Where are the children BURIED? . . .
Truth and Reconciliation Commission looking into most horrible chapter of
painful residential schools saga
By: Alexandra Paul
Posted: 02/19/2011
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/fyi/where-are-the-children-buried-116524718.html
No one knows how many children died in residential schools.
No one knows how many graves were dug for them.
And there is no peace without knowing.
Research at the Truth and Reconciliation Commission is underway to get
a grip on
the approximate number of missing children and unmarked graves at residential
schools in Canada, including on the Prairies.
Justice Murray Sinclair, chairman of the three-member commission, said the
tragedy of the missing children is a chapter that casts a deep shadow on the
saga of residential schools.
That children died and went missing isn't in dispute.
It's part of the record and the memory, such as the story Joe Harper recounted
of how his friend Joseph died in obscurity at the Cross Lake
residential school.
Fifty years on, it still rankles him.
"There was never a funeral for him," Harper said outside one of the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission tents set up to hear survivor accounts last June at
The Forks. "I don't even know how his parents ever found out."
One question likely to remain a mystery is how many Josephs were at the schools.
"We are, quite frankly, not going to be able to say how many children died in
the schools or say where they are all buried, and what happened to them after
they died," Sinclair said recently at the commission's downtown Winnipeg
offices.
Nevertheless, he said it's essential to tackle the issue as part of the
residential schools legacy.
To get the work done, the commission has hired Alex Maass, a former Indian
Affairs civil servant who is an anthropology expert on gravesites. This month,
Greg Younging, a professor of indigenous studies at the University of British
Columbia, was appointed assistant director of research. One of his jobs is to
oversee the Missing Children Project.
By the beginning of the 20th century, Canada's provincial governments were in
place, along with requirements for deaths to be reported as they occurred.
While residential school deaths may have been reported, there are few death
certificates attached to student files in old archives. Finding out what
happened to each child would involve matching church and government records to
Vital Statistics files.
"In order to properly document the children who died in the schools and where
they are located, you'd have to go through millions and millions of pages of
archival material," Sinclair said.
The commission isn't equipped to complete the herculean task.
Even then, there are too many gaps in the records to clear up every death and
every missing child.
The best the commission can do is try to identify the magnitude of the problem,
Sinclair said. "And once we have, there will be better information for a
decision to be made about what to do about it."
The commission hopes to have enough information to suggest further research and ways to commemorate the graves.
Survivors' accounts are part of the historical record and will be used in the research. Documents to corroborate those accounts are, not surprisingly, hard to find.
"We've heard stories from survivors that babies were born in the schools to mothers who'd been impregnated by teachers and by priests. They say their babies were taken away. They think their babies were killed," Sinclair said. "We don't know the extent to which that occurred, if at all."
Records show there was a practice followed when children died.
"The local principal of the school would make contact with the family and basically say, 'What do you want us to do with your child? He's dead. He drowned when he was running away or he died of disease.' Sometimes there was no effort made to contact the family. They just buried the child."
Depending on the era, there might be a few deaths per year or dozens.
John Milloy, author of National Crime, the most extensive book on Canadian residential schools, has said that reports dating back as far as 1907 show 24 to 42 per cent of children in some schools died of tuberculosis. He said nearly every school he knew of had a cemetery on the grounds.
Records cited in the commission's 2010 study on missing children contained very few references to those cemeteries.
With gaps and discrepancies like that, investigators have their work cut out for them.
"We need to be sensitive to the fact there is a great deal of misinformation and non-information out there," Sinclair said.
Google "residential schools" to get a glimpse of how the fate of missing children decades ago is a super-sensitive and sensational issue today.
Scores of sites pop up, referring to the Canadian Holocaust, in which 50,000 children died or disappeared. The figure is widely reported, but also considered likely a dramatic overstatement.
Many of the sites feature former United Church minister Kevin Arnett from British Columbia, the self-appointed crusader for families who lost children in residential schools. His contribution fuels a debate that's disturbing enough without potentially exaggerated claims.
Indian Affairs Minister Jim Prentice ordered a working group in 2008 to define the scope of the problem in the wake of Arnett's polarizing allegations and their impact on survivors.
The working group found that children had gone missing and graves were not uncommon. The issue was handed on to the commission.
"There are people out there able to take advantage of the mistrust between survivors and the government and maximize their fear and their anger," Sinclair said. "That means there can be no peace until there are some answers."
alexandra.paul@freepress.mb.ca
Showing posts with label deaths. Show all posts
Showing posts with label deaths. Show all posts
Thursday, March 17, 2011
Monday, December 27, 2010
To honor the lives and attain justice for the children that were brainwashed, raped and murdered under the Canadian Government’s Residential School Policy of genocide against Native people.
