Remains of 215 children found buried at former B.C. residential school

For those that don't know, Canada's Indian Residential schools are a dark stain on Canada's history. Over a hundred thousand native children were forced into these 'schools'. They were subjected to rather terrible things, many of them died. The schools ran from 1830 until 1996 when the last one shut down.

A few days ago, during a survey of the Kamloops residential school in BC the bodies of 215 children were discovered buried on the grounds. Some as young as three years old. All the bodies are apparently deaths that were never documented by the residential school.

www.cbc.ca...

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."

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.

It is estimated more than 150,000 children attended residential schools in Canada from the 1830s until the last school closed in 1996.

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 forcibly sent to residential schools never returned home.

Probably already dead and gone, but yeah string up the old staff and put them on display above the graves and leave them to rot.

Good to hear the courts finally lifted the order not to look, or did they? Kevin Annett has been talking about these issues for a while.

I know we have similar issues here in Adelaide, there are mass grave sites of children around that the police are blocked in checking out.

Well done Canada is doing something right.

Type in "Kamloops qe" into duckduckgo and see what happens.

Wade through the obvious BS in a lot of conspiracy and the "fact checks" aka "untrue because MSM would have reported about it" (paraphrased)...

Why did they visit this place so often? It's convenient that there's an airport nearby. Does anybody know if a plane is subjected to searches or deboarding if it just does a stop at an international airport for refuel? Before a transatlantic flight?

originally posted by: Butterfinger
Probably already dead and gone, but yeah string up the old staff and put them on display above the graves and leave them to rot.

The catholic church..they ran the this place from the around the 1890s, till around 1969..not a peep from them on this.

There were 130 or so "schools" ran by the catholics, and other denominational churches. Interestingly, I believe all the other churches involved have owned up to what went on at the the "schools"..except the catholic church.

I know people who went through that system, one had a very hard time, will die bitter and angry.

a reply to: ThatDamnDuckAgain

That's interesting I'd never heard of that. Some interesting first hand testimony from a survivor of a residential school here who witnessed it and was supposedly called to international court.

www.collective-evolution.com...

The funny thing is the 'fact check' as to why it's not true is pretty dubious.

But there is no truth to the article’s claim. The British royal family often makes headlines. If the queen had been found guilty of such a crime, it would have been picked up by major news outlets, yet none have reported on it, and Buckingham Palace has not issued a press release.

Accoding to them, it's not true because the news didn't report it and Buckingham Palace never issued a press release. Apparently just could never have happened because of that....

a reply to: dug88
It's a bit sketchy what a lot of sites write I could not verify.

Accoding to them, it's not true because the news didn't report it and Buckingham Palace never issued a press release. Apparently just could never have happened because of that....

Thought the same reading the fact check site. It dilutes into other things very quick after a few sentences. Lot's of red flags coming up.

a reply to: dug88

Do we know how old these bodies are, or over how long a period they were buried?

Are we talking a couple of children dying each year over 200 years, or a couple of children a week over a much shorter period of time?

Do we know the causes of death?

Murder, malnutrition, or smallpox outbreak?

a reply to: dug88

Just to put this into context.

This isn't just something that happened to indigenous people.

there were similar "schools" in places like Ireland run by similar organizations. Often for unmarried mothers. They've found all kinds of mass graves there.

www.theguardian.com...

Institutions from that time period have terrible reputations.

originally posted by: AaarghZombies
a reply to: dug88

Do we know how old these bodies are, or over how long a period they were buried?

Are we talking a couple of children dying each year over 200 years, or a couple of children a week over a much shorter period of time?

Do we know the causes of death?

Murder, malnutrition, or smallpox outbreak?

It will take time for all that, and at this site, it happened, over a 70 year period. All in unmarked graves..not shady at all. The bodies are still in the ground..I believe, so, we are talking a huge forensic investigation to come. I imagine they will be looking at other sites now.

originally posted by: vonclod

originally posted by: AaarghZombies
a reply to: dug88

Do we know how old these bodies are, or over how long a period they were buried?

Are we talking a couple of children dying each year over 200 years, or a couple of children a week over a much shorter period of time?

Do we know the causes of death?

Murder, malnutrition, or smallpox outbreak?

It will take time for all that, and at this site, it happened, over a 70 year period. All in unmarked graves..not shady at all. The bodies are still in the ground..I believe, so, we are talking a huge forensic investigation to come. I imagine they will be looking at other sites now.

