“Have them suitably married”

A Case Study of Marriage and Coercion of Indian Residential School Pupils in Canada’s Prairies

Abstract

In their research over the past decade, Dr. Anne Lindsay and Dr. Karlee Sapoznik Evans have come across records of arranged and forced marriages that were perpetrated within the context of Indian Residential Schools. These records and the stories they document, some of which are discussed in Evans’ doctoral dissertation, corroborate the oral history accounts shared by Indian Residential School (IRS) Survivors and intergenerational Survivors. While arranged and coerced marriages have been referenced and acknowledged in a few publications, including those of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada, to date, very little research has focused on these marriages, where elements of force, coercion, and unfreedom are at play. Today Evans and Lindsay continue to uncover new information, including the case studies that are discussed below. The histories explored in this article focus on the Saint-Boniface Industrial School, which was located across the river not far from The Forks, reminding the reader that arranged and coerced marriage is not something that happened somewhere else, and casting light on the connections between marriage and the coercion of IRS pupils on the prairies. At the same time, considerable work remains if we are to trace and understand the scale, scope, and enduring legacies of these unfree marriages.