Silent march beginning at the Department of Indian Affairs building in Hull , on to the Supreme Court of Canada, then to the parliament and ending at the Prime Minister’s office.
Each step of the way the Brief entitled;
Human Rights Violation
Government Sponsored Identity Theft
Through
Residential Schools
And
Its continued application within
The Canadian Judicial System
Will be presented to the respective authorities
If you can support this, please attend or help is in whatever way you can.
Help restore Humanity!
Mohawk Traditional Council ~
mohawktraditionalcouncil@gmail.com
450-638-4357
Urgent Brief Concerning; Human Rights Violation Government sponsored Identity theft Through Residential Schools And its continued application within The Canadian Judicial System Mohawk Traditional Council 2 3 Native People have identified that Prime Minister, Steven Harper’s apology RE residential schools is hollow and means nothing, due to the fact that; It does not identify the true crimes that were committed. It does not identify responsibility for those crimes. It does not offer justice by charging those responsible for carrying out such heinous crimes against children. Which exemplifies for Natives, that there is no justice in the Canadian system. By making a one-time-lump sum payment to what the Canadian Government identifies as the survivors, is a clear denial of responsibility for the multigenerational problems it has caused, such as with the Duplessi Orphans of Quebec. This clearly identifies that each successive generations are also survivors, which in turn incurs more responsibility upon the government than a measly dollar amount and an apology. The Canadian judicial system is still carrying out the objective of the residential schools, of oppressing Native identity. 4 Excerpts from Prime Minister, Steven Harper’s official apology for Canada’s genocidal acts against humanity. June 11, 2008 “Two primary objectives of the residential schools system were”; “To remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures” And “To assimilate them into the dominant culture.” and “To kill the Indian in the child” “ Today, we recognize that, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country” Prime minister of Canada, Steven Harper 5 Residential Schools As an official Canadian Government policy, targeting children in collaboration with the Catholic Church enforced through the British Crown’s law, via the RCMP and the courts, constitutes an evil conspiracy of the highest order. The Conspiracy; “To kill the Indian in the child” on such a massive scale as to have this illegally forced, more often than not, at gun point, upon all native people, constitutes GENOCIDE. The methodology of genocide; “To remove children from their homes” is premeditated kidnapping, in the 1st degree. “To isolate them from their homes” is premeditated forcible confinement, in the 1st degree. 6 “To isolate children from their families” is premeditated dehumanization of the human spirit, in the 1st degree. “To remove and isolate children from their traditions and cultures” is premeditated identity theft, in the 1st degree. “To assimilate them into the dominant culture” is premeditated brainwashing and reprogramming with malicious intent to cause a deep-rooted psychological and physiological conflict, purposely forcing a multigenerational breakdown of the Native identity, in the 1st degree. “To kill the Indian in the child”, upon one child, is premeditated murder in the first degree. To systematically carry this out upon an entire race IS PREMEDITATED GENOCIDE, IN THE 1ST DEGREE. For the Prime Minister of Canada to admit “this policy of assimilation was wrong” and 7 officially apologize for its evil effects on the Native People of Turtle Island, clearly exemplifies how an already corrupt and archaic system of people, institutions, regional police, regional courts, provincial police, provincial courts, RCMP, federal courts, provincial and federal governments, CSIS, the catholic church and the British Crown, sank all society to the darkest depths of sub-human behavior. By singling out children, kidnapping them through the said institutions, raping, murdering and brainwashing the survivors with the evil intent of re-establishing the assimilated minds of these young helpless victims, back into Native societies, proves the Government’s intention was to have these children more easily accept the second phase of the assimilation process, the forcible (through murder) insertion of the elected band/tribal council system. 8 This is nothing more than the early Roman practice of kidnapping the children of their enemies, raising them and teaching them the ways of Roman Court politics, then return them back into their societies with their poisoned minds, with the intent of destroying their traditional political systems. This is done, by establishing a military maneuver of a “fifth column” such as what Adolph Hitler used in Nazi Germany, what the United States and Canada uses, and is a common practice of any military state. One must ask ones-self; what is the difference between our two identities to make this violent sub-human assimilation process necessary? The answer to this is like the difference between night and day. Where Canada is a paternal military state that wages war on 9 everyone who is not like them and on everything, including our Mother Earth. Contrarily, Native society is a matrilineal society, which wages peace to establish