Remains of 215 children found buried at former B.C. residential school, First Nation says

[loomer]

Remains of 215 children found buried at former B.C. residential school, First Nation says

Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc say ground-penetrating radar was used to locate remains

WARNING: This story contains details some readers may find distressing.

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."

Remembering children who died at residential schools

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.
Residential school in operation until 1969

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.
'No words' to describe grief: UBCIC

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.

On Friday, the Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs (UBCIC) said it mourned alongside the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc.

"There are no words to express the deep mourning that we feel as First Nations people, and as survivors, when we hear an announcement like this," wrote Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, president of the UBCIC.

"Today we honour the lives of those children, and hold prayers that they, and their families, may finally be at peace."

It is estimated more than 150,000 children attended residential schools in Canada from the 1830s until the last school closed in 1996.
Many kids never returned home from schools

The NCTR estimates about 4,100 children died at the schools, based on death records, but has said the true total is likely much higher. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission said large numbers of Indigenous children who were sent to residential schools never returned home.

Federal Minister of Indigenous Services Marc Miller said in a tweet Thursday he had been in touch with Casimir to offer his support.

Federal Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations Carolyn Bennett said in a tweet that the National Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available for former residential school students and others looking for support. It can be utilized by calling 1-866-925-4419.

During Friday's radio interview, Casimir ended the conversation with a message aimed directly at Ottawa.

"It's all good and well to the federal government to make gestures of goodwill and support regarding the tragedy," said Casimir. "There is an important ownership and accountability to both Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc and all communities and families that are affected. And that needs to happen and take place."

On Friday, B.C. Premier John Horgan issued a statement expressing his horror and heartbreak at the discovery:

"This is a tragedy of unimaginable proportions. And it is a stark example of the violence the Canadian residential school system inflicted upon Indigenous peoples and how the consequences of these atrocities continue to this day," said Horgan.

The FNHA said immediate supports for the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation have been identified through its Interior health team, and its teams are on standby to support further needs.

Source

So, here's something missing from that headline: 'Remains of 215 [genocide victims]'. Fuck Canada.

[Solauren]

Unfortunate, but hardly surprisingly.

I'm glad the current government is one that admits to previous administrations problems and mistakes (that's actually not very common in democracies, as most government thinks it makes them look bad), and does what it can to correct for them/try to make amends (some things, you just can't make amends for, however).

I'd like to know that approximate date of death of the bodies, if only to know which administration to point the finger at historically.

[Broomstick]

I would suspect, based on past instances of large numbers of children's graves found at "schools", that the deaths occurred over a long span of time and thus you could probably blame multiple administrations.

[loomer]

Yep, there's no reason at present to think that this set of graves is from a specific set of years. This is just how the Canadian residential school system operated for pretty much its entire duration. There'll be years where it was worse than others, but this isn't from one particular bad year or two - it's from a systematic policy of murder by neglect that stretched for a century. Every Canadian government and political party that wasn't actively working against assimilationalist genocide between 1890 (and in fact earlier) and 1978 shares responsibility, as does the Catholic Church.

There's also no reason to think this will be an isolated or unique find. Its size probably will be - the Kamloops camp was the biggest and ran for a long time - but virtually every residential school has the same story of abuse, neglect, and subsequent murders and disappearances that were never recorded or reported, and subsequent tampering and destruction of records where they were. There will be more mass graves.

[Solauren]

To clarify - I meant which administration, for each death.

[Broomstick]

it's from a systematic policy of murder by neglect that stretched for a century.

I'm not sure the word "neglect" fits here. I mean, neglect is bad, and neglect to the point of death is an inexcusable crime, but the kids weren't neglected. There was systematic abuse going on - denial of native tongue, forced change of customs/clothing, violations of body if hair cuts were forced (I know that happened in the US), denial of traditional education both separating the children from their culture and making it impossible for them to follow traditional lifestyles, and probably corporal punishment (I know that happened in the US, too). Oh, and forced separation/break up of families. That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure there's more.

That strikes me as abuse, not neglect.

[Zaune]

That strikes me as abuse, not neglect.

Oh, it absolutely was. It's just that the abuse probably wasn't what directly killed most of those poor kids; malnutrition, inadequate medical care and so on would have accounted for most of them, although I dare say there would have been a few suicides and even some who were 'disciplined' to the point of fatal injury.

Which is not a distinction that means a hell of a lot in practice, but it's an important one when proof beyond reasonable doubt is required to send any surviving perpetrators of this atrocity to prison for the rest of their lives.

[loomer]

it's from a systematic policy of murder by neglect that stretched for a century.

