Northern Mennonite Missions ,,,,Poplar Hill ,Red Lake Ontario

[Jeff Altweg]

i have a lot of friends ,that served in those cold snowy places , to teach the native children to forget their traditions, even their language , all in the name of the Mennonite Religion....
Of course we know what's been going down the past 20 years ,The Canadian Government that encouraged all that activity ,with the Native Populations, all across the Country ,repented of the whole Idea , With all kinds of programs in place now to right all that.Mostly it involves $$$$$
My question is , didn't anyone in the mennonite setting ever question that whole Idea, that it was not OK to take the Children away from their home communities ,for many months at a time ?
It seems clear now , with hindsight,that it wasn't the best thing to do , but back then it looked like "Cutting edge" Missionary programs ......

[Jazman]

i have a lot of friends ,that served in those cold snowy places , to teach the native children to forget their traditions, even their language , all in the name of the Mennonite Religion....
Of course we know what's been going down the past 20 years ,The Canadian Government that encouraged all that activity ,with the Native Populations, all across the Country ,repented of the whole Idea , With all kinds of programs in place now to right all that.Mostly it involves $$$$$
My question is , didn't anyone in the mennonite setting ever question that whole Idea, that it was not OK to take the Children away from their home communities ,for many months at a time ?
It seems clear now , with hindsight,that it wasn't the best thing to do , but back then it looked like "Cutting edge" Missionary programs ......

One of my first questions would be: how did the first Menno missions in those areas start, who started them and all the why's (or inspirations that people felt leading them to do these missions)
I'm curious about the money angle. Did Mennos accept any money from Canadian gov or was it coming down the line through other organizations first and Mennos were unaware of it's original starting point (gov?).

[Signtist]

i have a lot of friends ,that served in those cold snowy places , to teach the native children to forget their traditions, even their language , all in the name of the Mennonite Religion....

What churches and church programs did this? You now have NYP which seems wildly successful, so that's good. But I'm trying to think which Mennonite missions operated on the same model as the government.

[HondurasKeiser]

i have a lot of friends ,that served in those cold snowy places , to teach the native children to forget their traditions, even their language , all in the name of the Mennonite Religion....

What churches and church programs did this? You now have NYP which seems wildly successful, so that's good. But I'm trying to think which Mennonite missions operated on the same model as the government.

I know there used to be a rather strong connection between Red Lake and the Franconia Conference.

[ohio jones]

i have a lot of friends ,that served in those cold snowy places , to teach the native children to forget their traditions, even their language , all in the name of the Mennonite Religion....

What churches and church programs did this? You now have NYP which seems wildly successful, so that's good. But I'm trying to think which Mennonite missions operated on the same model as the government.

Poplar Hill residential school was run by Northern Light Gospel Mission, which later changed its name to Impact North and is now Living Hope Native Ministries. Seems like there might have been another name somewhere along the way, not sure about that.

One of my aunts taught there for a few years. We visited her when I was about two years old, and that was my first plane ride, or so they tell me, from the end of the road at Red Lake to Poplar Hill. I don't remember any of that.

Nor do I have any details of how the school was run, where the funding came from (I would not assume it was from the government), or how much cultural insensitivity was involved. Probably there were considerations of economy of scale, since it would have been impractical to have small schools in many remote communities.

[Ernie]

i have a lot of friends ,that served in those cold snowy places , to teach the native children to forget their traditions, even their language , all in the name of the Mennonite Religion....
My question is , didn't anyone in the mennonite setting ever question that whole Idea, that it was not OK to take the Children away from their home communities ,for many months at a time ?

This baffles me as well. flyingnorm (MN) was telling me about this a year ago and the fallout from this that they need to deal with at NYP.

Right now I know of Mennonite missionaries who are going to foreign countries, setting up businesses with American money, and hiring nationals to work for them. Again, this baffles me. Why do missions keep making the same mistakes?

[Pelerin]

Right now I know of Mennonite missionaries who are going to foreign countries, setting up businesses with American money, and hiring nationals to work for them. Again, this baffles me. Why do missions keep making the same mistakes?

What mistakes do you see in this?

[Ernie]

Right now I know of Mennonite missionaries who are going to foreign countries, setting up businesses with American money, and hiring nationals to work for them. Again, this baffles me. Why do missions keep making the same mistakes?

What mistakes do you see in this?

Have you ever heard that the man with the gold rules?

[Soloist]

Have you ever heard that the man with the gold rules?

What is the correct answer? Certainly seems like that is the same problem in Boston.

[Ernie]

Have you ever heard that the man with the gold rules?

What is the correct answer? Certainly seems like that is the same problem in Boston.

Yes. Many people predicted this would eventually happen in Boston.

There are many missionaries who go and live on the level of the common people. They do not attempt to colonize part of the region.
They may teach the nationals some skills, but the goal is to help the nationals establish businesses that will add value to the local community.