a living harmony with all living things. Native identity is to be true human beings, living in balance with our Mother Earth, protecting her from any destructive force that may attack and destroy her. Clearly these two identities clashed, for the non-native identity and culture is controlled by paternalistic democracy, which protects capitalism, which in turn thrives off the exploitation and destruction of our Mother Earth’s non-renewable resources. Thus, when Democracy and capitalism are combined, it creates the lethal abomination of “DEMOCRAPITALISM” which kills our Mother Earth by creating laws that legalize her destruction and other 10 laws making it illegal for human beings to protect her from the said destruction. The Native people know that, “killing yourself is no way to make a living” this is not our identity, nor will it ever be our identity. We are not destructors of the land like the non-native society. Not even the forced reprogramming of our identity through residential schools will get us to change from protecting our Mother Earth, to the non-native identity of destroying her! Prime Minister, Steven Harper’s official apology is an admittance that it is illegal to try and steal anyone’s identity, to force identity change or to oppress native identity from being expressed, through whatever methods of oppression that may be used to illegally force such a change, EG Canadian judicial system. 11 Therefore, in order for the positive step of Canada’s apology for the residential school system to mean anything, that which is identified as being wrong with the policy must be corrected. Meaning, all archaic policies that still continue to steal, oppress and prevent native identity from being expressed must be officially stopped by the Canadian Government. In light of this apology which identifies that it is wrong to try and oppress Native identity, it is not only hypocritical but also illegal for any level of court system to continue to criminalize any native person who engages in the expression and manifestation of our identity of protecting and defending our Mother Earth from the destruction of her vital resources. Not only will this benefit the Native people by ensuring that our identity is recognized and protected by law, it will also free the 12 Canadian people from the psychological damage that has been done to them as a result of their government being an oppressor and instigator of genocide, which devolved everyone’s humanity in order to accept such archaic, subhuman behavior. Recognizing Native identity will also benefit all humanity and our Mother Earth. Through official government policy and law, it will provide human beings with the only actual tangible mechanism to fight against the GLOBAL CLIMATIC DISASTER that is facing us all. Therefore, it is now your responsibility to inform every level of court within the Canadian judicial system, that it is illegal to keep doing what your Premier already apologized for and stop arresting any Native person for defending the land and to stop putting bail conditions on them restricting them from returning to the
land in protest. Which would effectively prevent the Native people from exercising our TRUE NATIVE IDENTITY. Do act accordingly. In Peace and Friendship. Secretary, Stuart Myiow Mohawk Traditional Council Box 531, Kahnawake Mohawk Territory J0L 1B0 Monday, February 16, 2009
Residential School Survivors Occupy St. Andrew's Wesley United Church to protect the remains of children killed at the Alberni residential School
Two dozen aboriginal survivors of the Indian residential schools non-violently occupied St. Andrew's Wesley United Church in Vancouver today to stop the destruction of the grave sites of children who died at the former Alberni Indian Residential School.
The protestors entered the church sanctuary as the worship service commenced and unfurled a banner declaring "All The Children Need A Proper Burial".
After leafletting the congregation and making a statement, the protestors left, vowing to return if the United Church did not surrender the remains of native children who died under their care and halt further destruction of their burial sites.
The occupation was prompted by the partial destruction this week of the last building of the United Church's former Alberni Indian residential school, where eyewitnesses claim that the remains of former students are buried.
"They're destroying the evidence of their crime, and under the law, that's a crime" said Bingo, a survivor of the Alert Bay residential school.
"We're not listening to their bullshit anymore. We'll be back with more people next time."
Squamish hereditary Chief Kiapilano, who legally evicted the United Church from his territory last March, endorsed the occupation and called for similar actions by other residential school survivors.
These occupations of United Churches during their Sunday services will continue and will escalate until the fallen children are brought home, their killers are brought to justice, and the residential school crime sites are all protected.
Issued by The Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (Vancouver)
Contact: 1-888-265-1007 or 250-753-3345
www.hiddenfromhistory.org
Note: A video transcript of today's occupation will be posted this week on the website, above, and is available on request.
http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=64768866488&h=NCNoz&u=geEa9
A blog about things no one wants talked about.
