinquent child's actions can be understood.. F i r s t there i s the c h i l d herself with her physique, her mentality, her emotional c h a r a c t e r i s t i c s . Then there i s the c h i l d i n r e l a t i o n to her family. Such things as the economic standard of the family, the type of care and love the parents have given her, and the outstanding 3 hereditary t r a i t s (mentality, character, weaknesses, strengths) a l l influence the c h i l d i n her adjustment to society. The c h i l d must also be viewed from the standpoint of her surroundings outside the home. The type of friends she makes, the school she attends, the way i n which she plays are an important guide to the kind of person she i s . Above a l l the c h i l d herself gives the r e a l clue to her delinquency, and i t i s the influence of the surroundl^environment which supports and v e r i f i e s the reason for her a n t i - s o c i a l behaviour. S k i l l e d analysis and understanding can uncover the needs which a ch i l d has been denied. What better topic than 'Delinquency Among Indian G i r l s 1 can bring to l i g h t the basic causes of a n t i - s o c i a l behaviour. Here are children who l i v e i n a world of semi-darkness, brought up under appalling conditions, discriminated against by the government and the people, and ill-equipped to s a t i s f y the demands of society. I t was not an easy task to discover facts about d e l -inquent Indian g i r l s because of the small number of them who appeared before the Vancouver Juvenile Court and the d i s i n t e r e s t of the B r i t -i s h Columbian correction authorities. The l o g i c a l s t a r t i n g point was an examination of the Vancouver Juvenile Court records. The only available records were dated from January 1946, and these were not the actual Court records but the record which the Vancouver Detention Home kept to mark the g i r l s ' admission into the Home following the apprehension of t h e i r offences. From the l i s t of names marked on the admission sheet a l l those who were i d e n t i f i e d as f u l l blood Indian 4 (a) were selected, and then the Court from i t s f i l e s supplied the information concerning the g i r l s . The number of g i r l s who appeared before the Court i n those three years was su r p r i s i n g l y low, and the information concerning t h e i r conduct and background was ne g l i g i b l e and poorly recorded. In an attempt to supplement the information which the Court supplied, the aid of the Vancouver Indian Department was en-l i s t e d . Here matters were even worse as the Indian agent f o r Vancouver kept no case records of anykind and could not r e c a l l a.ny d e t a i l s about the Indian offenders. The Indian agency at New Vfest-minster was also approached, but the agent i n charge resented any i n q u i r i e s about the Indians i n his t e r r i t o r y and i n s i s t e d that delinquency was not a problem among his wards. The l a s t resource for material was the record kept i n the G i r l s 1 I n d u s t r i a l School, and every g i r l of f u l l Indian blood (b) was selected between the years 1944 to 1948. The case f i l e s before 1944 were so inadequate that they were of no benefit to the study. Although the recording at the School was not of the high-est q u a l i t y , and the information was s t i l l sparse, they were vastly superior to the Court records and of necessity the main body of material has been drawn from the school f i l e s . Even though the information contained i n the thirty-two records that were f i n a l l y discovered was n e g l i g i b l e , the pattern of behaviour i n the stories of the g i r l s could be pieced together to (a) There were f i f t e e n g i r l s marked 'Indian', between January 1946 to October 1948. (b) There were twenty g i r l s admitted to the School i n the f i v e years. 5 throw l i g h t upon the root causes of t h e i r delinquency. The poor qu a l i t y of records which omitted repeatedly the most important facts on family l i f e , school and character gave the clue to the whole method of treating Indian delinquents. The fewest possible i n q u i r i e s were made into the background of these g i r l s and the resultant treatment was passive and useless. This then i s a study of delinquency among a sample group of g i r l s . Eecause the information on the Indian g i r l s vras so spexse, th e i r delinquencies and reactions to treatment have been described against the background of the Indian culture and way of l i f e . Their stories reveal many childhood grievances} deprivation, neglect, sordidness, discrimination and unequal opportunity. The reasons for t h e i r behaviour uncovers not only a problem i n delinquency, but a problem i n welfare: - the welfare of the Indian c h i l d . 6 CHAPTER I I THE SOCIAL HERITAGE \"Mankind everywhere i s faced with certain basic problems of existence. The way i n which these problems are dealt with (together with the s o c i a l usage, sentiments, and attitudes that develop around both the problems and t h e i r solutions) has been spoken (1) of as 'culture' or 'way of l i f e ' . \" The Indians are a race of people who have been caught between two ways of l i f e . They have abandoned t h e i r own native customs; yet they do not follow the White standards because they are not able to comprehend them. There i s no denying that Indians possess a culture-that d i f f e r s from western c i v i l i z a t i o n , but the popular b e l i e f that they are a b a s i c a l l y i n f e r i o r race i s untrue. The majority of the Canadian public see the Indian as a s t o l i d , impassive, d i r t y i n d i v i d u a l who had a c o l o r f u l past, but who has now sunk to the lowest degree of subject-ion and decadence. The popular conception of the Indian also pictures him as a remote dark-skinned person, who occasionally r i s e s above his environment to carve totem poles and k n i t Indian sweaters. This opinion i s largely the r e s u l t of prejudice and lack of knowledge. The average White community c r i t i c i z e the Indian according to the standards set by t h e i r own c i v i l i z a t i o n , and t h i s means that a true objective evaluation i s lacking. Hence the Indians form a special group, and t h e i r differences are accentuated by the ignorance of public opinion. (1) Leighton & Kluckhohn: Children of the People, page 252. 7 The policy of the Dominion government further i n t e n s i f i e s t h e i r s p e c i a l i t y . The question of Indian status i l l u s t r a t e s t h i s point. An Indian i s defined i n the Indian Act as: 1) a male person of Indian blood reputed to belong to a part i c u l a r band. 2) any c h i l d of such person. 3) any woman lawf u l l y married to such a person. (2) Often the persons who f a l l within these categories are not f u l l blood Indians, yet they have spec i a l Indian status because they are so c l a s s i f i e d by the d e f i n i t i o n . The Act makes no allowances and gives r i s e to a host of confusing problems. A-typical example of t h i s i s when an Indian woman marries a White man. As i s often the case a half-breed c h i l d i s born, and a few years l a t e r , the husband often deserts his wife. The mother usually returns to her home reservation, only to f i n d that her c h i l d i s not an Indian, end cannot receive any Indian benefits. This mis-fortune naturally f a l l s heaviest on the c h i l d . The Indian schools are loth, to educate a c h i l d who i s not l e g a l l y an Indian, and the White schools f e e l that i f the half-breed c h i l d i s l i v i n g with h is Indian mother, the r e s p o n s i b i l i t y of educating him i s not t h e i r s . Usually the public school i s miles away from the child's home making such schooling impossible. As the Indian Act i s a Dominion statute, the Indians are precluded from a l l the s o c i a l benefits enacted by the p r o v i n c i a l l e g i s l a t u r e . The Department of Indian a f f a i r s , i s responsible f o r (2) The Indian Act: Seel, cc 8 the administration of s o c i a l benefits, education, and t r i b a l funds. The Dominion also administers Family allowances to the Indians. The s o c i a l benefits which the Indiansreceive are n e g l i g i b l e . (a) The Indian Agent gives assistance i n kind to destitute Indians, and a similar form of Old Age Pension supplemented by monthly a l l -owance of eight d o l l a r s . The only advantage the Indians possess over the rest of the community i s that they are exempt from taxation i f they reside on t h e i r reservation. They do not possess the r i g h t to vote i n Dominion elections, nor may they buy any l i q u o r . Indeed they are regarded as children who must be u t t e r l y dependent on the Department of Indian A f f a i r s . This i n e l i g i b i l i t y f o r benefits under pro v i n c i a l l e g i s l a t i o n i s a serious problem, especially f o r Indians who are not l i v i n g on t h e i r reservation. The, Indiana Act as a l l Acts, has certain conditions with which Indians must comply i n order to r e t a i n t h e i r status. The most important of these i s that they must l i v e permanently on the reservation. The only exception to t h i s condition applie to Indians who work away from t h e i r home seasonally but return to the reservation at least once a year. Residence r e s p o n s i b i l i t y i s always a confused and complicated area. The Indian Act has avoided the problem of defining Indian residence by completely ommitting i t . One would deduce that an Indian who has resided i n a municipality f o r a year, and has not returned to his reservation during t h i s period, would have to comply with the B r i t i s h Columbia residence laws and pay his taxes l i k e any other (a>) assistance given i n the form of food t i c k e t s , clothes rationing, etc. person in that community. It also appears that Indians who live away from their reservations for more than a ye-ar, lose a l l their treaty rights, benefits and shares of t r i b a l funds and reserve lands. Besides this they place themselves outside the jurisdiction of the Indian Affairs Branch, and yet they have no claim for provincial benefits. In spite of these losses, this i s a very common occurrence among Indians. They do not attempt to become enfranchised as citizens, and yet they have l i t e r a l l y no status. They place themselves in the peculiar position of being Indian by blood, and yet not Indian by law. Truly i t i s a shocking state of affairs which implies very poor governmental administration. The unfortunate part i s that the faults of administration f a l l heaviest on the Indian children, many of whom are the victims of neglect and destitution. They can never be afforded the proper protection which the province offers under the Child Welfare Division, because they are either Indians under the Indian Act or Indians with no status. The damage which has resulted from these status regulations i s exemplified by the cases of the twenty Indian delinquents committed to the Industrial School. A l l these g i r l s were recorded in their case f i l e s as Indian by blood, yet eight of them had no treaty status. This means they were excluded from any benefits to which Treaty Indians receive. In one case the g i r l ' s family had been expelled (b) Social Allowance, O.A.P., Protection of Children, M.A., etc., 10 from t h e i r band and forced to leave the reservation. Another g i r l was an orphan with no fi x e d place of abode. The Child Welfare Division placed her as a ward under the care of the Superintendent, but the protection offered was negligible as the g i r l wandered from one res-ervation to another, and could never be located. The rest of the g i r l s were l i v i n g with members of t h e i r family away from any reservation. They had resided off the reserve for the period of time which d i s q u a l i f i e d them for t h e i r r i g h t s , and when these g i r l s were brought before the court, the Indian Agents had no previous knowledge of t h e i r existence. Naturally, when the families of these g i r l s l e f t t h e i r band, the Agent had. no way of keeping i n contact with them. This i s another t y p i c a l example of the inadequate administration of Indian a f f a i r s . The Act should be changed to meet the needs of the Indian people, but as i t stands i t i s r i g i d and unprogressive compared with the advances of s o c i a l welfare l e g i s l a t i o n i n the p r o v i n c i a l f i e l d . The Indians themselves are not p a r t i c u l a r l y amenable to s e t t l i n g down on one reservation, f o r t h e i r history has been one of nomadic settlement. True, they stayed i n one region, yet they were continually moving, trading with other tr i b e s and following the seasons of the game they hunted. I t i s not possible to govern a h a l f - c i v i l i z e d minority group by an act which denies progress. The increasing numbers of non-status Indians show the disintegration of Indian t r i b e s . Some of these g i r l s had grandparentss and great grandparents who were important personages of t h e i r bands, but t h e i r customs and t r a d i t i o n s had gradually collapsed u n t i l t h e i r 1 1 children's children have l o s t t h e i r r a c i a l heritage. Indians have been the subjects of strong missionary a c t i v i t y since the event of western c i v i l i z a t i o n i n Canada. This a c t i v i t y i s predominantly Roman Catholic, although the Church of England and the United Church do a certain amount of mission work. The effect of a l l t h i s energetic missionary work has caused only moral confusion among the Indians. In past days the Indian tr i b e s a l l had t h e i r own moral codes and taboos. They were perhaps savage and c h i l d i s h to Western eyes, but to the Indians these ceremonies and b e l i e f s , had been b u i l t up according to t h e i r way of l i f e . The missionaries purposely des-troyed t h e i r peculiar b e l i e f s , preaching that such heathenish culture would bring disfavour from the 'Great White God' or 'Manitou*. In doing t h i s the Christian churches unwittingly helped to destroy the Indian Heritage, and replaced t h e i r b e l i e f s with a r e l i g i o n which was too abstract for the Indian to comprehend. The Indian Gods were s p i r i t s whose beings were d i r e c t l y related to nature, such as the good a i r , s p i r i t s of the wind, the water, the sun, the animals. I f there was drought, i t meant that the Sun God was angered by the behaviour of the tr i b e and so on. Upon t h i s basic structure a system of taboos and customs was developed, partly to pacify the vengeful actions of the s p i r i t s and par t l y to protect the existence of the t r i b e . Then came the Christian church who replaced the material Indian philosophies with an abstract 12 religion about 'God' and 'Jesus Christ'. Christianity confused-the Indians, because i t was^a new religion imposed upon them. They did not develop i t themselves and its purpose was obscure and un-fitted to their culture. Today the Indians are-neither Christians nor Heathens. Their ceremonial dances and tribal stories which were an integral, necessary part of their heritage, have been condemned by both the: churches and the government, and replaced by a religion which must seem dull and meaningless. Notwithstanding the eradication of their religious; beliefs, the Churches have nobly undertaken to educate the Indians. Religion and education are inter-related in missionary church work. Although the various church doctrines may differ, the basic (5) view that l i f e without religion is l i f e without meaning\" is-held in common. To the Western world, one religion^ the Christian religion predominates so strongly that other! beliefs are doubted, and that is. why the Indians must be converted. It is true that each person must have a religion, and a set of ideals, but not necessarily a Christian religion. To the discerning eye, antisocial behaviour in most Indian girls is caused partly by a complete lack of any ideals, partly by neglect, unhappiness and poverty. Although a l l Indian schools are denominational, the majority of them are owned and operated by the Indian Department, the appoint-ment of staff being done by the various church authorities. There are two types of Indian schools, the residential school and the Indian Day School. In Pritish Columbia there are thirteen (3) Rev.J.L.Bradley:Report of Conference on Native Affair, page 45 13 r e s i d e n t i a l schools and f i f t y - f i v e day schools. Although s i x t y eight schools may seem an- ample number to s u i t the needs of the Indian population, there i s a sur p r i s i n g l y high rate of i l l i t e r a c y among the Indian children. The reason for t h i s i s explained by the seasonal type of work which the average Indian family does. When the family goes f i s h i n g , farming, and berry-picking the children go too, t h e i r education being neglected u n t i l a more convenient time. Then again the Indian school may be some miles away from the child's home which does not f a c i l i t a t e regular school attendance. The Indian Day Schools are run on a basis si m i l a r to pr o v i n c i a l public schools, except f o r the f a c t that they are maintained and administered by the Indian Department. The r e s i d e n t i a l schools are boarding schools, which operate on a ten month basis. Their curriculum varies s l i g h t l y from school to school, but usually consists of three to f i v e hours of school work, the remainder of the time being devoted to Home Economics, In d u s t r i a l Arts, Farming and Gardening. School age for a l l Indians i s from seven to sixteen years of age, and each school i s annually inspected by the Department's Inspector of Indian Schools. Although attendance i s compulsory, the children may obtain leave of absence to help t h e i r family i n work. This i s a serious loophole and partly explains the lack of education found among the Indian children. Another explanation can be found i n the number of non-status Indian children who attend neither White schools nor Indian schools, absenteeism which goes unnoticed. 