Sports, in particular hockey, was part of the curriculum at residential schools across Canada. Students built rinks themselves or skated on lakes. Priests and lay teachers coached the boys, and they often practised daily. Residential school teams took road trips to play other schools, and teams of non-Aboriginal boys too. "I owe my survival to hockey," says Littlechild, who attended Ermineskin Indian Residential School for 14 years. He was abused physically and sexually there, but went on to play varsity hockey at the University of Alberta, where he studied law. "If I didn't graduate, what was the alternative? I could have been found dead on the street in Edmonton on skid row, because of alcohol. So, it's really that strong for me, the influence of hockey in my life."Get the Story:
Duncan McCue: How hockey offered salvation at Indian residential schools (CBC 3/26)
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