"THIS PROJECT BEGAN IN 1990, when I was asked by the Cariboo Tribal Council of Williams Lake, British Columbia, to draw together some general information on the history of St. Joseph’s residential school, known locally as the Mission. I was approached to do this research because of my previous working relationship as an aboriginal rights co-ordinator with the Council, and because of my familiarity with the archival sources of information on the Shuswap and the early missionaries to the Cariboo. This study was one component of a broader research program undertaken by the Cariboo Tribal Council to assess the long term psychological and social impacts of the residential schools on their communities.

In my review of federal files which contain administrative records and correspondence of the Department of Indian and Northern Affairs, I found a wealth of documents—primarily letters and inquest affidavits—discussing problems in the care being provided to students at the school during the early years of the school’s operation. On the basis of these documents, I wrote a preliminary report for the Tribal Council chiefs, a report entitled A Conspiracy of Silence: The Care of Native Students at St. Joseph’s Residential School, Williams Lake, B.C."--Elizabeth Furniss (2000) Victims of Benevolence, Preface).