I'm not sure the word "neglect" fits here. I mean, neglect is bad, and neglect to the point of death is an inexcusable crime, but the kids weren't neglected. There was systematic abuse going on - denial of native tongue, forced change of customs/clothing, violations of body if hair cuts were forced (I know that happened in the US), denial of traditional education both separating the children from their culture and making it impossible for them to follow traditional lifestyles, and probably corporal punishment (I know that happened in the US, too). Oh, and forced separation/break up of families. That's just off the top of my head, I'm sure there's more.

That strikes me as abuse, not neglect.

In this case, by murder by neglect I refer to the deliberate cultivation of malnutrition and conditions that made disease outbreaks both inevitable and highly lethal. That's what caused most of the deaths, rather than active physical abuse and murder. It's not intended to diminish the seriousness of what happened or the criminal responsibility of the Canadian state for it - more to be read in conjunction with Articles II(b) and II(c) of the Genocide Convention as establishing a seperate form of genocidal action from forms that involve active killing by the deliberate infliction of conditions intended to cause, respectively, severe physical and mental harm to members of a group or to impose conditions of life calculated to lead to the physical destruction of that group in whole or in part.

[MKSheppard]

"The Kamloops Indian Residential School was in operation from 1890 to 1969" == 79 years

215 deaths divided by 79 years = 2.72 deaths a year on average.

[MKSheppard]

So hurm.

https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/ne ... al-schools

This is actually a pretty good article.

Firetrap construction and the non-existence of basic safety standards frequently hit residential schools with mass-casualty incidents that, in any other context, would have been national news. A 1927 fire at Saskatchewan’s Beauval Indian Residential School killed 19 students. Only three years after that, 12 students died in a fire at Cross Lake Indian Residential School in Manitoba.

Despite this, “for much of their history, Canadian residential schools operated beyond the reach of fire regulations,” wrote the final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

Also regarding the mass graves in question for Kamloops:

One article says:

"Their dates of death range from 1919 until 1964"

I wonder what was happening in 1919?

[Bedlam]

One article says:

"Their dates of death range from 1919 until 1964"

I wonder what was happening in 1919?

About half way though the Influenza pandemic?

[Broomstick]

That would be my guess - the US "residential schools" were also hit very hard by flu around that time.

[Zaune]

"The Kamloops Indian Residential School was in operation from 1890 to 1969" == 79 years

215 deaths divided by 79 years = 2.72 deaths a year on average.

Assuming that all the bodies have been found, of course. There could be additional graves that haven't been located yet, or the school might have switched to incinerating the bodies at some point.

And even if it somehow turns out that this school didn't have an abnormally high death rate compared to any other boarding school of the period, the least they could have done for those poor kids was bother to give them a proper burial service and notify their next of kin.

[loomer]

Mortality and morbidity rates in the camps were significantly higher because of the systematic imposition of conditions of starvation, denial of medical care, overcrowding, and inadequate protection from the elements, and disease was the primary cause of death that flowed from those circumstances. I'm not sure if there's much point to going 'oh, well, the Spanish flu...' under those circumstances, particularly since we know the annual death rate at the camps didn't spike out of bounds during the epidemic. We also don't know that 1919 is the earliest date for the mass grave site - that's just the earliest currently confirmed, and a large proportion of the site has yet to be fully analyzed.

[Jub]

The worst part of all of this is that we know there are many more such sites waiting to be found but funds to find these sites and repatriate the bodies are being withheld. It seems, as always, that righting these wrongs is something Canada would rather pay lip service to than attempt in earnest.

[Tribble]

The Canadian government today still refuses to do the work needed to provide basic necessities like clean drinking water for the First Nations, is it any real surprise that in the past it was even worse?

And yes, 100% genocide, they knew exactly what they were doing, including the high death rates in the residential schools:

10 quotes John A. Macdonald made about First Nations

June 28, 2016

This article has been viewed 102,000+ times since we published it.

July 1 is Canada Day, a day during which many Canadians celebrate the achievements of the founding fathers of this country. Sir John Alexander Macdonald, as the first Prime Minister of Canada, July 1, 1867 - November 5, 1873, (and again October 17, 1878 - June 6 1891) will be one of those whose achievements will be celebrated.

Let's Not Make Reconciliation a Political Football
In the spirit of reconciliation, we wanted to provide a perspective of Prime Minister John A. Macdonald that is often overlooked when the accolades are flowing. He was the architect of the Indian Act which launched the government of Canada on an ever increasingly and repressive series of Acts and policies directed towards the assimilation of the original inhabitants of this land now known as Canada. Residential schools, a cornerstone of the assimilation policy, was recently branded “cultural genocide” by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

A note on terminology: Please keep in mind the term in use at the time of these quotes was Indian. It is not a term we use unless we are quoting or if in relation to the legal definition. If you are interested in learning more about terminology, grab yourself a copy of our free ebook Indigenous Peoples: A Guide to Terminology

Lament for Confederation

“When I fought to protect my land and my home, I was called a savage. When I neither understood nor welcomed his way of life, I was called lazy. When I tried to rule my people, I was stripped of my authority.” Chief Dan George, July 1, 1967

