(Saddle Lake Cree Nation) A report from a task force investigating the death and disappearance of children at an Indian residential school northeast of Edmonton concludes that unpasteurized milk is responsible for the deaths.
The preliminary report was released Tuesday by the Acimowin Opaspiw Society, formed by the Saddle Lake Cree Nation in 2021 to investigate the Blue Quills federal residential school.
Leah Redcrow, director of this group, estimates that up to 400 children died while attending this establishment, between 1898 and its closure in 1990.
However, the group’s research revealed that the children were in good health when they arrived at the boarding school, but that several fell ill after drinking unpasteurized skim milk three times a day, the working group concludes.
Mme Redcrow says the staff at the boarding school, who didn’t drink milk, also didn’t get sick.
The group’s report also indicates that ground-penetrating radar confirmed the presence of a mass grave in the cemetery of a local church, identified in 2004 by accidental excavations.