For recreation, a limited amount of amusement could be provided out of the raw resources of the schools and their staff and student bodies. In the early days, for example, construction of a wooden school, probably on the prairies, produced lumber scraps that could be fashioned by a carpenter with ingenuity and a bit of time into rocking horses or other playthings for the children.

       More typical of the schools' straitened circumstances was the equipment that their teams sported. In the early days, a preference for 'British' games such as soccer (football) or cricket placed minimal demands on school resources.

       Prior to the 1950s the stringency of the per capita grants meant that schools usually found it impossible to free money from regular funds to purchase such equipment. And once Ottawa began to provide enhanced funding to the schools on a different basis in the 1950s, administrators found the new regime, though more affluent, also more restrictive. Bureaucratic rigidities, bull-headedness, and downright stupidity on the part of Indian Affairs frequently frustrated administrators who tried to provide their school's children with amenities.

       For their part, of course, the student athletes remained oblivious to everything but the fact that sports, with or without proper equipment, was a welcome change. 'You had to participate in school activities. If you didn't, you'd go nuts,' a former student at Lebret recalls.

       The consequence of this dedication to or obsession with sports and outdoor recreation was that residential school students were often noteworthy in the wider community for their athletic prowess and success.