At Dunbow, near High River in the territory of Alberta, the Oblates opened St. Joseph's School, which was to be far less successful and enduring than its Saskatchewan counterpart. These schools were in addition to the pre-existing boarding schools for which Oblates were responsible in St. Boniface, Île-à-la-Crosse, Lac la Biche, Lake Aathabasca, and Fort Providence.

     The problems of residential schooling in late Victorian western Canada manifested themselves much more quickly at the first Anglican institution opened in 1883. The Battleford Industrial School, which serves as a case study of the new industrial institutions, ironically appeared at first to have the most advantages of the three fledging institutions, including the nurturing and special support of the acting assistant Indian commissioner in the North-West, Hayter Reed, an Anglican.

    Indian Affairs confidently expected the school to operate at a capacity of thirty boys the first year, and instructed Thomas Clarke, the founding Principal, that 'Orphans and children without any persons to look after them, should first be selected.'

    The school was barely in operation when it began encounter problems with staff morale, student truancy and resistance. With the eruption of the Northwest Rebellion, Clarke found himself faced with more unruliness among the pupils. On 27 March, shortly after an outbreak of hostilities at Duck Lake between Mounted Police and armed Métis resulted in a dozen fatalities and many others wounded, Battleford Industrial School pupils were 'rebellious' and they remained highly excited by rumors of troubles.

    The final serious blow to Battleford Industrial School was delivered in the autumn of 1885, when Ottawa instructed the principal to find temporary accommodations for the remnants of his school elsewhere, as the buildings were needed for winter barracks for a gunnery battery.