Canada mourns as remains of 215 children found at indigenous school
The remains of 215 children, some as young as 3 years old, have been found buried on the site of what was once Canada's largest Indigenous residential school — one of the institutions that held children taken from families across the nation.
Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk'emlups te Secwépemc First
Nation said in a news release that the remains were confirmed last weekend with
the help of ground-penetrating radar.
More bodies may be found because there are more areas to
search on the school grounds, Casimir said Friday.
In an earlier release, she called the discovery an
"unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented at the
Kamloops Indian Residential School."
From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000
First Nations children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools
as part of a program to assimilate them into Canadian society. They were forced
to convert to Christianity and not allowed to speak their native languages.
Many were beaten and verbally abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died.
The Canadian government apologized in Parliament in 2008 and
admitted that physical and sexual abuse in the schools was rampant. Many
students recall being beaten for speaking their native languages; they also
lost touch with their parents and customs.
Indigenous leaders have cited that legacy of abuse and
isolation as the root cause of epidemic rates of alcoholism and drug addiction
on reservations.
A report more than five years ago by a Truth and
Reconciliation Commission said at least 3,200 children had died amid abuse and
neglect, and it said it had reports of at least 51 deaths at the Kamloops
school alone between 1915 and 1963.
"This really resurfaces the issue of residential
schools and the wounds from this legacy of genocide towards Indigenous
people," Terry Teegee, Assembly of First Nations regional chief for
British Colombia, said Friday.
British Columbia Premier John Horgan said he was
"horrified and heartbroken" to learn of the discovery, calling it a
tragedy of "unimaginable proportions" that highlights the violence
and consequences of the residential school system.
The Kamloops school operated between 1890 and 1969, when the
federal government took over operations from the Catholic Church and operated
it as a day school until it closed in 1978.
Casimir said it's believed the deaths are undocumented,
although a local museum archivist is working with the Royal British Columbia
Museum to see if any records of the deaths can be found.
"Given the size of the school, with up to 500 students
registered and attending at any one time, we understand that this confirmed
loss affects First Nations communities across British Columbia and
beyond," Casimir said in the initial release issued late Thursday.
The leadership of the Tk'emlups community "acknowledges
their responsibility to caretake for these lost children," Casimir said.
Access to the latest technology allows for a true accounting
of the missing children and will hopefully bring some peace and closure to
those lives lost, she said in the release.
Casimir said band officials are informing community members
and surrounding communities that had children who attended the school.
The First Nations Health Authority called the discovery of
the remains "extremely painful" and said in a website posting that it
"will have a significant impact on the Tk'emlúps community and in the communities
served by this residential school."
The authority's CEO, Richard Jock, said the discovery
"illustrates the damaging and lasting impacts that the residential school
system continues to have on First Nations people, their families and
communities,."
Nicole Schabus, a law professor at Thompson Rivers
University, said each of her first-year law students at the Kamloops university
spends at least one day at the former residential school speaking with
survivors about conditions they had endured.
She said she did not hear survivors talk about an unmarked
grave area, "but they all talk about the kids who didn't make it."
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