First Indian Day School BuiltThe first Indian Day school was built in Alert Bay in 1900 and the teacher was Mrs Patterson Hall, wife of Reverend Alfred J. Hall. This eventually became the present day Council Hall. One of the teachers at the Day School was a ʼNa̱mgis member, George Luther who taught for many years.
According to Jerry Alfred, Luther used to live in his dad “Pip” Alfredʼs house later in his life. George Luther and William Brotchie acted as clerical workers, translators, and teachers for the Anglican Mission Schools and Churches for most of their lives.
James Auld Sewid attended the Indian Day School and said, “The In-dian teacher at the day school, George Luther, was a great friend of mine. If it was a snowy day, or if it had snowed at night, my grandmother would wake me up early and give me breakfast and then I would go up to the school before anyone else got there. The school had a long stairway, and she used to give me a broom to sweep off the snow to get it ready for George Luther when he came.” [Sewid mentions grade one and two that he attended].
According to Sewid, the Indian Day School was for the local children that lived in Alert Bay but were not living in the Residential School. The Annual Report from Department of Indian Affairs in 1905 states that the girls attending the home school also went to the Indian Day School.
Potlatch: A Strict Law Bids Us DanceIn 1972, the video, “Potlatch: A Strict Law Bids Us Dance” was produced. It goes into great detail about the Cranmer potlatch of 1921.
Some of the footage is a re-enactment of jail sentences given in 1922 and was filmed in the Council Hall. Descendants and close relatives played the parts of people that were given jail time.
It was a very emotional time for many of the actors portraying a relative that had unjustly served prison time in what was a very foreign place called Oakalla Prison fifty years earlier.
Council Hall PhotosThe photo above comes from BC Archives, H-03984. It was taken by William Halliday be-tween 1897 and 1933. according to BC Ar-chives.
The pole in the front of the Council Hall was raised in 1907 according to Wedlidi Speck so this photo would have been after 1907.
Wedlidi said, “Granny Lucy was playing down by the beach wearing her button blanket and when it was time to name her, they had to go down the beach to get her. She was the old-est of the Hanuse sisters.
The pole was raised by Chief Harry Hanuse when my grandmother was only five years of age. That is when Lucy Hanuse was put into an eagle seat by her father and tribe.
The family gave blankets to the chiefs. This is said to fasten the eagle name that Granny Lucy received.”
Halliday Letter about Cranmer Trial at Council Hall 1922People sent to Oakalla for Dan Cranmer Pot-latch in Village Island.
Many others were released for giving up pot-latch regalia and a promise to never potlatch again or given suspended sentences.
1. Herbert Martin
2. Mungo Martin
3. Spruce Martin
4. Jerry Brown (Jake Smithʼs father)
5. James Knox (was only 15 years old)
6. Billy McDuff
7. August (Harry Mountainʼs father-in-law)
8. John Whonnock
9. Glah-tlah-lah-ga-lees (sister—H. Johnson)
10. Gweek-sea-sa-lus (Florence Knox)
11. Who-moh-low-gwa
12. Maxwa̱laʼoǥwa (Mary Whonnock)
13. Sewid-Smith
14. Ha-gwe-ma (Tom Kingʼs father)
15. Ǥwusdidzas—Japanese Charlie
16. Bob Harris
17. Harry Glendale
18. George Glendale
19. Kenneth Hunt
20. Jim Hall from Ḵalugwis
21. Nantleby Sam
22. Ned Coon
The four women are in italic, numbered 9-11 that were sent to prison.
DOMINION OF CANADA ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 1919, 1928, 1930Alert Bay teacher, George M. Luther, $500, bonus, $150; wood, cut and piled, 4 cords, $20; small items, $8.90 = $678.40 for year 1919
Alert Bay teacher; George M. Luther, 12 m. to Dec 31, $900; wood and supplies, $55.25 = $955.25 for year 1928
Alert Bay Teacher; George M. Luther, 12 m. to Dec 31, $900; sundries, $S5.05
= $956.05 for year 1930
DOMINION OF CANADA ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DEPARTMENT OF INDIAN AFFAIRS FOR THE YEAR ENDED MARCH 31 1914.Alert Bay Indian, Day School (Anglican). This school is taught by Miss E.W. Ferryman.
