Canadian Indian residential school gravesites explained

The Canadian Indian residential school system was a network of boarding schools for Indigenous children directed and funded by the Department of Indian Affairs.[1] "A genocidal policy, operated jointly by the federal government of Canada and the Catholic, Anglican, United, and Presbyterian Churches... rife with disease, malnutrition, poor ventilation, poor heating, neglect, and death," the goal of the residential school systen between 1828 and 1997 was "assimilating First Nations, Métis, and Inuit children into white settler society".[2] [3] Over 4,000 students died while attending Canadian residential school.[4] Students' bodies were often buried in school cemeteries to keep costs as low as possible.[5] Comparatively few cemeteries associated with residential schools are explicitly referenced in surviving documents, but the age and duration of the schools suggests that most had a cemetery associated with them.[6] Many cemeteries were unregistered, and as such the locations of many burial sites and names of residential school children have been lost.[7]

Some individuals engage in denialism about the existence of some or all residential school burial sites.[8] [9] Indigenous groups and academics dismiss such denials.[8] [10] Federal Justice Minister David Lametti said in 2023 that he was open to outlawing residential school denialism.[8] His successor, Arif Virani, has not taken a position on the issue.[11]

The Government of Canada formed the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in 2008.[12] The commission's findings included recognition of past colonial genocide and settlement agreements.[13] In October 2022, the House of Commons of Canada unanimously passed a motion calling on the federal Canadian government to recognize the residential school system as genocide.[14] [15] This acknowledgment was followed by a visit by Pope Francis, who apologized for Church members' roles in the genocide.[16] Beginning in June 2021, there was a series of arsons and other acts of vandalism against Christian churches that law enforcement, politicians, and tribal officials speculated was spurred by anger towards Christians over the schools and gravesites.

Background

See main article: Canadian Indian residential school system. The Canadian residential school system, funded by the Canadian government and administered by Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian and United religious groups, was created to remove and isolate Indigenous children and assimilate them.[17] [18] [19]

The 1876 Act to Promote the Gradual Assimilation of the Indian Tribes of Canada provided the legal framework for the residential school system.[20] The last residential school closed in 1997. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission found records of 4037 deaths at the schools, and published a list.[21] There were repeated outbreaks of tuberculosis in the early 20th century; "given their cramped conditions and negligent health practices, residential schools were hotbeds for the spread of TB", a National Post reporter wrote.[22] The Bureau of Indian affairs as a matter of policy did not to return children's bodies to their families, citing cost, and frequently didn't notify them of their deaths either.[22] Commission chairman Murray Sinclair estimated in an interview that the true number of deaths could range between 6,000 and 25,000.[23] [24] [25] Some of the students who died at the schools were buried in unmarked graves.[26] Over time, markers at some graveyards were lost or destroyed.[22]

Alberta

Grouard

On March 1, 2022, Kapawe'no First Nation announced the results of a search of 3696.5m2 at the site of St. Bernard's Residential School. Conducted by the Institute for Prairie and Indigenous Archeology at the University of Alberta, it used ground-penetrating radar and multi-spectral imagery captured by drone. It found 169[27] [28] potential gravesites: 129 probable, 32 thought possible, and 8 likely. The next step for the likely graves would be to exhume.[29] The nation announced plans to search further based on the testimony of residential school survivors, including at a nearby Anglican church and a site where Indian agents and the North-West Mounted Police had structures. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission had found records for the deaths of 10 students. The Catholic Church operated the school from 1894 to 1961.

Saddle Lake

Since 2004, partial remains have been repeatedly discovered while digging new graves in the Saddle Lake Cree Nation community cemetery, located near the former site of the Blue Quills Indian Residential School.[30] At the time, the remains were re-interred upon discovery, but investigators searching for unmarked graves on their territory announced on May 17, 2022, that they believed the accidentally excavated remains were the remains of children who died at residential school.[31] The investigators believe that the discoveries include a mass grave, where they found "numerous children-sized skeletons wrapped in white cloth," and theorized that there could have been from a typhoid outbreak at the school. To prevent further accidental excavations, the nation has requested funding to acquire ground-penetrating radar equipment and carry out a non-invasive survey.[32]

A report released in January 2023 said that the gravesite had been confirmed by ground-penetrating radar.[33] A report in April 2023 announced that an investigation of the site using ground-penetrating radar and drone imagery found 19 anomalies which might be gravesites. The nation intended to use the findings as a starting point for further investigation.[34]

The school building was transferred to the nation by the federal government on July 31 1970,[35] and now operates as Blue Quills University.[36] a name which includes both Dene and Cree language words for the school.[37]

St. Bruno's

In June 2022, the Institute for Prairie Indigenous Archaeology (PIA) led a preliminary ground-penetrating radar search of the former site of St. Bruno's Indian Residential School, which covered the cemetery, the root cellars, and some areas of the schoolyard, 1.8 acres in total. Based on that search, a report released by a group of Treaty 8 chiefs and the University of Alberta in June 2023 announced the identification of 88 "potential unmarked graves", of which 14 were listed as "likely", meaning that they had multiple indicators of being graves.[38]

St. Joseph's Industrial School (Dunbow Industrial School)

In 1996, a flood eroded the banks of the Highwood River, exposing the caskets and remains of some of the 72 children known to have died while attending Dunbow Industrial School, also referred to as St. Joseph's.[39] In May 2001, the remains of 34 children were identified and re-interred at a site further from the river following First Nations, Métis, and Christian traditions. Since then, local resident Laurie Sommerville has obtained school records from the Missionary Oblates,[39] and worked on identifying the deceased children; she had identified 27 as of May 2013.[40] [41]

During the school's 38 years of operation, from 1884 to 1922, one in six of the 430 total students died.[39] Most were Siksika, or TsuuT'ina (then known as Blackfoot and Sarcee).[39] One child's school records notes that she would have made a good servant girl."[39]

British Columbia

Ahousat

Ahousaht First Nation in Ahousat planned excavations in advance of a planned real estate project.[42] [43] Ahousaht Indian Residential School, on Flores Island near Maaqtusiis, was run by Presbyterians. The Catholic-run Christie Indian Residential School operated on Meares Island from 1900 to 1883 and was the last residential school to close in Canada.[44]

Alert Bay

St. Michael's Indian Residential School, in Alert Bay – led by 'Namgis First Nation; the search was in "early stages" as of July 2021, and a press release in February 2022 officially announced the start of the inquiry, detailing plans for community engagement, a project manager, and a monument following the investigation.[45]

Alberni

See main article: First Nations nutrition experiments. On February 21, 2023, Tseshaht First Nation released "phase one" findings, the results of a ground-penetrating radar survey of just over 10% of the area identified at for investigation, as well as historical research that included interviewing survivors of the school, which was run first by Presbyterians, then the United Church, and eventually the Canadian government. The findings reported 17 suspected Interviews with survivors identified 67 students who died at AIRS.[46] [47]

Malnutrition was rampant at almost all residential schools, but at Alberni, milk[48] and dental care[49] were deliberately withheld for two years from some children by researchers studying the effects of malnutrition. Records reviewed by the TRC included 29 children who`lans to contact family members of those dead students that can be identified, and eventually hold a ceremony to tear the old school building down.Tseshaht First Nation announced plans to search near the Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS) building in August 2021, .[50] Funding was secured by December 2021 of over and an initial GPR scan was scheduled in the spring of 2022.[51] The search began in earnest in July 2022.[52]

Kamloops

See main article: Kamloops Indian Residential School.

