Category Archives: Legends

Narratives about belief.

Lost But Never Forgotten: The Ghost of St. Boniface Indian School

Nationality: Filipino, Mexican, Native American
Age: 19
Occupation: full time student
Residence: university housing
Performance Date: 10-28-2011
Primary Language: English

Lost but Never Forgotten: The Ghost of  St. Boniface Indian School

            You are going to laugh at me because this is super lame, but my dad made me go to it. It was junior year of high school and my dad’s friend who is a professor at University of San Diego for American Studies was hosting a retreat at the Morongo Indian Reservation in Banning, California. I have like 1/1,000,000 percent Native American from my dad’s side, but he said this was an enlightening experience to learn more about who I am…blah blah blah! He went to the casino that week when my sister and I were at the retreat, so I think that was his real reason. However, I never even knew there was a place called Banning. The retreat was a four-day trip, in which we visited the Malki Museum and then camped out at the St. Boniface Indian School. The first day we were at some harvest event with the Malki Museum [called Fall Gathering] and then the last night we camped out at the former grounds of St. Boniface Indian School.

            It was fun especially because I got to interact with a college professor as a junior and USD was a school I was looking into. However, my favorite part of the retreat was the last night when we were camping. After a couple days of stereotypical activities such as weaving baskets and watching a dance performance at the museum, it was a bit weird to go to a quiet, abandoned school. The professor was telling us that the school was a boarding school for Native Americans during the early 20th century when Americans were trying to civilize the indigenous Native Americans. I was taking AP US History that year, so I did learn some practices that were used against the Native Americans. We were gathered around a campfire before going to bed and one of the graduate students told everyone a ghost story that is linked to the St. Boniface Indian School.  The story begins…

            There was a boy from the neighboring Morongo reservation who was sent to the boarding school here at the age of 12 and had to leave his mother and aunt who were the only members of his family that he knew of. Coming from a traditional family, he did not know any English and did not wear any western clothing. The first few months he attended the school, he was abused and badgered by the Catholic missionaries and instructors. If he ever spoke his native tongue, he would have his mouth washed with soap and he had his hair cut off. If he was caught ever practicing anything related to his native culture, he was beaten and one of the punishments was to stay in a cubby with a dunce hat on at the back of a classroom. One day the instructor in charge of his punishment forgot to open the crack for oxygen and the boy died from suffocation. The supervision changed after this incident, but people say that if you are quiet enough… you can hear a young boy talking in a lost language, yelling to go home to his family.

            This was my favorite story that I collected because I am currently enrolled in a Latin American culture course and we just discussed Indian boarding schools and the period of Americanization. I asked Leanne, “How did this change your outlook on your heritage or this issue?” Leanne said, “I always considered my Native American roots to be such a small part of who I am and joked about how it was a way for me to get into college! But that ghost story is something that sticks with me even now.”  The context of the story was with a campfire on abandoned camp grounds near a school with roasted corn in the fire, which is the picture perfect Hollywood image that we all have seen or can concur an image of… but it does not make the story any less authentic.

The retreat Leanne attended was for educational purposes and the activities at the Malki Museum were culturally enriching, but this ghost story was the keystone of her experience. It functions not only as a story to conserve the history of a people who were for the most part eradicated, but as a link an individual can connect to with his or her past, present, and future. This simple story of a young anonymous boy’s death speaks so many words as it gives a face to the injustice that was forced upon a group of humans and America is still in a period of healing.  One of the things that I found the most interesting was how the voice of the young boy is still crying out in his native tongue (which is now lost as many aspects of indigenous cultures due to a massive history of cultural eradication) to be able to go home. It is oddly heartwarming, but gives me goosebumps

Malki Museum website: http://www.malkimuseum.org/index.html

Shanghai Department Store Ghost

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: 3771 McClintock Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90007
Performance Date: Nov. 4, 2011
Primary Language: Chinese

My friend from Shanghai, China told me the following story of a well-known department store in Shanghai that was haunted.

 

Initials and abbreviations are used in the narration of this story.

 

JW (my friend): Before the end of the revolution of China, there was an orphanage in Shanghai.