Unmarked graves is pretty much the norm for that kind of institution . It happens even if they are well run and above board. They used to be called pauper's graves, and you find them all over the place from prisons to public cemeteries. It's more a symbol of poverty than abuse. They may have had simple wooden grave markers originally that simply rotted away. Without a family to pay for a headstone or the upkeep of a grave this was the best that a lot of poor could expect.

These days people like this are often cremated, and they don't even get an unmarked grave. Old man in a housing project dies, no family, no friends, the state burns the body and scatters the ashes with maybe a minimal ceremony.

215 people over a 70 year period, that's around 3 deaths a year.

I don't want to sound heartless, but that's not particularly bad. These were poor children living in close quarters. Suicide and communicable diseases, plus it probably wasn't very well heated in the winter so add influenza and pneumonia to that, and you're safely within the confines of the expected death rate for simply being poor.

You'd get a worse death rate in a modern inner city high school simply from gang crime and suicides. The big difference is that the parent would be given the bodies.

originally posted by: AaarghZombies

originally posted by: vonclod

originally posted by: AaarghZombies
a reply to: dug88

Do we know how old these bodies are, or over how long a period they were buried?

Are we talking a couple of children dying each year over 200 years, or a couple of children a week over a much shorter period of time?

Do we know the causes of death?

Murder, malnutrition, or smallpox outbreak?

It will take time for all that, and at this site, it happened, over a 70 year period. All in unmarked graves..not shady at all. The bodies are still in the ground..I believe, so, we are talking a huge forensic investigation to come. I imagine they will be looking at other sites now.

Unmarked graves is pretty much the norm for that kind of institution . It happens even if they are well run and above board. They used to be called pauper's graves, and you find them all over the place from prisons to public cemeteries. It's more a symbol of poverty than abuse. They may have had simple wooden grave markers originally that simply rotted away. Without a family to pay for a headstone or the upkeep of a grave this was the best that a lot of poor could expect.

These days people like this are often cremated, and they don't even get an unmarked grave. Old man in a housing project dies, no family, no friends, the state burns the body and scatters the ashes with maybe a minimal ceremony.

215 people over a 70 year period, that's around 3 deaths a year.

I don't want to sound heartless, but that's not particularly bad. These were poor children living in close quarters. Suicide and communicable diseases, plus it probably wasn't very well heated in the winter so add influenza and pneumonia to that, and you're safely within the confines of the expected death rate for simply being poor.

You'd get a worse death rate in a modern inner city high school simply from gang crime and suicides. The big difference is that the parent would be given the bodies.

You understand that children were taken from their parents right? these were not orphans. The church considered them savages, and treated them accordingly. Nope, this is not acceptable, never was, not going to be now.


ETA I should also point out the govts involvement as well.

a reply to: dug88

I met William over 20 years ago and he told me his story around a camp fire in a guide camp. I had no idea that he was gone. Sad.

I can say that he believed what he was saying whole heartedly.

I have been trying to find out if the mass grave was found in the orchard. That would also back up Williams story.

When this news broke last week I got the chills when I heard it for the first time. I thought if William immediately. It hit the First Nations community that I work with hard.

Lots of orange shirts and signs to commemorate the poor kids.

It’s convenient how this type of thing comes out after most of the dirtbags are dead and gone. No punishment in this world but I have my theories as to where they are now and it’s not good.

originally posted by: AaarghZombies

originally posted by: vonclod

originally posted by: AaarghZombies
a reply to: dug88

Do we know how old these bodies are, or over how long a period they were buried?

Are we talking a couple of children dying each year over 200 years, or a couple of children a week over a much shorter period of time?

Do we know the causes of death?

Murder, malnutrition, or smallpox outbreak?

It will take time for all that, and at this site, it happened, over a 70 year period. All in unmarked graves..not shady at all. The bodies are still in the ground..I believe, so, we are talking a huge forensic investigation to come. I imagine they will be looking at other sites now.

Unmarked graves is pretty much the norm for that kind of institution . It happens even if they are well run and above board. They used to be called pauper's graves, and you find them all over the place from prisons to public cemeteries. It's more a symbol of poverty than abuse. They may have had simple wooden grave markers originally that simply rotted away. Without a family to pay for a headstone or the upkeep of a grave this was the best that a lot of poor could expect.