In 2021, Sarah Beaulieu, an anthropologist experienced at searching for historical gravesites, surveyed the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School on the lands of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation with ground-penetrating radar and observed "disruptions in the ground" which she concluded could be 200 unmarked graves, based on "their placement, size, depth, and other features"[53] [54] though "only forensic investigation with excavation" would confirm if these were actually human remains.[55] As of May 2022, the nation had assembled a team of technical archaeologists and professors as they continue their investigation of the site, which Chief Rosanne Casimir described as an ongoing process from "exhumation to memorialization."[56] The Tk’emlups te Secwepemc band announced on the third anniversary of their initial announcement of the graves' discovery that their investigation was proceeding but would remain confidential to preserve its integrity.[57] Denialists have gone to the burial site with shovels to "prove" that there are no human remains at the site.[58] [59]

Kootenay

See main article: Kootenay Indian Residential School. On June 30, 2021, the leadership of ʔaq̓am, a band of the Ktunaxa Nation, announced that 182 unmarked grave sites had been identified in a cemetery next to the site of the former St. Eugene's Mission Residential School.[60] Over 5,000 children attended the school between 1912 and 1970.[61] The building now operates as a casino and golf resort.

Maintenance workers came upon an "unknown and unmarked grave" in 2020. Scans with round-penetrating radar identifief additional anomalies. Graves were traditionally marked with wooden crosses.

The graveyard dates to 1865, before the school was built, and has been used continuously for burials by the local settler and indigenous community, including St. Eugene Hospital, which operated from 1874 to 1899. The residential school was in operation from 1912 to 1970. The band sais it was "extremely difficult to establish whether or not these unmarked graves contain the remains of children who attended the St. Eugene Residential School".[62]

Kuper Island

See main article: Kuper Island Indian Residential School. In 2018 the Penelakut chief, council and elders met with researchers from the University of British Columbia to discuss a possible survey of the grounds of the former Kuper Island Indian Residential school for unmarked graves using GPR. This work would build on previous GPR surveys conducted in known cemeteries in the community in 2014 and 2016.[63] In a memo sent to band members on July 8, 2021,[64] Chief Joan Brown of the Penelakut First Nation made reference to the discovery of at least 160"undocumented and unmarked" graves located on the grounds of the former school, on an island off Vancouver Island.[65] The memo was circulated in national media coverage on July 12. It is unclear whether the number referred to new findings.The school, referred to as "Canada's Alcatraz", was operated on the remote Penelakut Island (formerly Kuper Island) from 1889 to 1969 by the Catholic Church, and from 1969 to 1975 by the federal government.[66]

St. Augustine's

On April 20, 2023, Shíshálh Nation announced the discovery of 40 unmarked children's graves near the site of the former St. Augustine's Indian Residential School in Sechelt, BC, "shallow graves, only large enough for the young bodies to lay in the fetal position."[67] The investigation made use of ground-penetrating radar and historical research, including interviews with survivors.[67] [68]

Squamish

St. Paul's Indian Residential School (Squamish), in North Vancouver – Joint investigation to uncover documents associated with the former residential school, as well as identify the burial sites of children that died while attending the school led by the Squamish Nation, Musqueam Nation and Tsleil-Waututh Nation, in collaboration with the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver, announced August 10, 2021.[69]

Stó:lō Nation

In September 2023, announced that at least 158 of their children had died at three residential schools and a hospital;[70] 37 children died at or due to their attendance at Coqualeetza Industrial Institute/Residential School in Chilliwack, 20 at St. Mary's, five at All Hallow School in Yale and 96 children between ages five and 20 at the Coqualeetza Indian Hospital.[71]

The Stó:lō had in 2021 announced the three-year search for unmarked graves at the former Fraser Valley residential school sites.[77] In addition to searching known graveyards, the Stó:lō planned to look for unrecorded graves.

Late in 2021 memorial house post carvings were erected at the second location of the government-run St. Mary's, now, and Coqualeetza[78] to honor victims of abuse and those who died.[79]

Williams Lake

In June 2021, Williams Lake First Nation announced it would lead a search of the site of Saint Joseph's Mission near Williams Lake. The search would use ground-penetrating radar, and focusing on 0.15km2 of the 4.5km2 site. Work began in late August 2021.[80] [81] Williams Lake First Nations announced on January 25, 2022 that 93 potential burial sites were discovered.[82]

The investigation continued, and on January 24, 2023, the Nation announced that it had come to the conclusion that at least 28 children had died while students of the school, as opposed to the 16 reported by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation. The announcement also identified 66 more potential burial sites, for a total of 159, identified using GPR and aerial and terrestrial LiDAR. The Nation also announced that it was working with the B.C. Coroner's Service and attorney general to create a memorandum of understanding that would allow them to proceed with further work to confirm the potential gravesites, using small probes and DNA testing.[83]

A least one student at the school committed suicide, and another died of hypothermia while trying to escape.[82] Several religious leaders at the school were later convicted of sexually abusing the students, including Father Harold McIntee.[82] In 2023 Williams Lake First Nation purchased the former school building, which had been privately owned.[84]

Manitoba

Brandon

See main article: Brandon Indian Residential School.

Beginning in 2012, a team from Sioux Valley Dakota Nation and Simon Fraser University investigated two cemetery sites at Brandon Indian Residential School in Brandon. The project, which received funding for its work in April 2019, was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[85] [86] In addition to two previously known cemeteries, the project found a possible third burial site.[87] On June4, 2021, it was announced that 104 potential graves had been located, of which 78 are accountable through historical records.[88]

Fort Alexander

As of late July 2021, Sagkeeng First Nation had begun a search of the former site of Fort Alexander Indian Residential School, near Powerview-Pine Falls in Manitoba, using drone surveying and ground-penetrating radar.[89] On June 6, 2022, it announced it had found 190 "anomalies" during the search: 137 in one area and 53 in another. The anomalies were not found at the residential school. Having ruled out pipelines, sewer lines, and waterlines, work continued following the announcement to determine whether the anomalies were gravesites.[90]

Pine Creek

On May 9, 2022, the Minegoziibe Anishinabe (formerly known as Pine Creek First Nation), began a ground-penetrating radar scan on the former site of Pine Creek Indian Residential School, through its contractor AltoMaxsix.[91] A preliminary report in June 2022 announced the discovery of six anomalies on the site.[92] In August, 14 more had been found. The RCMP began an investigation in October 2022 of 71 ground anomalies identified in five scans of a 100-acre area around the site of the residential school, and around and underneath a Catholic church.[93]

The community held a day of ceremony on July 24, 2023, to mark the beginning of an archaeological dig in the church basement, where 14 anomalies had been found. The excavation found no evidence of human remains.[94] and the RCMP's investigation found no evidence of criminal activity.[95]

Sandy Bay

A search at the site of the former Sandy Bay Residential School in Sandy Bay First Nation in May 2022 used ground-penetrating radar and drone imagery to identify 13 potential unmarked gravesites. Four were determined to have a "moderate probability" of being an unmarked grave and nine sites were assessed as "low probability"[96] Plans were made for an excavation under the church.[97]

Northwest Territories

Fort Providence

From 1992 to 1994 Albert Lafferty, a Métis resident of Fort Providence, Northwest Territories led research at the old community cemetery near the former Sacred Heart Mission School operated by the Grey Nuns from 1867 to 1960[98] and the mission's associated hospital. He found that missionaries established the first cemetery there in 1868, but relocated the remains of eight missionaries to the present Catholic cemetery in 1929. They left behind the remains of hundreds of Indigenous people, and the cemetery was ploughed over in 1948, and became a potato field.

