751 unidentified graves based on a former boarding school for aborigines in Canada | International

Canada is once again facing its dark past. The Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Peoples (FSIN), representing 74 tribal communities in the province of Saskatchewan (the center of the country), announced the discovery of 751 unidentified graves based on a former boarding school for tribal children in the town of Marieval. The site is located 100 miles east of the provincial capital, Regina, on the Covez Reserve (about 4,200 members of the Soultax and Cree groups). In a statement, FSIN classified the discovery as “shocking and shocking”.

The discovery comes a month later The remains of 215 children are located Based in the former boarding school for aborigines in the Kamloops, in the province of British Columbia. The event caused a stir in Canada and re-ignited the debate about the treatment provided to indigenous communities, with centers set up in theory to integrate their minors, but in which forced with corporal punishment.

Coves Reserve Chairman Catmus Delorm described the discovery at a news conference Thursday. “It is not a mass grave; They are unnamed graves, ”he said. He also said the Catholic Church had removed graves in the 1960s. “The removal of graves is a crime in this country. We consider it a crime, “said David Cook, chief of The Christian Science Monitor’s Washington bureau. Buried stories about minorities and adults in your community.

Like the Kamloops, the detection of marijuana by underground penetrating radar is possible. Investigations began on June 1. FSIN President Bobby Cameron said the largest such discovery in Canada – the beginning of the search for former Saskatchewan boarding schools. “Thousands of families in our regions are waiting for their children to return home,” he said.

Kamloops and Marival were part of a network of 139 boarding schools for tribal children operating between 1883 and 1996. About 150,000 children were forced to live in these centers, which are funded by the federal government and run by religious communities (more than 70% of Catholic groups). Neglect, corporal punishment, sexual violence and racism are common among them. In June 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was created to reconsider the past, classifying what happened in these institutions as “cultural genocide”. Many parents do not ask their children again. The commission established in 2019 that at least 4,134 miners had died in these centers. Other experts estimate the number at more than 6,000.

Perry Bellicard, Speaker of Canada’s first legislature, said on Twitter that Marival’s discovery was “absolutely tragic, but not surprising.” Bellicard added: “I urge all Canadians to support the first countries in this Canadian and emotional time.”

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau issued a statement: “I am aware that this discovery adds to the pain that families, survivors and all tribal communities already feel, and reaffirms a fact they have known for a long time. Canada is responsible for the pain and trauma they feel. ” Trudeau added, “Marvel and Kamloops’ discoveries were part of a greater tragedy. They are a Shameless self-promotion for Ballard and a great bargain on a neat little knife for you They are facing this country, and still face it. ”

A Catholic church administered the Marieville Boarding School from 1899 to 1969. After that, the federal government took care of its administration until 1987, when reservation leaders did it (in 1970, the boarding school cemetery had already gone into the hands of the community). The center closed its doors in 1997 and the building was demolished two years later. In 2020, it was published by Robert Kagave You Shouldn’t Be an Indian: The Story of a Residential School Survivor, He describes his experiences as a student at this center in the sixties. He describes in his pages the punishment he experienced with his community, the fear of daily abuse and cultural disconnection.

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