Six Nations elected chief says they hope to search residential school grounds ‘as soon as possible’
Six Nations of the Grand River's elected chief says plans for a ground search at the former Mohawk Institute Residential School are set to be announced in the coming days."
We're hoping to start the search as soon as possible," said Chief Mark Hill.
Speaking at a July 19 announcement for new funding for the restoration of the building, Hill said the First Nation's council is working hard to support the community and our survivors in the solemn journey of investigating the grounds of this site in the hopes of recovering all of our children."
We need to find all of them," he said.
In June, council asked the federal government to support a comprehensive search for missing children on and around the grounds of the former Mohawk Institute." Less than two weeks later it followed up with a more pointed request - an initial" $10 million in funding from Canada and provincial support, including from the provincial police, in conducting a full investigation."
The move to search the grounds comes in the wake of the discovery of unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school in British Columbia, where the remains of 215 children were found. Since then, at least 600 more unmarked graves were found on the grounds of another former residential school in Saskatchewan. Calls for searches nationwide continue to grow.
The search would not be the first on site of the former Mohawk Institute, which is now managed by the Woodland Cultural Centre, a museum that preserves and promotes Indigenous history.
Previous ground-penetrating radar searches and archeological assessments conducted by the centre for the infrastructure construction and repairs revealed no evidence of human remains.
But only some of the 29-acre property has been searched, and the original property, part of which is now privately or municipally owned, is about 350 acres in size.
The centre says early research shows between 30 and 50 children died at the Mohawk Institute, but they anticipate that number is higher. Survivors have shared stories of girls becoming pregnant and babies disappearing.
Hill said Six Nations is working with federal and provincial governments, but that funding and plans are very much in the works" and that next steps will be announced soon.
We're making sure that it's survivor-led, getting our direction from the survivors and our community," he said.
Kate McCullough is a Hamilton-based reporter covering education at The Spectator. Reach her via email: kmccullough@thespec.com