Shingwauk Hall: From "Teaching Wigwam" to Residential School to University.
The original vision for Shingwauk Hall in the early 19th century came from Chief Shingwauk, of the Garden River Ojibway people, as he felt that "the future Ojibway needed to learn the white man's academic method of education in order to survive in what was becoming a 'predominately non-native world with non-native values". While Chief Shingwauk's vision of a teaching wigwam for his people would not come to fruition in his lifetime, a residential school would eventually receive funding in 1872 from the combined efforts of Chiefs Augustin Shingwauk and Buhkwujjenene Shingwauk (Chief Shingwauk's sons) and the Anglican Missionary, Rev. Edward Francis Wilson. The initial building was constructed in Garden River First Nation in 1873 housing 16 students. Tragically, it burned down six days later. A new building was erected in Sault Ste. Marie in 1875, a residential school designed to provide religious instruction and occupational training for First Nation, Inuit and Métis youth.
At its peak, over 150 students were living and attending school at the Shingwauk Indian Residential School. During the Shingwauk Home era, the School was operated on the industrial school model, whereby students would attend classes for half a day and do manual labor around the school for the other half. The Shingwauk Home was designed as a self-sufficient institution with a fully functioning farm. Much of the work the students engaged in would have related to the day to day operation of the farm and school.
Shingwauk Indian Residential School would eventually become part of the broader Canadian residential school system and one of the 130 boarding schools for First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children that operated in Canada between 1874 and 1996. This system strayed far from Chief Shingwauk's vision for a teaching wigwam. Students in the residential school system endured poor living conditions, physical and emotional abuse and segregation from their own family members. Operated by the Anglican Church of Canada and the Government of Canada, the Shingwauk School existed from 1873 to 1970 in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario, Canada. Today, Shingwauk Hall, built in 1935, forms the central building of Algoma University.
Bishop Fauiquer Memorial Chapel is the only remaining building from the early years of the Shingwauk School. Construction of the chapel began in 1881 and was completed in 1883. The Chapel is named after Bishop Frederick Dawson Fauquier, the first Bishop of the Anglican Diocese of Algoma. During the operation of the Shingwauk Indian Residential School, students and staff attended weekly services at the chapel. The building was also used for weddings, funerals, and special occasions. In 1981 the Chapel was designated as a heritage site under the Ontario Heritage Act by the City of Sault Ste. Marie.
The Shingwauk Memorial Cemetery, in a wooded area NE of the University, contains the graves of over 120 students and staff of the Shingwauk Indian Residential School. Many of these graves are unmarked. During the residential school era, staff and church officials' graves received stone headstones but the majority of the students' graves were marked with wooden crosses. As a result of vandalism and the deterioration of wood, none of these wooden crosses remain.
Searching for nearby Traditional Geocache Shingwauk Cemetery will take you to the edge of picturesque Shingwauk Cemetery, a pleasant walk in the woods to a "must see" historic site. This is also also alternatively accessible from a trail leading into the woods from Snowdon Park on Shannon Road or from Hugill Street.
Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig, the “Teaching Wigwam” located on the south side of Queen Street, across from Algoma University, is the realization of Chief Shingwaukonse’s (1773-1854) vision with an overall goal of providing education to Anishinaabe (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit) students. Integrating culture-based learning and preserving Anishinaabe knowledge, Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig’s new building is a $12 million combined education, research, and cultural centre designed to support the mission of post-secondary education. Funded by Government of Canada’s Strategic Innovation Fund, its signature feature is a state-of-the-art National Chiefs’ Library, archives, and gallery designed to provide a repository for Anishinaabe created information and related research and scholarship within an accredited, culture-based, Anishinaabe controlled, post secondary environment.
Cache logging requirements: Submit to the cache owner, via Geocaching.com's message system or their emailing method, answers to at least 2 of the following 4 questions/requirements:
1. On the Shingwauk/Fauquier Chapel sign, what are the four colours making up the circular portion of the logo in the upper left portion of the sign?
2. At the stone cairn on the large front lawn, who was the founder of the Shingwauk Home?
3. On the Algoma University Sign, what animal symbolizes the school's logo?
4. Submit a photo of Shingwauk Kinoomaage Gamig, the large new “Teaching Wigwam”, on the south side of Queen Street, across from Shingwauk Hall. Please post a photo with your log that has the new building in the background along with you clearly pointing at the new building / or giving a thumbs up! If you have a trackable or geo-item you wish to include in the photo - that's great also! There's no need for the photos to be self-identifying / or including your face.
If you upload photos with your 'found it' log, please don't include ones that reveal answers to the required questions. Thanks.
Congratulations to Millsie+1 for FTF!
Virtual Rewards 2.0 - 2019/2020
This Virtual Cache is part of a limited release of Virtuals created between June 4, 2019 and June 4, 2020. Only 4,000 cache owners were given the opportunity to hide a Virtual Cache. Learn more about Virtual Rewards 2.0 on the Geocaching Blog.