Timeline: Mohawk Institute residential school

1828: Facility opened by the New England Company (NEC) as a day school for boys.

1834: Facility begins to accept boarders, initially 14 students.

1859: Building rebuilt to hold 60 students after a fire in the late 1850s.

1867: Canadian Confederation.

1868: By the late 1860s, the facility housed 90 students.

1972: NEC hires first full-time superintendent of the Mohawk Institute.

1876: Government gains more control over the Mohawk Institute with per capita grants for students through the Indian Act.

1903: Main building destroyed in fire set by students.

1904: School rebuilt to house 125 students.

1914: Superintendent Nelles Ashton taken to court by a parent and fined $400 for the treatment of three female students, one of whom was whipped on the back with rawhide.

1949: 25 girls ran away; 10 left again after they were brought back.

1955: Mohawk Institute has 185 students, the highest recorded enrolment in its history.

1970: Mohawk Institute closed.

2008: Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologizes for Canada's residential school system.

2010: Ground-penetrating radar (GPR) search of the area between the Woodland Cultural Centre and Mohawk Street.

2015: Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada (TRC) report released, describes residential school system as a project of cultural genocide."

2017: Archaeological assessments initiated around building, in area between the girls' entrance and Mohawk Street.

Sources: The Woodland Cultural Central and The Mush Hole: Life at Two Indian Residential Schools (compiled by Elizabeth Graham)

Kate McCullough is a Hamilton-based reporter covering education at The Spectator. Reach her via email: kmccullough@thespec.com