Lafferty's research, facilitated by the local diocese in Yellowknife, involved ground-penetrating radar and identified 298 people likely buried at the site in unmarked graves. This number included adults as well as 161 children from across the Deh-cho who attended the school.[99] Some members of the community believe the actual number of buried students is much higher.[100] A separate study estimated 150 total children and adults.[101] The project was led by Deh Gáh Got'ı̨ę First Nation after an unmarked cemetery was discovered in the early 1990s.

In 2013[101] a memorial was erected on the site listing the names or, in the case of those whose names were not known, the identities of the people buried at the site.

Starting around 2009, former NWT premier Stephen Kakfwi made annual pilgrimages to the site to honour the dead in ceremony, and encouraged community members, and representatives of governments and religious institutions to do the same.[102] [103] In July 2021, Deh Gáh Got’ı̨ę First Nation confirmed that they would try to complete a further search of the former school grounds before the first snowfall, though community healing and acquiring funding were priorities.[104]

Ontario

St. Mary's

On January 17, 2023, a statement released by Wauzhushk Onigum Nation announced the discovery of 171 "anomalies", which it called "plausible burials",[105] located by ground-penetrating radar around the former St. Mary's Indian Residential School. "The Nation’s next steps are to gain greater certainty on the number of plausible graves in the cemetery grounds using additional technologies and to conduct additional investigations at several additional sites not covered...," it said.[106] [107]

Saskatchewan

Battleford

Battleford Industrial School's final principal expressed concern over future generations forgetting the cemetery containing the bodies of former students at the school site:

The land was never officially registered as a cemetery, and became dilapidated and vandalised. In 1974, five students from the Department of Anthropology and Archaeology at the University of Saskatchewan excavated 72 graves of the 74 in the Battleford school cemetery.[108] [109] Most of the people buried there are former students of the Industrial School. During the excavation, the contents of each unmarked grave were uncovered, identified, and recorded, then re-covered and marked with a marble marker, before a chain-link fence was erected around the outside of the site. On August 31, 1975, a ceremony reconsecrated the burial ground; a cairn had been erected with the names of fifty students known to be buried there.

In 2019, the cemetery was designated Provincial Heritage Property by the Government of Saskatchewan.[110] [111]

George Gordon

On April 20, 2022, George Gordon First Nation Chief Byron Bitternose announced that 14 possible gravesites had been identified using ground-penetrating radar at the site of the former George Gordon Indian Residential School. Records from the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation found 49 student deaths found in school records. The school operated from 1888 to 1996.[112]

Kamsack and Fort Pelly

A search using ground-penetrating radar was conducted by Keeseekoose First Nation on the former grounds of St. Philip's Indian Residential School in Kamsack, Saskatchewan, and the former site of another school near Fort Pelly, which had been erected at the expense of the Oblate Fathers from 1905 to 1913. The search by ground-penetrating radar revealed 42 potential unmarked graves at the Fort Pelly site, and 12 at St. Philip's.[113] The first St. Philip's boarding school was built in 1901 from logs daubed with mortar and was attended by students from the Cote and Keesekoose reservations.[114] The students in 1945 were Anishnabe (then known as Ojibwé, Ojibwa, Saulteux, Sauteux, or Saulteaux). According to Oblate records, in 1966 345 Indigenous children attended the Pelly school, and 95 boarders and 207 day students attended St Philip's, which closed in 1969.

La Ronge

A cemetery dating back to at least the early 1900s was situated by the Lac La Ronge Indian Residential School near La Ronge on or adjacent to land that is now Lac La Ronge Indian Band's urban reserve.[115] [116] The graveyard served community members, school staff and possibly students who died at the school.[116] [117] While the cemetery retains some headstones, rocks and other grave markings, SNC Lavalin was hired to search for potential unmarked graves using GPR within as well as outside the boundaries where some fear the unbaptized or those who committed suicide were buried.[118] [116] [117]

As of December 23, 2021, the search was about 97 percent complete.[117] [115] Crosses were put up to mark possible gravesites identified by GPR.[115]

Lestock

See main article: Muscowequan Indian Residential School.

Initial work on a new water system accidentally dug up buried human bodies in 1992 and the nation ordered a search with GPR based on documentary records.[119] Nineteen bodies were found with indications of further graves nearby.[119] [120] In 2018, a University of Alberta team identified an additional ten to fifteen potential gravesites by GPR.[121] An influenza epidemic swept the area in the early 1900s and the graves are believed to contain people of Saulteaux, Cree, Métis and European origin.[119] Further searches are planned.[122]

Marieval

See main article: Marieval Indian Residential School.

A community graveyard next to Marieval Indian Residential School on the lands of Cowessess First Nation in Marieval was first used in 1885, before the school was established, and has included the graves of both children and adult parishioners of the Catholic Church.[123] However, by 2021, only an estimated third of the graves remained marked.

Archbishop of Regina Don Bolen said that headstones were lost at least in part in the 1960s when an Oblate priest and a local First Nations chief "entered into a conflict" and the priest then used a bulldozer to knock over "huge numbers of tombstones." One person claiming relatives in the cemetery said he knew the workers who picked up the headstones.[124] In 2019, the Archdiocese of Regina provided $70,000 to identify the unmarked graves and restore the cemetery.[124]

A subsequent search for unmarked gravesites was delayed two years due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[125] In May 2021, Cowessess First Nation announced it would search the site using ground-penetrating radar in collaboration with a group from Saskatchewan Polytechnic. The search began June1 and expanded four times based on elder recollection of burials outside the school grounds.[125]

On June24, 2021, Cowessess First Nation Chief Cadmus Delorme announced that findings from the preliminary survey indicated the presence of up to 751unmarked graves near the site of the former school.[126] [127] [128] [129] The preliminary figure was the highest number of potential or confirmed unmarked graves associated with a given residential school, according to the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN), which represents Saskatchewan's First Nations.[130] Delorme underlined, "This is not a mass grave site. These are unmarked graves." In noting that the radar technology used had an error rate of 10–15%, he concluded that as a result of the loss of the headstones, "today, we have over 600 unmarked graves."[131]

On October8, 2021, Cowessess First Nation announced that names had been put to 300 of the gravesites. The identification was made possible through the records of the RCMP, the Catholic Church, and Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada, as well as band oral history.

A press release published January 20, 2022, announced the identification of the 751 unmarked graves as belonging to "both former children who attended the residential school and locals, both First Nation and non-First Nations," and said that more research had to be done to be able to "share the true story by identifying which children did not make it home."[132]

Qu'Appelle

See main article: Qu'Appelle Indian Residential School.

As part of a project begun in November 2021,[133] Star Blanket Cree Nation carried out a search of the former grounds of Qu'Appelle Indian Residential School in fall and winter 2022 using ground-penetrating radar. Its preliminary findings, announced January 12, 2023, included over 2000 "hits" on ground-penetrating radar and the discovery of a fragment of the jawbone of a child between 4 and 6, which the Saskatchewan Coroners Service estimated was approximately 125 years old. Not all "hits" are suspected graves. Further work was set to continue as of January 2023.[134] James Daschuk pointed out in his book Clearing the Plains that despite the deaths of "almost 20 percent of the children at the school...between 1884 and 1905"[135] Father Hugonnard the principal saw the health of the children there as generally good, and wrote that TB was "hereditary in the families of the deceased and the germs were brought from home".

