Intertribal Life Newspaper -

CHESTERMERE, Alb.-Searches at two more residential school sites in Canada have revealed more disturbing findings regarding the burial of children.

The Wauzhushk Onigum Nation has announced that ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has detected more than 170 anomalies during a search for unmarked graves at the site of the former St. Mary's Indian Residential School in Kenora, Ont.

The school was in operation from 1897 to 1972, and survivors of the school helped identify areas that should be searched.

Meanwhile, the Star Blanket Cree Nation has announced that a GPR has yielded 2,000 hits at the site of the former Qu' Appelle Indian Residential School site, also known as Lebret Industrial School, near Lebret, Sask.

Not all anomalies at all sites are necessarily graves, explained Sheldon Poitras, the ground search leader at the Lebret location. He explained that many of the anomalies could be caused by tree roots or rocks.

However, the Lebret research also uncovered a jawbone fragment that the Saskatchewan Coroners Service determined to be of a child between four and six years-old at death. They believe it was buried around 125 years ago. Though the bone was not found near any areas known to be a graveyard, the project and Tribal leaders feel it's proof of an unmarked grave and suspect it's connected with the school.

While probably not all the 2,000 hits near the Lebret school are graves, leaders working with the St. Mary's site in Kenora feel that it's very plausible that all 170 anomalies found there are unmarked graves because they were found in cemetery grounds associated with the school. The Wauzhushk Onigum Nation plans to investigate further and search other sites identified through survivor testimony, archeological assessment and archival investigations.

"I know the catch phrase out there is reconciliation," said Wauzhushk Onigum Nation Chief Chris Skead. "In order to get to reconciliation, we need the truth. And we need sustained funding to get to that truth.

"There's a lot of work that has been done to date, and still a lot of work forthcoming, not only utilizing that technology, but also the mental health supports that we're going to require as a nation, as Anishinaabe people," he said. "We need that funding, we need that accountability and we need those commitments from Canada, and the province.

"I'm using this opportunity to assert that they will do what they said they're going to do," Skead said. "And that, to me, is true reconciliation." 

At the Lebret location, Chief Michael Starr discussed the way the discoveries so far, and their potential implications, have affected the Tribe. "It's changed our mindset; it's changed our way of life in a way," said Starr about the emotional toll the discoveries have taken on his people.

As the Lebret team is looking at options, including miniature core drilling to enable DNA testing to confirm what the anomalies are.

St. Mary's Indian Residential School in Kenora, Ont.

"We want to honour this young child, the remains of this young child," Starr said. "We want the governments to take accountability. The churches to take accountability. The police services to take accountability.

"That's what we want from this."

Other tribal leaders have stepped forward to offer support to the Star Blanket Cree Nation, to remind them that the Indigenous community collectively experience discoveries such as these.

Phyllis Webstand, founder of the Orange Shirt Day released a statement asking Indigenous people to support and look after one another.

"Reconciliation is only possible when the truths we have known for generations come to light," she wrote. "Specific findings at the Lebret site support and validate what our Peoples have been saying for decades."