These days people like this are often cremated, and they don't even get an unmarked grave. Old man in a housing project dies, no family, no friends, the state burns the body and scatters the ashes with maybe a minimal ceremony.

215 people over a 70 year period, that's around 3 deaths a year.

I don't want to sound heartless, but that's not particularly bad. These were poor children living in close quarters. Suicide and communicable diseases, plus it probably wasn't very well heated in the winter so add influenza and pneumonia to that, and you're safely within the confines of the expected death rate for simply being poor.

You'd get a worse death rate in a modern inner city high school simply from gang crime and suicides. The big difference is that the parent would be given the bodies.

These were children who were stolen or coerced from their families; beaten, maimed, starved, killed if they didn't conform.

These weren't "poor" children. They were indigenous children caught up in the government and catholics churches efforts to cleanse Canada of native beliefs.

My cousin went to one of the very last ones as a child. He told me a story of a girl who was almost 16, she used some Mikmaq words while a nun was listening. The nun choked her until the girl passed out. She just left her there outside. The girl woke up and ran home and hid on the reservation until she was too old to be sent back.

And things like that happened all the time. I have no doubt that the Church officials were more involved in the deaths of these children than just digging "paupers graves".

a reply to: AaarghZombies

Yep worked with a mildly “slow” guy that was put in an institution/school when he was 6 years old and was eventually released when the place closed down in the early 80s. He was called as a witness in a court cases because the place didn’t label the graves with names just numbers and the record keeping was terrible.

This was the type of guy that could remember anything but could barely live on his own. He was involved in digging the graves and knew from memory where he buried each one. The amount of physical abuse he went through was terrible. They had this 6 year old kid living with mentally challenged adults and they basically had their way with him. He told us he saw at least two times where the “guards” beat someone to death. As well as other bad stories. Terrible places like this were and are all over the world.

originally posted by: vonclod

originally posted by: AaarghZombies

originally posted by: vonclod

originally posted by: AaarghZombies
a reply to: dug88

Do we know how old these bodies are, or over how long a period they were buried?

Are we talking a couple of children dying each year over 200 years, or a couple of children a week over a much shorter period of time?

Do we know the causes of death?

Murder, malnutrition, or smallpox outbreak?

It will take time for all that, and at this site, it happened, over a 70 year period. All in unmarked graves..not shady at all. The bodies are still in the ground..I believe, so, we are talking a huge forensic investigation to come. I imagine they will be looking at other sites now.

Unmarked graves is pretty much the norm for that kind of institution . It happens even if they are well run and above board. They used to be called pauper's graves, and you find them all over the place from prisons to public cemeteries. It's more a symbol of poverty than abuse. They may have had simple wooden grave markers originally that simply rotted away. Without a family to pay for a headstone or the upkeep of a grave this was the best that a lot of poor could expect.

These days people like this are often cremated, and they don't even get an unmarked grave. Old man in a housing project dies, no family, no friends, the state burns the body and scatters the ashes with maybe a minimal ceremony.

215 people over a 70 year period, that's around 3 deaths a year.

I don't want to sound heartless, but that's not particularly bad. These were poor children living in close quarters. Suicide and communicable diseases, plus it probably wasn't very well heated in the winter so add influenza and pneumonia to that, and you're safely within the confines of the expected death rate for simply being poor.

You'd get a worse death rate in a modern inner city high school simply from gang crime and suicides. The big difference is that the parent would be given the bodies.

You understand that children were taken from their parents right? these were not orphans. The church considered them savages, and treated them accordingly. Nope, this is not acceptable, never was, not going to be now.

From what I understand so far it was a mass grave. Not the sort of thing you keep digging up and adding more bodies to over a 70 year period.

A lot of the guys I work with went to these schools and it has damaged them for life. Forbidden to speak their language, abused, and distorted by an evil system.

a reply to: dug88
Thank you for posting this BTW, I was working myself up to doing it myself.

originally posted by: AaarghZombies
a reply to: dug88

Just to put this into context.

This isn't just something that happened to indigenous people.

there were similar "schools" in places like Ireland run by similar organizations. Often for unmarried mothers. They've found all kinds of mass graves there.

www.theguardian.com...

Institutions from that time period have terrible reputations.

