Here’s what we know about the Marieval Indian Residential School

It was around 1886 when bodies first started being buried by the Roman Catholics on Cowessess First Nation land in southeastern Saskatchewan, says Chief Cadmus Delorme.

About 12 years later, the Marieval Indian Residential School opened its doors, Delorme said during a press conference Thursday, where he announced that upwards of 751 unmarked graves had been discovered near the site of the school.

In the weeks, months and years to come, deciphering what happened at the school, and naming those buried under what is now a plain, flat patch of grass, will require access to government and church records, money, and a lot of work.

Meanwhile, some history of the school has already been documented. Here's what we know so far.

Estimates vary, but Marieval had been in operation from about 1899 until 1997, according to an ebook published by the University of Regina, Shattering the Silence," that details some history of the school. Until 1968, it was the responsibility of the Roman Catholic Church.

It was once one of roughly 130 such institutions located throughout Canada, which the Truth and Reconciliation Commission estimated were attended by about 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children. It also estimated that about 4,000 died at the residential schools, the last of which was closed in the mid-1990s.

During the first half of the 20th century, the school received visits from government agents who said the children looked well-nourished and that good work is being done," according to the University of Regina ebook.

However, it points out, there were also signs of staff being expected to physically dominate students." The children were limited in being able to visit their families and the school experienced runaways, it says.

Ronalee Lavallee, who spoke to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), attended the school from 1965 to 1971 and later worked there. She said the students would teach each other Cree.

We wanted to learn this language, and how we used to take turns watching for the nuns so that we wouldn't get into trouble," she told the TRC. And I think, just think, that was 1970 or '71, that's not so long ago, and they were still doing that to us?"

When she worked at the school, after it came under First Nation administration, Lavallee said with the nuns and priest gone, I could see that difference. It was, like, it was so much lighter, and I could see that in the children. They were so much freer."

But the final report from the TRC said that at times leading up to its coming under Indigenous control, the Marieval school's existence was precarious."

In 1926, the federal government purchased the property for $70,000 and in 1968, it assumed responsibility for it.

The government pushed to have the residence shut down in 1970, but faced resistance from David Ahenakew, chief of the Federation of Saskatchewan Indians. There was pushback in the community, since the alternative to Marieval could have meant transfer to a school further away or placing children in foster homes, which weren't trusted, according to a government official who looked into it at the time.

By 1975, it was still in operation, with 52 children living there.

Through that decade, there was a wider push by First Nations to take over running the residential schools, including Marieval, and in 1981 an Indigenous board of directors took control. After 1987, it was operated by the Cowessess First Nation.

When the institutions did come under First Nations administration, the federal government put health and safety requirements in place. But the TRC report noted that, historically, the schools under church administration had failed to meet - due in large measure to government underfunding - many of these standards that the government now insisted upon for the First Nations authorities."

Still, those that took over the schools sought to reinforce rather than eliminate Aboriginal cultural identity," says the report.

In the years to come, however, there were complaints that the government hadn't maintained enough funding for the residences, including at Marieval.

Funding seemed to be an ongoing issue during the lifespan of residential schools. According to an analysis included in the TRC report, there were 90 students at the Marieval school in 1966 and each one was funded by $1,193 a year. This was poor in comparison to schools in Nova Scotia, for example, where students were funded by an average of $3,300 a year and in the U.S., where students would be funded by between $4,500 and $14,059 annually, the report stated.

The lack of funds was due to, at times, lowballing the number of students at Marieval, the report noted. In 1945, the average attendance at the school was about 113 children, but it only had an official pupillage" of just over 90. It is the pupillage number that funding is based on, and despite trying to get the number changed, the school found itself in a funding crisis," the report notes.

In 1999, controversy broke out over what to do with the school. According to a Canadian Press story published in the Tekawennake News, former Cowessess First Nations chief Terry Lavallee wanted the school preserved as a museum - a reminder of the physical and sexual abuse children faced while at church-run residential schools.

But the chief at the time, Terrance Pelletier, wanted to build a new school in its place.

The history is no reason to save it, and it is no reason to demolish it," said Pelletier at the time. We are making room for a new school. We've got 250 kids here that we have to consider. Why would we want to keep a piece of garbage like (Marieval School) around?"

During his remarks Thursday, Delorme said that the graves were once marked, but that church representatives removed these headstones and today, they are unmarked graves."

When you're from Cowessess First Nation, or you have attended the Marieval Residential School," he said, we always knew that there was graves here."

The Roman Catholic residential school has impacted us intensely."

Kieran Leavitt is an Edmonton-based political reporter for the Toronto Star. Follow him on Twitter: @kieranleavitt