The discovery risks fueling even more controversy around the former Indian residential schools in Canada. Less than a month after the remains of 215 children were discovered near an indigenous settlement, hundreds of anonymous graves were located on the site of the former Marieval boarding school, run by the Catholic Church and located around 150 km east of the capital Regina. On Wednesday, the Cowessess community in the province of Saskatchewan in the province of Saskatchewan had announced that they had made this “horrible and shocking discovery”, without specifying their number.
“We started our geo-radar excavations on June 2, 2021 and as of yesterday, we spotted 751 unmarked graves,” Cadmus Delorme, the chief of the Cowessess Nation, announced Thursday at a conference of hurry. “This is not a mass grave, they are unidentified graves,” he added.
150,000 Amerindian, Métis and Inuit children forcibly recruited
Some 150,000 Native American, Métis and Inuit children were forcibly recruited until the 1990s in 139 of these residential schools across the country, where they were cut off from their families, language and culture. Many of them have been subjected to ill-treatment or sexual abuse, and more than 4,000 have died there, according to a commission of inquiry which had concluded to a true “cultural genocide” on the part of Canada.
Excavations around this former school in Marieval began at the end of May after the discovery of the remains of 215 schoolchildren buried on the site of another former Native residential school, that of Kamloops, in British Columbia, the westernmost province of the country. This discovery had caused a shock wave in Canada and reopened the debate on these hated institutions where Indigenous children were forcibly sent to be assimilated into the mainstream culture. She also revived appeals to the Pope and the Church to apologize for the abuse and violence suffered by the students of these boarding schools. The sovereign pontiff refused to make such an apology, however, provoking the anger and frustration of indigenous Canadian communities.
“We were introduced to rape”
For their part, UN human rights experts have urged Ottawa and the Vatican to conduct a swift and full investigation. “It’s absolutely tragic, but not surprising,” reacted on Wednesday evening Perry Bellegarde, chief of the Assembly of First Nations, which represents more than 900,000 indigenous people in Canada, on his Twitter account.
The Marieval residential school in eastern Saskatchewan hosted Aboriginal children between 1899 and 1997 before being demolished two years later and replaced by a day school. Asked about CBC, a former resident of the Marieval school, Barry Kennedy, estimated that this new discovery was only the tip of the iceberg. “I imagine that, you know, from the stories that have been told by our friends and classmates, there are several places, per school,” he explained.
“I had a friend who was dragged outside one night, he was screaming,” he recalled. He never saw him again. “His name was Bryan. I want to know where Bryan is. “We were introduced to rape,” added Barry Kennedy. “We were made to discover the violent blows. We were made to discover things that were not normal in our families ”.
Other macabre discoveries expected in the coming months
In the wake of the discovery of the remains of children at Kamloops Residential School, excavations were undertaken of several of these former schools across Canada, with the assistance of government authorities.
Several indigenous community leaders expect more gruesome discoveries in the coming months. In early June, a few days after the bones were unearthed in Kamloops, UN human rights experts urged Ottawa and the Vatican to conduct a rapid and full investigation into the discovery.