Why are you trying so hard to diminish it? It's awful that it happened at all, to anyone. It doesn't need "context" that it happened to other people too.

originally posted by: NorthOfStuff

originally posted by: vonclod

originally posted by: AaarghZombies

originally posted by: vonclod

originally posted by: AaarghZombies
a reply to: dug88

Do we know how old these bodies are, or over how long a period they were buried?

Are we talking a couple of children dying each year over 200 years, or a couple of children a week over a much shorter period of time?

Do we know the causes of death?

Murder, malnutrition, or smallpox outbreak?

It will take time for all that, and at this site, it happened, over a 70 year period. All in unmarked graves..not shady at all. The bodies are still in the ground..I believe, so, we are talking a huge forensic investigation to come. I imagine they will be looking at other sites now.

Unmarked graves is pretty much the norm for that kind of institution . It happens even if they are well run and above board. They used to be called pauper's graves, and you find them all over the place from prisons to public cemeteries. It's more a symbol of poverty than abuse. They may have had simple wooden grave markers originally that simply rotted away. Without a family to pay for a headstone or the upkeep of a grave this was the best that a lot of poor could expect.

These days people like this are often cremated, and they don't even get an unmarked grave. Old man in a housing project dies, no family, no friends, the state burns the body and scatters the ashes with maybe a minimal ceremony.

215 people over a 70 year period, that's around 3 deaths a year.

I don't want to sound heartless, but that's not particularly bad. These were poor children living in close quarters. Suicide and communicable diseases, plus it probably wasn't very well heated in the winter so add influenza and pneumonia to that, and you're safely within the confines of the expected death rate for simply being poor.

You'd get a worse death rate in a modern inner city high school simply from gang crime and suicides. The big difference is that the parent would be given the bodies.

You understand that children were taken from their parents right? these were not orphans. The church considered them savages, and treated them accordingly. Nope, this is not acceptable, never was, not going to be now.

From what I understand so far it was a mass grave. Not the sort of thing you keep digging up and adding more bodies to over a 70 year period.

A lot of the guys I work with went to these schools and it has damaged them for life. Forbidden to speak their language, abused, and distorted by an evil system.

I'm not sure about the mass grave, but otherwise absolutely agree, my stepfather of 20 years was put in one, also my former mother in law. My stepdad, is in his 70s, was successful in life, did well, but harbours some deep pain and resentment..he will go to his grave carrying it.

originally posted by: vonclod

originally posted by: AaarghZombies

originally posted by: vonclod

originally posted by: AaarghZombies
a reply to: dug88

Do we know how old these bodies are, or over how long a period they were buried?

Are we talking a couple of children dying each year over 200 years, or a couple of children a week over a much shorter period of time?

Do we know the causes of death?

Murder, malnutrition, or smallpox outbreak?

It will take time for all that, and at this site, it happened, over a 70 year period. All in unmarked graves..not shady at all. The bodies are still in the ground..I believe, so, we are talking a huge forensic investigation to come. I imagine they will be looking at other sites now.

Unmarked graves is pretty much the norm for that kind of institution . It happens even if they are well run and above board. They used to be called pauper's graves, and you find them all over the place from prisons to public cemeteries. It's more a symbol of poverty than abuse. They may have had simple wooden grave markers originally that simply rotted away. Without a family to pay for a headstone or the upkeep of a grave this was the best that a lot of poor could expect.

These days people like this are often cremated, and they don't even get an unmarked grave. Old man in a housing project dies, no family, no friends, the state burns the body and scatters the ashes with maybe a minimal ceremony.

215 people over a 70 year period, that's around 3 deaths a year.

I don't want to sound heartless, but that's not particularly bad. These were poor children living in close quarters. Suicide and communicable diseases, plus it probably wasn't very well heated in the winter so add influenza and pneumonia to that, and you're safely within the confines of the expected death rate for simply being poor.

You'd get a worse death rate in a modern inner city high school simply from gang crime and suicides. The big difference is that the parent would be given the bodies.

You understand that children were taken from their parents right? these were not orphans. The church considered them savages, and treated them accordingly. Nope, this is not acceptable, never was, not going to be now.

ETA I should also point out the govts involvement as well.

I was about to ask how the parents didn't know about their kids and what kind of excuses they heard. The only one that would have flown, really, would have been that the child ran away during recess or something. So if the kids were taken from their parents, where did they stay? At the school?