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Latter Day Zombies
I rarely go to church but last Sunday in Vancouver I attended the occupation of Saint Andrew's Wesley United Church by survivors of Canada's residential school genocide. About twenty aboriginal men and women entered the church just as I was sitting down, and lined up in front of the altar holding a banner calling for the return of the 50,000 missing children's remains, and a proper burial. The church, which had been humming with pre-service chatter, suddenly became silent. After conferring quickly, the minister and one or two other robed officers approached the group and talked with them. For a few moments, the atmosphere was tense and uncomfortable. Then the minister addressed the congregation and welcomed "our friends" who had a message to deliver. He did this in a superficially friendly and grandstanding way that showed he was on top of the situation and knew exactly how to deal with it. The native men and women stood holding their banner. In contrast to the minister, none of them were smiling. They looked as if they had just absorbed another insult. No one in the congregation moved or responded. All eyes were focused on the visitors and the minister who stood awkwardly rubbing his hands together in one of those ritualized gestures expressing benevolence and Christian tolerance. The church seemed suddenly filled with the disappointment and anger of the native people. I felt tears welling up, inside and around me. When they all slowly turned and began silently filing down the aisle towards the front door, it was as if they had had enough of this place. I felt like running after them, but a family had just sat down next to me, blocking my exit. Once the natives had disappeared, the minister was all smiles again, calling on the congregation to "wave your hands wildly" and shout requests for favourite hymns. The heavy mood had lifted, and now we were going to be entertained by the Holy spirit. For the next hour, I squirmed in my seat as Rev. Gary Paterson nimbly ran through his scripted Sunday routine. First came a children's pantomime about Christ healing a paralyzed man, performed with stuffed bears and children led by Paterson. Next, a sermon about a minister's weekly struggle to make his sermons relevant to parishioners. At times he raised his arms and threw back his head as if receiving inspiration from heaven. He digressed briefly into a commentary on the "guests" who had interrupted the service, and from there he talked about "illness" and the case of the paralyzed man who was saved by the holy spirit descending through a hole in the roof. He talked about "sin" as the root cause of sickness -- an ancient belief that still has meaning today. Never once did he address the theme of guilt, or atonement for crimes against humanity. The United Church has nothing, apparently, to say about that. When we were asked to turn to the people around us and shake hands and greet one another in the "spirit of the Lord," I was forced to look into one smiling face after another. As mouths repeated the ritual line, eyes told another story. They were eyes I would instinctively have avoided, filled with coldness, fear, secrecy. I started to think there was something strange about this church and its congregation. I turned my head once or twice to look at them, standing in their rows, astonishingly alike in Sunday clothes, as if they knew what was expected of church goers. In his struggle to be relevant, the minister seemed almost like a marionnette, calling on us to stand up again and make a "joyful noise to the Lord." It was, he said, our time to "rock." The guitars came out and the middle-aged choir put on a pathetic show of belting out a few "contemporary expressions of faith." The minister joined in the rapture, shaking to the Muzak, letting it all hang out for Jesus. How people manage to go through these motions week after week without choking, is beyond me. It takes a stronger person than I to take part in an orgy of phoniness, and walk out feeling at one with God's love and light. By the time it was over, I understood my place in the universe: out on the street with the native people who must know by now to expect nothing from a church that has been taken over by latter-day zombies.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Facing up to Canada's dark history | |||||||
|
From the late 19th Century up to the 1970s, an estimated 150,000 native children in Canada were seized from their parents and sent far away to state-funded, church-run schools to learn how to think, speak and act like white people. The country is still coming to terms with the disastrous results.
Maybe I picked a bad day to visit. The place is a ghost town. I came here with the idea of taking a mental snapshot of life in Kahnewake, exclusively populated by members of the Mohawk nation, at the beginning of an important year for Canada's relations with its native peoples. In the coming months, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission will start touring the country to heal the scars of the residential schools system, a policy that resulted in thousands of deaths and devastated lives. With an estimated 80,000 former pupils still around today, many of whom witnessed or suffered sexual, physical and mental abuse, the debate over how much truth will be needed for reconciliation is stirring controversy. Bitter memories Back in the freezing present, I duck into a smoke shop, selling tax-free tobacco, for shelter. Star Eagle greets me from behind the counter and, eyeing my numb face with bemusement, offers me a coffee. "Truth and reconciliation? I ain't never heard of that," she says when I ask whether she is aware of the new commission. Now in her 50s, she has bitter memories of the residential schools regime.