14 There have been many heated discussions as to whether the, education given to Indians i s of good standard or bad. I t i s cer t a i n -l y not comparable with the education afforded to the White Children. In the f i r s t place the o v e r a l l policy of Indian education e n t a i l s a d i v i s i o n between Indians and Whites, which again i n t e n s i f i e s the differences between the two races. Secondly Reaching s t a f f i s d i f f i c u l t to obtain, and when teachers are obtained, they are not of the highest q u a l i t y , (being either too inexperienced or too dogmatic). Moreover many teachers, are reluctant to offer t h e i r services to some small Indian day school i n a remote area, where contact with the other world i s completely cut o f f . In comparison with the Indian day schools, the r e s i d e n t i a l schools offer a much higher l e v e l of education. Some of the children who go to these schools are orphans. Others are children whose parents wish them to attend a r e s i d e n t i a l school because there i s no provision for schooling elsewhere, or so that they may benefit from the t r a i n i n g . But however good the r e s i d e n t i a l schools are, t h e i r e f f o r t s are wasted when the c h i l d returns to her reservation. The schools emphasize i n s t i t u t i o n a l t r a i n i n g which counteracts to a large degree any development of recreational or communal a c t i v i t y on the reservation. When a c h i l d returns :^to her home, she finds the same, miserable and squalid conditions, and what she 'has learned at school i s soon abaondoned for the l a z i e r , easy way of l i f e . The school records of the twenty Indian g i r l s are not necessarily a representative sample of the l e v e l that Indian education 15 has attained. These g i r l s are a l l delinquents, and therefore form a special category apart from the normal Indian g i r l . I t would not be correct to deduce that the delinquent Indian g i r l s ' educational attainment i s s i m i l a r to that of a l l Indian g i r l s . S t i l l i t i s a sample of ed-ucation given to Indians, and needless to say the i l l i t e r a c y among these g i r l s i s deplorable. When a g i r l i s admitted to the In d u s t r i a l School the Superintendent asks her where she received her schooling, 8nd immediately writes to the school for her record. In most cases the records received by the Superintendent were uninformetive and. gave no constructive advice either on the g i r l s ' a b i l i t i e s or t h e i r characters. Only two factors could be deduced from the school record; one was the type of school each g i r l had attended and the other was the grade she had attained when she was admitted to the In d u s t r i a l School. TABLE 1; SCHOOL ATTENDANCE OF TWENTY INDIAN GIRLS G i r l s ' I n d u s t r i a l School F i l e s , 1944 - 1948 Grades Residential School Indian Day School P r o v i n c i a l Public Sc. Grade Attained-I 2 1 1 1 5 _JL 20 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 _7 School Attendance 1 22 1 1 4 1 10 1 1 (a) f i v e g i r l s never went to school at a l l , and two went to re s i d e n t i a l school but no records were available. 16 TABLE 2: GRADE ATTAINMENT IN RELATION TO AGE G i r l s ' I n d u s t r i a l School F i l e s , 1944-1948 Grades Under 14 Under 15 Under 17 17 Grade Attained 0 - \u00E2\u0080\u0094 5 5 1 1 \u00E2\u0080\u0094 \u00E2\u0080\u0094 \u00E2\u0080\u0094 1 2 \u00E2\u0080\u0094 1 1 \u00E2\u0080\u0094 2 3 1 \u00E2\u0080\u0094 - \u00E2\u0080\u0094 1 4 - 1 \u00E2\u0080\u0094 \u00E2\u0080\u0094 1 5 - - 1 2- 5 6 \u00E2\u0080\u0094 2 1 2 5 7 - \u00C2\u00B1 1 1 2 rotal Ages 2 4 9 5 20 Clearly these g i r l s never reached a very high l e v e l of education. The f i v e g i r l s who never went to school at a l l were com-pl e t e l y i l l i t e r a t e . They spoke very broken English and could neither read nor write. Several of the g i r l s ran away from t h e i r schools, and one was expelled from a r e s i d e n t i a l school for s t r i k i n g a Catholic S i s t e r . The majority of these g i r l s went to r e s i d e n t i a l schools but they attended i r r e g u l a r l y , because of the constant s h i f t i n g of t h e i r families from one d i s t r i c t to another. Also the provisions which the Indians may use for r e c a l l i n g t h e i r children from school to help at home explain why these g i r l s were so poorly educated. The two girls;-who attended the p r o v i n c i a l public schools, were l i v i n g with t h e i r families away from the reservation. One of the g i r l s attended a school with such poor d i s c i p l i n a r y and educational standards, that her character noticeably altered as the re s u l t of early sexual experience at school. The other g i r l who was sent to a public school ran away y 17 J so many times, that the school authorities gave up trying to help her. One of the most s t r i k i n g factors i n these Indian g i r l s ' education i s the utter o^ffidenTe^rhich the parents displayed. Any g i r l w i l l avoid school i f there i s no one to reprimand her, and that i s just what these g i r l s d i d . Intelligence i s very d i f f i c u l t to define, and p a r t i c u l a r l y when i t pertains to Indian children. The acceptable method of t e s t -ing i n t e l l i g e n c e i s to give children a series of te s t s . The tests vary, for some depend la r g e l y on what a person has learned and remembers and others are intended to evaluate what the person can do i n a situation for which she i s unprepared. Most of the tests are designed f o r White children and they presuppose the type of education-a l and c u l t u r a l experience which the average White person receives. Out of the twenty Indian g i r l s at the Industrial school, two g i r l s were tested at the Child guidance C l i n i c i n Vancouver. Both children had great d i f f i c u l t y i n conforming to the d i s c i p l i n e of the school, and displayed such violent tantrums and changing moods, that psychological tests were advised. When the tests were completed one g i r l was placed i n the moron group, the other had only a s l i g h t l y higher r a t i n g . The psychologist stated that i t was impossible to rate these g i r l s properly. The test averages were based on c u l t u r a l background not suited to Indians. The test situation was also poor because the g i r l s were in d i f f e r e n t to any type of interrogation. The psychologist understands that t h i s stoicism i s a t r a i t among the Indian cultures, especially s t r i k i n g when comparing Indians 18 with Whites. The Indians pride themselves on not showing t h e i r f e e l i n g s . I t does not mean that they have no emotions, yet t h i s i s what' a White person surmises because he cannot understand this-. c h a r a c t e r i s t i c . With a l l these reservations f o r the testing of Indian children, the results of the low int e l l i g e n c e of the two g i r l s i s not surprising. In general the l e v e l of int e l l i g e n c e among the g i r l s i n the I n d u s t r i a l School i s d i s t i n c t l y lower than average. A!survey, ^ made between 1955 and 1944 at the school showed the following d i s t r i b u t i o n for a l l the n a t i o n a l i t i e s of g i r l s tested: Superior Intelligence 1 Average'Intelligence . . . . . . 46 Du l l Normal Intelligence 58 Borderline Intelligence . . . . . 55 MORON Intelligence 41 Imbecile Intelligence Z Unknown Intelligence .12 The l i n e between education and i n t e l l i g e n c e i s so f a i n t that i t i s not easy to say whether the delinquent Indian g i r l s had a. high native i n t e l l i g e n c e but s t u l t i f y i n g surroundings, or low i n t e l l -igence and unsuited education. The majority of the g i r l s were def-i n i t e l y backward and uneducated, but i t seemed more a r e s u l t of th e i r environment than t h e i r native i n t e l l i g e n c e , such as n u t r i t i o n , schooling, and parental influence that generalizations about the intell i g e n c e of Indian g i r l s are dangerous to make. (1) Harvey,Isobel: Report of Survey Regarding G i r l s ' I n d u s t r i a l School 19 Mental retardation which was evident among the g i r l s at the school i s only another contributing factor to the causes of t h e i r delinquency. Indians tend to be engaged i n seasonal types of work and primary a c t i v i t i e s such as farming, logging, f i s h i n g and trapping. According to the Ind u s t r i a l School Records, about half of the Indian g i r l s had done no work of any kind. Two g i r l s had been employed i n f i s h canneries, and one had worked f o r two years as a ward maid i n a hos p i t a l . A few of the g i r l s had had experience as domestic servants. There was no record of wages but i n a l l probability they were low. The majority of the g i r l s had ce r t a i n l y helped with dom-es t i c duties at home, aided i n farm work, and sometimes t r a v e l l e d with t h e i r families to* pick hops and berries. Even a cursory glance at t h e i r educational attainments show they would not be f i t t e d f o r s k i l l -ed work of any type. Their success as domestic servants depends large-l y on the type of tr a i n i n g received at the r e s i d e n t i a l school which i s sometimes adequate and other times not. Canning f i s h , picking berries and working as chars i n hospitals does not require too much s k i l l nor does such employment show any great ambition on the part of the g i r l s . A c h a r a c t e r i s t i c of the g i r l s who were working was that they did not hold t h e i r employment for long. The Indians do not l i k e long steady employment f o r they f e e l r estless end shut i n . Vi/hen they work, they work d i l i g e n t l y but they see no reason for working when they have earned s u f f i c i e n t money to tide them along for a few months. 20 Indians are notorious spenders and gamblers. They use money to spend and enjoy i n the present, and when i t i s a l l gone then they w i l l resume employment. For t h i s reason, and because of t h e i r strong family and reservation t i e s , Indian g i r l s r a r e l y work ste a d i l y . HEALTH; The Dominion Department of National Health and Welfare i s responsible for the maintenance of good health standards among the Indians. In B r i t i s h Columbia the Department employs f i v e f u l l t i m e doctors, twelve nurses and four f i e l d matrons to serve i n i s o l a t e d communities. Besides t h i s there are forty-eight doctors who give part of t h e i r services to the Indians. The standard of Indian health i s far below that of the White communities. This i s mainly the res u l t of poor nourishment, d i r t y l i v i n g conditions and ignorance of the people. The rate of tuberculosis among the Indians i s the highest i n Canada; i n f a c t , i t i s fourteen times higher than any other group. RITE OF T.B. PREVALENCE BETWEEN INDIANS AND OTHERS IN CANADA. 1944s Indians 579.2 per 100,000 persons Others 42.2 per 100,000 persons (4) The prevalence of tuberculosis i s one of the most r e l i a b l e indicators of the s o c i a l standards of l i v i n g . I t i s a disease of poverty and undernourishment spread by ignorance. The Indians also have very high rates of infant mortality (4) Joint Submission by Canadian Welfare Council and Canadian Association of S o c i a l Work re Indian Act, page 4. 21 pneumonia and venereal diseases. They l i v e i n small overcrowded shacks where sanitary arrangements are unhygienic and an obstacle to any control of disease. Most reservations depend on the nearby creek or spring for t h e i r water supplies, and usually t h i s water becomes^ polluted as refuse andJ garbages seep into the same source. Besides t h i s , the average diet of the Indian is. unbalanced:! and they suffer, from malnutrition. The staple diet of canned foods, . f l o u r , smoked meat, with an almost t o t a l absence of fresh milk, fruit.and vegetables, lowers t h e i r resistance to disease and i n -creases laziness and lack of i n i t i a t i v e . Only concentrated e f f o r t by a w e l l administered health authority could lessen t h i s problem, and unf ortun_atjely_eyMence. / ^ / C ^ A ^ , shows that t h i s i s not the^case at the present. Such a programme would need a large f i n a n c i a l expenditure together with a trained^, s t a f f to undertake the thankless and d i f f i c u l t job of re-educating ' the people on the reservation. The twenty delinquent Indian g i r l s show c l e a r l y the l e v e l of health among t h e i r people. Each g i r l (Indian and White) on ad-mittance to the G i r l s ' I n d u s t r i a l School i s kept i n a single room away from the others, u n t i l she has been given a medical examination by the school doctor. The medical reports are a question and answer type of proforma i n which the doctor checks the prescribed malady. Eight of the g i r l s had venereal disease, and one. g i r l had contracted tuberculosis which she died of two months after admittance to the^ school. The remainder, described as having normal health, never-the less suffered from a host of minor ailments such as decayed teeth, head l i c e , poor eyesight, acne and pregnancy. Of the eight g i r l s who had venereal disease, two were sent to Oakalla J a i l because of better treatment f a c i l i t i e s , the remainder (six of the g i r l s ) were treated either at.the Vancouver Genereal Hospital or by the t r a v e l l i n g c l i n i c . There was no record of any sex and hygienic education being given i n conjunction with the t r e a t -ment, so i n a l l probability the g i r l s could e a s i l y become infectede again. The two g i r l s who were pregnant gave b i r t h to t h e i r children i n the School, but were kept apart from the other children u n t i l the events had taken place. As soon as the children were born they and t h e i r mothers were released to t h e i r respective homes, as both of the babies were kept by t h e i r mothers. The only t r a g i c case concerned the g i r l who had contracted-tuberculosis. Two months after her admittance to the school she was examined at the chest c l i n i c who discovered that she had pos-i t i v e tuberculosis. She was immediately removed to the h o s p i t a l , but nothing could be done to save her, end she died a few weeks;-: a f t e r . Her r e a l tragedy was to die alone, i n a friendless c i t y away from her home and her people. The descriptions i n the records assessing the g i r l s charac-ters were unsympathetic and prejudiced. The favorite remark used f o r describing the Indian girls.was always that she was a ' t y p i c a l Indian character'. I t i s not very enlightening to assess a g i r l on t h i s basis but the p r o v i n c i a l f i e l d workers, the School supervisors, the doctors and the police a l l employed the term ' t y p i c a l ' when speaking of Indians. To the discerning reader i t implies that a l l 23 Indians are lazy, uninformative, impassive and s t o l i d . Prejudice and misunderstanding explain t h i s type of description. There were only three g i r l s who were pictured i n another manner. The f u l l e s t des-c r i p t i o n about an Indian was written by a Roman Catholic P r i e s t on her school record. \"(Mary) i s lazy, i n t e l l i g e n t and strong w i l l e d ; as. very likeable Indian g i r l , but f u l l of the hot passion of her ancestors and resentful that she i s an Indian\". The next g i r l was \"subject to changeable moods, f u l l of v i t a l i t y , vivacious and untamed\". Savagene^s and hot passion are colourful but misleading words, es-p e c i a l l y when they are intended to form the basis of a g i r l s ' character. The t h i r d c h i l d was ignominiously called 'lazy, dishonest, immoral, stupid and non-informative'. Had the basic concepts of s o c i a l casework been applied where analysing these g i r l s , the story would have been d i f f e r e n t . AAgood caseworker attempts to understand humejn nature, and t r i e s to put away prejudice i n an attempt to help the c l i e n t . This was not the case for any of the Indian g i r l s , thus t h e i r problems and behav-iour d i f f i c u l t i e s remained unsolved. The physical appearance of the Indians together with t h e i r dying culture marks them as a race apart from the White race. The s o c i a l heritage of the Indians i s being strangely influenced by the encroachment of Western c i v i l i z a t i o n , yet the b i o l o g i c a l attributes of the Indian s t i l l set him apart from the rest of the community. This r a c i a l quality \"marks an i n d i v i d u a l with a sign, be i t skin colour, shape of e y e l i d , or texture of h a i r , which he cannot erad-i c a t e , (and these) d i s t i n c t i v e marks serve as s t i m u l i f o r reactions.1: 24 (5) of prejudice towards an i n d i v i d u a l of another race\". The Indian g i r l s with t h e i r dark copper-coloured s k i n , t h e i r coarse black hair and dark eyes, are i n s t a n t l y distinguishable from the White g i r l s , and they f e e l the difference keenly. The f e e l -ing that they are i n f e r i o r to White g i r l s i s only i n t e n s i f i e d by t h e i r low standard of l i v i n g , t h e i r confused r e l i g i o n and a l l the other drawbacks of the i r s o c i a l heritage. (5) Handbook of Sociology: Ogburn & Nimkoff, page 64 25 CHAPTER I I I THE FAMILY BONDD The family i s the basic u n i t of society. Giving due cons-ideration to th i s force, although i t s character and purpose.are chang-ing to f i t the needs of the present s c i e n t i f i c age, i t s t i l l remains-the most important i n s t i t u t i o n i n modern c i v i l i z a t i o n . Social customs--., and codes decree that marria.ge i s the only legitimate way to procreate. children, end t h i s l e g a l t i e also enables man and woman to enter a contract, i n which each may f i n d happiness and companionship i n the other. Although the husband s t i l l works outside his home to maintain the family, and the wife i s responsible f o r the rearing of the c h i l d -ren and the upkeep of the home, as individuals they are no longer so dependent on each other f o r support. Home and hearth are no longer the centre of a c t i v i t y and entertainment, for movies, clubs and recreational centres have taken the place of t h i s i n t e g r a l part of family l i f e . Notwithstanding the decreasing importance of family l i f e , i t s t i l l answers the basic needs of children. The c h i l d benefits, or should benefit, from the j o i n t e f f o r t of the mother and father, because through them he derives security, food,warmth and af f e c t i o n . Thjbugh experiences i n the l i f e of the family his character and personality are moulded, and i n t h i s small u n i t the c h i l d meets his f i r s t problems, and gradually equips himself f o r l i v i n g i n larger s o c i a l groups. Indeed a child's behaviour i s the dir e c t outcome of 26 his experiences i n the family, for i t i s here that his emotional needs are