Members of Waywayseecappo First Nation allege abuse, segregation when they attended Rossburn Elementary School

Warning: This story contains distressing details.

Twins Michael and Michelle Brandon say they were not allowed to use the front door like the town children at Rossburn Elementary School — First Nations students had to go around the school and use the back door.

Students from Waywayseecappo First Nation were not taught in the main building; their learning happened in portable classrooms behind the school, the Brandons said.

"We called [them] 'the huts,'" Michael said.

Members of Waywayseecappo First Nation in Manitoba say when they went to Rossburn Elementary School in the late 1960s and early '70s, they were separated from other students and faced daily abuse by staff members — and they want their pain and suffering recognized, as it was for Indigenous federal day school students.

Waywayseecappo First Nation, about 280 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg near the Saskatchewan border, signed an agreement with the federal government in 1965 to have its children educated in Rossburn, less than 10 kilometres away.

The government paid $99,973 to the school district of Rossburn to build classrooms for the additional students. In the agreement, both parties agreed to "ensure there will be no segregation in the schools by race or colour."

That's not what happened, the Brandons said.

Michael and Michelle were six when they started at Rossburn School. They were taught in the huts in grades 2 to 4 in the 1970s.

"I just remember the Native kids going through to the dark hallway [to the huts]," Michelle said.

The portable classrooms were built behind the elementary school in 1968. 

A tender published on May 26, 1968, in the Rossburn Review sought someone to build three units for the elementary school. The ad specified the units must be winterized and meet regulations set by the Manitoba Department of Education and Fire Commission, and health regulations of the province.

The Brandons say the huts were poorly insulated. 

"We always had to wear a jacket," said Michelle, 51. "It was freezing cold in there."