J. R. Miller - Residential Schools and Reconciliation: Canada Confronts Its History

As is usually the case, the preparation of this volume depended on the assistance of many people and institutions. I am grateful to the institutions and programs that have supported the research for this study. The most important of them have been the Canada Research Chairs Program, the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), and the Killam Program. Since the late 1990s, I have benefited from a number of awards, formerly called Standard Research Grants, from SSHRC on treaties, reconciliation, and Indigenous policy generally. As well, I have been the beneficiary of a generous grant that accompanied SSHRCs Gold Medal for achievement in research in 2010. From 2001 until I retired in 2014, I also held the Canada Research Chair in Native-Newcomer Relations, a position that greatly facilitated my own research while also conferring the benefit of working with a number of talented graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. And in 2014, I was fortunate to receive the Killam Prize in the Humanities from the Canada Council. This award, too, was accompanied by a money prize. As well, I would be remiss if I did not acknowledge the many ways in which the University of Saskatchewan facilitated and encouraged my research.

As with any historical research, mine has benefited greatly from the hard and effective work of archivists and librarians. Among the latter, I would especially note the professional librarians at the University of Saskatchewans Murray Library. The professional staff of denominational archives the United Church of Canada Archives (Nicole Vonk and staff), the General Synod Archives of the Anglican Church of Canada (Nancy Hurn and Laurel Parson), and the Archives of the Presbyterian Church in Canada (Kim Arnold and Bob Anger) unfailingly were as cheerful and friendly as they were professional and efficient. And until it deteriorated into an environment that was not particularly helpful to individual researchers, I also benefited from the advice and assistance of staff at Library and Archives Canada.

By no means did all the help I received come from institutions and their employees. Jonathan Dewar, formerly with the Aboriginal Healing Foundation and Algoma University, was invaluable in providing advice about illustrations, especially artwork for the cover. Numerous staff associated with the Shingwauk Project at Algoma University were also helpful, as well as welcoming and convivial when I joined them at reunions of the Shingwauk school on numerous occasions. Mike Cachagee, Shirley Horn, Don Jackson, Ed Sadowski, and Krista McCracken were gracious and informative. Donald B. Smith, Professor Emeritus of History of the University of Calgary, was enormously generous with advice about sources and other matters relevant to this project, as he famously has been to so many researchers. The many individuals who generously made time in their schedules to be interviewed at the Shingwauk Project and across the country were critical to my understanding the forces in contention in a series of relatively recent events. The names of most of those informants are listed in the bibliography.

As well, the following people answered queries and/or provided sources for my consideration: Carling Beninger, Leonard Doell, Brian Gable, Meagan Hough, Peter Jull, Julianne Kasmer, Amber Kostuschenko, John F. Leslie, Jennifer Llewellyn, Tom McMahon, Cecilia Morgan, Donna and Jim Sinclair, Sylvia Smith, Kim Stanton, and Angela Wanhalla.

I also wish to thank my editor, Len Husband, managing editor Frances Mundy, and their colleagues at the University of Toronto Press for their careful work on the manuscript.

As well, I would like to thank Adrian Mather, who prepared the index.

Closer to home, Bill Waiser read and provided valuable comments on earlier drafts of many of the chapters, as did my wife and colleague, Lesley Biggs.

Of course, none of these generous people is responsible for any of the errors in the work.

This study is dedicated to my son, Dr Christian A. Miller.