First Nation to release final report into Kamloops residential school, discovery of 215 unmarked graves
Warning: This story contains descriptions of residential school and the abuse suffered there.
The First Nation that forced a national reckoning on residential schools after announcing it had found 215 unmarked graves on a riverbank near Kamloops, B.C., is set to release its final report Thursday, six weeks after the revelations first shocked the world.
Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation is expected to present the final findings around the discovery, alongside experts in ground-penetrating radar, who will explain the work done to locate the graves.
In late May, long-standing whispers about pupils at the Kamloops Indian Residential School who had never returned to home appeared to have been confirmed when officials from Tk'emlups te Secwepemc released preliminary findings that the remains of children had been found. The deaths are believed to be undocumented.
The horrific discovery would soon prove to be just the beginning, and a total of four First Nations have now announced the presence of unmarked graves near former residential schools, with experts saying there are likely more to come.
It's a succession of findings that have ripped the Band-Aid off a national wound and ignited a new awareness among non-Indigenous Canadians of the trauma once inflicted by the dozens of institutions that once dotted the country.
It's a harsh reality," Casimir said in a release at the time. And it's our truth, it's our history and it's something that we've always had to fight to prove."
She said then that some of the children were believed to be as young as three, and more remains were expected to be found once the full school grounds had been surveyed.
At the time, B.C. Premier John Horgan also made a statement, saying he was horrified and heartbroken."
The Canadian government established a network of schools for Indigenous children beginning in the 1880s with the explicit purpose of separating them from their parents and assimilating them into white culture. There would eventually be more than 130 facilities from coast to coast, with the last closing its doors in the 1990s.
When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages. ... He is simply a savage who can read and write," Prime Minister John A. Macdonald said at the time.
Operated by the Catholic Church, the school in Kamloops was once the largest in the system. At its peak, about 500 students were registered. The school opened in 1890 and for the next six decades students would spend half their day in class and half their day working, with the boys learning to farm and do carpentry, while the girls cooked, knitted and preserved fruits and vegetables.
The federal government took over the facility in 1969, and ran it as a day school until 1978. The imposing brick building still stands, and now houses offices used by local First Nations.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which documented the abuses inflicted at residential schools, has records of 51 children dying at the school between 1914 and 1963. The final TRC report from 2015 also noted that officials in 1918 believed children at the school were malnourished and underfed.
According to the commission, approximately 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children attended residential schools. Due to a patchy record keeping, the estimated number of deaths varies, but the TRC has put it at just over 4,000, which would mean that two per cent of students died at school.
Causes of death varied. Survivors have spoken of children who were abused or violently punished by school staff, while diseases such as tuberculosis were rampant. Experts say the death toll was made worse by a lack of food and adequate health care.
The remains at Tk'emlups te Secwepemc were found using ground-penetrating radar, a technology first developed for geology, which is the most widely used method of finding unmarked graves. It involves pushing or dragging along the ground a box the size of a lawnmower that contains an antenna that shoots a signal into the earth.
While it's not like an X-ray that can see the actual remains, it's able to detect disruptions in the soil caused by digging a grave shaft or placing a coffin, for example.
According to the Canadian Archaeological Association, you can't have 100 per cent certainty of the presence of a grave using remote sensing alone - though a high degree of confidence is possible - so use of complementary techniques, such as using magnets or running electrical current through the ground, may be used.
The findings at Tk'emlups te Secwepemc have been followed by announcements at other First Nations.
Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan announced approximately 751 unmarked graves; the Lower Kootenay Band in the interior of British Columbia found 182; and the Penelakut Tribe in the province's southwest announced at least 160.
The Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line is available 24-hours a day for anyone experiencing pain or distress as a result of a residential school experience. Support is available at 1-866-925-4419
Alex Boyd is a Calgary-based reporter for the Star. Follow her on Twitter: @alex_n_boyd