Regina Indian Industrial School

In 2010 and 2012, an archaeological survey with ground-penetrating radar of the southern part of the private land that held the cemetery associated with the Regina Indian Industrial School (RIIS) found likely evidence of 38 graves, including six outside the cemetery fence.[136] Documents from 1921 indicated that a prairie fire probably destroyed the wooden crosses marking thirty to forty gravesites, at the western edge of site of the former school. In 2014, an unpublished report by the Regina Planning Department indicated that the site contained the remains of about 35 First Nations and Métis children, as well as of two children of the school's first principal. The principal himself and his wife are also known to be buried there, as attested by a "small and barely visible gravestone" and "the only surviving marker in the cemetery" as of 2012.[136] In September 2016, the cemetery became a municipal heritage site, and in July 2017 a provincial heritage site. It had been privately owned farmland since the 1980s.[137] The land was "recovered" in 2011 by arrangement between the private owners, the RCMP, and the RIIS Commemorative Association. In 2019, a land transfer ceremony was held to give the land to the Commemorative Association.[138] In the weeks before Canada's first National Day for Truth And Reconciliation on September 30, 2021, 38 orange metal feathers were placed in the ground on the site, to mark the 38 gravesites believed to be there. The metal markers were donated by Pasqua First Nation and Pro Metal Industries.[139] The site is encircled by a white picket fence.[140]

Yukon

Chooutla Indian Residential School

A search led by the Chooutla Working Group in Carcross, Yukon, was scheduled to begin in summer 2023, with plans to expand search to other communities in future years.[141] [142] GeoScan, a survey company based in BC. searched 9.2 acres with ground-penetrating radar and found 15 anomalies grouped together in an area of 624 square feet.[143] Built in 1911, the Choutla school was run by Anglicans and achieved a reputation for harsh discipline and poor food and health outcomes before it closed in 1969.[144]

Communities debating

A number of First Nations announced searches for unmarked graves at former residential school sites. Some of these searches were already underway prior to the Kamloops confirmation. Below are a list of school sites announced thus far:

Reactions

Community memorials were set up at the Vancouver Art Gallery, the Ontario Legislative Building, as well as various government buildings and church buildings that had been in charge of running the residential school system.[174] [175]

An opinion piece by Kisha Supernant and Sean Carleton, published by the CBC, responded to denialists, stating that "[t]here is no big lie or deliberate hoax", but is instead "the complicated nature of what the TRC calls the 'complex truth' ".[9] Prime Minister Justin Trudeau directed that flags on all federal buildings be flown at half-mast.[176] [177] On June2, 2021, the federal government pledged $27 million in immediate funding to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to identify the unmarked graves.[178] The provincial governments of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario also pledged million, $8million, $2million, $2.5million and $10million, respectively, to fund searches.[179]

MPs Mumilaaq Qaqqaq and Charlie Angus called on Justice Minister David Lametti to launch an independent investigation on crimes against humanity in Canada.[180] Canada Day festivities were cancelled in some communities in British Columbia, Alberta, Northern Saskatchewan and New Brunswick.[181] [182]

The Canadian School Boards Association asked for a Canada-wide curriculum on Indigenous history, to be taught from kindergarten to Grade12.[183] In New Brunswick, Education Minister Dominic Cardy said the education curriculum would be amended to teach about the province's Indigenous day schools.[184]

The United Nations Human Rights Office and independent UN human rights experts called on Canada and the Holy See to investigate.[185] [186] Similar sentiments were echoed by the governments of China, Russia, Belarus, Iran, North Korea, Syria and Venezuela.[187]

The identification of gravesites at Kamloops was followed by calls for name changes and the removal of monuments commemorating figures known for their colonial views or policies towards Indigenous peoples.[188] These include monuments to Egerton Ryerson,[189] John A. Macdonald,[190] Hector-Louis Langevin,[191] Oscar Blackburn,[192] Vital-Justin Grandin,[193] and James Cook.[194]

A school named after Prince Charles was renamed,[195] and a statue of Queen Victoria and another of Queen Elizabeth II were toppled by protesters.

Church fires

See main article: 2021 Canadian church burnings.

By July4, 2021 nearly two dozen churches, including eight on First Nations territories, had been burned, with community leaders and commentators correlating the fires with the involvement of the Catholic and Anglican churches in operating residential schools. Writer Robert Jago identified religion as a point of full separation between indigenous and Canadian society, holding that "[i]t is a legitimate debate for First Nations to talk about removing Catholic churches from [indigenous] territories". Indigenous leaders, including Chief Clarence Louie of the Osoyoos Indian Band, as well as the prime minister and provincial officials condemned the suspected arsons.[196]

In 2024, a CBC News investigation identified 33 churches that had burned since May 2021, including 24 that had been confirmed as arsons and two that had been ruled accidental. Of the arsons, nine resulted in arrests; "no clear motive has been established" in the incidents that resulted in criminal charges. The CBC investigation found that the fires and vandalism of other churches correlated with the increased publicity surround gravesites at residential schools. Royal Canadian Mounted Police information indicated that between May 2019 and May 2021, there were nine arsons at churches in Alberta; between June 2021 and September 2023, there were 29. Some fires have been tied to discontent with a failure to address the harm done by residential schools, while others–including a fire at a Coptic Orthodox church–have been identified as being wholly unrelated to the residential schools.[197]

Media reporting in 2021

"Children who never returned from residential schools" were the Canadian Newsmakers of the Year in 2021, an annual designation voted by a nationwide survey of editors and published by the Canadian Press.[198]

In July 2021, a New York Times article[199] "'Horrible History'" sparked interest in the matter. In May 2022, the National Post article "The year of the graves" said that despite the saturation of news coverage and their consequences, nothing new had been added to the public record that was not already known and that "it wasn't the Indigenous people directly involved who made the disturbing claims that ended up in the headlines".[64]