 

The orphanage, my friend noted, was actually a foundling hospital where abandoned infants or children were taken in to live there.

 

JW: Anyways, I heard that they fed the children with expired food—like, food that’s fermented, or food that’s gone bad—and the rice and the dishes are kind of mixed together, and it’s very gross. The living conditions of the children were also poor.

 

Me: How do you know about all the details?

 

JW: I heard it from someone else. This is a very deeply spread story.

 

JW: Because of these reasons, many children died during that time. And they didn’t bury these children properly—they just dig a big hole and throw the bodies inside and cover them up.

 

JW: And After the revolution, of course the orphans had been removed and the foundling hospital was replaced with a department store, P Department Store. (Actual name: Pacific Department Store)

 

Me: (Surprised) The P Department Store?

 

JW: (Nods) These things get spread out just because it is a big brand.

 

Me: Where are the children then?

 

JW: They must have been sent away. The foundling hospital is also out of use. After the revolution this (the poor treatment of the children) could not continue.

 

Me: And then?

 

JW: And-eh-P Department Store. When the department store was just built, security guards patrolled at night, and they would hear the sound of a baby crying, and no matter where they look they cannot find the baby. Besides, this happened for not only one night, and many of the security guards heard it, and they were afraid, so they reported this situation to the manager. You know, the Chinese were very superstitious at that time.

 

JW: So they invited a Feng Shui master (the person who looks at geographic or interior settings of a place and decide whether it is “fortunate”; geomancer), and the Feng Shui master told them that the infants’ wraith are still living under this ground. He told them (the department store) that, “if you want to continue your business, you have to console these spirits of the dead.”

 

JW: After that the owner of the department store just invited a star—CM (real name Cao Meng)—and he sang that song called “Baby, Sorry” (translation) just for comforting these children. The department would start playing this song at 12:00 at night and keep playing it (throughout the night).

 

Me: And all is well after they played this song?

 

JW: Well, the security guards are well (not afraid anymore)—mainly they are superstitious—and there had to be someone to patrol at night. No one knows if this is real or not, and I don’t know if they still play the song—after all, the revolution had been over for sixty—seventy years?

 

Me: It’s interesting that they invited a star to quiet the ghosts instead of—a medium, maybe?

 

JW: It was said that the owner of the shop were Taiwanese—they were very superstitious.

 

Me: Okay—where did you hear this story from?

 

JW: I heard it back in China, in Shanghai, from my middle school classmates.

 

 

This story, in some ways, is a much traditionalized ghost story; the usual motifs of poor treatment during lifetime, improper burial, the unquiet spirit, and noise during the night are present in this story. The noise, the sound of a baby crying, symbolizes the poor treatment towards the children in their lifetime; like the Hispanic ghost story La Llorona, the spirit weeps eternally in the afterlife, telling the living about their sorrow and the injustice they endured. However, the treatment toward the spirit is a rather unconventional one: a singer is requested to write and sing a song for the ghost children’s consolation. Instead of getting rid of the ghosts, the owner of the department store decided to console them for their pitiful history. In some ways this may be similar to the prayers for the “souls trapped in purgatory”, opposed of an exorcism. Also, a song instead of prayers or sutras is used to console and quiet the spirits, which is unconventional.

Hangzhou Liuhe Tower Accident

Nationality: Chinese
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: 3771 McClintock Ave. Los Angeles, CA 90007
Performance Date: Nov. 4, 2011
Primary Language: Chinese

The following story is about a tower in Hangzhou, China which has the top two floors shut down.

 

Initials are used in the narration of this story.

 

XZ: So it goes like this—a long time ago (laughs)—there’s a very famous tower in Hangzhou called Liuhe Tower. And the Liuhe Tower’s top floor had been closed for several decades. And, later, why was it closed—it’s because a long time ago a school arranged a spring trip—a fieldtrip, and when that group of children reached the top floor, there was one person who said, “a ghost!” And everyone started sprinting downstairs. When they were sprinting down, maybe it’s because it’s too crowded or something, the top two floors just—because it was built in wooden structure that time—

 

Me: Top two floors?