We have collected a few statements, and one letter, from Prime Minister Macdonald relating to Indigenous Peoples. In our research we found a great many sites with quotes by Macdonald as he was considered a great orator, but the lists of quotes did not contain any of the following:

Sir, We are looking anxiously for your report as to Indian titles both within Manitoba and without; and as to the best means of extinguishing [terminating] the Indian titles in the valley of Saskatchewan. Would you kindly give us your views on that point, officially and unofficially? We should take immediate steps to extinguish the Indian titles somewhere in the Fertile Belt in the valley of Saskatchewan, and open it for settlement. There will otherwise be an influx of squatters who will seize upon the most eligible positions and greatly disturb the symmetry [organization] of future surveys. 1870 (a letter)
“When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training mode of thought are Indian. He is simply a savage who can read and write. It has been strongly impressed upon myself, as head of the Department, that Indian children should be withdrawn as much as possible from the parental influence, and the only way to do that would be to put them in central training industrial schools where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of white men." 1879
Indigenous Title and the Doctrine of Discovery
“It is worthy of consideration whether legislative measures should not be adopted for the establishment of some kind of municipal system among such bands as are found sufficiently advanced to justify the experiment being tried. It is hoped that a system may be adopted which will have the effect of accustoming the Indians to the modes of government prevalent in the white communities surrounding them, and that it will thus tend to prepare them for earlier amalgamation with the general population of the country.” 1880
“…to wean them by slow degrees, from their nomadic habits, which have almost become an instinct, and by slow degrees absorb them or settle them on the land. Meantime they must be fairly protected.” 1880
“…..we have been pampering and coaxing the Indians; that we must take a new course, we must vindicate the position of the white man, we must teach the Indians what law is; we must not pauperise them, as they say we have been doing.” 1885
“We have done all we could to put them on themselves; we have done all we could to make them work as agriculturists; we have done all we could, by the supply of cattle, agricultural implements and instruction, to change them from a nomadic to an agricultural life. We have had very considerable success; we have had infinitely more success during our short period, than the United States have had during twenty-five years. We have had a wonderful success; but still we have had the Indians; and then in these half-breeds, enticed by white men, the savage instinct was awakened; the desire of plunder -- aye, and, perhaps, the desire of scalping -- the savage idea of a warlike glory, which pervades the breast of most men, civilised or uncivilised, was aroused in them, and forgetting all the kindness that had been bestowed upon them, forgetting all the gifts that had been given to them, forgetting all that the Government, the white people and the Parliament of Canada had been doing for them, in trying to rescue them from barbarity; forgetting that we had given them reserves, the means to cultivate those reserves, and the means of education how to cultivate them -- forgetting all these things, they rose against us.” 1885
“We acquired the North-West country in 1870. Not a life was lost, not a blow was struck, not a pound nor a dollar was spent in warfare, in that long period that has since intervened. I have not hesitated to tell this House, again and again, that we could not always hope to maintain peace with the Indians; that the savage was still a savage, and that until he ceased to be savage, we were always in danger of a collision, in danger of war, in danger of an outbreak. I am only surprised that we have been able so long to maintain peace -- that from 1870 until 1885 not one single blow, not one single murder, not one single loss of life, has taken place.” 1885
"He shall die though every dog in Quebec bark in his favour." 1885, following execution of Louis Riel for treason
9. "The great aim of our legislation has been to do away with the tribal system and assimilate the Indian people in all respects with the other inhabitants of the Dominion as speedily as they are fit to change.” 1887

Hereditary Chief Definition: 5 FAQs

“The third clause provides that celebrating the “Potlatch” is a misdemeanour. This Indian festival is debauchery of the worst kind, and the departmental officers and all clergymen unite in affirming that it is absolutely necessary to put this practice down.” 1894


Duncan Campbell Scott, as Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs from 1913 until 1932, took the groundwork of Macdonald’s legacy of repressive policies towards Indigenous Peoples further down the continuum of assimilation.

“It is readily acknowledged that Indian children lose their natural resistance to illness by habitating so closely in these schools, and that they die at a much higher rate than in their villages. But this alone does not justify a change in the policy of this Department, which is being geared towards the final solution of our Indian Problem." [emphasis added] 1910

“…the system was open to criticism. Insufficient care was exercised in the admission of children to the schools. The well-known predisposition of Indians to tuberculosis resulted in a very large percentage of deaths among the pupils. They were housed in buildings not carefully designed for school purposes, and these buildings became infected and dangerous to the inmates. It is quite within the mark to say that fifty per cent of the children who passed through these schools did not live to benefit from the education which they had received therein." 1914