See also

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: A timeline of residential schools, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission . CBC . May 16, 2008 . June 29, 2024.
  2. Introduction: Residential Schools and Decolonization . Cambridge University Press . January 2, 2013 . Rosemary . Nagy . Robinder . Kaur Sehdev . Canadian Journal of Law and Society. 27 . 67–73 . 10.3138/cjls.27.1.067 .
  3. Arsenault . Virginia . Resistance to the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission . 2015 . resrep11074.5 . May 22, 2024 . 5–7.
  4. Web site: subscription . Never forget Indigenous children who died at residential schools . The Hill Times . October 7, 2019 . June 29, 2024.
  5. Web site: Cooper . Anderson . Canada's unmarked graves: How residential schools carried out "cultural genocide" against indigenous children . CBS News . February 12, 2023 . June 29, 2024.
  6. Hamilton . Scott . Where are the Children buried? . National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
  7. Web site: Canada's Residential Schools Missing Children and Unmarked Burials. Publications du gouvernement du Canada The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada. June 30, 2024. 4.
  8. News: Moira . Wyton . Residential school denialists tried to dig up suspected unmarked graves in Kamloops, B.C., report finds. . CBC News . June 16, 2023 . May 30, 2024.
  9. Web site: Kisha . Supernant . Sean . Carleton . Fighting 'denialists' for the truth about unmarked graves and residential schooling: Opinion . CBC News . June 3, 2022 . May 30, 2024.
  10. News: Sean . Carleton . Reid . Gerbrandt . We fact-checked residential school denialists and debunked their 'mass grave hoax' theory. . October 17, 2023 . June 5, 2024.
  11. News: Stephanie . Taylor . Special interlocutor 'waiting' for MP bill criminalizing residential school denialism . CTV News . November 26, 2023 . June 5, 2024.
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  23. Web site: How Canada forgot about more than 1,308 graves at former residential schools: First Nations are having to counter widespread claims that these are mass graves or that they were deliberately hidden . Tristin . Hopper . July 13, 2021 . National Post.
  24. News: John Paul . Tasker . Residential schools findings point to 'cultural genocide', commission chair says . . May 29, 2015 . July 1, 2016 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20160518220713/http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/residential-schools-findings-point-to-cultural-genocide-commission-chair-says-1.3093580 . May 18, 2016.
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  27. News: Stewart . Chris . March 2, 2022 . Kapawe'no First Nation in Alberta announces 169 possible unmarked graves . APTN National News . March 10, 2022.
  28. Web site: March 1, 2022 . 169 potential graves found at site of former residential school in northern Alberta . March 1, 2022 . CBC News.
  29. News: February 14, 2022 . Final Summary of the Phase 1 Ground-Penetrating Radar Search at Grouard Mission, AB . Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology . March 10, 2022.
  30. Web site: Human remains found near Alberta residential school site likely children, First Nation says: Saddle Lake Cree Nation examining possible Blue Quills residential school burial sites . Paige . Parsons . CBC . May 17, 2022.
  31. Web site: 'A war on Aboriginal children': Alberta's 25 residential schools: This article includes links to lists of students known to have died or gone missing while attending school . September 30, 2021 . CBC News. Meghan . Grant .
  32. News: Parsons . Paige . May 17, 2022 . Human remains found near Alberta residential school site likely children, First Nation says . CBC News . June 6, 2022.
  33. News: Stewart . Chris . January 25, 2023 . Report says residential school deaths in Alberta linked to unpasteurized milk . APTN National News . February 4, 2023.
  34. News: Malone . Kelly Geraldine . April 19, 2023 . 19 anomalies located in search for unmarked graves at Alberta residential school . CTV News . May 16, 2023.
  35. Web site: How Stanley Redcrow and First Nations activists reclaimed the Blue Quills Residential School . CBC . May 10, 2017 . The Story of Us.
  36. Web site: University Blue Quills - About Us. January 31, 2019. University nuhelot’įne thaiyots’į nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills. January 31, 2019. February 19, 2017. https://web.archive.org/web/20170219005356/http://www.bluequills.ca/welcome/about-us/. dead.
  37. News: Narine . Shari . Blue Quills celebrates new status as Indigenous-controlled university . 22 April 2021 . Alberta Sweetgrass . 1 . Ammsa.com . 2015 . 23 . en.
  38. News: Paradis . Danielle . June 26, 2023 . St. Bruno's residential school ground-penetrating radar report released . APTN National News . July 31, 2023.
  39. Web site: 'They have to be at peace:' Whereabouts of remains of 39 children's bodies still unknown at Dunbow Industrial School . June 23, 2021 . CTV News. for some reason there is no date?
  40. News: Walton. Dawn. May 22, 2013. In a grassland graveyard, pupils pay tribute to Alberta's long-lost native children. The Globe and Mail. September 30, 2021.
  41. News: Rollie. Tammy. June 8, 2021. Horrors of residential schools existed not far from Okotoks. OkotoksToday.ca. September 30, 2021.
  42. News: Denise . Titian . Ahousaht to search grounds of former residential school for unmarked graves . Ha-Shilth-Sa . June 17, 2021 . June 25, 2021.
  43. News: Sawyer. Ethan. August 17, 2021. 6 more First Nations in B.C. launch investigations into residential school sites. CBC News. August 31, 2021.
  44. Book: https://opentextbc.ca/geography/chapter/4-4-case-study/ . British Columbia in a Global Context . Case Study I: The Indian Residential School System . 2014 . BCcampus Open Publishing.
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  46. News: CBC News . February 21, 2023 . 17 potential unmarked graves scanned at former Vancouver Island residential school, First Nation says . CBC . May 16, 2023.
  47. Potential unmarked graves found at Port Alberni residential school . February 21, 2023 . Stanton . Kylie . Television production . Global News . May 16, 2023.
  48. News: Hungry aboriginal people used in bureaucrats' experiments: Food historian published details of nutritional experiments that began in the 1940s . The Canadian Press . July 16, 2013 . CBC News.
  49. National Library of Medicine . Paediatrics & Child Health . 19 . 2 . 2014 . Canada's shameful history of nutrition research on residential school children: The need for strong medical ethics in Aboriginal health research . Noni E . MacDonald . Richard . Stanwick. Andrew . Lynk. 64 . 10.1093/pch/19.2.64 . 24596474 . 3941673 .
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  51. December 2021 . Special Project: AIRS . Tseshaht First Nation Community Report . December 2021 . 6.
  52. News: Wilson . Lee . July 15, 2022 . Search for unmarked graves at the former Alberni Indian Residential School starts . APTN National News . February 4, 2023.
  53. Web site: Angela . Sterritt . Courtney . Dickson . 'This is heavy truth': Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc chief says more to be done to identify unmarked graves . . July 15, 2021. July 24, 2021.
  54. News: Jana G. . Pruden . Mike . Hager . Anthropologist explains how she concluded 200 children were buried at the Kamloops Residential School . July 15, 2021. The Globe and Mail . July 24, 2021.
  55. News: Chisholm . Sydney . September 18, 2021 . No digging yet at Tk'emlups . Castanet Kamloops.
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  57. Web site: Confidential probe ongoing three years after announcement about graves at Kamloops residential school . Tim . Petruk . May 27, 2024 . Castanet.
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  60. News: Alex . Migdal . 182 unmarked graves discovered near residential school in B.C.'s Interior, First Nation says . . June 30, 2021. June 30, 2021.
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  62. Web site: Adam . MacVicar . 'We knew it was there': Former B.C. chief says unmarked graves near Cranbrook need more context . . July 1, 2021. July 26, 2021.
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  64. News: Glavin . Terry . May 26, 2022 . The year of the graves: How the world's media got it wrong on residential school graves . . May 28, 2022.
  65. News: More than 160 unmarked graves found near another B.C. residential school site . . July 12, 2021. July 12, 2021.
  66. News: Tribe says 160 unmarked graves found at 'Canada's Alcatraz' . . July 14, 2021. 27.
  67. Web site: 40 unmarked children's graves found at former residential school in Sechelt, B.C.. Amy . Judd . Global News . April 20, 2023.
  68. Results of the shíshálh Ground Penetration Radar . April 20, 2023 . Shíshálh Nation.
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  70. Web site: September 21, 2023 . B.C. First Nation research finds 158 child deaths at four facilities . September 22, 2023 . CP24 . en.
  71. Web site: Stó:lō Nation identifies 158 child deaths, potential unmarked graves at former residential schools, hospital:In December 2021, the nation announced a 3-year plan to search 4 sites in Fraser Valley . CBC News . September 21, 2023 .
  72. Web site: All Hallows' Residential School . October 31, 2022 . The United Church of Canada Archives.
  73. Web site: Coqualeetza (Chilliwack Home) . National Center for Truth and Reconciliation . University of Manitoba. 2024.
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  76. Web site: House . Tina . April 21, 2022 . 'This place did its job': School survivor returns to St. Mary's to confront the past .
  77. News: Penner. Patrick. Nation set out plan for 3-year project to find unmarked graves at Fraser Valley residential schools . Mission City Record . Mission, British Columbia . July 6, 2021 . August 22, 2022.
  78. Web site: Stó:lō Nation unveils memorial house posts at Mission and Chilliwack residential school sites: 11-foot posts a work of 'blood, sweat and tears' said Yakweakwioose First Nation Chief Terry Horne . Patrick . Penner . October 2, 2021 . The Chilliwack Progress.