"People here are heart-broken about what they went through," she tells me. "They show their hearts on their faces and they don't know it." "I call it hard face," she says. Her eyes deaden and her features tense in a depiction of life in Kahnewake. Away from the reserve, in Ottawa, the Canadian capital, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission has suffered some loss of face. Launched last year, it has had trouble getting off the ground. Its chief commissioner, a Mississauga Indian and a judge on the Ontario Court of Appeal, resigned in October after tussles over the body's mandate. As the politicking over his replacement continues, the public spotlight has been shifting from the healing of the living to the raising of the dead. It is accepted knowledge that a large proportion of the children, some estimates run into tens of thousands, died of tuberculosis in the cold, filthy schools. Spirit of the dead But recently, the story has taken a darker turn, as allegations of secret burials in mass graves, death by torture and fatal medical experiments have begun to surface. The man behind the new allegations is Kevin Annett, a defrocked Vancouver priest who was thrown out of the United Church in the mid 90s for exposing the schools scandal and challenging the clergy's sale of native lands.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission cannot, under the terms of its mandate, subpoena documents or witnesses to investigate the claims. It has, however, ordered research into possible burial sites. It has also floated the idea of holding traditional ceremonies to ask the spirits of the dead children to return home to communities like Kahnewake. Annett tells me this is a cover-up. He wants a Nuremberg-style tribunal to hold government and church officials accountable for genocide. He also wants the children's bones to be dug up, forensically tested and returned home. I ask some native people about their views on Annett's campaign and receive a complex set of responses. While most say there is an element of truth in the shock allegations, not everyone supports the former priest. Willie Blackwater, a Gitxsan Indian, is well known in Canada for his landmark victory against the church and the government in a sexual abuse lawsuit in the 90s. He resents the idea that Annett, a white man who has never attended residential school, has somehow become the public face of the dead children. He believes Annett has "disgraced" native people with his public demands for the dead to be repatriated. I ask Blackwater what kind of outcome he would be happy with. He supports the truth and reconciliation process, but thinks that native people should be in charge. 'Locked in pain' I get the sense from my discussions with him and others that native people feel the Church and state, the white establishment, are driving the whole healing process. They feel excluded from the real decisions on truth and reconciliation. Maybe it stems from the experience of everyday life on reserves like Kahnewake, cut off from mainstream Canadian society, with no political or economic clout. The segregation is both enshrined in federal laws that define native status and self-imposed by wary native communities that frown upon intermarriage with outsiders. People in isolated reserves like Kahnewake are still haunted by memories of the residential schools era. For many, it is a world of drug and alcohol addiction, violence and high suicide rates. "Sometimes I feel people get annoyed with me for trying to be happy," says Star Eagle. "They're all locked in together with their pain." There is a real sense of foreboding as Canada prepares to come to terms with its dark history. Whatever emerges from the process of truth and reconciliation, the ghosts will not go quietly. From Our Own Correspondent was broadcast on Saturday 31 January, 2009 at 1130 GMT on BBC Radio 4. Please check the programme schedules for World Service transmission times. | |||||||
In pictures
Whatever emerges from the process of truth and reconciliation, the ghosts will not go quietly 
Saturday, November 08, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
Probe urged of burial sites
Need for investigation backed by residential schools commission
http://www.brantfordexpositor.ca/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=1272133&auth=JOHN%20PAUL%20ZRONIK,%20EXPOSITOR%20STAFFPosted By JOHN PAUL ZRONIK, EXPOSITOR STAFF
Posted 48 mins ago
The national Indian Residential Schools Truth and Reconciliation Commission has approved recommendations that could see burial sites at former residential schools examined in an effort to find out how some students died.
Commissioners recently accepted recommendations put forward by a "missing children working group" to examine the number and cause of deaths, illnesses and disappearances of children at residential schools, as well as the location of burial sites.
"The commissioners recognize the importance of addressing this issue in a culturally-sensitive way that is respectful of former (residential school) students and their families who have lost children or are still searching for burial sites," said commission spokeswoman Kimberly Phillips.
Between the 1800s and 1996, there were more than 100 residential schools in Canada, including Brantford's Mohawk Institute, which were designed to assimilate native children into Canadian society.
Most student deaths at the schools were attributed to tuberculosis, but there have been claims that some students died due to abuse, neglect, murder or being deliberately exposed to fatal diseases.
PLIGHT OF CHILDREN
Earlier this year, Kevin Annett, a former United Church minister who has spent more than a decade researching the plight of children who attended residential schools, said the grounds of the former Mohawk Institute, which closed in 1970, could hold evidence of "genocide" against natives. He has contended that up to 50,000 children died or were killed at residential schools across the country.
"I've talked to a number of survivors from (the Brantford school) and this is a natural place to start an investigation," Annett said during a visit to the city. "We want an investigation into the burial site behind the school and we want to start that in conjunction with the elders from various native groups."