either s a t i s f i e d , or thwarted. In comparison with the normal White family, the Indian family displays even greater slackening of economic and moral t i e s . In i t s past culture the family functioned as an i n t e g r a l part of the t r i b e , because i t was only through.collective strength i n f i s h i n g , hunting and warring that each person could e x i s t . Sur-v i v a l of the f i t t e s t was the bare t r u t h on which l i f e was based, for every day was a continual struggle against the elements of nature. The Indian children were acquainted early with the stark facts of l i f e , and they were purposely put through endurance tests to strengthen t h e i r hardiness for the t r i a l s which l a y ahead. Besides t h i s they were taught to adhere to the s t r i c t family codes and customs which each t r i b e had gradually developed, and any o f f -enders against these s o c i a l requirements-were severely punished by the elders of the t r i b e . With the advent of a new c i v i l i z a t i o n t h e i r primitive culture rapidly disintegrated and was replaced by a feeble imitation of the White Society. The Indians learned to l i v e i n houses, to drink l i q u o r , to eat the White man's food, and, what i s worse, to copy that part of the White man's e t h i c a l code.which encouraged, divorce, adultery and license. The process of re-education f o r the Indians has been so p i t i f u l compared with the rapid, influence of new ideas and ways of l i v i n g , that the old family group has disintegrated. Nothing 27 can show t h i s collapse of the Indian culture more c l e a r l y than the family background of these twenty delinquent Indian g i r l s . S t r i c t t r i b a l customs and vows have been replaced with a copy of the White customs and manners, and the re s u l t has produced slovenly l i v i n g , unhealthy conditions and loose morals. The I n d u s t r i a l School records describing the background of the Indian g i r l s varied. As the g i r l s ' families were scattered throughout the province and d i f f i c u l t to locate, many of the s o c i a l h i s t o r i e s were piecemeal a f f a i r s , made up from information given by the Indian Agent, the p r o v i n c i a l p o l i c e , the p r o v i n c i a l s o c i a l worker and the g i r l herself. The most comprehensive records were compiled by the d i s t r i c t S ocial Welfare Branches, and even these were not adequate, for i n a l l cases only one v i s i t to the family was possible. THE FAMILY AS A UNIT; One of the most s t r i k i n g facts i n the history of these delinquents i s the number of children who have come from broken homes. The following i s a b r i e f l i s t showing the relationships of the Indian parents. (a) Eoth parents l i v i n g 5 Father l i v i n g , mother deceased. .4 ^) (a) One couple'separated (b) Two g i r l s have stepmother 29 (c) Mother l i v i n g , father deceased . . . 6 Mother l i v i n g , father unknown . . . 1 Mother deceased, father unknown. . . 2 Both parents deceased . . . . . . . 2 20 The pattern of home l i f e for these children i s practically uniform in the unhappiness and neglect that existed. The children of broken homes start in l i f e with a mark against them for they have never had the opportunity to appreciate the s t a b i l i t y and warm sec-urity that a family can give. The best situations naturally existed in homes where the-parents were l i v i n g together) and yet these homes were of a very low standard. Only two married couples out of the five had achieved any harmony in their family at a l l , and these were hard-working, well-intentioned people with absolutely no a b i l i t y to cope with their daughters.' behaviour problems. Another g i r l came from a family who had been expelled from their Indian band, because of their low standards and . surly behaviour. The provincial police reported that her parents had been very troublesome in the d i s t r i c t and were shunned by a l l the neighbours as the.result of their hostile aggressive manners and f i l t h y home standards. It i s not surprising that these Indian g i r l s committed delinquencies, when the examples set by their parents was so poor. The case of Jane illustrates this point clearly. (c) five g i r l s have stepfathers Jane had a very marked delinquent career at the early age of eleven. By this time she had run away from school several times, she had been guilty of theft and sexual immoral-i t y . Her father, an intelligent, but i n -effective man had served overseas in thenar for four years. During his period away from home his wife had three illegitimate children. She was nicknamed throughout the d i s t r i c t as 'Two-Bit Annie', for being a prostitute of the lowest order. Besides allowing her children to be present i n the room while she carried on her trade, she was a bad provider and grossly neglected them. It i s no wonder that Jane became a severe problem, for she had seen a conduct unrivalled in i t s low standards and she had never known security. The remaining married couple were separated from each other and unable to understand or control their daughter. The g i r l was con tinually moving between the homes of her mother and father, and- in both homes she showed unhappiness, defiance and resentment. As i s so often the case, the g i r l s who had step-parents were very d i f f i c u l t to control in their homes. The Indian g i r l s resented the intrusion of a new parent into their family, and they showed intense dislike towards them. On the other hand the step-parents were afraid to exert any discipline over the g i r l s lest the harmony in the house should be disrupted, and eventually the situations became so bad that the children l e f t home or became delinquent. In the situations where the parent had not remarried, conditions were no better. One g i r l ' s mother died at an early age, leaving her with the father who was a chronic hospitalized invalid. 31 She was brought up by her grandparents who offered her a good home and sincere affection. Unfortunately they both died just when the g i r l was-entering her 'teens, and from that period on she wassshunted.'.from one disinterested relative to another. This g i r l had never known any lasting security of home l i f e , and she developed into an embittered adolescent, thinking that a l l people she depended on had deserted her. Another g i r l lived with her old mother in a cannery ten-ement. The mother was a washed-out, ineffective l i t t l e woman who worked hard in the cannery to support herself and her daughter. They were extremely poor, and the conditions under which they lived were so squalid that the g i r l l e f t home, and immediately got into trouble. Poverty rather than lack of affection -was the leading factor in the cause of this g i r l ' s delinquency. The three children who were illegitimate a l l had neglected, unhappy childhoods. The neglect during childhood i s illustrated by the early history of the following g i r l : Joan was abandoned in infancy by her mother, who l e f t her in the care of her grandmother. In. her youth the grandmother had been sex-ually promiscuous, evidenced by the fact that she was unmarried yet had four children a l l with different fathers. The grandmother wass harsh and cruel to Joan, and made her work long hours on the farm that they owned. The only person Joan showed any affection for was her deaf-mute uncle who gave her candies and sometimes bought her new clothes. It i s no wonder that this child became delinquent with the high illegitimacy rate in her family, and the atmosphere of severity which prevailed. 32,, Another g i r l who was deserted by her mother as a baby, was brought up by her two uncles. The two men were affectionate but i n e f f e c t i v e guardians. Needless to say they were also hopeless parents to t h e i r own two children who had been j a i l e d for assault and robbery. Although she was fond of her uncles, she b i t t e r l y resented her mother's desertion j yet the g i r l herself deserted her own i l l e g i t i m a t e baby. The t h i r d i l l e g i t i m a t e c h i l d was an orphan with no home at a l l , and was brought up i n the Indian Residential school. As soon as she had completed her schooling at the age of f i f t e e n , she was-l e f t to her own devices. With no supervision or advice, and no family to turn t o , she quickly became a l o c a l problem. The excerpts from the family h i s t o r i e s of these twenty delinquent Indian g i r l s show the seriousness of the neglect and moral depravity shown by th e i r parents. The parents of a family set the example to t h e i r children, and the influence they exert, whether i t i s good or bad, makes a l a s t i n g imprint on the minds and character s of t h e i r children. Out of a l l these g i r l s , there were only two who experienced anything close to normal, healthy home s i t u a t i o n , the rest were neglected, deserted children who saw nothing at home save poverty, moral l a x i t y and indifference. There were only a few reports that attempted to assess the-mentality and personality of the parents. One of the reasons f o r the meagre information obtained on these g i r l s ' parents i s that only a quarter of the parents were interviewed by a s o c i a l worker, and as only one interview took place i n each case, there i s a great deal of missing data. 53 The i l l i t e r a c y among the parents, was noted by each s o c i a l worker. One of the workers related an incident, both amusing and shocking. She asked the Indian mother how many children there were i n the family. The mother slowly counted out the number of boys and g i r l s i n the family, and reached the conclusion that there were s i x boys and seven g i r l s . At t h i s point she seemed rather abashed, and when the worker inquired further, the mother rep l i e d that as a matter of f a c t she thought there were some more children but she could not count any further. I t i s not surprising to learn that the delinquent g i r l from t h i s family was completely i l l i t e r a t e and had never attended school. I t has been previously noted that White people are unable to assess the character and personalities of the Indian people. They are for the most part unable to see through the barrier of impassive-ness which confronts them, and they assume that a l l Indians are a l i k e i n t h e i r depravity and s t o l i d i t y . However the parental examples shown to the select group of Indian g i r l s , do give a clue to the moral characters of the parents. Adultery and promiscuity occurred f r e -quently among these f a m i l i e s , and the majority of remarriages among the parents were common-law, and not founded on stable t i e s of com-panionship and love. I t would be incorrect to assume that a l l Indians are degraded and immoral just because the majority of the Indian delinquent's parents follow that type of behaviour. Delinquency i s . caused p a r t l y by bad home conditions, and these g i r l s had t h e i r f u l l share of that. 34 The number of siblings in the Indian families ranged from two to fourteen, not counting the half sisters and brothers of the g i r l s who lived with remarried parents. There was no evidence to show in any of the family records that great affection existed between sisters and brothers. The older children as soon as they were married ignored their families and avoided any matter which might involve them in additional responsibilities. One. or two married woman offered their homes to their younger delinquent s i s -ters, and although they showed some interest, they lacked any drive or a b i l i t y to cope with the problems of delinquency. In general, the brothers and sisters of these g i r l s , were disinterested in their d i f f i c u l t i e s , and did not wish to offer any help. Grandparents, aunts and uncles undertook more readily the job of bringing up these neglected Indian g i r l s ; yet the results were just as unfavourable. For example, Nancy, who was an illegitimate child was brought up together with her brother, by her grandmother aged sixty and her great grandmother aged eighty. Both grandparents were excessive drunkards, and so known to the provincial police. Nancy and her brother were spoiled and petted, and soon became uncontrollable nuisances in the d i s t r i c t . Nancy was eventually sent to the Girls Industrial School for supplying intoxicants to another adolescent, and the brother was sent to the Boys Industrial School for larceny. The g i r l who was l i v i n g with her uncles, was surrounded by delinquent cousins, for three of them had served prison terms, and besides this there was a great deal of antipathy between the g i r l and her brother. 35 It i s very easy to generalize when the data concerning these g i r l s i s scarce. Information on the disciplinary methods of the parents towards their children was confined to occasional remarks such as 'true to the Indian standard' or 'typical Indian outlook'. Such statements are devoid of any meaning. The general impression gained by reading the Industrial School records was that the Indian parents and relatives were possibly fond of their children but apath-etic in applying discipline and unable to bring up their children properly. One worker in discussing the upbringing a g i r l had re-ceived, remarked that the father \"in the Indian tradition, does not spank his youngsters or thwart them lest they cry\". Another worker who had a great deal of experience in dealing with Indian families made a very penetrating observation when she said \"an incorrigible child in an Indian home i s seldom i f ever regarded as a fault of parents or environment, but just an unfortunate occurrence and a nuisance\". This i s an attitude fostered in ignorance and misunderstand-ing and i t w i l l never change under the present condition of Indian a f f a i r s . The Indian parents do not understand that they are re-sponsible for the misdemeanours of their children, and consequently they try to ignore the d i f f i c u l t i e s u n t i l the situation becomes so bad that the children clash with the law. They are inadequate parents; but the reasons for their inadequacy l i e s with their own faulty upbringing and the disintegration of their social heritage. 36 I t i s not surprising that the g i r l s who showed any fe e l i n g towards t h e i r parents, expressed resentment, bitterness, and defiance. The unfortunate part i s that these g i r l s when they become parents w i l l pass the same h o s t i l e feelings onto t h e i r children. The g i r l s f e l t cheated i n l i f e , because they had never known true love and security and there exists i n a l l of them an unconscious:: wish to vindicate t h i s loss on other children. Indian family l i f e f o r these g i r l s had not f u l f i l l s ! i t s proper function of supplying the basic childhood needs of s t a b i l i t y and a f f e c t i o n . In fa c t there could scarcely be any better situations-i n which to breed delinquency. In addition to the deplorable state of family a f f a i r s , the housing conditions that these g i r l s l i v e d i n were d i r t y and squalid. Their homes were over-crowded, s t u f f y and poorly l i g h t e d , and t o i l e t f a c i l i t i e s were outdoors and unsanitary. Many of the houses v i s i t e d by the s o c i a l workers had no fl o o r s and p r a c t i c a l l y no fur n i t u r e , and were assessed as w e l l below the standard of the normal Western home. The type of home from which these g i r l s come i s w e l l i l l u s t r a t e d by the following example. The Smith family consisting of mother, father, grandmother and nine children l i v e i n a cannery tenement consisting of two small rooms. The place i s absolutely bare, being made of rough wood, with high b u i l t i n table and small coal stove. There are no f l o o r or w a l l coverhgs, and no curtains. The small children play i n both rooms. Water i s obtained from a common tap outside, and the outside t o i l e t i s used by a l l the other tenements. Living conditions are crude and un-37 sanitary. As there i s not s u f f i c i e n t sleeping space, the children are early acquainted with a l l the knowledge of sex they w i l l require. Another i l l u s t r a t i o n of a better standard i s that of the Black family, The Black family consists of mother, stepfather and f i v e children l i v i n g i n a one room shack. This home i s r e l a t i v e l y clean and t i d y inside and the stepfather i s a good provider f o r there i s an ample provision of food i n the house. Inside the home there i s a stove, two benches and two double beds. Besides t h i s the family own an old model sedan car. The delinquent g i r l from t h i s home resented her stepfather who was afrai d to control her. Although t h i s home was cleaner than most, the g i r l spent most of her time i n the d i s t r i c t to?m, and several times she did not reappear f o r days. I t i s wrong to say that one factor such as poverty -for example or unhappiness, i s the only reason f o r delinquency i n a c h i l d . Poverty causes over crowded houses, bad n u t r i t i o n , greediness and longing for luxuty and bright entertainment. Neglect i n c h i l d -hood may cause immature emotional attitudes, i n s t a b i l i t y or s e l f -ishness. I t i s rather l i k e a vicious c i r c l e of one factor leading to another, and f i n a l l y r e s u l t i n g i n delinquency. The select group of Indian g i r l s i l l u s t r a t e s admirably the cause and effect nature of the factors i n delinquency. They a l l came from families whose standard of l i f e was marginal. The work t h e i r parents were employed i n was seasonal, and the wages they received were low. 58 Consequently their houses were small, overcrowded, and lacked any of the small luxuries which make l i f e more endurable. In the second place the emotional ties in the families were either insecure or non-existent. Undue emphasis on sexual pleas-ure and promiscuity in marriage, overshadowed the importance of companionship and true affection^ so that these g i r l s had no good examples to follow. The root of their behaviour d i f f i c u l t i e s l i e s in their relationships to their families, and i t i s only in this f i e l d that their delinquencies can be stopped, i f not for them for their children. In an ideal situation, trained social case workers and group workers could enter the reservations and gradually through advice and understanding build up healthy family relations. However, the Indian situation i s by no means ideal, and social workers alone cannot help these victimised children without the effective support of the government, the educators, the clergy and the doctors. 