The Indian Act, residential schools and tuberculosis cover up

"The purpose of the Amendment to the Act was to prevent the Indians from being exploited as a savage or semi-savage race, when the whole of the administrative force of the Department is endeavoring to civilize them." 1916
“I want to get rid of the Indian problem.....Our objective is to continue until there is not an Indian that has not been absorbed into the body politic, and there is no Indian question, and no Indian Department…”1920
"It has always been clear to me that the Indians must have some sort of recreation, and if our agents would endeavor to substitute reasonable amusements for this senseless drumming and dancing, it would be a great assistance." 1921
“It is the opinion of the writer that…..the Government will in time reach the end of its responsibility as the Indians progress into civilization and finally disappear as a separate and distinct people, not by race extinction but by gradual assimilation with their fellow-citizens." 1931
"One can hardly be sympathetic with the contemporary sundance or potlatch when one knows that the original spirit has departed and that they are largely the opportunities for debauchery by low white men." 1941

https://www.ictinc.ca/blog/10-quotes-jo ... st-nations


Best case scenario is that the government was well aware of the high death rates in the schools and the reasons why (namely overcrowding, malnutrition and disease) and simply didn’t care, believing that “killing the Indian in them” in order to have a “final solution to the Indian problem” was worth the trade off.

Quite likely that at least some the deaths were deliberately caused, after all the fewer Indian children that survived the fewer they’d have to deal with!

[loomer]

A group of Canadian lawyers are calling on the ICC to launch a formal investigation. Given that the Canadian government seems unwilling to prosecute surviving perpetrators, good - let's hope it happens.

[Solauren]

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if if the investigation showed most of the records related to Residential schools were destroyed between 1996 and 2006. Probably after the 1997 Federal election, or the 2006 Federal Election. 2006 is more likely, as the governing party changed.

After all, it would be the perfect time for someone high up in the government, that was connected to the residential school system, to arrange for all the files to be transferred to a single (rented) location, and then on the way out, forget to make sure the successor government received that information (as a 'clerical error').

The files are now 'lost', and when the rent is not kept up at the location, the landlord will have them destroyed. (That's actually covered in Federal and Provincial government rental agreements, as well as several government acts.)

The government official is now no longer liable for the destruction of those records, as it was a 'clerical error' that prevented the rent from being paid on the storage location, and the landlords were following the law. Any connection they may have had, including anything they might have done, can no longer be proven in a court of law.

Hopefully I'm wrong.

[Zaune]

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if if the investigation showed most of the records related to Residential schools were destroyed between 1996 and 2006. Probably after the 1997 Federal election, or the 2006 Federal Election. 2006 is more likely, as the governing party changed...

You're overthinking it. The most likely explanation is that the records were simply lost in the shuffle because nobody thought they were important enough to make any special effort to preserve them, either because they didn't recognise them for what they were or they didn't think anyone cared.

[Solauren]

Working for the Federal government, I can say that both scenarios are likely. That is if the records are lost.

There is also a chance that the records are all fine, carefully stored, and the people responsible for them are just taking their time getting around to anything.

[loomer]

It's a matter of public record that huge numbers of the relevant records were actively destroyed by the Canadian Government in the 30s and 40s (and have been quietly been lost and 'lost' in smaller numbers ever since), and that the various church groups refuse to cooperate and surrender theirs. The Vatican, naturally, refuses to cooperate and start leaning on its members to behave like civilized people and disclose all information. So, no, I don't think Solauren is overthinking it: these are exactly the kind of documents that are actively destroyed by genocidal regimes throughout history.

Naturally, I wonder if that might not be sufficient grounds to investigate the Vatican for complicity in an ongoing persecution campaign (which is the central problem with trying to get the ICC involved - they aren't, technically, meant to investigate anything prior to 2002) of First Nations peoples by the Canadian government, since that hasn't ceased.

[Broomstick]

It honestly wouldn't surprise me if if the investigation showed most of the records related to Residential schools were destroyed between 1996 and 2006. Probably after the 1997 Federal election, or the 2006 Federal Election. 2006 is more likely, as the governing party changed

You strike me as very optimistic because you believe these records existed in the first place.

It might well have been a situation like the recent Trump bullshit regarding unaccompanied minors at the US southern border - no records were made. Period.

In addition to those records that were made being lost or "lost".

[Solauren]

Oh, I have no doubt records existed at one time. How many still existed in 1996 is another matter.

You see, the Residential School system didn't see itself as evil, or vicious. They thought they were doing a good thing. No doubt they kept records to prove it. And when it went the other way, then they started destroying them, or shrugging their shoulders and sending them off to be lost.

Trump simply made shit up, so of course there was no records.

[loomer]

More searches are underway despite the canadian government's failure to provide adequate funding.

[Solauren]

Given the Canadian Governments current fiscal issues (all revenues are way down since March 2020), them not giving funding is not surprising.

It's disappointing, but not surprising.