  79. News: Penner. Patrick. Stó:lō Nation unveils memorial house posts at Mission and Chilliwack residential school sites. Agassiz-Harrison Observer. Agassiz, British Columbia. October 2, 2021. August 22, 2022.
  80. News: Lamb-Yorski. Monica. June 16, 2021. Williams Lake First Nation to search residential school site for unmarked graves. Vernon Morning Star. June 25, 2021.
  81. News: Dickson. Courtney. August 31, 2021. Search of former St. Joseph's Mission Residential School begins in B.C.'s Interior. CBC News. September 3, 2021.
  82. Web site: Bethany . Lindsay . Bridgette . Watson . 93 potential burial sites found near former B.C. residential school . CBC News . January 25, 2022.
  83. News: Paradis . Danielle . January 26, 2023 . Williams Lake First Nation says its located files showing additional deaths at former residential school . APTN National News . May 16, 2023.
  84. Web site: Williams Lake First Nation purchases residential school site. Government of British Columbia. September 5, 2023.
  85. Finding Indigenous Children: The Brandon Indian Residential School Project . . June 4, 2021. June 25, 2021. June 13, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210613190940/http://www.sfu.ca/university-communications/media-releases/2021/06/finding-indigenous-children--the-brandon-indian-residential-scho.html . dead.
  86. News: Stranger. Darrell. June 10, 2021. Sioux Valley Dakota Nation working towards identifying children at Brandon residential school. APTN National News. dead. June 12, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210827112744/http://www.sfu.ca/university-communications/media-releases/2021/06/finding-indigenous-children--the-brandon-indian-residential-scho.html. August 27, 2021.
  87. News: Where were Manitoba's residential schools and what stands there now? . . June 6, 2021. July 11, 2021.
  88. News: Ian . Froese . Team investigating Brandon's former residential school for graves turns to elders for clues . . June 20, 2021. June 25, 2021.
  89. News: Keele . Jeff . July 21, 2021 . Manitoba First Nation begins search for unmarked graves at former residential school site . . July 30, 2021.
  90. Web site: Danton . Unger . Search in Sagkeeng First Nation in Manitoba identifies 190 anomalies in the ground . CTV News . June 6, 2022.
  91. News: Lilley . Renée . May 11, 2022 . Pine Creek First Nation starts search of former residential school site . . May 12, 2022.
  92. News: Malone . Kelly Geraldine . June 11, 2022 . Two Manitoba First Nations find anomalies in ground searches at former residential school sites . CityNews Winnipeg . July 31, 2023.
  93. News: CBC News . October 14, 2022 . RCMP investigate after search of western Manitoba residential school site discovers possible unmarked graves . CBC . July 31, 2023.
  94. Web site: Chief says excavation of Manitoba church basement found no evidence of human remains - Winnipeg Globalnews.ca . September 1, 2023 . CJOB . en-US.
  95. News: Sanders . Leanne . July 24, 2023 . First Nation spends day in ceremony to launch dig for potential unmarked graves . APTN National News . The Canadian Press . July 31, 2023.
  96. Web site: Stephanie . Cram . Ground searches underway or planned at most of Manitoba's former residential school sites . CBC News . May 29, 2022.
  97. Web site: First Nation set to dig under church for potential unmarked graves . Tyler . Searle. July 20, 2023 . Winnipeg Free Press.
  98. Web site: Accession N-2004-002 - Sacred Heart Residential School (Fort Providence) . 1867. Sacred Heart Residential School . Northwest Territories Archives . Archives des Soeurs Grises de Montreal (Grey Nuns), Oblats de Marie-Immaculee, transcribed by Diane P. Payment, Historian, Parks Canada, Winnipeg It was forwarded to the NWT Archives by the Fort Providence Métis Council in 2003.
  99. News: Brackenbury. Meaghan. July 23, 2021. Fort Providence plans search for unmarked graves. Cabin Radio. live. September 16, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210831223723/https://cabinradio.ca/68392/news/dehcho/fort-providence-plans-search-for-unmarked-graves/. August 31, 2021.
  100. News: Tucker. Amy. July 4, 2021. N.W.T. community built memorial to name its residential school victims. It was just a start. CBC News. live. September 16, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210809152309/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/fort-providence-nwt-memorial-gravesite-residential-schools-indigenous-kids-1.6088159. August 9, 2021.
  101. News: Zingel. Avery. June 5, 2021. N.W.T. MP, a residential school survivor, reflects on the graves of children in his home town. CBC News. live. September 16, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210815014434/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/fort-providence-graves-1.6049005. August 15, 2021.
  102. News: October 3, 2019. N.W.T. group holds ceremony to honour people who died at residential school. CBC News. live. September 16, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210705083442/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/mission-school-visits-fort-providence-1.5307268. July 5, 2021.
  103. News: Whitehouse. Simon. September 30, 2020. Former Premier Kakfwi reflects on monumental sadness of residential schools. NNSL Media. live. September 16, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210116030059/https://www.nnsl.com/yellowknifer/former-premier-kakfwi-reflects-on-the-residential-school/. January 16, 2021.
  104. News: Carroll. Luke. July 20, 2021. Search for unmarked graves to happen at former Fort Providence residential school. CKLB Radio. live. September 16, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210720191910/https://cklbradio.com/2021/07/20/search-for-unmarked-graves-to-happen-at-former-fort-providence-residential-school/. July 20, 2021.
  105. News: Needham . Fraser . January 19, 2023 . Ontario MPP says findings at former Ontario residential school hit close to home . APTN National News . February 4, 2023.
  106. News: January 17, 2023 . Wauzhushk Onigum Nation finds 171 anomalies during search of St. Mary's school site . APTN National News . February 4, 2023.
  107. Web site: Statement regarding the location of plausible burials at the former St. Mary's Indian Residential School . Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre, University of British Columbia . January 17, 2023.
  108. Web site: September 30, 1975 . Burial Ground Re-Consecrated . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20170408082324/http://www.sicc.sk.ca/archive/saskindian/a75sep3006.htm . April 8, 2017 . March 10, 2022 . Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre . sicc.sk.ca.
  109. Hopkins . Colette Janelle . The Forgotten Cemetery of the St. Vital Parish (1879-1885): A Documentary and Mortuary Analyis . April 2004 . Master of Arts . University of Saskatchewan . https://web.archive.org/web/20170408081448/https://ecommons.usask.ca/bitstream/handle/10388/etd-09172009-131131/Hopkins_Colette_J_2004.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y . April 8, 2017 . dead.
  110. Web site: Battleford Industrial School Cemetery Receives Provincial Heritage Property Designation . June 13, 2021 . saskatchewan.ca . Government of Saskatchewan . en.
  111. News: Giles . David . October 28, 2019 . Cemetery at former Sask. industrial school designated provincial heritage property . globalnews.ca . Global News . June 13, 2021.
  112. Web site: 'Just the beginning:' 14 graves found at former residential school in Saskatchewan . cp24.com . CP24 . April 20, 2022.
  113. Web site: Brendan . Ellis . Sask. First Nation discovers 54 unmarked graves at the site of former residential schools . CTV News . February 15, 2022.
  114. Web site: Société historique de Saint-Boniface Centre du patrimoine archives . 2024 . en . St Philip's Residential School (Kamsack, Saskatchewan) .
  115. News: Derek . Cornet. Ground radar at historic La Ronge cemetery nearly complete . larongeNOW . Prince Albert, SK . December 23, 2021. March 21, 2022.
  116. News: Guy . Quenneville. Survivors, bishop unite to witness ongoing search for unmarked graves in La Ronge, Sask.. CBC News. Toronto, ON. October 5, 2021. March 21, 2022.
  117. News: Derek. Cornet. Ground radar at historic La Ronge cemetery nearly complete. larongeNOW. Prince Albert, SK. October 5, 2021. March 21, 2022.
  118. News: Guy. Quenneville. Lac La Ronge Indian Band begins search for residential school graves, with 'a lot of work ahead'. CBC News. July 28, 2021. Toronto, ON. July 30, 2021.
  119. Web site: Schillaci-Ventura . Vincent . Bray . Charles. Cemetery and Grave Site Research - IRS Narratives Review . March 20, 2022 . April 10, 2008. Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada. 2.
  120. News: Curry . Bill. Hunt begins for long-missing students . March 20, 2022 . The Globe and Mail. Toronto . October 27, 2008 . en.
  121. News: Snowdon . Wallis . 'There was a heaviness': Alberta anthropologists locate unmarked graves of residential schoolchildren . March 19, 2022 . March 9, 2019 . CBC News.
  122. News: Priscilla . Wolf . Muskowekwan Nation ready to start painful search for school graves again . . June 2, 2021. June 25, 2021.
  123. News: Martens. Kathleen. October 8, 2021. Cowesses identifies 300 of 751 unmarked graves. APTN National News. October 9, 2021.
  124. News: Catholic Church providing $70,000 to identify unmarked graves in Cowessess Cemetery . Brendan . Ellis . Nathaniel . Dove . . June 3, 2019. Toronto . March 21, 2022.
  125. News: Sask. First Nation finds hundreds of burial sites near former residential school . Brooklyn . Neustaeter . . June 23, 2021. Toronto . June 24, 2021.
  126. News: Byran . Eneas . Sask. First Nation announces discovery of 751 unmarked graves near former residential school . . June 24, 2021. July 22, 2021. live . https://web.archive.org/web/20210624153220/https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/cowessess-marieval-indian-residential-school-news-1.6078375 . June 24, 2021.
  127. News: Christopher . Nardi . Hundreds of bodies reported found in unmarked graves at former Saskatchewan residential school . . June 24, 2021. June 24, 2021.