There were 32 pupils on the roll, and at the time of inspection there were 22 present. The average for the last quarter of 1913 had been 18.05, as compared with 9.96 for the previous quarter.
The school is in a good state of re-pair. The class-room is fine and airy with a good high ceiling. All the pupils are in the first standard. The children seemed happy and were taking quite an interest in their stu-dies. Progress, however, at this stage of their education is naturally slow. They were reported as having been quite healthy during the year.
Cranmer Potlatch Trial and Elder CommentsThe Indian Day School was also used as a court house and jail. Many Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw speaking people were held for many days in this makeshift jail before and during the trial. Charges were laid against Kwakwa̱ka̱ʼwakw speaking people for a potlatch held in Village Island from December 20-25, 1921.
On February l1, 1922, thirty-two people [two who were ill] appeared in Hallidayʼs schoolhouse courtroom. Bad weather and storms caused many adjournments and court finally started on February 27th.
On April 7th and 8th, 1922, sentences were handed out to the people charged for the big potlatch in Village Island at Dan Cranmerʼs potlatch. and sent to jail in Oakalla Prison for two months.
Four of them were women and at least one was a grandmother. Police Officer Angermann escorted the twenty-two chiefs, women and men from the hall to the CPR steamer, “Beatrice” on the 10th of April to serve their sentence at Oakalla Prison in Vancouver. Agnes “Ax̱u” Alfred said, “We sure suffered when we were all arrested for what Da-Da [Dan Cranmer] did. We were all arrested. The old man was still alive. Gim-hyou-de [her uncle Numas or Walkus]. The day
school bell would ring and we all lined up” She then goes on to talk about the people who were sentenced at the Day School. “They just ended up sleeping on the floor of the day school. They were not permitted to leave. These were the people going down to Oakalla Prison.
They slept on the floor. They were going to stay there until the steamship came. Those people, there were a lot of them. Those that were in prison. They were all so heartbroken because there was no reason for such a treatment,” she said.
Ed Whonnock and Herbert Martin Herbert [Mit̕sa] Martin said, “They arrested us. That is what Angermann did. That was because Kenneth Hunt had given the list to Angermann. They brought us to the old day
school. They were questioning us. They kept us in prison at the day school. We were in prison at the day school. We were all there. We went to sleep at night. All we had was blankets, no mattress.”
A Childʼs View of The TrialJames Sewid said, “One day in about 1922, when I was eight years old, George Luther told the kids that there wasnʼt going to be any school for a few days because they were going to use that room for a court house. I heard that some of my relatives had been sentenced and were going to jail.
So I crept in back of that schoolroom and looked through the window. All the people were just sleeping on the floor. Old man Whonnock and old lady Whonnock were in there and Herbert Martin who was a close relative of mine was in there. I felt very badly about it because they told me that they were all going to be in jail.”
Dorothy Alfred said, “I went to the Day School at the old Council Hall when I was six years old. The teach-ers were all non native and there was only an out-door toilet. That would have been about 1941 or 1942.”
Lily Jolliffe attended the school also and was there for grades 1 to 3. She said her teachers were Mrs Scan-lon and Miss Lucas.
The Indian Day School closed in 1947 when a bigger native school was built where the present day Yalis apartments are and directly across the Reserve soccer field.
James Sewid was the first ʼNa̱mgis elected chief in 1950 and when they decided to log parts of the reserve in Alert Bay, he changed how the profits were spent. It used to be given to each band member but he had the money put into a band account to handle ʼNa̱mgis band needs. He said, “We saved enough money to fix up the Council Hall and get fire-fighting equipment and carry on other business.”