The commission is working to develop a strategy for implementing the working group's recommendations. It is not yet known whether an investigation will take place at the former Mohawk Institute, today known as the Woodland Cultural Centre.
Phillips said research will involve a review of all relevant church and government records, as well as information provided by former residential school students, staff and anyone else who wishes to contribute.
A budget for the project has yet to be confirmed.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Hunt begins for long-missing students
Neglected graves probed in renewed effort to solve mystery of aboriginal children's fates
40
OTTAWA — The federal government is mapping burial sites at former residential schools as researchers try to identify how many of the estimated thousands of native children who went missing from the schools are buried in unmarked or anonymous graves.
Cemeteries scattered across Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Ontario have been identified by researchers. Some of the graves have single white wooden crosses bearing no name. Others do not include even a cross.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission asked for the material before its head, Mr. Justice Harry LaForme, resigned unexpectedly last week after accusing the two other commissioners of being too focused on the commission's mandate to uncover truth about residential schools, at the expense of reconciliation.
Cemetery research is part of an attempt by the federal government to understand precisely what happened to the residential school students who disappeared.
Source: Assembly of First Nations
Internet Links
- Cemetery and grave site research (pdf)
- Missing and unmarked burials research recommendations (draft report) (pdf)
- Access to Information request (pdf)
It is a massive and sensitive issue. Native leaders and successive federal governments have said they simply do not know who or how many students of the residential schools even died, never mind where they might be buried.
While many community leaders, including elders and a former United Church minister, have spoken of unmarked graves on the sites of residential schools before, this is the first time federal researchers have attempted to compile documentary evidence as to the extent of these discoveries.
The material obtained by The Globe and Mail was completed by two researchers at Indian Residential Schools Resolutions Canada.
Their findings, submitted in an April, 2008, report, reveal several schools had cemeteries on school grounds.
The reason for the placement of cemeteries on the school grounds is not given in the research documents. But in the case of two schools in particular, the researchers found detailed documents describing graves without markings.
Indian Affairs documents reveal bodies were accidentally unearthed in 1992 on the grounds of the former Muskowekwan Indian Residential School in Lestock, Sask., which was run by Catholic missionaries. The graves were uncovered during a construction project to build a new sewer line on the property.
"On July 21, 1992, workers with N.I.S. Construction Ltd. uncovered three unmarked graves," the Indian Affairs document states. "On July 22, an additional 15 graves were encountered. They were located in a row paralleling the new gravity sewer main north of residence 0210-01. The contractor indicated there was evidence of another row of graves north of the first row encountered ... All remains unearthed were placed in plastic bags and stored in a locked building."
The document says the local band council was then notified and construction was halted. The band manager for Muskowekwan First Nation declined comment for this story, as did the manager of the youth centre now operating in the former residential school.
At another school, the St. John's Indian Residential School in Alberta (also known as Wabasca Residential School), the researchers found a document from 1961 describing how the principal came across an unmarked cemetery. A second letter indicates the unidentified principal ultimately cleaned up the site and erected 110 white crosses.
"The place was a terrible mess, so much underbrush," according to one of the letters. "Even though it is not finished, one can see a great improvement in it all, at least it is not woods now."
Anglican priest Richard Waye has been serving the Cree community of Wabasca for the past nine years. He said the community's large graveyard dates back to 1895 and is well maintained by the community, including support from the Big Stone Cree Nation. Rev. Waye said old crosses are replaced with new ones.
"I've never heard anything like that," he said when told of the 1961 entry by the principal. "If it ever happened that the cemetery had come into disrepair, I don't think that it would have been because of any lack of respect. ... Everything here is well maintained and it's respectful."
Rev. Waye said "99.9" per cent of the people attending his masses are Crees with ties to the residential school.
"My impression is that people still attend the church because of the positive experience they had as children in St. John's school," he said.
Detailed records related to the Edmonton Indian Residential School include a principal's letter from 1955, stating: "Some years ago the Indian Affairs branch asked for room on the property ... for a small graveyard in which to bury deceased Indians and Eskimos from Camsell Hospital whose homes are too far in the North to return the bodies for burial. The boys at the School keep the ground in reasonable condition for no remuneration but they get paid for digging graves."
Another reference to a document from 1945 suggests the Alberta Blood band council was aware of a cemetery at the Blood Indian Residential School (also known as St. Mary's), and wanted the graves dug deeper to prevent "effluvia" near the girls' playground
The researchers found a comment on the issue from the federal Indian Agent, stating: "While it is appreciated that in Winter particularly, it is difficult to get the Indians to do the work suitably, may we ask that this request be placed before the Indians when digging Graves."
