I am an Interior Salish spirit dancer
and am 58 years old. I live in Vancouver, Canada.
I am a survivor of the Kamloops and Mission
Indian residential schools, both run by the
Roman Catholic church. I suffered terrible
tortures there at the hands especially of
Brother Murphy, who killed at least two
children. I witnessed him throw a child off
a three story balcony to her death.
He put me on a rack and broke some
of my bones, in the Kamloops school
basement, after I tried running away.
I also saw him and another priest burying
a child in the school orchard one night.
In September 1964 when I was 12 years
old, I was an inmate at the Kamloops school
and we were visited by the Queen of England
and Prince Phillip. I remember it was strange
because they came by themselves, no big fanfare
or nothing.
But I recognized them and the school
principal told us it was the Queen and we
all got given new clothes and good food
for the first time in months the day before
she arrived.
The day she got to the school, I was part of a
group of kids that went on a picnic with the
Queen and her husband and school officials, down
to a meadow near Dead Man's Creek.
After awhile, I saw the Queen leave that picnic
with ten children from the school, and those
children never returned. We never heard anything
more about them and never saw them again even
when we were older. They were all from around
there but they all vanished.
