The first Indigenous students to attend the University of Ottawa were a couple of young Métis men training for the priesthood in the 1880s and 1890s. Yet it was not until the late 1950s that the first First Nations students were admitted.
Métis Students
Edward Cunningham and Patrick Beaudry became the first two Métis to study at the University of Ottawa. The Oblates working in the Prairies in the late nineteenth century, including Bishop Vital Grandin, hoped to elicit Indigenous vocations, and saw the Métis as the most appropriate candidates. Born in Edmonton on July 5th 1862, son of John Cunningham, a clerk in the Hudson Bay Company’s service, and Rosalie L’Hirondelle, Edward Cunningham (1862-1920) began his classical studies in St. Albert and finished them at the University of Ottawa in 1882-1885. After a stay at the Oblate noviciate in Lachine, Quebec, he returned to St. Joseph’s Scholasticate in Ottawa to pursue his studies between 1886-1888, before returning to Alberta, where he was ordained a priest in St. Albert on March 19th, 1890. He became the first Métis Oblate.
Patrick or Patrice Beaudry (1873-1947), who became the second Métis ordained in the Oblate order, followed a similar trajectory. A Cree-Métis, son of Narcisse Beaudry and Lucie Breland, born in St. Albert, Alberta, on April 24 1873, he began his studies at Lac-la-Biche before pursuing them in Ottawa in 1892-1895. After a stay at the Lachine noviciate, he returned to Ottawa to complete his studies at St. Joseph’s Scholasticate, where he professed his perpetual vows. He was ordained priest in Ottawa on June 1st 1901. He went to St. Albert that year, but apparently returned to Ottawa to pursue his studies.
The sources do not shed light on Cunningham and Beaudry’s experience at the University of Ottawa. Cunningham went on to minister among the Métis and Piegan people of Alberta, serving in the missions Onion Lake, McLeod, Beaumont, Hobbema, Saddle Lake and Lac Ste. Anne. Patrick Beaudry meanwhile built chapels at Brulé, Jasper, Mountain Park,Winterburn and Wabamun, and served for many years at St. Albert while remaining responsible for the mission at Athabasca Landing. It is said that his facility with the French, English and Cree languages proved useful in serving local populations. After 1944, heart problems forced him to reside at the Indian School at Duck Lake. He died in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, in 1947. [Complete with Huel, Proclaiming the Gospel, 276.]
Cunningham and Beaudry’s experience at the University of Ottawa did not establish much of a precedent. In 1897, a dozen Métis children were sent to various colleges and seminaries in Eastern Canada, but none of them graduated. Additional research is warranted to see whether any spend time at the University of Ottawa. The establishment of educational institutions in the West, including the Collège de Saint-Boniface (1855) and an Oblate seminary at St. Albert (1900), offered local alternatives to the rare children deemed promising enough to pursue their studies by the religious establishment. Though the University of Ottawa continued to contribute to the training of Oblate priests who went on to work with Indigenous peoples, few if any Métis and non-status First Nations appear to have been admitted following Cunningham and Beaudry.
The 1950-1970s First Nations Wave
In 1951, the amendment of the Indian Act made it possible for members of First Nations to pursue a postsecondary education without being forcibly enfranchised, i.e. losing their legal status as Indians. The Department of Indian Affairs began offering small grants to promising students to allow them to attend university. In 1957, it standardized its program, henceforth offering a regular number of scholarships ranging from $500 to $1000 per students, awarded through an application process on a regional basis. In this context, some First Nations students set their sights on the University of Ottawa.
As far as it has been possible to ascertain in researching this exhibition, the University of Ottawa’s first First Nations graduate was Grace Manatch. Born at Rapid Lake, north of Maniwaki, one of seven children of Lawrence (Nona) Manatch, an Algonquin trapper and guide, and Joséphine Côté, a French-Canadian teacher at the local Indian School. Grace attended St. John Bosco School in Maniwaki, and then Chapeau High School, wishing to become a teacher herself before deciding to instead become a nurse.
Grace Manatch entered the University of Ottawa’s nursing programme in September of 1956. A writeup published in the Indian News describes her as thoroughly interested in her course of study, and “happy, too, in the genial atmosphere of the Nurse’s Residence, where she has made many friends among her fellow students”. As she explained to the reporter, her ambition was to complete her degree, follow additional coursework in public health nursing, but ultimately to “go back to the Reserve [i.e. Kitigan Zibi], and make use of her training and her talents to promote the health and well-being of her own people” (Indian News, March 1957).