The day after a Globe and Mail investigation reported in April, 2007, on the fact that thousands of native children likely died at Indian Residential Schools due to diseases like tuberculosis and possible neglect, the Conservative government promised to investigate.
"It is unimaginable to any parent that your child would go away to school and not return," then-Indian Affairs minister Jim Prentice said
at the time, announcing that the mandate of the Truth
Source: Assembly of First Nations
Internet Links
- Cemetery and grave site research (pdf)
- Missing and unmarked burials research recommendations (draft report) (pdf)
- Access to Information request (pdf)
and Reconciliation Commission would be expanded to include an investigation of unmarked graves and missing children.
But a separate paper dated September, 2008, suggests that approach was not the government's first instinct. Bob Watts, the commission's former executive director, who no longer works at the commission, wrote that Mr. Prentice was planning to tell the House of Commons, if asked about it during Question Period, that it had no information about the issue of "Missing Children and Unmarked Burials."
"I wrote back the author of the [Question Period] card, and asked whether or not this was true," Mr. Watts wrote. He then describes how a meeting was then hastily called and a decision was made to form a working group to study the matter and provide advice to the commissioners.
Mr. Watts then writes that Mr. Prentice's office was a "model of non-interference" as the working group began its research.
When The Globe requested all documents related to this working group, the government provided a highlyredacted version of a briefing note on the issue.
The Globe has also obtained a draft version of the non-redacted document.
It is a research paper into missing children and asks that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission undertake to discover how many residential students died and who they were, what they died from and where they are buried.
Native elders have for decades provided anecdotal evidence that schoolchildren died and their fellow students were forced to bury them.
The issue of unmarked graves was not specifically explored by the 1996 Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. That report recommended an independent public inquiry be called to examine the effects of residential schools.
The boarding schools were part of an overall federal policy started in the first years of Canada's founding to assimilate aboriginals into the increasingly dominant population of European immigrants.
Partnering with churches that were already established throughout Canada as part of their missionary work, Ottawa built the residential schools and paid churches on a per capita basis to take in native children and teach them a mix of agricultural skills and traditional schooling.
*****
Buried, not forgotten
1. St. John's
Indian Residential School
Wabasca, Alta.
Anglican
Also known as Wabasca
Residential School
opened 1895; new school built in 1949; closed 1966
The IRSC report quotes a 1961 letter from an unidentified school principal who describes a cemetery with unmarked graves that is "a terrible mess." A letter written three weeks later states that the cemetery has been cleaned up and 110 white crosses erected. The school is no longer standing, but the current Anglican minister in Wabasca says the cemetery is well cared for and he had not heard of any historical problems regarding maintenance.
2. Edmonton
Industrial School
St. Albert, Alta.
Methodist
opened 1919; closed 1960s
The IRSRC report states that boys at the school were paid to dig graves at the area cemetery. A committee of historians wrote a letter to the Northwest Territories government in 1989 requesting funding for a memorial to recognize the 98 Inuit and Indian people lying in a small cemetery on the grounds of what was the residential school. Advocates for a monument wrote letters to government and church leaders stating that the cemetery grounds had not been cared for since the school closed.
3. Immaculate Conception Boarding School
Standoff (Cardston), Alta.
Roman Catholic
Also known as Blood Indian Residential School; St. Mary's Mission Boarding School
opened 1911; closed 1975
The IRSC report makes reference to a 1945 letter describing how it is "difficult to get the Indians to do the work suitably" when digging graves in winter at the school. The letter indicates that the Blood Band council was aware of this activity.
4. Muskowekwan
Indian Residential School
Lestock, Sask.
Roman Catholic
opened 1896; closed 1981
An Indian Residential Schools Resolution Canada (IRSRC) report reviewing Indian Affairs documents describes an incident in 1992, when a construction company uncovered at least 19 graves connected to an unmarked graveyard at the site of the former school. Muskowekwan Indian Residential School is still standing and is on land managed by the Muskowekwan First Nation band council. It is now home to a youth services centre. Compiled by Rick Cash and Bill Curry, using information from the IRSC report as well as the Anglican Church of Canada and the Assembly of First Nations.
**********
More info on residential school deaths here ...
Interview - Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared ...
http://www.isuma.tv/?site/channelHome/channelid/238
Previous articles by Bill Curry, Globe and Mail:
http://tinyurl.com/6j5x8n More blogs by granny ... (See interview with Kevin Annett) Truth? Reconciliation? http://residentialschooldeaths.blogspot.com
Wednesday, October 15, 2008
Oct 28, Oct 29: Canada! ... WHERE ARE THE MISSING CHILDREN?