39 CHAPTER IV INDIANS IN THE VANCOUVER JUVENILE OQORTi1 The Indian g i r l presents a special problem i n the appre-hension and treatment of juvenile delinquency. Indians as wardss of the Dominion Government form a d e f i n i t e i r a c i a l group i n Canada. They are regarded as a primitive people who need the protection of the.'-states to save-them from the dangers of White encroachment. Be-cause they are considered to be backward, they have not yet attainedd the. f u l l rights-of responsible c i t i z e n s h i p . The assumption i s that the Indian standards are too low, and must be^raised by ajprocess of re-education. When they reach an acceptable l e v e l , the Indians w i l l be e n t i t l e d to complete::enfranchisement. Legally, however, an Indian i s as responsible as a white-man f o r any a n t i - s o c i a l act or infringement of the criminal law that he may commit. Thus the Indian g i r l i s equal i n status to the White g i r l when she i s apprehended f o r committing an offence. A l -though according to the Juvenile Delinquents' Act every delinquent should receive the best possible help and guidance, the Indian g i r l because she i s an Indian receives a much lower standard of treatment. The basic problem i n the study of any type of delinquency l i e s i n the factors which have caused the a n t i - s o c i a l behaviour. The Indian g i r l can only be helped i f she i s regarded as a r e a l person. The d i f f i c u l t y i s that she i s looked upon by the community as anseparate species. 40 The community forgets that she i s a human being whose personality and-behaviour are rooted i n her surroundings. The administrative tangle that exists over Indian delinquency, and the resultant treatment that the g i r l s i n v a r i a b l y receive, are additional factors,.: which accentuate the basic behaviour d i f f i c u l t i e s . A juvenile delinquent means \"any c h i l d who violates any provision of the Criminal Code or any of the Dominion or P r o v i n c i a l statutes, of any by-law or ordinance of any municipality, or who i s -g u i l t y of sexual immorality or any s i m i l a r form of v i c e , or who i s l i a b l e by reason of any other act to be committed to an i n d u s t r i a l school or juvenile reformatory under the provisions of any Dominion (5) or P r o v i n c i a l statute\". In B r i t i s h Columbia a c h i l d l e g a l l y speaking constitutes any person under the age of eighteen years. When a g i r l reaches the age of eighteen, any offence which she may commit i s dealt with i n criminal court. Ordinarily when a c h i l d i s apprehended, she i s taken before the juvenile court. Only i n special cases, when a c h i l d over fourteen years old has. committed an indictable offence, i s she charged i n a criminal court. The judge of the juvenile court i n a l l cases of indictable offences: decides under what court the c h i l d s h a l l be t r i e d , keeping i n mind, \"that the good of the c h i l d and the interest of the community demand (6) i t \" . There are no special provisions set apart i n the Dom-inion Act for Indian children. The Department of Indian A f f a i r s and the juvenile courts are incomplete agreement that when an (5) Juvenile Delinquents Act; Status of Canada 1929, Chapter 46,(d) (6) I b i d , Section 9 41 Indian g i r l commits a delinquency and i s apprehended, she i s l i a b l e , to the same sentence as any other juvenile delinquent. The Indian Act of Canada contains certain provisions that have a d e f i n i t e bearing on the apprehension of Indian delinquency. No person of Indian status i s permitteddthe use of intoxicants, unless i t be f o r medicinal purposes and c e r t i f i e d by a doctori. There i s s t r i c t enforcement of t h i s regulation. Any Indian found i n a state of intoxication may therefore be arrested without a warrant by a constable or a peace o f f i c e r , and be l i a b l e to a summary conviction. At the discretion of the convicting judge, an Indian may be imprisoned f o r a term not exceeding one month _ or charged a f i n e not less than f i v e . d o l l a r s , or both fined and imprisoned. White people are apprehended only i f they are found i n a state of intoxication 'in a public place'. Indians may neither be i n possession of any intoxicant, nor i n a state of i n -t o x i c a t i o n , regardless of whether they are i n a public place or not. There are also provisions i n the Act pertaining to persons who s e l l alcohol to an Indian, for i t i s against the law f o r any person to do so\u00E2\u0080\u009E I f such a person i s found g u i l t y , he i s also l i a b l e to fine and imprisonment. These regulations concerning intoxicants are an outstanding feature of the Indian Act. They are a good example of the philosophy which under-l i e s the Act and i t s administration j namely Indians are not yet responsible c i t i z e n s , and must be treated with special caution l e s t the e v i l aspects of White..civilization engulf them completely. 42 Liquor i s regarded as a great danger to the Indians, because they are unable to use i t sensibly. I t i s common knowledge, however, that Indians are frequently i n possession of intoxicants, yet they are not allowed to frequent the beer parlours, or to buy liq u o r i n the government stores. Consequently they acquire a l -cohol through bootleggers and White friends. The q u a l i t y of the liq u o r i n t h i s case i s not guaranteed to the same extent as liquor o bought from approved sources. More often than not i t i s commonly known as \u00E2\u0080\u00A2hootch' or 'moonshine1. Indians wishing to drink have to do i n a subterfuge manner. In a large c i t y such as Vancouver the temptation to drink i s greater than on the reservations, f o r there are many more means of obtaining alcohol and the r i s k of discovery i s l e s s . The disintegration of the Indians has often been a t t -ributed to liquor and s o c i a l disease, the two e v i l things which the Indians learned from the White men. This i s only half true for the caal cause i s - t h a t they are caught between two c i v i l i z a t i o n s ; the old savage world and the new western world. The effect of c i t y l i f e on the behaviour of Indian g i r l s i l l u s t r a t e s t h i s point c l e a r l y . The Indian g i r l s who d r i f t into Vancouver seem to congregate i n the worst section of the City\u00C2\u00BB Main, Powell, Cordova and Hastings.Streets, the centres of boot-legging, dope.trafficking and^prostitution, attract the majority of g i r l s apprehended for delinquency i n Vancouver. However a.s t h i s d i s t r i c t i s a notorious centre of crime, i t i s possible that the c i t y police 'pick up' most of t h e i r cases there 0 4.3 The B r i t i s h Columbia Juvenile Courts Act of 1936, l a i d down that i n every c i t y or portion of the province the Juvenile Delinquent Act was i n force, a. court of record known as the juvenile court was to be established.. The Vancouver Juvenile Court situated i n Greater Vancouver has j u r i s d i c t i o n within the l i m i t s of the c i t y . The Lieutenant Governor i n Council i s responsible f o r the appointment of judges, and at present there are two judges attached to the Juvenile Court, whose duty i t i s to administer the Juvenile Court and appoint the clerk and the probation o f f i c e r s . The municipality pays the cost. Naturally the judge i s the adjudicator and on him rest the sole r e s p o n s i b i l i t y of giving decisions. Next to the two judges.:in authority i s the chief probation o f f i c e r , who i s the director of the probation department for the Juvenile Court, the Family Court, and the Detention Home. Eesides the chief probation o f f i c e r , there i s a deputy probation o f f i c e r and an additional s t a f f of four o f f i c e r s , three of them men and ohe a woman. The job of these o f f i c e r s i s primarily to offer casework services i n the form of guidance and supervision to those children who are placed on probation. The f a c i l i t i e s of the Vancouver Juvenile :Court are reason-ably adequate. The Court i s conducted e n t i r e l y apart fro\u00C2\u00A9 the Police Court, and the building i s quite large and well-planned. There i s an appropriate waiting room, and good s t a f f accomodation. Each probation o f f i c e r has an o f f i c e of his own, where he can conduct his business and interview his c l i e n t s p r i v a t e l y . 44 The courtroom i s well-designed, pleasant yet d i g n i f i e d . The judge's desk i s raised on a s l i g h t platform at the upper end of the room. Eelow the desk are three tables for the recording clerk and the pre-sentation of material, and three or four rows of chairs. The atmos-phere of the Court, which i s so important f o r the proper handling of juvenile delinquents, i s not hea.vy and drab l i k e that of the police-Court, for the o f f i c e r s of the law are not usually i n uniform and. the-court procedure i s informal. The juvenile Court i s held once a week, a l l proceedings being 'in camera'. When a c h i l d i s apprehended, she i s usually detained i n the Detention Home u n t i l an i n i t i a l interview with a probation o f f i c e r i s made. Then a s o c i a l record i s compiled containing a l l available information as to background, parents, character and education. This record i s given to the judge to examine before the c h i l d appears i n court. In some courts no record i s made u n t i l the judge has made a decision as to the child's g u i l t , i f the c h i l d i s found g u i l t y of delinquency she i s remanded for a few weeks while her background., and. mental and physical condition are thoroughly investigated. The c h i l d then reappears before the court and. the judge or magistrate-knowing a l l the factors i n the case decides what the treatment w i l l be. For Indian delinquent g i r l s the records aire very poor andd contain scant information. The Juvenile Court i s designed to deal primarily with delinquency occurring i n Vancouver. Naturally the majority of children who appear before the Court, l i v e i n Vancouver 45 and-therefore information concerning them i s much easier to obtain. In no case i n the l a s t three years, has an Indian g i r l appearing before the Court, resided i n Vancouver. The g i r l s could be termed transient Indians, running away from home or looking for a job. Some have come off a reservation, end others although they are Indian s have moved with t h e i r families away from the reserve, thus making contact with the parents even more d i f f i c u l t . Apart from the g i r l s s themselves, the Indian Agents are the primary source of information. The only way of c o n t a c t i n g the families of these g i r l s i s by correspondence, and that i s an unsatisfactory way of assessing any g i r l ' s environment. From the s t a r t then, the Indian g i r l i s at a. d i s -advantage, becauseno adequate s o c i a l history can be obtained. The Indian agents, harassed though they are, co-operate whenever possible and supply what information they have, but i t iec r a r e l y a f u l l h i s t o r y , unless the g i r l i s a notorious repeater. The view that the agent holds i s that by the provisions of the Indian Act and the Juvenile Delinquents Act, he i s not responsible f o r the-moral welfare of the Indian g i r l who commits a delinquency and any help he gives Is done purely out of consideration to the Court. The school records supply the barest facts possible, no more than the name of the school and the completed grade. Most of these d e l -inquent g i r l s have come from Indian schools which are denominational, yet the children's records during the l a s t three years, show that no support of the school s t a f f had been enlisted f o r the compiling., of an adequate s o c i a l h i s t o r y . Both the Roijan Catholic Church.; and the Church of England, are very active i n guarding the s p i r i t u a l 46 welfare of t h e i r Indian congregation, but t h e i r support i s less ev-ident when any young member i s g u i l t y of a transgression against the laws of society. The probation o f f i c e r has therefore, few sources from which to compile a s o c i a l h istory. The g i r l ' s r e l a t i v e s l i v e outside his j u r i s d i c t i o n , and the s o c i a l agencies who can a s s i s t him, are either too f a r away (in which case everything depends on l e t t e r correspondence) or unable to supply any information. This i n e f f e c t i v e manner of c o l l e c t i n g a record constitutes one of the major problems i n dealing with juvenile delinquency of t h i s kind. A l l i n a l l the Juvenile Court which i s responsible f o r dealing with the problem oTdelinquency, i s not equipped to handle the d i f f i c u l t i e s which the Indian g i r l presents. The Indian schools and churches are not active i n the matter and communication with the families i s very d i f f i c u l t . The confusion which exists as to who i s responsible f o r her i n t e n s i f i e s the problem. There i s also a certain lack of interest over the apprehension of these g i r l s . A l l these factors' lead to the unfavourable conclusion that the d i f f i c u l t i e s of helping Indian G i r l s are considered insur-mountable and l i t t l e or no attention i s given to them. The only means of discovering how many Indian g i r l s were apprehended before the Juvenile Court was through selecting those g i r l s recorded as Indian i n the Detention Home admittance record. From January 1946 to October 1948, f i f t e e n Indian g i r l s have passedd through the Court. Of these f i f t e e n g i r l s , eight have been arrested-, more than once, bringing the t o t a l number of apprehensions up to 47 thirty-seven. The rate of Indian delinquency occurring i n the Vancouver Juvenile Court i s very low, too small i n fact to constitute a major problem i n delinquency. But though the number of Indian g i r l s s apprehended f o r juvenile delinquency i s small, the number repeating i s correspondingly high, a s s w i l l be seen from the following table: TABLE Ho 3; APPREHENSION RECORD FOR INDIAN GIRLS. Vancouver Juvenile Court: 1946 -1948 Year 1st Apprehension 1st Repeat Following Repeats Total 1946 6 2 1 9 1947 5 3 7 15 1948 4 3 6 13 Total 15 8 14 37 The nature of the 'apprehension* i s important. There were nine g i r l s g u i l t y of being i n various stages of in t o x i c a t i o n . Ten charged with vagrancy and s i x others were g u i l t y of running away, either from t h e i r home or an i n s t i t u t i o n . Of the remaining g i r l s , f i v e were held for investigation and one was g u i l t y of sexual immorality. In addition to t h i s , there were no records at a l l f o r the offences of three ofthe g i r l s . I t must be noted that only f i f t e e n g i r l s were known to the Court during the three years, yet the t o t a l number of apprehensions was t h i r t y seven. Of these alleged Indian 48 delinquencies, twenty-two were committed by g i r l s who had previously been admitted to the Court, and the offences were predominantly pertain-ing to vagrancy and in t o x i c a t i o n . A/.vagrant according to the Criminal Code of Canada i s \"a loose, i d l e disorderly person . . . .who, not having any v i s i b l e means of subsistence, was found wandering abroad and not giving a good account (7) of himself.\" Under t h i s charge the g i r l s were picked up either by the l o c a l police or the R.C.M.P. They are usually found wandering about the east end of Vancouver, with no money, no place to sleep, and no clothes except what they have on. In a few cases they are found to be l i v i n g with various underworld characters or young men of the (a) d i s t r i c t . Intoxication charges of \"S.I.P.P.'s\" (as they are commonly called) are always apprehended i n the same d i s t r i c t . A l -though one g i r l was found unconscious i n the street, a l l the other g i r l s were apprehended i n the company of men, having a drinking party i n some cafe or hotel room. Of course no liquor may be sold to a minor, and for Indian g i r l s especially the possession of intoxicants i s i l l e g a l . In only one case out of nine were the g i r l s ' companions apprehended f o r giving alcohol to an Indian minor, but curiously enough the charge was not proceeded with. The majority of runaways were g i r l s who had l e f t t h e i r reservations. One g i r l ran away from home twice, whilst two others ran away only once. Besides t h i s one c h i l d escaped from the G i r l s ' I n d u s t r i a l School, and one escaped from a Catholic Convent. (7) Criminal Code of Canada! Revised Statutes of Canada, 1927. \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 Chapter 36, Section 23S. (a) State of Intoxication i n a Public Place 49 The term 'apprehended f o r investigation' pertains to g i r l s suspected of s o l i c i t i n g men on the streets, drinking, or even wan-dering aimlessly. I t i s a vague expression and implies suspicion rather than proof of delinquency. Nevertheless, f i v e g i r l s were apprehended for nebulous crimes. The one case of sexual immorality which occurred was that of a young c h i l d of fourteen who had been l i v i n g incestuously with a close r e l a t i v e . There were three g i r l s whose names appeared on the Detention Home Record as having been apprehended, but the court had no record of them at a l l . \"Where a c h i l d i s adjudged to have committed a delinquency he s h a l l be dealt with, not as an offender, but as one i n a condition of delinquency, and therefore requiring help and guidance and proper (8) supervision.