School continues work started in the 1950s

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Aboriginal Elders from Montana and Missouri attended the Alberta's School for the Deaf's 4th Annual Conference, the theme of which was 2000 Ideas for the Future, (with a touch of Aboriginal culture). It was attended by parents and people from the community. Students sat back and enjoyed the teachings of James Woodenlegs and Sam Yates. The Elders taught the students Native culture and spiritualism. Woodenlegs, who is deaf, is from the Northern Cheyenne Tribe in Montana. He is also a spiritual leader and Elder of the Intertribal Deaf Council of North America.

"I travel a lot to encourage deaf Native American people to take pride in their Aboriginal roots and to preserve their sign language, culture, art and history," he said. Both of the Elders communicated through interpreters. Yates, who was born in Kansas City, Missouri, graduated from the Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. He is a member of a fifth generation deaf eastern Cherokee family. Enthusiastic students raised their hands in an effort to get answers from the workshop facilitators.

Students, staff and guests milled about during the conference.

In the late 50s the Alberta School for the Deaf was one of a kind in Canada.

"In 1955 there was an oil boom in the province and parents who had deaf children approached the Alberta government to get a deaf school built in Edmonton," said Craig Magill, principal of the school.

In the beginning, the students lived in the dormitory at the school.

"The parents were so brave. They would let their kids leave home for a total of 10 months to let them live amongst strangers. They only got to see their kids for two months out of a year. Many of the students came from as far away as Inuvik in the Northwest Territories, and from parts of eastern Canada," said Magill. "The school eventually moved away from the institutionalized setting it had, and the living arrangements moved into a family setting," he said.

A lot of the students who now attend the school are from the Northwest Territories and Alberta. The students now live with host families throughout the city.

Staff, teachers and volunteers all play a major role in the students lives.

"It's been a challenge working with the Native students. The students are deaf and so they are usually cut off from their culture. Not only cut off from traditional teachings or communication, but they are told they have to move away from their families and communities while attending school," said Magill. "One of the ways we decided to approach the situation was to hire a Native liaison worker. We were successful in hiring Gary Gagnon. He is good with the kids. It is working out well," he said.

One of the concerns the school has is, what happens after the students leave the school? There is a social club for the deaf that the students can go to while they are in Edmonton. When they go back to their communities or reserve they do not have that outlet.

"We want to find ways to prepare the communities before the kids go back," said Magill. "It would be great if a telephone for the deaf was installed in the community so that the students could call out," he said.

The school wants to know where former students are and what they are doing.

"We would like to know how the students are doing on their reserves or communities," said Magill. "We want to know if there is anything we can do for them. The information they give us can be helpful for the school. We would have an idea in planning programs," he said.

The assistant principal, who is Metis, was recently selected for the Esquao award by the Institute for the Advancement of Aboriginal Women in Edmonton. The award is given to distinguished Aboriginal woman in the province. Charmaine Letourneau, who is also deaf, has been teaching at the school for the last 27 years. She communicated with the help of a sign language interpreter during her speech at the award ceremony. She claimed there is still discrimination against the hearing impired. She stated a recent survey revealed that very few deaf people are employed in Alberta.

"Many feel that a deaf person is not capable of doing much. So when they apply for jobs outside of the deaf community they are usually turned away," she said.