  128. News: . Canada: 751 unmarked graves found at residential school . . June 24, 2021. July 22, 2021. live . https://web.archive.org/web/20210624071209/https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-57592243 . June 24, 2021.
  129. News: Brooke . Taylor . Cowessess First Nation says 751 unmarked graves found near former Sask. residential school . . June 24, 2021. Toronto . June 24, 2021.
  130. News: Sask. First Nation announces hundreds of unmarked graves found at former residential school site . . June 23, 2021. June 24, 2021.
  131. News: Kelly . Skjerven . 751 unmarked graves found at former Saskatchewan residential school . . June 24, 2021. June 24, 2021.
  132. Cowessess First Nation Welcomes Agreement Between Canada and the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation to Transition Residential School Records . January 20, 2022 . Cowessess First Nation .
  133. News: Paradis . Danielle . January 13, 2023 . Star Blanket chief says discovery shows 'hard truth' of what happened in school . APTN National News . February 4, 2023.
  134. News: Connors . Sara . January 12, 2023 . Search finds remains of a child at former Qu'Appelle Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan . APTN National News . February 4, 2023.
  135. Clearing the Plains: Disease, Politics of Starvation, and the Loss of Aboriginal Life . 176 . 65 . Canadian Plains Studies . 0317-6290 . James William . Daschuk . University of Regina Press . 2013 . 978-0889772960.
  136. Book: Stewart . Douglas . The Regina Indian Industrial School (1891 - 1910) . 2017 . Benchmark Press . 32 .
  137. Regina Indian Industrial School. Shattering the Silence: The Hidden History of Residential Schools in Saskatchewan. 88. September 30, 2021.
  138. News: Williams. Ethan. June 25, 2019. 'We're honouring the children:' Industrial school cemetery land transferred to commemorative association. Regina Leader-Post. September 30, 2021.
  139. News: Brace. Samanda. September 30, 2021. After nearly a decade of work, 38 feathers now mark Regina Indian Industrial School cemetery graves. CBC News. September 30, 2021.
  140. News: Agecoutay. Creeson. Neustaeter. Brooklyn. June 11, 2021. Residential school cemetery in Regina turned into gathering site, memorial for survivors. CTV News. September 30, 2021.
  141. News: Connors . Sara . Search for suspected graves at former Yukon school site to begin this summer . May 16, 2023 . APTN National News . March 27, 2023.
  142. News: Proulx . Michel . June 4, 2022 . Ground search at former residential school site in Carcross, Yukon, set to begin this summer . CBC News . June 6, 2022.
  143. Web site: Search of former Yukon residential school locates 15 potential unmarked graves:Fifteen anomalies were found at the former Chooutla Indian residential school in Carcross, Yukon . Sara . Connors . September 27, 2023.
  144. Web site: Carcross (Choutla) . National Center for Truth and Reconciliation . 2024.
  145. News: John . Watson . Work to discover unmarked graves underway . . July 2, 2021. July 25, 2021.
  146. Community update on the work taking place at the former Crowfoot School location . August 3, 2021 . Office of Chief and Council, Government of Siksika . April 19, 2022 . Siksika.
  147. Info Session on Geographical survey of Indian Residential Schools (IRS) in Siksika . September 15, 2021 . Office of Chief and Council, Government of Siksika Nation . Siksika . April 19, 2022.
  148. News: Zingel. Avery. July 20, 2022. Dene Nation seeks approval to search 15 residential school sites for unmarked graves. CBC News. Toronto, Ontario. August 22, 2022.
  149. Web site: National Student Memorial Register: Remembering the Children who Never Came Home . 5. National Center for Truth and Reconciliation.
  150. Web site: Sacred Heart Fleming Hall (St. Matthew's Anglican Hostel): Fort McPherson, NT - 1955 -1976. 2024 . National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
  151. Web site: Fort Simpson, N.W.T., reckons with 'wounds beneath the surface' as burial sites enter public discussion: 'What happened to our children?' Survivors and their families demand answers, accountability . Hannah . Paulson . CBC News . June 7, 2021 .
  152. Web site: Federal government announces funding to help IRC find children lost to residential schools . Eric . Bowling . March 6, 2024 . Black Press Media and NNSL Media .
  153. News: Cummings. Madeleine. August 28, 2021. 2 Alberta First Nations search former residential school grounds for unmarked graves. CBC News. August 31, 2021.
  154. News: Caitlyn . Gowriluk . Opaskwayak Cree Nation prepares to search 2 former residential school sites for unmarked graves . . July 26, 2021. July 30, 2021.
  155. News: Forester. Brett. July 29, 2021. Six Nations police to probe deaths at former Mohawk Institute, seek OPP help. APTN National News. August 11, 2021.
  156. News: Taekema. Dan. August 12, 2021. Former TRC director to oversee investigation at Mohawk Institute residential school. CBC News. August 31, 2021.
  157. Web site: Task force investigating residential school in Brantford, Ont. reveal first case. Don . Mitchell . Global News. October 15, 2021.
  158. News: Forester. Brett. October 15, 2021. Authorities investigating after adolescent grave found near former Mohawk Institute. APTN National News. October 18, 2021.
  159. News: March 28, 2022 . Police set up toll-free tip line for investigation into deaths at Mohawk Institute Residential School . CBC News . April 19, 2022.
  160. News: Forester. Brett. October 14, 2021. Search for truth underway at Canada's two oldest residential schools, what could the probes reveal?. APTN National News. October 18, 2021.
  161. News: June 30, 2021. Les chefs innus veulent des fouilles sur le site de l'ancien pensionnat à Mani-utenam. French. Innu Chiefs Want Investigations of the Site of the Former Residential School at Maliotenam. Radio-Canada. September 30, 2021.
  162. News: September 17, 2021. Ontario First Nations to host ceremony before searching residential school site. CBC News. September 19, 2021.
  163. News: Knibbs . Leslie . February 21, 2022 . Nisoonag Partnership to direct search at Spanish Residential School sites . Anishinabek News . April 19, 2022.
  164. News: Baiguzhiyeva . Dariya . January 26, 2021 . Investigation begins into St. Anne's burial sites . Toronto Star . July 10, 2022.
  165. St. Michael's Indian Residential School Project . February 17, 2022 . ‘Namgis First Nation . April 19, 2022.
  166. News: Courtney . Dickson . B.C. First Nations launch collaborative investigation into former St. Paul's Indian Residential School . . July 10, 2021. August 10, 2021.
  167. News: July 20, 2021. Pensionnats : les recherches de sépultures débutent à Delmas, en Saskatchewan. French. Residential schools: search for graves begins in Delmas, Saskatchewan. ICI Radio-Canada.ca. September 16, 2021.
  168. News: Julia . Peterson . Saskatchewan First Nations search for more graves . . July 17, 2021. July 25, 2021.
  169. News: Sanders . Leanne . February 24, 2022 . BATC expands search for lost children in Saskatchewan . APTN National News . March 10, 2022.
  170. Web site: Shubenacadie residential school search hasn't found anything yet But that doesn't mean nothing happened there . Victoria . Walton . The Coast . August 12, 2021.
  171. News: Smith. Emma. June 16, 2021. 'A huge task': Search will take time at former Shubenacadie residential school site. CBC News. June 28, 2021.
  172. News: August 4, 2021. Searchers unable to find any unmarked graves linked to former Shubenacadie residential school. APTN National News. August 11, 2021.
  173. News: April 20, 2022 . Ottawa gives Sipekne'katik First Nation $326K for residential school site research . CBC News . June 6, 2022.
  174. News: . Vancouver memorial growing to honour 215 children buried at residential school site . . May 29, 2021. June 25, 2021.
  175. News: Tom . Yun . Creeson . Agecoutay . Alexandra Mae . Jones . Tiny shoes and lowered flags: Memorials spread for 215 First Nations children found buried in mass grave in B.C. . . May 30, 2021. June 25, 2021.
  176. News: Rob . Gillies . Canada lowers flags after discovery of bodies at school site . . May 30, 2021. June 25, 2021.
  177. Olivia Stefanovich, "Flags will remain at half-mast until agreement is reached with Indigenous leaders: Trudeau – Decision on when to raise the flags rests with the prime minister", CBC News, September 10, 2021
  178. News: Patrick . White . Kristy . Kirkup . Mike . Hager . Ottawa pledges funds to locate unmarked Indigenous graves at residential schools . . June 2, 2021. June 25, 2021.
  179. News: Richard . Zussman . B.C. government providing $12M to support First Nations investigating residential school sites . . June 28, 2021. June 28, 2021.
  180. Web site: Darren . Major . NDP MPs call for investigation of child abuse at residential schools . . July 8, 2021. July 11, 2021.
  181. News: Morgan . Lowrie . New Brunswick cities cancel Canada Day events over residential school graves . . June 25, 2021. June 26, 2021.
  182. News: Brittany . Roffel . Penticton joins Victoria in cancelling Canada Day activities . . June 19, 2021. June 25, 2021.
  183. News: Colin . Perkel . 'Convenient ignorance:' Canadians' knowledge of residential schools sorely lacking . . . June 6, 2021. June 25, 2021.
  184. News: Silas . Brown . Cardy pledges more content on New Brunswick day schools in province's education curriculum . . June 3, 2021. June 25, 2021.
  185. News: Dangerfield . Canada needs 'exhaustive' probe into burial sites at residential schools, UN says . . June 21, 2021. June 26, 2021.
  186. News: David . Shoykhet . Canada: UN independent experts call for 'full-fledged investigations' into mass grave at indigenous school . June 4, 2021. . June 26, 2021.
  187. News: Brennan . MacDonald . China hits back at Canada, calls for UN investigation into crimes against Indigenous people . . June 22, 2021 . June 26, 2021.
  188. News: Tyler . Dawson. Remove, rename and cancel: A cross-country look at fallout from discovery of the Kamloops graves. National Post. June 11, 2021. June 25, 2021.
  189. News: Statue of Egerton Ryerson, toppled after Toronto rally, 'will not be restored or replaced'. CBC News. June 6, 2021. June 25, 2021.