\" Whether t h i s guiding p r i n c i p l e i s followed i n the treatment of Indian delinquency, i t i s i n the f i e l d of charge and release that the importance of the Indian agent appears. The majority of g i r l s were not sentenced at a l l , b u t released to the Indian agent, either at Vancouver or New Westminster. Five g i r l s out of the f i f t e e n were found delinquent. Two of these g i r l s were released to the I n d u s t r i a l School for G i r l s , one was sent to a convent and two were returned, to t h e i r homes and f a m i l i e s . I t i s a renunciation of r e s p o n s i b i l i t y to send a g i r l home continually, only to have her reappear i n Court a few months l a t e r . I f repeated attempts to return the g i r l to her home f a i l , the Court w i l l sentence her to be placed i n the G i r l s ' I n d u s t r i a l Home. In no case was probation recommendedj i t i s always \"send her home\", send her back to her reservation or to some r e l a t i v e (8) Juvenile Delinquents Act: Sec 3 (2) 50 who i s w i l l i n g to look after her. Arrangements are then made with the Indian agent, who escorts her to the boat or the t r a i n and pays her fare (though occasionally the court i s forced to pay her f a r e ) . No matter who pays the fare, they a l l fervently hope that she w i l l never return to the 'big c i t y ' again. Nobody meets the g i r l at the destination of her journey, and no-one supervises her conduct at home, so that the g i r l receives neither guidance nor supervision. The si t u a t i o n i s undoubtedly very d i f f i c u l t . The agent cooperates to the extent of seeing that the g i r l starts f o r her home, but no further trouble i s taken. With the exception of one in Vancouver, there are no Indian s o c i a l workers, and the workers i n the P r o v i n c i a l Social Welfare are under no obligation to super-vise the Indian g i r l s . The churches and missionaries-are neither askedifor assistance nor give help i n the matter. One of the greatest d i f f i c u l t i e s i s of course geo-graphical, f o r the g i r l s come from a l l over B r i t i s h Columbia. The Indian agents have enormous t e r r i t o r i e s to cover, and many scattered?, reserves i n t h e i r area which makes supervision often p r a c t i c a l l y impossible. The g i r l s do not l i v e i n Vancouver, therefore the municipality i s unwilling to accept the f i n a n c i a l r e s p o n s i b i l i t y . The probation o f f i c e r s already carry f a r too heavy a caseload to ensure proper supervision of White delinquents, l e t alone Indian delinquents. The j u r i s d i c t i o n of these o f f i c e r s i s l i m i t e d , and:. i t i s impossible to supervise an Indian g i r l who l i v e s possibly two hundred miles away. There are no resources such' as clubs and hostels i n 51 Vancouver to use f o r the welfare of Indian g i r l s . Thus the auth-o r i t i e s temporarily solve the problem by sending the children back to where they came from, hoping that t h i s measure w i l l s u f f i c e . I t i s evident that the Juvenile Court does not exert i t s power i n any degree to r e h a b i l i t a t e the delinquent Indian g i r l . As the number of these g i r l s apprehended i s so s l i g h t , the attention and concern of the s o c i a l agencies i s n e g l i g i b l e . The prevailing attitude i s that Indian, delinquents are: a nuisance. They constitute a special type of problem which can be overlooked and shelved f o r the time being, because there are more pressing d i f f i c u l t i e s i n the f i e l d of a n t i - s o c i a l behaviour. \"Delinquency\" i s an inadequate term to describe the s i t u a t i o n . Legally speaking these children are g u i l t y of d e l -inquency, but the community i n which they are apprehended-\"-is g u i l t y of a more serious crime, the. crime of neglect. I t i s unfortunate that the Indian g i r l i s considered f i r s t and foremost by the Court as an Indian; one of the f i r s t r e s u l t s i s apt to be that t h e i r delinquency i s attributed to the f a c t that they are Indian. These children are so often the victims of a poor environment, an unhappy home, or a broken family, that i t i s unjust and c e r t a i n l y i n e f f e c t i v e to ignore t h e i r problem. There must be a very d e f i n i t e cause, besides the factor of an Indian heritage, which makes one g i r l a delinquent end another quite acceptable to the community. Ascertain amount of t h e i r behaviour can be attributed to the fact that t h e i r s o c i a l heritage has not prepared them for a l i f e i n aa concentrated White community; yet t h i s i s only one cause among many. 52 A chief of the Carrier Indians, with his untutored but colourful way of speaking, summed up the situation in this very apt state-ment, \" when they quit school at sixteen with grade four or five, they do not want to l i v e with their parents, because their parents are poor and ignorant. So they go out to the city and town, and what next? They simply make fools of themselves. And when they find out that they have not enough education.; through d i f f i c u l t y of securing a job, from town to town, they go home to their parents, and bring back with them only disgrace, including bedbugs, venereal disease, and sometimes paleface babies..\"\" 5 3 CHAPTER V INDIANS IN THE RURAL JUVENILE COURTS \"A*-.delinquent child i s not the sum total of his sex, his~. age, his nativity., and his offence, but a vastly complex flesh and blood reality in a particular social situation and in a particular time space sequence\". The influence of the home and the community condition a child to follow a certain pattern of behaviour; when this influence i s detrimental the child becomes delinquent. The causes of delinquency are applicable to a l l children regardless of race or social status, for the results of poverty, neglect, unhappiness, and ignorance ere universal, and not the exclusive property of one group of people. However, these factors are too often ignored when delinquency occurs in assmall r a c i a l minority. The unfair discrimination bestowed on r a c i a l groups in a country i s illustrated by the problem which the delinquent Indian g i r l presents in Canada. The causes of her delinquency may be caused by the same basic factors which cause delinquency among other g i r l s , yet because of the special status the Indians possess in Canada she i s regarded primarily as an Indian, 8nd secondly as a delinquent. There are of course differences between the Indian g i r l end the White g i r l which cannot be denied, the most important of which are her appearance and her communal type of l i f e ; yet despite these differences the delinquent Indian g i r l i llustrates the same fundamental reasons for anti-social behaviour as any other young offender. Her career i s similar to the majority 54 of delinquent careers in that as children they have a l l been denied some elementary need. The total delinquent problem which Indian g i r l s present in British Columbia i s d i f f i c u l t to assess because of the inadequate, records of the juvenile courts, and the lack of research in this f i e l d . Hence the Industrial School for Girls in Vancouver i s the only centre where valuable and informative recording may be found on this type of Indian ( f u l l blood) g i r l . For this reason, the records of twenty Indian g i r l s , who were admitted to the school between the years 1944 and 1948, have been selected in order to form the basis for this study in delinquency. Any juvenile who commits a criminal offence i s apprehended and punished according to the Criminal Code of Canada or the Juvenile Delinquents' Act. Although this Act i s applicable to the whole of Canada, each province must pass an act providing for the establish-ment of juvenile courts, (or designating existing courts as juvenile courts), before the Dominion legislation may come into force in that province. A survey made in 1942 in British Columbia showed that there were thirty-one juvenile courts, serving roughly ninety per-cent of the population. This means that the British Columbia Juvenile Courts Act has been enforced with wide coverage through-out the entire province. While the number of co\irts may have increased in the last seven years, the administration of these courts has not basically changed. The salaries of a l l judges, probation officers, and clerks are paid according to a fixed! 55 p r o v i n c i a l scale, although each municipality i n which the court i s established must pay the actual s a l a r i e s . Herein l i e s one of the basic causes of the s t a f f shortage i n the juvenile courts, f o r the: majority of municipalities complain that they cannot finance the necessary additional trained s t a f f . V i c t o r i a , Vancouver, Burnaby and New Westminster are the only municipalities who have trained-pro-bation o f f i c e r s , 8 S w e l l as o f f i c e s t a f f attached to t h e i r courts. In outlying d i s t r i c t , the juvenile courts r e l y s o l e l y on support from the p r o v i n c i a l police and the p r o v i n c i a l f i e l d service s t a f f . These two agencies are of great assistance to the r u r a l juvenile courts, and they offer t h e i r services whenever possible i n a supervisory and consultative work. The senior court o f f i c i a l i s always designated as a judge, and usually he serves an additional j u r i s d i c t i o n as a police or stipendary magistrate. The fact that most of the judges are laymen', and that they must divide t h e i r time between adult and juvenile court work, constitute a d e f i n i t e weakness i n the B r i t i s h Columbian juvenile court system. In addition to t h i s , juvenile court areas vary greatly. Some serve only w e l l defined municipalities, while others encompass large and poorly defined areas, often thousands of square miles i n extent. The f a c i l i t i e s f o r juvenile court session are barely adequate and the juvenile hearings are usually held i n the courthouse or i n a separate room. The actual administration of the B r i t i s h Columbia, j u -venile court system f a l l s f a r short of a satisfactory correction programme. Besides the noticeable shortage of trained s t a f f , end-. 56 the immense areas which some courts must serve, the f a c i l i t i e s f o r detention i n these r u r a l areas are quite inadequate. The common practice i s to remand a c h i l d to his own home, and i f t h i s course i s not possible the c h i l d may have to be detained i n the l o c a l j a i l . Detention i n the l o c a l j a i l has the most detrimental effect on juvenile delinquents, f o r they are forced to associate with the lowest class of criminals,.who influence them to an alarming degree to follow a l i f e of crime. Unfortunately the j a i l i s too often the only detention resource i n these l o c a l areas, for there are no separate juvenile detention homes, and foster homes are so scarce that they are r a r e l y used for detaining young criminals. As the r u r a l areas are so poorly equipped to deal with the problems of delinquency, few children receive the benefits of super-v i s i o n and guidance. White children are afforded some treatment, but the Indian children receive negligible attention, i f any. The very f a c t that they are Indian puts them into a special category, although according to the Juvenile Delinquents' Act ever delinquent no matter what her r a c i a l o r i g i n be, i s to receive the best correct-ion and guidance available. Indian are treated with special def-erence by the Dominion and placed i n the position of wards of the government. This explains why p r o v i n c i a l agencies are so reluctant to interfere i n any matter involving them. Ah example of t h i s reluctance on the part of a s o c i a l agency to offer services to Indians, i s the attitude of the pr o v i n c i a l f i e l d service and the c h i l d welfare authorities. They are hesitant to a s s i s t Indian g i r l s because they are wards of the government and 57 as such primarily the r e s p o n s i b i l i t y of the Indian A f f a i r s branch. S t r i c t l y speaking the Superintendent of Child Welfare cannot offer wardship to a g i r l because she i s already a ward of the Dominion government. Thus one of the best avenues f o r care and supervision i s closed to the Indian g i r l . Eesid.es, Indian reservations are closed to White people. This means that a s o c i a l worker who undertakes to make a v i s i t to an Indian v i l l a g e i s trespassing unless the permission of the Indian agent i s obtained. The Indian g i r l therefore 1.cannot benefit from any type of casework service. I t i s a p i t y , f o r the trained assistance of a s o c i a l agency would be a great value i n correcting the delinquency problems of the Indian g i r l s . The Indian agent i s the scapegoat for most of the - c r i t i c -ism l e v e l l e d against the administration of Indian a f f a i r s . He i s t blamed for the short-comings of the administration, while a c t u a l l y he i s merely a c i v i l servant f u l f i l l i n g the regulations which the Indian Act sets f o r t h . One job of the agent i s to administer t r i b a l funds, reserves and pensions. The d i s t r i c t he administers i s so large that i t i s impossible to offer casework services to his Indians. There are eighteen agencies i n B r i t i s h Columbia con-t r o l l i n g between them one thousand s i x hundred and nine reserves, and one hundred and seventy v i l l a g e s . The Indian Act which i s the agent's Bible, does not give him any moral r e s p o n s i b i l i t y for his wards, and therefore he r i g h t l y i n s i s t s that casework services are not part of his job. Nor has he the-58 t r a i n i n g to deal with delinquency which occurs among the Indians. I f i t i s possible, he w i l l represent a delinquent Indian g i r l i n court, and i f the g i r l has committed her f i r s t offence the judge may permit him to return her to her home. However i f she persists i n her con-duct there i s nothing he can do, owing to the s t r i c t regulations of the Indian Act, the lack of funds, f a c i l i t i e s and adequate s t a f f , the Indian Agent i s powerless to deal with delinquency. The p r o v i n c i a l police are one of the greatest supports i n cont r o l l i n g delinquency throughout the province. Although t h e i r main job i s to apprehend criminals, they often serve i n the. capacity of probation o f f i c e r s . The overwhelming majority of arrests of Indian g i r l s , both on and off the reservations, are made by the p r o v i n c i a l p o l i c e , and th i s n aturally makes the force unpopular with the Indians. The police are quite s t r i c t i n arresting Indians f o r any infringement of those sections of the Indian Act which deal with intoxicants. The Indians resent being s i n g l e d out as people who can-not be permitted to drink. The police make a point of being present at a l l v i l l a g e f e s t i v i t i e s i n order to control drunkenness; yet the Indians continue to drink by obtaining t h e i r l i q u o r through boot-leggers and White friends. This senseless system i s i n e f f e c t i v e i n practice, and degrading to the Indians. They are so suspicious of the p r o v i n c i a l policemen thay they w i l l not tolerate t h e i r services as probation o f f i c e r s . The g i r l s regard the p r o v i n c i a l police only as o f f i c e r s who make arrests and send people to j a i l . They cannot 59 understand the dual role of a frien d one day and an enemy the next. The l o g i c of the Indians i n t h i s respect i s correct, f o r i t i s a questionable practice i n any type of corrective treatment to have police serving as probation o f f i c e r s . A policeman apprehends d e l -inquency; he does not correct i t . Study of Records; Nearly a l l the g i r l s who were committed to the G i r l s ' I n d u s t r i a l School were apprehended by the p r o v i n c i a l p o l i c e , and at the time of th e i r apprehension they were not on t h e i r reserv-ations but i n the nearby town. Out of the twenty g i r l s , there were only three who were reported to the court from other sources. Two g i r l s were brought to the court by r e l a t i v e s , who charged that they were \" i n c o r r i g i b l e \" and d i f f i c u l t to control. The t h i r d g i r l was reported by the l o c a l doctor to be spreading venereal disease and not complying with the necessary arrangements f o r treatment. The average age of these g i r l s on admittance was only f i f t e e n ; the youngest c h i l d among those committed being eleven years old No one area i n the province showed any heavy delinquency. Prince Rupert with a count of four committals, Nanaimo two, Dawson Creek two, and Williams Lake two, were the only municipalities from which more than one g i r l was sent to the School i n the four year period. The area which Prince Rupert serves includes some seven thousand Indians, therefore i t i s not unusual that more g i r l s should come from here than other d i s t r i c t s * Additional committals were served from the juvenile courts at Smithers, Powell River, Duncan, Kamloops, Ale r t Bay, Clinton, Cranbrook, and Wilmer. 60 This i s a wide d i s t r i b u t i o n though i t i s not unexpected as the res-ervations and reserve lands are so widely scattered throughout B r i t i s h Columbia that any town of a f a i r s i z e . a t t r a c t s a small Indian population. The small number of committals i s of course attributable to the fact that the Indian population i n B r i t i s h Columbia i s only some twenty f i v e thousand. I t i s only natural that the g i r l s were apprehended i n the towns, for a l l g i r l s who l i v e i n the country long f o r the excitement of town l i f e . \"Going to town\" implies having fun. I t means movies, dances, pa r t i e s , a holiday and a l l the other uncertain benefits of a l i f e which cannot be obtained at home. To the Indian g i r l who i s either at r e s i d e n t i a l school or i n her v i l l a g e , the town has even more at t r a c t i o n . She can escape from the squalid atmosphere of the. reservation, where there i s ho recreation and nothing to do but be bored. She wants to ^have fun\" l i k e any other teen-ager. Parties.; with boys, dancing, smoking, movies, and drinking (for t h i s goes with them) are a l l the things which give excitement to her l i f e . The town represents to her everything that she would l i k e but cannot do at home. Reservation l i f e possesses no charm for i t i s an inactive., d u l l existence. The Indian g i r l s are of course more vulnerable to the bad influences of the town because of t h e i r d i f f e r e n t upbringing and appearance. When they associate with Whites, they are invariably the kind who w i l l do the g i r l s the most harm. The women who befriend them, usually prostitute f o r a l i v i n g and encourage the g i r l s to follow the same type of l i f e . The men they encounter are a poor class and not always responsible f o r t h e i r actions when dulled by 61 excessive alcohol. The g i r l s know few young people of t h e i r own age, f o r they have l i v e d apart from them a l l t h e i r l i v e s . They go to school only with other Indian children, and they l i v e on res-ervations which are solely Indian i n population. These g i r l s have not been immunized against men or l i q u o r , nor have they had the. experience to choose between what i s good and what i s bad i n entertainmen t . In becoming delinquent they are therefore showing a very common pattern, of behaviour, yet unfortunately when they are app-rehended for not conforming to the law they stand out as hopeless problem^ not because they have committed unpardonable crimes, but. because they are Indian. There i s nothing special about t h e i r behaviour as compared with the delinquent behaviour of Whit^ children. They have t h e i r d i f f i c u l t i e s at home, and at school, and there is. nothing to prove that they are more promiscuous than other g i r l s . Environmental forces i n t h e i r l i v e s may tend to make them accept t h i s form of l i f e with greater ease; but i t must be remembered that the Indian g i r l s have fewer avenues i n l i f e to choose from. The G i r l s ' I n d u s t r i a l School had records of twenty three admissions f o r Indian g i r l s over the f i v e years chosen for study-Actually only twenty g i r l s were i n s t i t u t i o n a l i z e d during .this,:, period, f o r three of them were recommitted on additional charges. The type of offences were very s i m i l a r to the record of offences assigned to the Indian g i r l s i n the Vancouver Juvenile Court. TABLE 4; COMMITTAL R^ COPPDFDR I NTH AN OJ^I-FE (Girls' Industrial School 1944 - 1948) DFFENCE ARRESTS TN YEARS\". 