 

XZ: Just the top floor, and—um—you know the stairs will be lower—

 

Me: Oh, right, the ceiling will be lower.

 

XZ: Right. And along with the wooden stairs, it snapped. Like, some wooden boards came off under the pressure, or the railings broke off. And so some kids either fell down or were stepped on—anyways, there were a few kids who died from the stampede.

 

XZ: And after that, you cannot go up there anymore. The top floor.

 

She later told me that her aunt, who’s over forty now, was on the same trip as the children who died; her class was waiting downstairs the tower when the collapse happened.

 

Me: How many floors does the tower have?

 

XZ: Oh it was pretty tall. It’s on the mountain, and it was quite tall—there’s nine floors.

 

She also mentioned that the general opinion about ghosts in China is that children are more sensitive to ghosts than adults.

 

Me: Where did you hear this story from?

 

XZ: I heard it from the elders—my grandparents.

 

Although no “ghost” is clearly apparent in this story, this story can be considered ghost folklore because of the unnatural collapsing of the building and the fact that the child claimed that he/she saw a ghost. If the child was joking about the ghost, why did every other child get nervous and start rushing down to the extent that some children were stamped to death? The tower was repaired afterwards, but the top two floors are never open to public again; the safety and potential to collapse is probably not an issue after the repairing of the tower, but the top two floors were kept closed. However, if the top floors are opened to public and supernatural events happen after the death of the children, this story would be a better ghost story.

The Red Haired Lady

Nationality: Costa Rican
Age: 18
Occupation: Student
Residence: Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada
Performance Date: October 22nd 2011
Primary Language: Spanish
Language: English

“So this happened in a town called Santo Domingo, its uh, its way up in the north, north central part of Costa Rica, away from the beaches. I was eight years old at the time, and we just moved to this house, uh, it was um, what was particular about this house was that beside it was a twin house. Which is, what I mean is that, at one point, the two houses were one house, and they just got divided in two, by a wall. So, two stories. No basement. Which I’m kind of glad about now that I come to think of it. Cause.. cause considering the future ghost situation, a basement would not have been the best thing. So it began with my grandma. As it always does. Cause she’s the superstitious one, you know, she’s got charms, and rituals that she does to banish ghosts from the house.. but you know what was incredible was, was that she was just, calm about it. That was just what she did, you know. She did that and went on with her daily routine. Whatever. Uh, one day, I heard her talking about ummm… this red haired lady, with a noose around her neck, which she saw in the other house next to us, which was vacant at the time. Which is not a good thing too, cause it was empty. And it just sucked know that, you know, there’s an empty house, and my grandma saw a ghost in it, and it was right there, next to me. But you know, I carried on fine. To the point where I almost forgotten. So one day, I passed up an offer to go run some errands, so I just stayed home, like a bad grandchild. Ah, and then, what was I – well at that time I was actually into clay pots. And I just made a batch of pots and left them outside to dry, in the patio, and I decided to go check on them. And when, when I got there, I got the worst feeling of being watched. Just, just, it was there. And I was like errrrr. And you know, before turning around, I knew it was coming from. Cause where I was standing, the only place where if I turn around directly, there’s going to be a window, which is on the other house. and I knew it was coming from there. And I was like, oh god, its empty, what’s it going to be? So I turned around and looked at the window and, well, for me, I don’t actually look at people’s eyes when I acknowledge them, I always look at the mouth first before moving to the eyes. But you know, I saw the mouth, and I found myself looking at just the slightest of smirks – of the red haired lady. But no noose this time. She was just standing there, looking at me. Well I assumed she was looking at me. I didn’t look at her eyes because at that moment I felt that if I did – it was over. I would have acknowledged her and she would neeeeever leave me alone until she had my soul. So I figured, whatever! I didn’t do anything to her so I don’t know her or anything, so I’m just going to ignore her. And I did. I just went back inside and tried to watch tv. And after a few weeks, I forgot about it.”

