Indigenous investigations across the country have found evidence of more than 1,100 graves since last spring….reports Asian Lite News
An indigenous community in Canada on Tuesday said that it has discovered evidence of 54 unmarked graves at the sites of two former residential schools in Saskatchewan.
Keeseekoose First Nation said the graves were found near Fort Pelly and St Phillip’s residential schools, the BBC reported.
It is the latest finding amid a wave that has triggered a national debate over the residential school system. This has also added to a growing tally of such burials that shocked the nation last year.
The two schools were run by the Catholic Church on behalf of the federal government — St Phillip’s from 1905 to 1913 and Fort Pelly from 1928 to 1969.
Indigenous investigations across the country have found evidence of more than 1,100 graves since last spring.
Just weeks ago, the Williams Lake First Nation announced it had found evidence of 93 unmarked graves on the grounds of St Joseph Mission, a former residential school.
These government-funded compulsory boarding schools were part of a policy meant to assimilate indigenous children and destroy indigenous cultures and languages.
Ted Quewezance, project leader of the Keeseekoose’s search, said ground-penetrating radar technology suggested there were 42 grave sites at the grounds of Fort Pelly Residential School, and an additional 12 at St Phillip’s, the BBC reported.
At a news conference on Tuesday, Quewezance said the discovery matched testimony of residential school survivors.
Under the Canadian schooling system for indigenous children during the 19th century, at least 150,000 students were forcibly separated from their families and incarcerated in residential schools. It is estimated that up to 6,000 children could have died in such schools.
Many of the indigenous children in Canada were subjected to physical and sexual abuse at the schools, which barred them from practising their traditions and speaking their languages, reported Washington Post last year citing a 2015 report by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.
It said the schools carried out “cultural genocide” and effectively institutionalised child neglect.
Children often died of diseases that spread rapidly in unsanitary living conditions, in accidents and in fires, the commission said. Some disappeared while trying to escape.
Meanwhile, the Cowessess First Nation had long suspected there were many unmarked graves at the site, which is about 87 miles east of Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan.
The Marieval Indian Residential School was founded in the 1890s by Catholic missionaries. The federal government began funding the school in 1901 and took over its administration in 1969 before turning it over to the Cowessess First Nation in 1987. It was closed in the 1990s. (with inputs from ANI)