1944 1945 1946 1947 1948 TOTAL Intoxication 2 - 1 2 4 o Incorrigibility 1 - - 2 1 4 Theft - 1 o 1 - 4 Sexual Immorality Z 1 - - - 3 '/enereal Disease ? - - - - 2 Breach of Recognizence 1 - - - - 1 Total Committals 8 2 3 5 5 23 A l l these g i r l s except fo r two were committed to the-school for an indefinite period. The two exceptions were charged under the venereal diseases Suppression Act, which compelled them to remain institutionalized u n t i l cured. Intoxication appeared to be the most common offence for these g i r l s . This was a misleading charge for there were usually many other factors constituting the offences. For examples-Joan v/as apprehended for supplying i n -toxicants to another g i r l . The report recorded that she was 'incorrigible at home, and could not 63 be disciplined'. At night she would l o i t e r around the town, drinking with men and generally making a nuisance of herself. The d i s t r i c t nurse and. the s o c i a l welfare worker were both aware of the problem Joan was creat-i n g , and complained of her conduct to the Indian agent, before she was apprehended. No action was taken to supervise the g i r l and she was eventually arrested f o r a f i r s t offence., and committed to the Ind u s t r i a l School for G i r l s . The record showedcl.clearly the pre-delinquent career of t h i s , g i r l . She was unmanageable at home, and was creating a problem i n the l o c a l d i s t r i c t , yet obviously nothing had been done to correct, her behaviour. The intoxication charge was r e a l l y the factor by which the court could commit her, yet the r e a l problem which faced the court was her uncontrollable conduct. The treatment which she received i s t y p i c a l of the negligible attention given to a l l delinquent Indian g i r l s . The d i s t r i c t nurse, the s o c i a l worker and the Indian agent were a l l aware of the problem she was creating, but apart from report-ing the fa c t to each other they did not attempt to help her. As soon as she could be arrested for some l e g a l offence, she was immediately committed to the In d u s t r i a l School so that* she would no longer be: aj.nuisance i n the d i s t r i c t . Another example of t h i s same hasty action, i n order that the d i s t r i c t s might be relieved of a d i f f i c u l t problem, i s the case of, Mary, who was discovered by the p r o v i n c i a l p o l i c e , l y i n g on the highway'in a state of advanced i n t o x i c a t i o n . She was holding a h a l f - f u l l beer bottle which she l a t e r i n -formed, the police had been obtained from some white boys. Mary had no record of prefious charges. 64 In the li g h t of this information her committal sentence, seemed unduly harsh. The primary factor i n a l l the intoxication charges l a i d against the Indian g i r l s was that they were creating problems of behaviour in d i s t r i c t s which had no f a c i l i t i e s to offer proper treatment. The easiest solution for the juvenile court judges, wassto commit the g i r l s to the School and thus the d i f f -i c u l t i e s would be temporarily removed. The inexpediency of this... course i s exemplified by the sentence which the following g i r l received. Janet was.apprehended by the provincial police on a charge of intoxication. She was accused of wandering, associating with undesirable characters, and being drunk. Janet told the police that she had only l e f t her home in the neigh-bouring province.\"to see what British G&lumbia was l i k e \" . Janet's curiosity remained unsatisfied for she was imm-ediately conducted to the Industrial School! The g i r l was guilty only of a mild form of vagrancy, but because the court had no fac-i l i t i e s to send her home she was institutionalized. This was. not a just reason for the committal sentence, for her chief crime was^ aahealthy curiosity concerning British Columbia. She was also drunk, probably for the f i r s t time in her l i f e ; s t i l l this doess not explain^.the severity of the sentence that she received. A/part from the f u t i l i t y of committing the g i r l to the School, a greati deal of needless expense was incurred. She was escorted several hundred miles to the Industrial School, where she remained:! . institutionalized for a few months. The Superintendent of the^; 65 School obtained a release and then she was escorted a l l the way back to Edmonton where her family met her. I f the municipality had been w i l l i n g to finance her fare back home i n the f i r s t place a l l thatt. unnecessary expense would have been saved. Mabel exemplifies another factor i n the apprehension charges, namely the lack of control which the g i r l s families possess over them. Mabel came before the court with her mother who charged that her daughter was completely beyond her control. She was very d i f f i c u l t to manage and:-would not stay at home. Frequently she ran away, and against her mother's, instructions she persisted i n having promiscuous relations with soldiers i n the nearby town. Throughout a l l the records of the Indian g i r l s , t h i s o i n a b i l i t y on the part of the parents to control and d i s c i p l i n e t h e i r children i s s t r i k i n g . They seem quite hopeless i n managing t h e i r g i r l s , and regard t h e i r delinquencies either with complete i n d i f f -erence or s t o i c a l f o r t i t u d e . The crime records showed i n several cases, h i s t o r i e s of marked delinquency and moral degeneracy. Some Indian g i r l s had been repeatedly apprehended for offences, before they were committed to the School, and they were offences of.a more serious nature. These g i r l s were repeatedly g u i l t y of sexual immorality and indulged heavily i n alcohol). Except f o r one, the g i r l s were l i v i n g i n a town, i n conditions very si m i l a r to p r o s t i t u t i o n . Although they had appeared before the court many times none had received any guidances 66 or advice. For example, Connie was a young unmarried mother who per-sistently neglected her illegitimate baby. For days at a time she would indulge in wild drinking bouts in the town, while her baby was l e f t uncared for in some boarding room. The Children's Aid Society f i n a l l y placed the child in the care of the Superintendent of Child Welfare: yet there was no attempt to assist the adolescent mother whose conduct became so bad that she was f i n a l l y committed, to the Industrial School. And s t i l l another was the case of, Dorothy who had been a continual source of trouble for the past four months. She was: known to be drinking, street waijilking and.\", residing with a woman who was carrying on prostitution. Finally she was.apprehended.. by the police for sexual immorality and dis-orderly conduct; but before this no attempt had been made to give advice to this g i r l . The neglect of the authorities to make some kind of contact with these delinquent g i r l s , i s repeated again and again. Three g i r l s were admitted to the School as the result of thieving. One of these children was only eleven years old, but shew showedAa long history of sexual crime and i n c o r r i g i b i l i t y . On being released from the School she repeated a similar theft and was re-turned again for further corrective training. Another g i r l , Aggie, who was an orphan, was. committed on a f i r s t offence charge of steal-ing ten dollars from her employer's home. She had been placed several times as a servant at different homes, but could not settle down, and.was found continually wandering from one reservation to the other. The field_service worker, who had attempted to help this g i r l summarizedC. the situation aptly by saying in 67 her reports \"Since the crime, alleged would hardly warrant a committal to the G i r l ' s I n d u s t r i a l School, especially by the mag-i s t r a t e who professes the b e l i e f tha tthe I n d u s t r i a l School should be emptied, worker i s of the opinion that the court simply got r i d of a l o c a l problem by committal.\" This case i l l u s t r a t e s further the tendency of the court to depend on a committal sentence when a g i r l becomes an acute nuisance i n the d i s t r i c t . Thirteen of the Indian g i r l s were sentenced to the Indu s t r i a l School for f i r s t offences, and nine had previous apprehens-ions;, yet only one of these nine g i r l s had been placed on probation. The evidence shows that most of the Indian g i r l s had had pre-delinquent careers and yet there i s a glaring absence of any form of corrective supervision. Rather than attempt to solve the problems which these g i r l s created, the d i s t r i c t courts indulged i n an overuse of the committal sentence merely to be relieved of t h e i r disturbing presence. Treatment for juvenile delinquency i s of course d i f f i c u l t i n the l o c a l areas where f a c i l i t i e s are so l i m i t e d . However there are c e r t a i n l y other approved methods which can be employed i n the place of a committal sentence to an i n s t i t u t i o n . There are three important agencies i n these l o c a l areas who could cooperate i n the problem of treating Indian juvenile delinquency, the s o c i a l welfare branch, the prov i n c i a l police and the Indian Agent. Naturally the job of probation should f a l l to the s o c i a l welfare worker, who should work i n conjunction with the other two agencies. When a g i r l i s placed on probation, the sentence implies close f r i e n d l y supervision by a trained worker, who helps the g i r l r e h a b i l i t a t e herself. The court i s attempting i n good f a i t h to give the g i r l a certain period.: 68 of time i n which to overcome her behaviour d i f f i c u l t i e s . I f she breaks her probation and commits another offence, then the courts has f u l l power to reprimand her conduct and serve a fresh sentence. Probation i s meaningless without the supervision of a trained worker. At the present, r u r a l juvenile courts lack the f a c i l i t i e s to ad^r minister good probation service to any delinquent, least of a l l : an Indian delinquent. Yet there are p o s s i b i l i t i e s for improving the present s i t -uation. The amount of Indian delinquency i s not so large that some probationary plan could not be effected. The pr o v i n c i a l s o c i a l worker could make a f r i e n d l y contact with the delinquent g i r l end help her through advice and guidance to improve her l i f e . The Ind-ian agent and the pr o v i n c i a l police could give added support to the worker by supplying information concerning the g i r l ' s family and the home reservation. The support of the Indian parents could be strength-ened, and the case worker might we l l be able to a s s i s t the g i r l i n improving her attitude towards her family. There would be great d i f f i c u l t i e s to overcome i f t h i s plan was ever to come to f r u i t i o n , and. that i s why cooperation between the Indian agent and the s o c i a l worker would be so necessary. Another great reserve that has been neglected i n the past i s the enlistment of help from the responsible members of the Indian reservation themselves. Indian parents never f e e l responsible f o r the delinquent actions of th e i r children, f o r they have been con-ditioned by a governmental policy which denies any c i v i c r e s p o n s i b i l i t y to them. Each reservation has i t s own council of members headed by 69 the chief which formulates the polic y of reservation government. Members i n t h i s council could be given more r e s p o n s i b i l i t y , end might well be able to control t h e i r own delinquent children. Delinquency must be corrected primarily by eradicating the root causes, and the basic factois i n Indian delinquency stem from the reservation conditions. The attitude of a l l the agencies (the courts included) towards the Indian g i r l s i s one of hopelessness. The Indian agent has no r e s p o n s i b i l i t y f o r the delinquency among Indians; the wel-fare s t a f f are operating outside of t e r r i t o r i a l area i f they give a g i r l help and advice-, end the pr o v i n c i a l police are only concerned with apprehending Indian delinquency, Thus the Indian g i r l falls.:, i nto a special category. She comes very near to the status of an untouchable and the judge has l i t t l e choice when confronted with her problem. I f the g i r l i s placed on probation, there w i l l be no-one to supervise her, end foster home placement cannot be recommended because there are so few foster homes available for Indian children. One judge wrote i n a l e t t e r \u00E2\u0080\u00A2 t o the Superintendent of the G i r l s ' In-d u s t r i a l School the plight which confronts a l l the r u r a l juvenile court judges when sentencing Indian g i r l s , and he said: \"You w i l l , I arn sure, egree with me that i t i s apparently a hopeless task to deal with these Indian g i r l s with our present f a c i l i t i e s . Occasion-a l l y , perhaps, one i s found who benefits from the tr a i n i n g received at the School, but i n general i t appears to be a wasted e f f o r t . Unfortunately however', when a g i r l of t h i s type, i s charged before the Court, there i s p r a c t i c a l l y no other recourse.\" The judges 70 of the courts co-operate to the best of t h e i r a b i l i t y , but t h e i r e f f o r t s are crippled by the lack of resources; there i s indeed only the I n d u s t r i a l School, Cause and effect i n t e r a c t ; they contribute to the prevailing opinion of the court that Indian delinquents are ignorant, i l l i t e r a t e and hopelessly irredeemable. 71 CHAPTER VI INDIAN GIRLS AT THE INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL The task of correcting delinquenc;/- among the Indian g i r l s i s relegated e n t i r e l y to the I n d u s t r i a l School f o r g i r l s . This school i s the only i n s t i t u t i o n i n the province which attempts to r e h a b i l i t a t e Indian g i r l s , end the juvenile courts knowing that i t cannot refuse admittance to any c h i l d committed there, r e l y unduly on i t . This i s another example of the wide gap between the theory and the practice of delinquency treatment i n B r i t i s h Columbia. In the past i n s t i t u t i o n a l t r a i n i n g has not been successful i n r e -forming wayward children, f o r the enforced regiments.tion and d u l l monotony of reformatories can never meet the u n f i l l e d desires of t h i s type of c h i l d . Society however demands protection from the actions of delinquent children, end the short-term solution i s to set up reformatories and I n d u s t r i a l Schools for the reclamation of the most serious juvenile delinquents. The province of B r i t i s h Columbia is. s a d l y unprogressive i n i t s correctional programme. Besides the juvenile court work (which has great distances to cover before i t can be called e f f e c t -ive court work), there are three main i n s t i t u t i o n s f o r the treatment of young delinquents; New Haven School, The Boys' I n d u s t r i a l School, and the G i r l s ' I n d u s t r i a l School. The New Haven School f o r boys i s reserved f o r young offenders over the age of eighteen. I t i s -called a Borstal Type School, and wrongly so for a Borstal system requires a chain of d i f f e r e n t schools throughout the country, 72 with each school classified to suit the needs of a certain group of children. The other two industrial schools are run for children under eighteen years of age and they are the standard type of reformatory school to which Canada clings so doggedly. The G i r l s ' Industrial School i s intended, to be for the custody and detention of juvenile delinquent g i r l s , \"with a view to their education, industrial training and moral reclamation\" ^ The principle of the school i s distincly flavoured with mid-Victorian ideals, and counteracts any experimentation with new correctional methods. The Minister of Health and Welfare i s responsible for the administration and maintenance of the school, and at the present the cost of maintaining the necessary staff and the large building i s far out of proportion to the number of g i r l s being trained there. The school building although of large and i n a r t i s t i c design, has attractive surroundings of lawn and trees and flowering shrubs. Inside, the halls and rooms are scrupulously clean and shiny, yet there i s that permeating atmosphere of institutional l i f e . Besides the dormitories in which the g i r l s sleep, there are pleasant staff rooms, an attractive dining room, e large kitchen and laundry room, a school room, a. library, sewing rooms and a large rather barren recreation room with a piano and a radio. In the basement there are a number of single cells used for confining g i r l s who (1) Industrial School for Girls Acts: B.C. 1957, C.53,55 73 have misbehaved end upset the routine of the School d i s c i p l i n e . The largeness of the building and the prescribed t r a i n i n g course necessitates a big s t a f f , however small the number of g i r l s who are receiving treatment. Besides the superintendent of the school, there i s an assistant superintendent, a matron, several instructresses, a school teacher, a cook and a janitor-gardener. The i n s t i t u t i o n also has i t s own woman physician who holds a. c l i n i c every Wednesday i n the infirmary. The s t a f f though l a r g e l y untrained has succeeded i n e f f e c t -ing a good, almost happy atmosphere i n the School. The Superintend-ent i s a competent and able woman, and during the short term that she has served i n t h i s capacity, the case records have improved noticeably and several new tra i n i n g classes have been introduced. The g i r l s seem to l i k e the s t a f f who are i n turn interested i n the g i r l s and eager to help them. Apart from the good w i l l of the s t a f f , and the amiable atmosphere they t r y to create, the other characteristics of the school are simi l a r to the standard juvenile reformatory. The rou-tine of the school follows a monotonous pattern from day to day. As soon as a g i r l i s admitted, she i s kept apart from the other g i r l s u n t i l she has been examined by the physician. This b r i e f i s o l a t i o n period also serves to assess the child's a b i l i t i e s and character. There i s no r e a l segregation of the g i r l s , as such a system i s impossible to implement i n one large bu i l d i n g , but every c h i l d i s at least placed i n the most suitable dormitory, and a t t -ention i s given i n assigning to her the best type of classes and duties. 