St. Mary's Indian Residential School
St. Mary's Indian Residential School was the name of two Indian residential schools in Mission, British Columbia. The first was operated by the Roman Catholic Church of Canada, and the second was operated by the Canadian federal government. Approximately 2,000 children attended the schools while they were in operation, most of them Stó:lō. History St. Mary's Mission and Residential School was founded in 1861 by Father Leon Fouquet as a centre for educating First Nations children and initially opened by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate in 1863 as a small boarding school for boys and housed 42 native students its first year. It was named after Saint Mary of Egypt. A separate school for girls was opened on the same site in 1868 and operated by the Sisters of Saint Anne. It operated near the Fraser River for nearly two decades, then moved further uphill in 1882 to make room for the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway. A new school was erected in 1933. Mission City was named after the presence of this institution. Boys and girls had separate dormitories, with the girls' residence also housing the nuns' quarters, an infirmary, a recreation room and a chapel. The