 

 

 

Steven Calvo Milanés grew up in Costa Rica; a country that he describes to be heavily religious, and therefore, widely accepts the concept of spirits. Prior to telling me this story, he said it is commonplace to say that dead relatives have walked by you and then to carry on with your day. Due to this culture, he also mentions that all of his experiences relating to the supernatural have only occurred in Costa Rica and that after his move to Canada, he has stopped believing in ghosts. In addition, he pushed for me to understand that this particular experience with the ghost in his house was situational: from emphasizing his childhood desire for ghosts to exist to highlighting that the sky on that particular day to be strange and gray.

His extended family seems to have accepted the red haired lady as another tenant of their household. They have never inquired for the reasons of why she is there or why she wears a noose around her neck. He says that if they bother her in any way, it is simply being disrespectful to the dead. At that time, the Milanés household never questioned her existence and merely coexisted with her.

The most interesting aspect of Steven’s story is the sense of inevitability he incorporates in its telling. All the features of that day seem to weave together to frame the encounter with the ghost: the large, empty house, being “a bad grandchild” on that day, and standing in the only spot that is in view of the other building’s window. These features are common in framing a ghost story. The first two features reflect on how ghosts can function to become one’s moral police – Steven mentioned that he never refused errands after this encounter.

The other fascinating feature of this story is his belief that looking into the eyes of the ghost would end up in a haunting. He now says that at that time, he just was not ready to face the fact that she would exist, that maybe her expression would change or she would ‘take him in’, he explained later. He explains that he did not want anything to do with her and thus, refused to acknowledge her. On another note, he claims that the red colour of her hair has no significance in his memory, and simply means that a red haired woman died. This differs from the significance of black hair in Japanese ghost stories.

This story has many elements of a classic ghost story, the large, empty house, an impending knowledge of the existence of the red haired lady, and that prickly sensation of being watched.

Collection 2: The House Built on a Indian Reservation

Nationality: Mexican
Age: 18
Occupation: USC Student
Residence: USC
Performance Date: November 2, 2011
Primary Language: English

For the purpose of this assignment, I will conceal the name of the interviewee and replace it with Sarah.

I asked good friend Sarah to tell me a ghost story. At first she said she didn’t know any. But she gave it some taught and remembered her mom telling her stories of her childhood. She warned me that these stories were true, and she can confirm it by having me call her mom. Her story goes as follows:

When my mother was born, her mother (Sarah’s grandmother) passed away giving birth to her. She was sent from Mexico to live with her grandmother (Sarah’s great grandmother) and her cousins in Fresno, California. Nevertheless did she know she was going to live in a house where an old Indian Reservation used to exist. My mother told me when she was growing up in that house, her and her cousins would always be scared at night because they would often see white figures walking in and out of their rooms. She said she can vaguely remember her childhood, but one thing was clear, she knew that house was haunted. When she was in her teens, she actively took on roles as a mother because her grandmother was getting ill. She can recall cooking dinner one night and seeing a white figure walking behind her while she made dinner. She said that her grandmother would not allow anyone to sleep with her because she did not want the female ghost who lived in her room to haunt her or her cousins. According to my mother, in the room where my great grandmother lived, there lived a female ghost who would sleep and cuddle with her each night. My mother never questioned her grandmother, because she knew better than to stay quiet, if not the ghost would follow her. My mother knew she had to leave that house, so that’s when she met my father and she decided to leave out the house and live with him. Once my mother left the house, my great grandmother grew sicker and sicker, to the point my mother had to make frequent visits after work and check on her. Couple months passed and her grandmother passed away.

            To this day, her cousins still live in this house, and they seem to have a mental illness. She believes that the ghost have messed with their minds, and have made them sick.

Sarah has never walked inside the house, but she has driven passed it. She refuses to go inside because she fears the ghosts might follow her home.

When Sarah was telling me this story, I felt so engaged by it.  I felt as if I was her mother in the story. After learning about the different motifs in ghost stories, I feel this story is true ghost story. Knowing the fact that this house was built on top of an Indian Reservation already goes to show there will be ghostly activities in this house. As discussed, most Native American ghost stories consist of ghost haunting because of burial removals and an unfinished business. We know that Native Americans treasure their burials, and having a house built on top of this location, leaves for ghost hauntings.