74-When she i s placed i n a dormitory, she begins to share the routine of the school. During the morning hours the g i r l s are assigned household duties such as cooking, laundering, cleaning and dusting rooms. After lunch three hours are devoted either to school &ork or sewing and handicraft classes. As there i s only one teacher and one school room, a l l the grades are taught together, examinations being written through correspondence. This i s not a satisfactory method of educating the g i r l s , but as many of them are over school age or too i l l i t e r a t e to attend school, more importance i s attached to the other afternoon classes. Training i s directed d e f i n i t e l y on domestic, household l i n e s , f o r the average i n t e l l i g e n c e of a l l the g i r l s i s below normal, and cooking, sewing and laundering are jobs which they can master and proudly excel i n . Some of th e i r handiwork i s very a t t r a c t i v e , and some, evidenced by the sack-like pin3r and blue uniforms they make for themselves, i s quite hideous. In. a l l fairness the design and o r i g i n of the School uniform was thought of many years ago by the School authorities and not by the g i r l s . On the weekend the g i r l s are allowed a certain amount of entertainment and. recreation. There are weekly picture shows, birthday parties, concerts, radio entertainment and free le i s u r e time. V i s i t o r s are also allowed during the v/eekend. On the whole the school operates with many drawbacks. In the f i r s t place i t s si t u a t i o n on Cassiar Street, near Hastings Park, i s too close to Vancouver City and encourages escape. Secondly the pr o v i n c i a l government i s not l a v i s h i n expend-ing money for improving the school, consequently the building i s 75 unsuited f o r the proper r e h a b i l i t a t i o n of delinquent g i r l s . The most important lack i n the school i s that the g i r l s are not seg-regated and they receive no i n d i v i d u a l help. I t i s primarily an i n s t i t u t i o n , and no matter how e f f i c i e n t and amiable the s t a f f , there i s no escaping from the enforced regimented l i f e . Although the Indian g i r l s who are the subject of t h i s study, received the same train i n g as the White g i r l s , they respond-ed to i n s t i t u t i o n a l l i f e even less w e l l . They were exceptionally d i f f i c u l t to t r a i n because of th e i r i l l i t e r a c y and poor background, and only four g i r l s out of the twenty attended school classes while they were inmates. None of the g i r l s was an exceptional student, although they t r i e d hard. One c h i l d received special academic work, as she was only i n Grade Two, while the others plodded along i n a 'slow but painstaking* manner. The In d u s t r i a l School records were so scant>and uninform-(a) ative up to 1946, ' that i t was impossible to assess the progress-of many of the Indian g i r l s . For eight of the children there was no record at a l l , to describe t h e i r t r a i n i n g progress, and the inform-* ation concerning t h e i r adaptability to t r a i n i n g was gleaned from scattered correspondence of the previous superintendents. Despite the badly kept records, certain factors i n the g i r l s' h i s t o r i e s at the School stand out from the White g i r l s ' . Presumably the g i r l s who did not attend school classes were trained i n cooking, laundry work, sewing and k n i t t i n g . None of the Indian g i r l s showed more than an average a b i l i t y i n the assigned tasks. A few were (a) at t h i s date the present Superintendent was i n s t a l l e d 76 were dependable and worked on d i l i g e n t l y on t h e i r own, but most of them required close supervision or else they daydreamed and avoided doing t h e i r work. Only one c h i l d , l a t e r recommitted was described as an exceptional allround student. She t r i e d very hard, and her a f f a b i l i t y and good conduct contributed to the happiness of the whole group. The d i f f i c u l t y i n t r a i n i n g these g i r l s i s obvious, f o r t h e i r retarded schooling, stunted a b i l i t y and poor home standards are serious barriers to overcome, especially when the children have reached adolescence. Besides t h i s the Indian g i r l s reacted v i o l e n t l y to the enforced confinement of the school, and these reactions were i n d i r e c t contrast to the a b i l i t y of the White g i r l s to bear the pressure of d i s c i p l i n e and routine. The Indian g i r l s after four to s i x months of the School, became moody, sullen and subject to violent outbursts of temper. This factor i s well i l l u s t r a t e d by the school history of Mary. Mary adapted herself to the school remarkably well i n comparison with the other g i r l s . Her conduct during the f i r s t few months was exemplary and no d i s c i p l i n a r y measures were needed. However, she was increasingly lonely and homesick, and after s i x months she became r e s t l e s s , d i f f i c u l t and founxl i t hard to conform to d i s c i p l i n e . Save for the one g i r l who assimilated w e l l with the group because of her own e f f o r t s , the Indian g i r l s were unhappy, resentful and d i f f i c u l t to control. Thus Joan, for example, Showed poor progress i n the school during the whole period. S h e - w a S i > 77 unable to get on with the other girls., and caused violent disturbances at the School. As the months went by her behaviour worsen-ed, and she fought persistently with the rest, and threw knives and chairs at them. This meant increasing periods of solitary detention for her, which only intensified her d i f f i c u l t behaviour. Clearly Joan could not conform to the institutional mode of l i v i n g ! The Indian g i r l s found i t d i f f i c u l t to mix with the White g i r l s , because of a feeling of discrimination. For a few months they might behave very well and then they gradually broke under the pressure. This meant that increasing confinement became necessaryj but this only enhanced their moody outbursts. The feeling of discrimination i s exemplified by Mabel's conduct. She gained nothing during her whole period. She resented discipline and f e l t that no one liked her because she was an Indian. Her temperament was variable, either in the heights of optimism or in the depths.. of despair. She refused instructions endu had no pride in her appearance. Close supervision was required because of her marked homosexual t r a i t s . Her behaviour soon became so disturbing that increasing detention was needed. Sometimes the tension and strain was so great that in several cases their violent behaviour suggested-!commitment to a Mental Hospital. Dorothy i s an example showing this. She was a defiant g i r l who could not adapt herself to the school. Her i n -stitutional history was one of spasmodic confinement, which intensified her re-sentment to such a degree that her behaviour was similar to that of a 'caged animal 1. She v/as tested at the .78 Child Guidance C l i n i c , who recommend-ed:, her immediate removal from the school as her conduct was detrimental to the other g i r l s . Committal papers, were drawn up to admit her to Esson-dale, taut a further test from the Child-Guidance C l i n i c , proved she was not r e a l l y mentally i l l . Dorothy was event-u a l l y released on probation to a r e l a t -ive i n whose care her conduct has been sat i s f a c t o r y . Dorothy's case also shows what a slim dividing l i n e there i s between normality and abnormality, and how detrimental conditionss can influence a person's character to the extent of being regarded as insane. The opinion of a l l the authorities at the G i r l s ' I n d u s t r i a l School, i s that Indian g i r l s should never be committed to such an i n s t i t u t i o n . No matter how bad t h e i r Indian heritage i s , they are used to that way of l i f e , and the rapid change to a White i n s t i t u t i o n i s a shock which they cannot bear. The confinement and d i s c i p l i n e i s not suited to t h e i r needs, and i n addition they are sensitive to the: overpowering White standards around them. Undoubtedly they f e e l , and are made to f e e l by the other g i r l s that they are i n f e r i o r Indians, and naturally they rebel against the whole system, by being d i f f i c u l t -obstinate, and h y s t e r i c a l l y defiant. Because of the d i f f i c u l t i e s of tr a i n i n g the Indian g i r l s , the- school authorities are not anxious to keep them any longer than i s necessary. The average length of tra i n i n g i n the school i s roughly s i x months to a year, and although a g i r l may be committed for two years t h i s i s seldom the case. When the Superintendent of the School feels that a g i r l 79 has received as much treatment as i s b e n e f i c i a l , she must make cert-ain plans for the release of that g i r l . In the case of the Indian g i r l s the Superintendent gets i n touch with the responsible Indian Agent, and also the s o c i a l worker from the p r o v i n c i a l welfare branch i n that same area. A l l three persons work together to devise a plan f o r the g i r l ' s after care. As soon as the plan i s completed i t i s sent to the Head of the Welfare Division, together with the Superintendent's l e t t e r recommending the release of the g i r l . The Head of the Child Wel-fare s i g n i f i e s her approval by a l e t t e r , which i s enclosed with the same plan and two release forms to the convicting juvenile court judge. I f the judge approves he returns the release forms signed and then the g i r l i s free to leave the school. This release procedure was followed i n every case, and out of the twenty g i r l s , three were l a t e r re-committed. Occassion-a l l y the judge would not approve of the plan made for a g i r l ' s release, and th i s would mean additional correspondence between the Indian Agent, the s o c i a l worker and the Superintendent and a delay of another three months while the g i r l got more restless andC. disturbed at school. The appropriate action i s d i f f i c u l t i n releasing Indian g i r l s , for there i s l i t t l e choice but to send them back to t h e i r former situati o n s . Nine g i r l s were released on probation to the care of a parent, and f i v e were probationed to r e l a t i v e s . Two g i r l s were released to other schools, i n one case to an Indian r e s i d e n t i a l school, and i n the other to a convent. Save for one 80 delinquent who has been sent to the P r o v i n c i a l Mental Hospital, the rest of the g i r l s are s t i l l i n s t i t u t i o n a l i z e d i n the I n d u s t r i a l School. Although co-operation with the Indian Agents and Social Workers has been f u l l y e n l i s t e d , there i s l i t t l e planning that can be done. There i s no supervision given to these g i r l s after they are released, and they quickly resume t h e i r former mode of l i f e . A/-.worker recorded very t r u l y that 'a person sent from a place of correction to her home, i s regarded as one fe e l i n g she i s now sup-e r i o r , and they (the Indian community) see to i t that she i s again relegated to the old standard'. The Indian g i r l s are committed, subjected to a type of confinement which even the i n s t i t u t i o n a l authorities say i s not be n e f i c i a l and then released (the worse for wear) to exactly the same situ a t i o n that existed before they were committed. 'Probation' i n t h e i r case i s a term of no signifigance, for none of the Indian g i r l s received any advice or help after she was released. They were placed on a bus or a boat to t h e i r destination and that was a l l the supervision given to them. At f i r s t glance t h i s seems a hopeless s i t u a t i o n , but i n r e a l i t y the growing awareness of the negligible services given to Indian children shows that some people i n the communities r e a l i z e that these children deserve a better fa t e . Fortunately i t i s the pro v i n c i a l s o c i a l welfare branch who are most aware of the problem. A d i s t r i c t supervisor who was w e l l acquainted with Indian delinquency summed up the view of t h i s agency by writ i n g to the Superintendent, 31 \"Ours i s a preventative service and a l l Indian c h i l d -ren of the past and p a r t i c u l a r l y of the future are desperately i n need of such a service. Not a worker at a distance but one s p e c i f i c -a l l y trained i n Indian Lore and constantly among them, learning the habits and psychology most applicable to t h e i r race\". One thing i s assured, and that i s that the G i r l s I n d u s t r i a l School which i s the only i n s t i t u t i o n attempting to correct these d e l -inquents, i s not successful i n i t s well-meant e f f o r t s . The g i r l s who eventually are placed i n the I n d u s t r i a l School are neglected children. They are the end r e s u l t s of broken homes, neglect, poor l i v i n g con-dit i o n s and l a x upbringing, and they need to be shown the comforts and advantages of good healthy family l i f e . Nowjc the G i r l s ' I n d u s t r i a l School i s an a r t i f i c i a l society which no sane person would l i k e to l i v e i n . The l i f e of regimentation, d i s c i p l i n e and monotony i s so f a r away from family l i f e and the outside society, that i t i s impossible to hope that the Indian g i r l s can ever be 'morally re-claimed'. The majority of the g i r l s have become delinquent through an unsatisfied need f o r tenderness and love i n t h e i r childhood, and the Industrial School w i l l never s a t i s f y t h i s need while i t i s functioning on the present basis. The number of Indian g i r l s committed each year i s so small, that the use of a separate i n s t i t u t i o n f o r t h e i r confinement i s not warranted. Hov/ever the present i n s t i t u t i o n could be r a d i c a l l y changed to f i t the needs of both Indian and White g i r l s , and at the same time to protect society. 82 Instead of one i n s t i t u t i o n a l building, there should be a number of cottages, each headed by a cottage mother, trained to her job, and i n charge of nine or ten g i r l s . The cottage should be run l i k e a family. Meals, domestic i n s t r u c t i o n , and recreation should centre around t h i s small u n i t . The cottage system would also en-able a segregation of the g i r l s , not necessarily according to age, but according to personality and character. I t might be advisable to put the Indian g i r l s a l l i n one cottage, i n order to make t h e i r assimilation with the White g i r l s easier. I t would be necessary to have a central building, with a school, a church, an auditorium and o f f i c e s , but the cottages would be the centre of a c t i v i t y f o r the groups. The value of such a system, i s that i t bring the d e l -inquent children into greater r e a l i t y with the outside world. The fe e l i n g of being shut i n and herded i s eliminated and the small group learns day by day, the meaning of give and take. Naturally the most important person for the success of t h i s plan, i s the cottage mother who should be a trained s o c i a l worker and also a capable motherly persoru The s o c i a l work t r a i n i n g gives her a greater a b i l i t y to understand and help the g i r l s , and the motherly t r a i t helps establish something approaching family t i e s . No province i n Canada has ever approached the treatment of delinquent g i r l s i n any such manner. The cottage plan i n s t i t u t -ion i s being ra p i d l y implemented i n England, and many of t h e i r u n i v e r s i t i e s offer special t r a i n i n g to prospective cottage mothers. Of course the plan would mean a thorough revision of B r i t i s h 83 Columbia's present method of treating juvenile delinquency among g i r l s , not to mention the necessary large f i n a n c i a l outlay. I t i s d i f f i c u l t to forecast into the future, but there seems no l i k e l i h o o d of the present I n d u s t r i a l School being changed to a cottage-school system. The public erroneously believes that a reformatory i s just what delinquent g i r l s need; \"Something that shows them who's boss\". As the principles by which the school functions do not s u i t the needs of any of the g i r l s , least of a l l Indian g i r l s , t h e i r behaviour continues along the same pattern of a n t i - s o c i a l acts. The Indian g i r l s suffer the most, because the treatment meted out to them is. misguided and unsuitable and w i l l continue to be so, u n t i l proper attention and straight-forward thinking i s directed towards the reasons f o r t h e i r delinquencies. 