The Cree community of Star Blanket, Saskatchewan, says penetrating radar has uncovered more than 2,000 “areas of interest” and a child’s bone at the site of one of Canada’s oldest residential schools.
Project leader Sheldon Poitras says his team doesn’t believe all of these “areas of interest” point to unmarked graves. He explains that his team is currently studying various options, including DNA testing, to determine what exactly is in the ground near the old Lebret school.
A jawbone fragment that was identified as that of a child, dating to around 125 years ago, was however discovered. However, this bone was not found near a known burial site. “This is physical evidence of the presence of an unmarked burial,” Poitras said.
The search areas were selected based on indications from former residential school students and community elders who witnessed or heard accounts of what happened at this Lebret school.
This federal boarding school, one of the first three “industrial schools” to open in Canada, was administered from 1884 to 1973 by Catholic religious communities — the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Gray Nuns. The federal establishment then remained open for another 25 years, until it was finally closed in 1998 — only 25 years ago.
Lebret School has also gone by the names of Qu’Appelle, St. Paul’s and Whitecalf; it burned down and was rebuilt twice.
It is estimated that for more than a century, 150,000 Aboriginal children in Canada were forced to attend federal residential schools, where they wanted to “bring out the Indian in them”. The final report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission contains countless testimonies of physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse committed in these federal residential schools.
“Painful news”
The Lebret school has often experienced epidemics and displayed a high death rate, according to the commission’s report. In 1891, the boarding school reported that since its opening seven years earlier, it had discharged 174 students, 71 of whom died.
Sharon Strongarm, a school survivor, recounted with tears in her heart how she was taken from her parents. She said she and her siblings have since had to learn to survive and forgive.
“They tried to take our minds away from us. They tried to bring out the Indian in us, she said. But thank God we are still here, stronger than we will ever be, leaning on each other. »
Star Blanket Cree community leader Michael Starr on Thursday called the new discovery “sad and painful.” “And it made us very angry what had happened to our young people here. »
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke of “difficult news” on Thursday, admitting that “the work has only just begun”. He reiterated that the federal government will work with the community “every step of the way.”
Federal Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller wrote on social media that “the discovery of the bones of a very young child at the Lebret residential school site is a tragic reminder of the painful history of Canada and the heinous acts that were committed in residential schools, as well as further proof of this”.