WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
One year after the discovery of what are believed to be 215 unmarked graves in the former Kamloops residential school, First Nations across the country continue to search for residential school grounds where children from their communities went.
This includes ongoing ground searches at many of Manitoba’s 14 residential school centers.
Following the discovery last May in Kamloops, survivors of the Sandy Bay First Nation on the west shore of Lake Manitoba held a four-day vigil at the community center for the elderly and lit a sacred fire.
“During those four days, seniors shared stories of their time in the residential school they had in our community,” Sandy Bay Coun said. Randal roulette.
“The possibility of unmarked graves became part of the discussion,” he said. “The general consensus was that they wanted to do a ground search.”
The community connected with Linda Larcombe of the University of Manitoba’s anthropology department.
“Survivors and the elderly had stories about missing children and the fact that there could be graves in what is referred to as a garden area,” said Larcombe, whose team focused its research on the area that the elders identified it as “the garden.”
“When the school was occupied, this area had been used as an orchard and garden, and there was this grotto area which was used, I suppose, for prayer and reflection.”
The roulette wheel says that at the vigil held last May, the elders shared stories from that same garden.
A University of Manitoba team is searching the grounds of the former Sandy Bay residential school in 2021. They found 13 possible unmarked burial sites. (Submitted by Linda Larcombe)
“They were not actually allowed to enter [the garden]”If they did, being children trying to get into that garden, they would be punished,” he said.
“They started putting two and two together and they thought there might be another reason why they weren’t allowed to enter that area.”
Larcombe said using drone images, ground penetration radar and community information, 13 potential unmarked graves were located.
Of the 13 sites, four have a moderate chance of being an unmarked grave, and the remaining nine have a low probability, he said.
Earlier this month, the community presented the findings of the ground search and has yet to decide on the next steps.
Roulette said the most affected people were the elderly with memories of school.
“When [the data] it was presented to them, many of them at the moment, I don’t think they have really digested the reality of what could be true, “he said.
“There seems to be a desire or desire to get more definitive answers.”
Roulette says it knows at least 12 communities where the children who attended Sandy Bay Residential School came from.
The next step for your community is to create a group to work with all communities affected by the school’s harmful legacy.
Ongoing searches in Manitoba
Searches are also underway in Manitoba at Cross Lake Residential School in Cross Lake, Fort Alexander Residential School in Sagkeeng First Nation, Pine Creek Residential School in Camperville and Brandon Residential School.
Earlier this month, a drone was used as part of the ground penetration radar search in the Pine Creek First Nation. (Angela McKay / Pine Creek First Nation)
A search was also started at Dauphin’s McKay Residential School.
McKay Residential School (sometimes spelled MacKay Residential School) had two locations: Dauphin, which opened in 1957 and closed in 1969, and one near The Pas and Opaskwayak Cree Nation on Fisher Island, which operated from 1914 to 1933.
Last fall, Opaskwayak Cree Nation also began a ground search at McKay’s site on Fisher Island. SNC Lavalin did the pro bono search for the community.
Every day of the search, which will resume in June and last all summer, begins in a ceremony, OCN Coun said. Edwin Jebb.
“We attack the team, then we have to do a pipe ceremony before the search and after the search,” he said.
The community says no unmarked graves have been discovered so far, which Jebb said is “a bit of a relief,” but so far only part of the old school grounds have been searched.
An undated photo shows McKay Residential School, located northwest of The Pas, Man., Bordering the Opreewayak Cree Nation. (Manitoba Historical Society)
Opaskwayak also plans to begin a ground search of the site of Guy Hill Residential School in The Pas.
Jebb said there are plans to meet with the survivors in late July “and talk about what kind of research we would do … if there’s any story we can concretize, if anyone knows anything.
“It’s to give people peace of mind and do the ceremony.”
Norway House Cree Nation also plans to start ground searches this summer at two locations: Norway House Residential School in Rossville and Notre Dame Hostel in Norway House.
There are no current searches in some places
The building that housed the Portage la Prairie residential school is located in what is now a Long Plain First Nation reservation.
In the past, the community regularly searched the land before building on it.
A drawing of the old Indian residential school in Portage la Prairie. It closed in 1970 but the building is still standing. (CBC)
While there are areas near the school that the community plans to investigate, they are waiting to see how other land searches turn out, said Adam Myran, director of land for Long Plain First Nation.
“We are very interested in what is happening at Six Nations,” he said in Ontario, where police are now involved in an investigation into deaths at the Mohawk Institute residential school.
“They are being treated [search] as a crime scene “.
Children from more than 20 communities were sent to Portage la Prairie residential school before it closed in 1975, so Myran wants to make sure these communities have a say in how any future land research is conducted. .
“Even though we have it on our land, so to speak, the school belongs to all the nations that sent children there, so things will be decided by a committee,” he said.
There are also no ground searches at Churchill Residential School, which was demolished in 1981, or at Elkhorn Residential School, which was demolished in 1951.
In 1990, alumni and staff at Elkhorn Residential School held a meeting and erected white crosses at the nearby cemetery, where several children were forced to attend school.
Following the discovery of Kamloops, the Assiniboia Residential School Legacy Group, made up of survivors who attended that Winnipeg school, held a ceremony to bless the grounds around the building. This site is now home to the Canadian Center for Child Protection.
It was there that the group decided that there was no need for a ground search around the school.
“There were no words to remember, no other students [recall]or even … stories about anything that went wrong, or students buried or taken away, “said Mabel Horton, who attended school for six years, until she was 12 years old.
A 2017 photo of the former Birtle, Man. (Great Plains Publications)
It is unknown at this time what he will do after leaving the Birtle residential school in this southwestern Manitoba community.
Last year, the owner of the property said he was willing to sell it.
Support is available to anyone affected by their experience in residential centers or the latest reports.
A national crisis line of Indian residential schools has been set up to support alumni and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the National Crisis Line 24 hours a day: 1-866-925-4419.