ONE IS TO MANY (OMAZINIBII’IGEG)
Current Reality
Justice Murray Sinclair, who heads the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, says the federal government stopped recording the deaths around 1920 after the chief medical officer at Indian Affairs suggested children were dying at an alarming rate. Sinclair has guessed up to 6,000 children may have died at the schools but it’s impossible to say with certainty. (Global News, May 31, 2015)
https://globalnews.ca/news/2027587/deaths-at-canadas-indian-residential-schools-need-more-study-commission
July 25, 2024: “Missing Records, Missing Children” identified the Provincial Archives of Alberta, vital statistics offices from Manitoba and Québec as all “never responded or declined to appear before the Senate Standing Committee on Indigenous Relations” to discuss missing records relating to Residential Schools. Also refusing to release all records for various reason are: Library and Archives Canada, Crown and Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada (CIRNAC) and the governments of Manitoba, Québec, Ontario, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.
July 23, 2024: RE: $500K Funding cap per First Nation’s search for unmarked graves. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) in Winnipeg blasted the government for now breaking its “commitment to families and communities. “Funding for search activities is an essential part of the debt of justice owed to the families and Nations whose children were forcibly taken away,” said NCTR executive director Stephanie Scott in an online statement, noting the funding should be determined by need and not “arbitrary” formulas.
“That’s the only way to meet Parliament’s promise that every Indigenous community would have the means necessary to locate and commemorate the children who never came home.”
TABLE: Residential Schools that have discovered unmarked graves
Current Number: 2,671 unmarked graves vs 551 “official” recorded deaths
|
Indian Residential School
|
Date of Discovery
|
# of unmarked graves
|
Official recorded deaths
|
First Nation
|
|
Kamloops IRS, BC
|
May 27, 2021
|
200
|
51
|
Tk’emlüps te Secwépemc FN
|
|
Muscowequan IRS, SK
|
June 1, 2021
|
35
|
–
|
Muscowequan First Nation
|
|
Brandon IRS, MB
|
June 10, 2021
|
104
|
78
|
Sioux Valley Dakota First Nation
|
|
Marieval IRS, SK
|
June 25, 2021
|
751
|
8
|
Cowessess First Nation
|
|
St. Eugene’s IRS, BC
|
June 30, 2021
|
182
|
19
|
Ktunaxa Nation, community of Aq’am
|
|
Kuper Island IRS, BC
|
July 13, 2021
|
160
|
120
|
Penelakut First Nation
|
|
St. Joseph’s Mission IRS, BC
|
Jan. 26, 2022
|
93
|
Williams Lake First Nation
|
|
|
Jan. 25, 2023
|
66
|
28
|
||
|
St. Philip’s IRS, SK
|
Feb. 15, 2022
|
12
|
2
|
Keeseekoose First Nation
|
|
Fort Pelly IRS
|
42
|
2
|
||
|
St. Bernard’s IRS, AB
|
Mar. 1, 2022
|
169
|
10
|
Kapawe’no First Nation
|
|
Gordon’s IRS, SK
|
April 21, 2022
|
15
|
49
|
George Gordon First Nation
|
|
Blue Quill IRS, AB
|
May 17, 2022
|
TBD
|
27
|
Saddle Creek Cree Nation
|
|
April 19, 2023
|
19
|
–
|
||
|
Pine Creek IRS, MB
|
Oct. 14, 2022
|
71
|
21
|
Pine Creek First Nation
|
|
Qu’Apelle IRS SK
|
Jan. 12, 2023
|
TBD
|
Star Blanket Cree Nation
|
|
|
St. Mary’s IRS, ON
|
Jan. 17, 2023, Oct. 30, 2023
|
171
22 |
36
|
Wauzhushk Onigum Nation
|
|
St. Augustine IRS, BC
|
April 20, 2023
|
40
|
5
|
shîshålh Nation
|
|
St. Bruno’s IRS,
Joussard IRS |
June 26, 2023
|
88
|
–
|
Driftpile Cree Nation
|
|
Beauval IRS, SK
|
Aug. 29, 2023
|
93
|
–
|
English River First Nation
|
|
Chooutla IRS, YT
|
Sept. 26, 2023
|
15
|
20
|
Carcross, YT
|
|
St. Mary’s IRS, BC
|
Sept. 22, 2023
|
96
|
Sto:lo First Nation
|
|
|
Total:
|
2,444
|
476
|
See “TABLE: Discoveries of Unmarked Graves” below for more details on 2,671 unmarked graves vs NCTR’s record of 551 reported deaths.
March 22, 2024 – The International Commission on Missing Persons, based in The Hague, issued an interim report from an international group hired to provide advice on identifying and locating the unmarked graves of children who attended residential schools says Canada should continue funding searches beyond 2025. (See Call to Action # 75 for details)