Horrific Discovery at Kamloops Indian Residential School

A story that sounds like a horror film, but this news is all too real: The remains of 215 children found on the grounds of former Kamloops Indian Residential School for indigenous children in Canada.

CBC:

Preliminary findings from a survey of the grounds at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School have uncovered the remains of 215 children buried at the site, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation said Thursday.

The First Nation said the remains were confirmed last weekend near the city of Kamloops, in B.C.’s southern Interior.

In a statement, Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc said they hired a specialist in ground-penetrating radar to carry out the work, and that their language and culture department oversaw the project to ensure it was done in a culturally appropriate and respectful way. The release did not specify the company or individual involved, or how the work was completed.

“To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths,” Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir said in the statement.

“Some were as young as three years old. We sought out a way to confirm that knowing out of deepest respect and love for those lost children and their families, understanding that Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc is the final resting place of these children.”

Casimir told CBC that the findings are “preliminary” and a report will be provided by the specialist next month.

Speaking Friday, Casimir said community members are still “grappling” with the shock of the news as leadership looks at what steps to take next.

“For one, we need to honour these children,” she told CBC’s Daybreak Kamloops.

Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc said they are working with the BC Coroners Service, contacting the students’ home communities, protecting the remains and working with museums to find records of these deaths.

In a statement to CBC, Lisa Lapointe, B.C.’s chief coroner, said the Coroners Service was alerted to the discovery on Thursday.

“We are early in the process of gathering information and will continue to work collaboratively with the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc and others as this sensitive work progresses,” Lapointe said.

“We recognize the tragic, heartbreaking devastation that the Canadian residential school system has inflicted upon so many, and our thoughts are with all of those who are in mourning today.”

The Kamloops Indian Residential School was in operation from 1890 to 1969, when the federal government took over administration from the Catholic Church to operate it as a residence for a day school, until closing in 1978.

Up to 500 students would have been registered at the school, according to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR). Those children would have come from First Nations communities across B.C. and beyond.

According to Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond, director of the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission that was set up in 2008 to find out what happened in residential schools was told 50 deaths occurred at the Kamloops institution.

She said “massive ongoing problems” with historical records, including those “held by certain Catholic entities that they will not release” have made it very hard to understand accurately what happened.

Turpel-Lafond said the discovery confirms what community survivors have said for years — that many children went to the school and never returned. She also said federal agents often moved children around, so it is possible some of those found are from other First Nations communities.

Turpel-Lafond also has questions about how these children died given the rampant sexual and physical abuse documented in residential schools.

“There may be reasons why they wouldn’t record the deaths properly and that they weren’t treated with dignity and respect because that was the whole purpose of the residential school … to take total control of Indian children, to remove their culture, identity and connection to their family,” she said Friday on CBC’s The Early Edition.

The First Nations Health Authority (FNHA) said the announcement Thursday would deeply affect Indigenous people in B.C. and across the country.

“That this situation exists is sadly not a surprise and illustrates the damaging and lasting impacts that the residential school system continues to have on First Nations people, their families and communities,” FNHA CEO Richard Jock wrote in a statement.