Pelican Lake (or Sioux Lookout) Indian Residential School opened in 1926 with a maximum enrolment of 135, soon increased to 142, and later to about 160 after the war. Land was quickly cleared near the school for farming operations, which involved the male students as part of their vocational training. Unlike most other schools, the Pelican Lake facility was not situated on or near an Indian reserve. Nor was there an Anglican Mission on the site. The school staff included a Registered Nurse who oversaw a fully equipped dispensary, which included two hospital rooms. These medical facilities were reduced after World War II, as space was needed for other uses. Serious medical cases were taken to doctors in town by the school’s swift power boat. Students contracting Tuberculosis were transferred to sanatoria at Fort William and Winnipeg.
Native children were drawn from reserves over a vast area covering 686,000 square kilometres, extending north from the CNR and from Cochrane in the east to Minaki, 1,125 km in the west. Many students came from the relatively close Lac Seul First Nation and from the widely scattered bands making up today’s Nishnawbe-Aski Nation. Three language groups were represented: Ojibway, Cree, and Swampy Cree. English was the language of instruction. Normally, children entered the school at age six but orphaned children of pre-school age were often taken in, by authority of the Indian Agent. Thus the school served as a foster home for some.
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