The father sued for damages of $5,000, alleging several forms of mistreatment of his two daughters. The jury eventually awarded damages of $100 for keeping one of the daughters on a water diet for three days, and $300 for 'whipping on bare back with raw hide,' but they dismissed the other complaints about hair-cutting, confining another daughter in a sick room, and injuring health by providing bad food. In the course of the trial, the jury heard evidence from students of wormy oatmeal, bad meat, whippings, and repeated runaways to escape the harsh regime at the school. For his part, the principal denied or minimised the allegations that had been presented against his administration of the school, but the matron who was accused of administering thirteen lashes with a rawhide whip significantly was not called by the defence to testify. The presiding judge congratulated the jury on its efficiency and care when it returned its verdict at one o'clock in the morning. Perhaps more important than the partial victory in court was the effect of the litigation on the school administration. The principal was replaced before the matter came to trial, and bureaucrats in Ottawa tried to put an end to the school's harshness, which one of them thought amounted to a situation in which 'the pupils are disciplined to death.' On the other hand, Ottawa officially disapproved of the Six Nations Council's decision to support the litigating father and refused to release funds to cover the grant the council had authorised for legal expenses. Litigation, then, proved only partially successful.

      The final way in which the adult community could resist the schools was to persist with the traditional practices that residential schooling was designed to eradicate through assimilation. The Ojibwa at Shoal Lake in northwestern Ontario had inserted in the 'contract' that they signed with Presbyterian missionaries a provision 'that parents shall be allowed to take their children to their religious festivals, but only one child at a time and the child shall not remain over night.' On the File Hills Colony, which was home to selected graduates from the Lebret and File Hills schools, 'fiddle dances, pow-wows and tribal ceremonies were forbidden.' Nonetheless, Eleanor Brass can 'remember as a child accompanying my parents to some secret fiddle dances held in private homes. There were numerous violin players and the dances were quite lively.'