Upon graduation, Grace married Edmond A. (Sonny) Vincent, son of Edmond Vincent Sr. and Catherine McGregor, in Ottawa in 1959. She worked for a few years at the Ottawa Civic Hospital before returning to Maniwaki with her husband to raise a family and, as she had wanted, to serve her community. Grace Vincent passed away there in 2006, at the age of 78.
The University of Ottawa’s earliest First Nations graduates also included Alfred Joseph Cooper and Sidney Snow, both of who obtained medical degrees.
Alfred Joseph Cooper, from Wikwemikong (Manitoulin Island), reached the University of Ottawa by way of Garnier Residential School in Spanish, Ontario, where he was identified as an exceptionally promising student. One of his teachers described him as having “the best temperament, disposition and discipline of all the boys, combined with the talent necessary for scholarly studies. Had he a vocation, the young lad would be an outstanding candidate for the priesthood. Good in all subjects.” But Alfie, as he was known to his schoolmates, had other ambitions. Having pursued undergraduate studies at Loyola College in Montreal, he came to the University of Ottawa to study medicine. In a brief Indian News feature in the fall of 1957, he was described as “The only Indian medical student in Canada at present” (Indian News, September 1957). After obtaining his degree he established a general medical practice in Timmins.
Sidney Snow, son of Angus Snow and Cecilia Jacobs of Kahnawake, attended school on reserve and like Cooper completed his high school and undergraduate education at Loyola College before coming to the University of Ottawa. Interviewed by the Indian News, he reported that “he has had no problems whatever with regard to integration, either at Loyola or at university, and has always been on the best of terms with his fellow students” (Indian News, 1962). Following his graduation in 1963 he furthered his studies at McGill, developing a specialty in urology. He thereafter spent his career on the staff of Sherbrooke Hospital and lecturing at the Université de Sherbrooke. He eventually moved on to Lenoir, North Carolina, where he passed away in 1998.
While the University of Ottawa itself did not keep a list of its “Indian” students during this period, the Indian and Inuit Graduate Register (1974, 1977) published by the Department of Indian Affairs indicates that sixteen First Nations individuals — graduated from the institution between 1956 and 1977.
Student Mobilization in the 1980s
The number of Indigenous students enrolled in Canadian universities grew considerably in the 1980s. Indigenous students at the University of Ottawa first organized an association for themselves in 1986. As its newsletter explained:
“Tina Dewache, an Algonkin student from the River Desert Band [Kitigan Zibi] near Maniwaki, Quebec, recognized a need for an association of Native students on the campus of the University of Ottawa. She founded a Native Students’ Association with a handful of students who began to meet regularly. Soon they found themselves involved in the series of First Minister’ Conference on Aboriginal rights, writing articles and expressing opinions while becoming involved in other Native issues as well.”
The following year, this initial core of students continued to meet, attracting others and organising events such as an “Elder/Youth Gathering”, and in conjunction with the History Students’ Association, a “Conference on the History of the First Nations”. By 1988, in light of the growing number of Indigenous university students across the province and country, the students who had formed the University of Ottawa’s Native Students Association also became involved in the Native Students of Ontario and the Native Students’ Federation of Canada, which had just been formed with the support of the Canadian Federation of Students.
The Aboriginal Sun
In November of 1988, the university’s association also launched a newsletter called Aboriginal Sun, produced with the support of the Odawa Native Friendship Centre. “I truly feel that these are important times in the history of Native post-secondary education” wrote Daryold Winkler, an Ojibway Anishnabe student, in its initial editorial.
The Aboriginal Sun advocated for Indigenous populations to participate in post secondary education and political reform. The articles spoke to personal Indigenous experiences from a first person point of view as well as publicizing the struggle faced by various Indigenous communities nationwide. The Sun included forums that spoke to the importance of active participation and fighting for Indigenous rights. Additionally, the Sun featured original Indigenous visual art and poetry.
Although only two issues of the Aboriginal Sun were ever published, its existence attests to the way in which Indigenous students had reached a certain critical mass at the University of Ottawa by the mid 1980s.
Indigenous Pasts uOttawa 