Canada Indigenous Children’s Cemetery; Dozens of other unmarked graves discovered.
Following the horrific story of the discovery of mass graves of Native Canadian children, Indigenous people reported the discovery of 54 more unmarked graves at two former boarding schools in Saskatchewan.
Indigenous people in Canada have reported the discovery of evidence of 54 unmarked graves at the Fort Play and St. Philip boarding schools in Saskatchewan.
According to the BBC, this latest finding is the continuation of a wave that has sparked a national debate about the Native Canadian boarding school system. Indigenous research across the country has found evidence of more than 1,300 unmarked graves since last spring. Just a few weeks ago, indigenous leaders in the western province of British Columbia said they believed they had discovered 93 unmarked graves near a former boarding school.
These state-funded compulsory boarding schools were part of a policy aimed at attracting indigenous children and destroying indigenous cultures and languages. About 150,000 indigenous children were separated from their families and taken to these schools. Survivors have long testified that children who lost their lives in schools are buried in unmarked fields.
Saskatchewan Indigenous Search Radar Technology Director Ted Cousins said there were 42 graves on the grounds of the Fort Play residential school and another 12 in St. Philip. He told a news conference on Tuesday that the discovery was consistent with the testimony of survivors of a former boarding school.
“It will be a very difficult time … knowing that we have unmarked graves in our community, where we walk every day, we drive every day,” said Lee Kichimonia, the president of Lee Kichimonia, according to CBC News. We passed them and never noticed that there were graves there.