Elected Terms were for two years so the Council Hall would have had repairs in 1950 or 1951 because the next election was in January, 1953. The Council Hall had more renovations in 1960.
When the ʼNa̱mgis reached 600 band members in 1963, there were six elected council members and a chief. One of the portfolios that Arthur “Pip” Alfred was in charge of was the responsibility of the Council Hall and the recreation activities.
The Kwak̓wala Arts and Crafts Society was formed in 1964-65. They built the first traditional Big House in Alert Bay. Because of this build-ing going up, elders began to teach singing and dancing in the Council Hall to the youth.
Vera Newman said, “The old ladies just tied big towels around the young girls to represent native blankets and dancing was taught to them. Boys learned to sing in our language from the older men and these same men taught the boys how to dance.”
Magistrate Meeting with ʼNa̱mgis and Alert Bay VillageThe Council Hall was used to meet with Magistrate Johnson from Sechelt in 1963-64. Chief and Council was worried about juvenile delinquency on the reserve and municipality. Many heated words were exchanged at the Council Hall as to whoʼs problem it was. The end result after much heated dis-cussion was a committee was formed, called “Cormorant Island Youth Guid-ance Committee.”
There were two co-chairmen and consisted of five members from the reserve and five members from the Village of alert Bay. The co-chairs were Dave Lawson and James Sewid. The eight other mem-bers were Dora Cook, Ethel Alfred, Joan Burroughs, Jenny Dong, Henry Beans, Robby Bell, Art Tinney and Rick Morrow. Because of the initial meeting at the Council Hall, juvenile crime rates were reduced by almost 70% in the first year in large part to the Cormorant Island Youth Guidance Committee.
Camp Kla-how-ya and Summer FunDuring the summer months, the Hall was used by an out of town group for Bible School for two weeks and then children from Alert Bay would go to camp Kla-how-ya for ten days at Thetis Island.
Two main organizers were Jim and Becky Hamilton who came to Alert Bay for about ten years.
Charlene Alfred originally from Port-land, Oregon was one of the teachers who came during the summer of 1964. She eventually married Harry Alfred from the ʼNa̱mgis.
Charlene said, “The people were mainly Baptist and the name of the society was Marine Medical Mission. Bible school was Monday to Friday during the day.
Day sessions went from nursery school up to age 12 and in the eve-nings, teen bible school was held.” She remembers that six others came with her to teach and that there were over one hundred children that at-tended when she was there.
Council Hall PlaygroundFrom 1960-80, children used to play ball hockey to the right of the hall at night imagining they were NHL play-ers. Behind the imaginary ice arena, there used to be swings and a slide that was used by many children on sunny days.
One would often see kids sitting around by the swings shooting the breeze and planning for upcoming days and weekends.
Treatment Centre Grads, Halloween and Christmas PartiesʼNa̱mgis Treatment Centre hosted grad luncheons and dinners in the hall before the Lawrence Ambers Recrea-tion Centre was built. Many people show up in support for the grads special day, enjoy a potluck meal and the speeches.
Halloween parties were held every year also, Dunking for apples, candy treats, musical chairs, best costume prizes, pin the hat on the ghost and other games were enjoyed by the youth.
Community volunteers worked to-gether through Council hall bingos to be able to give out Christmas food hampers to people in need. Santaʼs elves always had a fun day boxing up the food hampers, proudly wearing their Santa hats as they deliv-ered Christmas food to the village.
They also supplied a Christmas turkey dinner with all the fixings to single people, single parents, disabled per-sons and elderly at the hall. To finish off the year, ʼNa̱mgis still carriy on the tradition started by the Glee Club from the 50ʼs.
Santa used to drop by the hall and children were given a present that was suitable for their age. Santa and his elf were always willing to pose for a photo with the happy child getting a gift.
