Sask. First Nation announces discovery of 751 unmarked graves near former residential school

[Spazito]

The Cowessess First Nation announced a preliminary finding Thursday of 751 unmarked graves at a cemetery near the former Marieval Indian Residential School.

The Marieval Indian Residential School operated from 1899 to 1996 in the area where Cowessess is now located, about 140 kilometres east of Regina. People from southeast Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba attended the school.

snip

"This is not a mass grave site. These are unmarked graves," Delorme said.

Delorme said there may have at one point been markers for the graves. He said the Roman Catholic church, which oversaw the cemetery,may have removed markers at some point in the 1960s.

more

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/cowessess-marieval-indian-residential-school-news-1.6078375


This is the tip of the iceberg, imo. There are at least 139 residential school sites yet to be searched for unmarked graves of indigenous children. There are two in my community, at least one, probably both, are going to be searched for unmarked graves.

Info from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission findings:

http://www.trc.ca/about-us/residential-school.html

[niyad]

1. "Forced to attend" you mean.

[Spazito]

3. I don't understand why you posted this...

There is nothing in the article or my comments that says otherwise.

Edited to add: I now see where you are coming from. The article states, " People from southeast Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba attended the school."

You are right, the CBC's article is misleading in that it doesn't make the forced attendance clear.

[cbabe]

4. Indian Horse.

Indian Horse, 2017 film. Made from Ojibwe author Richard Wagamese's 2012 book.

Fictional account of young boy kidnapped into the horrors of the church school, his escape, years of societal and inner trauma and abuse and terror. And ultimate redemption.

Hard to watch. But deepened my understanding and empathy.

[Spazito]

5. Most Canadians had either no or very little knowledge of the residential schools...

and the horrendous abuse that took place in them until just recently. Even the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Report didn't reach the majority of Canadians so the horrors of these unmarked graves is, for too many, the first they are hearing and understanding of this in any depth.

For many indigenous people, the redemption has yet to happen. The trauma of generations of their families being torn apart, their children torn from their arms, their culture, language, beliefs, their very names forcibly removed, remains. It was, as described in the TRC findings, cultural genocide, to say the least.

[niyad]

8. I think about the scene in "Thunderheart" where Graham Greene's character is talking to

Val Kilmer's about the schools and being punished for speaking his own language.

[Spazito]

9. Yes, their names were taken and they were given 'white man' names...

names like "Johnny John" instead of their tribal name. The tragedy continues as the trauma of multiple generations still endures. Everything that gave the children their identity was removed, everything.

[Saviolo]

6. The horror of this story is only beginning.

There are mass graves around the sites of former residential schools across the country. The system has been in place from Canada's founding to the LATE 90'S. The government and the church both have blood on their hands and that blood is still wet.

[Spazito]

7. Well said, I could not agree more.