8 4 CHAPTER VII A CANADIAN RESPONSIBILITY The science of humanity unlike the science of chemistry or physics, i s f u l l of intangibles and unknown q u a l i t i e s . The basic cause of behaviour can only be ten t a t i v e l y surmised, because a human being i s not a chemical element whose reaction can be gauged: accord-ing to the stimulus applied, but a f l e s h and blood r e a l i t y whose behaviour i n situations i s unpredictable. I t i s known that there are certain predisposing factors i n delinquency, but which i s the . p r i n c i p a l cause no one can say. The delinquent behaviour of the twenty Indian g i r l s proves beyond doubt that our national policy has encouraged and i n t e n s i f i e d the s t u l t i f y i n g conditions which combine to (fcause t h e i r delinquency. The Dominion government b y f a i l i n g to meet the s o c i a l needs of the Indians,Sy denying them f u l l c i t i z e n s h i p and equal p a r t i c i p a t i o n i n community l i f e , has fostered a race of slum-dwellers. Delinquency breeds rapidly when poverty, ignorance, family neglect and r a c i a l discrimination are the dominant influences i n the l i f e of a group. The stories of these Indian g i r l s are tragic and pathetic, because t h e i r behaviour could have been improved, had anyone taken the necessary time and trouble. The so-callod 'correction' given them i s so shocking and feeble that i t c a l l s for immediate r e c t i f i c a t -ion. The r e a l blame for t h e i r condition however, lies.;with the Dom-inion Department of Indian A f f a i r s , which has mismanaged and sub-85 jugated.the Indians since-confederation. U n t i l the national policy has been r a d i c a l l y revised, the welfare of the Indians can never reach a standard comparable to the Whites, and they w i l l remain a dependent and subjugated race. IMPLICATIONS The influence (direct end i n d i r e c t ) of governmental mis-management i s i l l u s t r a t e d by the case h i s t o r i e s of the Indian g i r l s . Their special status denied t h e i r race any recourse to the benefits of the p r o v i n c i a l welfare scheme, which means that the Indian fam-i l i e s are excluded from a l l forms of p r o v i n c i a l r e l i e f , and t h e i r neglected children can never be offered protection under the Child Welfare Di v i s i o n . I t i s amazing that although the Indians l i v e within the p r o v i n c i a l boundaries, they f a l l outside i t s j u r i s d i c t i o n . Instead of p r o v i n c i a l benefits, the Indian Department offers: a special scheme of welfare which f a l l s far below our accepted standard. The proof of t h e i r low quality service i s shown by the poverty and f i l t y which ex i s t on the reservations, the high rates of infant mortality, pneumonia, tuberculosis, the unenlightened types of education, which deaden any community a c t i v i t y , and worst of a l l by the appalling neglect and apathetic attitude of parents towards th e i r children. The Indians' lack of moral r e s p o n s i b i l i t y and t h e i r apathet-i c attitude are i n d i r e c t l y the r e s u l t of government pol i c y . They are-denied the primary r i g h t of c i t i z e n s h i p , the r i g h t to vote i n Dom-inion elections. There i s no reason for them to behave as adults when 86 they are treated as children. So m8.ny rules, such as exemption from Dominion voting, the denial of liquor, are lai d down for them, that incentive and self reliance are discouraged. Indian Welfare health and education must a l l be drastic-a l l y improved before the bad social conditions can be effectively corrected, end the responsibility for doing this l i e s with the Dominion government. The negligible treatment given to delinquents i s to a. great degree caused by the administrative tangle in Indian affairs together with the timidity of the agencies involved. Although a l l children are held equally lieble for their offences, the treatment or punishment ?/hich the Indian delinquents receive is noticeably different from that which a White delinquent receives. The juv-enile courts do not possess the proper f a c i l i t i e s for a good correct-ion programme, because they are understaffed, end short of finances. As the rate of Indian delinauency i s smell compared with the other delinquent groups, end the Indien boys and g i r l s l i v e in widely scattered communities throughout the rural d i s t r i c t , the courts direct l i t t l e attention towards helping Indian youth and prefer to ignore the whole problem,. The provincial social workers decry the desparate needs of the Indian children, yet they have studiously avoided doing any social work in that f i e l d because the existing situation i s d i f f -i c u l t and calls for courage and a. tireless s p i r i t . The social workers offer many plausiblejexcuses for their i n a b i l i t y to cope with the Indian problem. Instances of these are, that Indians are 87 not included in the provincial jurisdiction, that provincial social workers are not allowed on the reserves withoiit the permission of the Indian Agent, and that the Superintendent of Child Welfare cannot offer guardianship to neglected. Indian children, because they are already wards of the government. Collectively socisl workers could overcome these barriers, but they f e e l that there are so many other problems less d i f f i c u l t in nature that the government alone should take the responsibility of meeting the needs of these people. The c i v i l servants whom the Indian department employs are rarely of the highest calibre of intelligence, and many of them per-form their duties as Indian Agents with timidity and l i t t l e imagin-ation. There are of course exceptional cases, but the majority are untrained in welfare work, and unwilling to improve the existing services to Indians. The agent adheres so closely to the regulations of their Department, that they do not consider themselves in any way responsible for delinquency among Indian children. This neutral attitude of the courts, the social welfare branch and the Indian agent i s a serious impediment to the good supervision and rehabilitation of Indian g i r l s . It means that because no agency i s willing to undertake the task (though a l l are willing to blame the government) the Indian children are victimized and l e f t alone to continue their pattern of misdemeanours. Only one institution accepts responsibility for training Indian offenders, the Girls' Industrial School, Unfortunately i t i s run according to the age old concepts of punishment end reform, andc: as a correction centre i t i s ineffective. The Indian children show 88 i n t h i s i n s t i t u t i o n a f e e l i n g of i n f e r i o r i t y , 8nd t h i s attitude together with t h e i r marked reacion to confinement, leads the school authorites to the b e l i e f that the t r a i n i n g i s d e f i n i t e l y not s u i t -able for Indian g i r l s . Besides the problems of governmental i n e f f i c i e n c y and the uncooperative attitude of the correction agencies, there are r a c i a l discrimination and prejudice. The whole manner i n which the a f f a i r s of the Indians are managed has increased the attitude of discrimination against them, and hindered t h e i r assimilation into the White community. The l i v e s of the Indian g i r l s show that they were segregated into an Indian group from the time they.where born. Their homes were on lands 'reserved for Indians', they went to schools/that were s o l e l y Indian i n population, and they l i v e d under s o c i a l conditions that only the Indian Department would permit. As the Indians i n Canada are such a small group, t h e i r presence does not create the type of r a c i a l intolerance based on fear and hate. The intolerance directed towards Indians i s a type founded on contempt and the superiority of the White race. Discriminatory laws ex i s t not beca.use they are a powerful race who might influence the country, but because they are considred to be i n f e r i o r , h a l f - p r i m i t i v e people who need pro-tection and guidance. This r a c i a l prejudice i s an important factor to consider i n t r y i n g to help the delinquent Indian g i r l s . They sense the attitude towards them, and some react by becoming b i t t e r and defiant, while others resent t h e i r heritage. For these g i r l s the damage i s 89 done and can only be modified by the understanding and objective help of a White friend, but for the Indian children of the future, a National policy of gradual assimilation must be started. It i s not possible to change, the physical traits of the Indians, but i t is-possible to lessen the prejudice and discrimination shown to them. SUGGESTED REMEDIAL PROGRAMME: It has been shown that the problem of correcting Indian delinquency is related so closely to the d i f f i c u l t and complex prob-lem of improving the administration of Indian a f f a i r s , that some attention must be given to the former, before delinquency correction can be discussed. The joint submission of the Canadian Welfares Council, and the Canadian Association of Social Work suggested to the Dominion Government committee on Indian Affairs the following recommendations: \"WB recommend: 1. ) The transfer of responsibility for a l l Indians services from the Department of Mines and Resources to the Department of National Health and Welfare, 2. ) Acceptance of f u l l assimilation of Indians into Canadian l i f e as.-the goal of the Government's Indian programme. 3. ) In line with this objective, consultation with provincial authorities regarding the possibility of extending to the Indian population the services of the provincial departments 90 of Education, Health and Welfare\u00E2\u0080\u009E 4 0) I f no such general extension of services i s possible at the present atage, the purchase of pa r t i c u l a r services from these departments as we l l as from private organizations i n situations where t h i s seems to be desirable, 5. ) Appraisal of a l l present s t a f f members i n the Indian services, both at headquarters and i n the agencies, and such reorganiz-ation as w i l l ensure that persons so engaged are q u a l i f i e d by-t r a i n i n g , experience and personality. 6. ) 'As part of t h i s reorganization the employment of suitably q u a l i f i e d persons f o r both administrative and service posts, as.quickly as they can be recruited end trained. 7. ) The employment at headquarters of s p e c i a l i s t supervisors i n the f i e l d of welfare, as we l l as i n such other f i e l d s as. education, health, agriculture etc. 8. ) The employment i n each of the Indian agencies of a qualified?.'. . s o c i a l worker to d i r e c t a. generalized welfare programme, including c h i l d welfare, family welfare, recreation and\", community a c t i v i t i e s . 9. ) The modernization of the educational system on the reserves so as to adapt i t more f u l l y to the l i f e needs of Indians and to make the schools an educational and recreational centre f o r the whole community\". The recommendations are primarily concerned with the welfare of the Indian communities, and as i t has been shown how the low standards of Indian l i f e affect the behaviour of the g i r l s , 91 the basic programme for correcting delinquency must s t a r t with them. Delinquency must be curbed at i t s source, and that i s why improved conditions for Indian health, welfare and education i s so necessary. In the s p e c i f i c f i e l d of Indian delinquency the s o c i a l worker may make a valuable contribution to the correction of t h i s problem. Social workers can no longer ignore the need for action i n the treatment of Indian delinquency, nor can they renounce the part which they must play without v i o l a t i n g the principles and ideals on which t h e i r profession i s founded. The f i r s t step i n improving t h i s r a c i a l correction s i t -uation i s to increase s c i e n t i f i c observation of the modern Indian. The type of research needed i s one which w i l l promote a greater understanding of the habits and culture of the race, and must bee done by s k i l l e d observers working and l i v i n g with the people they are studying and thus obtaining a first-hand evaluation of Indian culture. Secondly each Indian agency should have on i t s s t a f f at leas t one s o c i a l worker, to devote her time s o l e l y to the Indians and t h e i r problems. The continuous w a i l from the Indian agents that they have no moral r e s p o n s i b i l i t y over the Indians would.\" thus be ended. Ah Indian s o c i a l worker could help the delinquent g i r l s s considerably. F i r s t she would have access to the g i r l ' s family and with her greater understanding of the characteristics of Indians, she might possibly improve the conditions of the home and the relations between parent and c h i l d . 92 The appointment of Indian s o c i a l workers would also give the juvenile courts an alternative to committing the g i r l s to the Ind u s t r i a l School, What better equipped person i s there than the s o c i a l worker, to serve as a probation o f f i c e r ? Besides t h i s she could improve the case records (which at the moment are deplorable), thus contributing i n d i r e c t l y to further research into the problems of these g i r l s . I t i s essential that the s o c i a l worker be i n close harmony with the people she a s s i s t s . She must gain t h e i r confidence anda support and s t r i p herself of a l l r a c i a l intolerance. This i s not an easy task, and requires a person of high moral i n t e g r i t y and:-courage. Re-education i s one of the things that the Indians need, and can only be given by some person preferably a s o c i a l worker w i l l i n g to go and l i v e with them on the reserves and show them how to give t h e i r children healthier and happier l i v e s . In t h i s way community l i f e could be stimulated on the reservation, Bnd the children could be taught the art of self-government, enjoying recreation and l e i s u r e , and of s e l f reliance. Social workers i n B r i t i s h Columbia have a r e a l challenge before them i n t h i s r a c i a l problem. They are the protectors of every man's welfare and as such the community i s under a strong obligation to them. Hesitancy to attempt a s o c i a l action for the Indians has--been the keynote upto the present and s o c i a l workers are as much to blame for t h i s as workers i n other f i e l d s . I t i s a d i f f i c u l t complex situation and some of them avoid i t by contenting themselves with problems they know are more e a s i l y solved. With a l l t h e i r 93 s k i l l s , techniques and knowledge, they have f a i l e d to l i v e up to t h e i r basic aim,which i s to promote man's-welfare. Of any group i n Canada, the Indians receive the least consideration. Their children are brought up under conditions^ which appal the rest of the community and yet because everyone i s so reluctant to become entangled i n Indian a f f a i r s , the conditions remain unchanged. I t i s the Indian children who suffer, and i t i s they who pay the price for.actions caused by the f o l l y of t h e i r parents, and the apathy of the Canadian public. Delinquency i s a symptom of a diseased l i f e . Sometimes i t can be cured by the medicine of f r i e n d l i n e s s , understanding, and. s e l f d i s c i p l i n e , at other times i t i s too l a t e to cure the malady or apply the r i g h t cure. The Indian g i r l s are the children of these other times. They are the victims of a culture who l i v e i n poverty and. confusion, and the victims of a greater c i v i l i z a t i o n who show\" them nothing but discrimination and contempt. The Indians are more aware of t h e i r disintegrating her-itage than the rest of c i v i l i z a t i o n , f o r they have seen t h e i r society destroyed by a great force. Their= sad fate i s thus described by Raymon, a Digger Indian Chief. \"In the beginning, God gave to every people a cup, a cup of clay, and from t h i s cup they drank t h e i r l i v e . They a l l dipped i n the water, but t h e i r cups were d i f f e r e n t . Our cup i s broken now. i t has passed away.\" (4) Ruth Benedict. Patterns of Culture. Page 19 SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY A. GENERAL REFERENCES: 1. Aichorn, August., 'Wayward Youth. Viking Press, 1945 2. Robison, Sophia Moses., Can Delinquency be Measured? Columbia University Press, New York, 1936 3. Burt, C y r i l . , The Young Delinquent. University of London Press Ltd-; 1944 4. White House Conference on Child Health and Protection., The Delinquent Child, The Century Co., New York 5. Jenness, Diamond., Indians of Canada. Department of Mines and Resources, Anthropological Series:-, No. 15. 6. Loejii, G\u00C2\u00BBT., and Mcllwraith., The North American Indian Today, University of Toronto Press, 1943. 7. Benedict, Ruth., Patterns of Culture. Penguin Books Inc., New York, 1947 8. Leighton, Dorothea and Kluckhohn, Clyde., Children of the People, Harvard University of Toronto Press, 1943. 9. Ogburn, William Fielding., Social Change, B.S. Huebsch Inc., New York, 1933 10. Firth, Raymond., Human Types,Thomas Nelson Sons Ltd., Toronto, 1947 11, Hamilton, Gordon., Theory and Practice of Social Case Work, Columbia University Press, New York, 1940 B. SPECIFIC REFERENCES 1. The Juvenile Delinquent's Act.. Revised Statutes of Canada 1929, Chapter 108 2. The Indian Act., Revised Statutes of Canada, 1927 3. The Juvenile Court's Act., Revised Statutes of British ~~ Columbia, 1936, Chapter 60. 4\u00C2\u00AB The Industrial School for G i r l s ' Act., Statutes of British Columbia, 1937, Chapter 33. SPECIFIC RFFF.PTTNCF.S (continue) 5. The Venereal Dipeasep Supprepsion Act., Statutes of British Columbia, 1947, Chapter Q5\u00E2\u0080\u009E C. REPORTS 1. Special Joint Committee of the Senate and the Houce of Commons to_examine and consider the Indian Act., King's Printer, Ottawe, 1946 - 1948. (a) Joint Submission of the Canadian Welfare Council and the Canadian Associption of Social \"^ o^ k. 2. Annual Peport of the Family Court and Detention Home, Vancouver, B.C. December 31st, 1945 3. Report of the Advisory Committee on Juvenile Delinquency King's Printer, Victoria, 1937 4. Report of the Conference on Native Indipn Affairs., Published by P.C. Indien Acts and Welfare Society, 1948 5o peport of the Furv ov P e p p ^ j n p the Girl?' Tnduptrj.pl School., Tsobel, Harvey (pepp>\u00C2\u00BBroh Consultant f o r the Province of p r i t i p h Colombia), 1944 D. PECOPDS 1. Vancouver Juvenile Detention Home Admitting Pecord, 1946 - 1948 2. Vancouver Juvenile Court Records (12)., 19461948 3. GirlF' Industrial School Case Records (20)., 1944 - 1948 "@en . "Thesis/Dissertation"@en . "10.14288/1.0106925"@en . "eng"@en . "Social Work"@en . "Vancouver : University of British Columbia Library"@en . "University of British Columbia"@en . "For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use."@en . "Graduate"@en . "Juvenile delinquency among Indian girls; an examination of the causes and treatment of a sample group, and the resulting social implications."@en . "Text"@en . "http://hdl.handle.net/2429/41366"@en .