...
Kevin Annett's appearances unfortunately cancelled due to his health.
Screening of "Unrepentant" will go on at Skydragon Centre Tues Oct 28 @ 7pm. granny
...
Indigenous Elders in Canada ask:
“Where are our missing children?”
Award winning documentary film
UNREPENTANT:
Kevin Annett and
Kevin Annett joins us at Skydragon Centre Tuesday October 28 at 7 pm
Over 50,000 children did not come home from Canada's 'Indian' Residential Schools.
Their families were never told what happened to them.
Thousands of graves are unmarked in the schoolyards.
Thousands of children were systematically abused, tortured and broken,
And thousands of Indigenous children died in the care of the government and the churches, for a hundred years, unaccounted for.
Canada! ... WHERE ARE THE MISSING CHILDREN?
Why?
http://residentialschooldeaths.blogspot.com/2008/10/unrepentant-where-are-missing-children.html#links
TRUE Wednesday October 29, Brantford
Six Nations, Brantford: What about Eagle Place?
http://grannyrantson.blogspot.com/2008/10/blog-post.html
Wednesday, October 01, 2008
NGO: 1,200 indigenous Colombians killed in last 6 years
Some 1,200 indigenous Colombians have been murdered in the last six years with "absolute impunity," charges an NGO that works for aboriginal rights. The National Indigenous Organization of Colombia, which did not release precise information of its count, came in response to the Sunday killing of Raúl Mendoza, indigenous governor of the Peñón reservation. These are “crimes that typify the genocide that we, Colombian indigenous people, are subjected to,” he said, according to Spanish news agency EFE. “Not even one criminal has been charged with these crimes.” The news agency did not include a government response. Some recent victims include two residents of a small community near the Ecuadorian border—which the army said were killed ‘accidentally’ during a nighttime pursuit—and six people massacred in the Chocó department.
Monday, September 29, 2008
INTENT? The children who did not come home from Canada's 'Indian' Residential Schools From GrannyRantsON http://residentialschooldeaths. GENOCIDE? INTENT?blogspot.com/2008/09/children- who-did-not-come-home-from. html As Chrisjohn explains, the glitch in Canada's garden begins with the problem that, according to European law, title to most of the land in Canada still belongs to its original inhabitants.
_Globe and Mail's Independent investigation, "The Lost Children of Our Schools." April 28, 2007. "The myth ... Canada meant well ... That myth may at last fall when Canadians take a close look at the abysmally high death rates among children ... in the schools"
FACT _Gary Merasty, MP, House of Commons of Canada, 2007 "I stand here for numerous victims whose stories will never be told, whose remains are scattered across our land in unmarked graves, scars on the land and even larger scars on our nation's psyche." GENOCIDE?
"I could argue all five, but the fifth one is a slam dunk," says Chrisjohn. "There is absolutely no way Canada can deny that they legislated the transference of children from their parents to the church authorities."
RESPONSIBILITY _Dr. Roland Chrisjohn, St Thomas U, NB You have a responsibility as a citizen of the world to know what your government is up to and resist [their] unlawful actions," he says. "The crime of genocide is being covered up. Now it's a double crime."
...
ACTION?
Self-determination and self-governance are key issues for indigenous peoples' human rights. Self-government means aboriginal people regaining control and management over their own land and resources, education, health, employment and justice systems. http://issues.takingitglobal.org/indigenous
LEGISLATE THAT!
Legislate respect for the Crown's duty to consult and accommodate Indigenous First Nations.
And get INAC's hands off the budget of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission!
And what is the status of the 'Task Force' into the deaths and disappearance of children in the residential schools?
Have they sent a letter to Elders to acknowledge the loss of the children?
To say that we are sorry we lost half of their children?
To say that we are searching for records and graves of the lost children to properly inform them of the fates of the lost children?
50,000? 75,000? How many children died or disappeared?
Has the Task Force identified the locations of burial grounds?
The number of graves?
The causes of death of thousands of Indigenous children for a hundred years, in the care of the government and the churches?
Does it really make any difference
what 'colour' our government is
if none of them tell the TRUTH?
SHOW ME!!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Two Row Wampum Treaty
"It is said that, each nation shall stay in their own vessels, and travel the river side by side. Further, it is said, that neither nation will try to steer the vessel of the other." This is a treaty among Indigenous Nations, and with Canada. This is the true nature of our relationships with Indigenous Nations of 'Kanata'.