    News: Danica. Samuel. Rhythm. Sachdeva. Pressure mounts for Ryerson University to change its name. What will it take for that to happen?. Toronto Star. June 7, 2021. June 25, 2021.

  190. News: Sir John A. Macdonald statue removed from Kingston's City Park. John. Lawless. Global News. June 18, 2021. June 25, 2021.
  191. News: Lucie . Edwardson. Calgary's Langevin School renamed following outcry over namesake's link to residential schools. CBC News. June 1, 2021. June 25, 2021.
  192. News: Alana . Cole. Northern Manitoba school to be renamed, after link to residential schools discovered in decades-old letter. CBC News. June 3, 2021. June 25, 2021.
  193. News: Jennie. Russell. Edmonton city council votes to rename Grandin LRT station, cover mural of bishop. CBC News. June 7, 2021. June 25, 2021. }
  194. News: Statues of Queen Victoria and Queen Elizabeth II torn down in Canada. BBC News. July 3, 2021. July 3, 2021.
  195. Web site: Winston. Szeto. Kootenay school erases royal's name from its title as an act of reconciliation. CBC News. June 21, 2021. June 26, 2021.
  196. Web site: Leyland . Cecco . Burned churches stir deep Indigenous ambivalence over faith of forefathers . The Guardian . July 4, 2021. July 24, 2021.
  197. News: At least 33 Canadian churches have burned to the ground since May 2021. So far, 24 are confirmed arsons . Terry. Reith . . May 17, 2024. January 10, 2024.
  198. News: Children who never returned from residential schools newsmaker of the year: CP poll . Malone. Kelly Geraldine . . . December 15, 2022 . January 18, 2022.
  199. Web site: Ian Austen . July 30, 2021 . 'Horrible History': Mass Grave of Indigenous Children Reported in Canada: An Indigenous community says it has found evidence that 215 children were buried on the grounds of a British Columbia school, one of the many in Canada set up to forcibly assimilate them. . The New York Times.

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Canadian Indian residential school gravesites".

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