B.R.A.T.S. Club 1980’sʼNa̱mgis youth formed a club in the 1980ʼs called “Best Recreation Activity for Teens.” This came to be known as the Brats Club. This club was under the super-vision of Joan Culver [Diane Alfred]. She encouraged the youth of the Bay to create what they wanted for them-selves. The Brats Club wrote a letter to Chief and Council to re-open the Council Hall, explaining that they needed a place of their own to have meetings, dances and a place to just hang out. The Council Hall was not being used prior to their request. The Council approved that the Council Hall be renovated and opened up for the Brats Club. This club hosted many teen events in the Council Hall.
As mentioned earlier, CRA hosted the official opening in 1983.
B.R.A.T.S Club MembersThere was an elected Executive Com-mittee formed by the BRATS Club. Sherry Lynne Alfred, Drew Alfred and Andrea Cranmer were on the executive committee.Some members were Arnold Hanuse, Norine Smith, Kelly Scheck, Vincent Hunt, Bonnie Alfred, Andrea Alfred-Smith, Roberta Conway and Linda Isaac plus many more. They were a generation who wrote many letters asking for what they wanted and created events to liven up the place. With guidance from Miss Culver [Alfred], they went after things that they needed for the Hall and their fun activities. These teens were only thirteen going on fourteen but made a success of their club and Council Hall use.
B.R.A.T.S Club Members AlumniThis group presented to the Gold-thorpe Inquiry and wrote letters to BC Ferries to get their favorite ferry back. After much practice at letter writing and petitioning for their needs, BRATS Club alumni eventually furthered their education. Job career choices include teachers, social workers, business owners, recreation, tourism and early childhood education. Many are active in native arts and crafts, singing, dancing and language.Gilakasʼla to Joan, Chief and Council and all the BRATS club members for making great use of the Council Hall. Many of the BRATS club members are now leaders in the ʼNa̱mgis com-munity and municipality of Alert Bay.
Other Council Hall EventsThe Hall has been used for teen dances starting with bands playing saxophones, piano, guitar, drums and clarinet in the 40ʼs and 50ʼs. Some musicians were from the Hunts, Whonnocks and West families plus many more.
During the 60ʼs to the 90ʼs, local and non-native rock bands called the In-truders, Herm and the House Rockers, Beaver Springs Creamery and Canned Fish played on Friday nights for teen dances.
Some various band members were Cal and Rod “Buff” Seaweed, Herm and John Bruce, Ernie Ja-cobson, Don McWilliams, Dana Barton, Mike Jolliffe, Dennis John-son, Jamie Guenther, Jim Arm-strong, and Bodie Wadhams.
Celebratory team dinners occur in the Hall whenever a team excelled in soccer, basketball and floor hockey. Proud par-ents, family and coaches hosted a dinner. Photos were taken of the team that represented the community off the island of Alert Bay.
Council Hall ConclusionThis building should be a Heritage site. The Council Hall was built in 1900 and was used as a school until 1947. The Cranmer Potlatch trial was held in this building in 1922 and was also a jail for many high ranking chiefs, noblemen and noble women. In 1950, ʼNa̱mgis took over the build-ing and used it for Council and gen-eral meetings. The building was used for educa-tional, cultural, oral history, traditional and modern dancing and singing, fundraising, weddings, anniversaries, birthdays, small potlatches and din-ners.
Today, it is used for meetings still and is the main funding source for sports teams, Bev Mountain Cancer Organization and Cormorant Recrea-tion Association through the use of Bingo nights in Unfortunately many of the other singers and dancers had passed away but a few of them were Her-bert Martin, Henry Speck, Lucy Brown, Flora Sewid and countless others that ʼNa̱mgis will be forever grateful to for the knowledge passed on to our youth in the Council Hall. Arthur “Pip” Alfred who held the first Council Hall portfolio in 1963 was also in attendance at the spe-cial 1983 Grand Re-opening of the hall. Our Council Hall needs to be kept in place and renovated so that it can last another hundred years.
