Pine Creek First Nation was among the first in Canada to excavate a site with potential unmarked graves — a journey that may provide tough lessons for others weighing the same step.
WARNING: This story includes distressing details.
CBC News: They emerge from the bowels of an old stone church, two figures clad in white safety suits and respirators, carrying heavy orange pails in each hand.
The contents are carried over to a nearby tent and poured carefully onto wooden screens, which are then shaken back and forth. Dirt sprinkles to the ground after sifting through the chicken wire screen. Larger objects that don’t sift through remain atop and are set aside.
They could be anything — including human remains.
It’s part of a slow, painstaking process that played out here at Minegoziibe Anishinabe, or Pine Creek First Nation, in western Manitoba over a four-week period this summer.
Our Lady of Seven Sorrows Roman Catholic Church is the only building still standing on this approximately 632-acre site, about an hour’s drive north of Dauphin, Man. There’s nothing left of the residential school that once also stood here, though a black stone monument at the rear of the church reads like a tombstone for its past: “In honour of the students of the Pine Creek Indian Residential School 1890-1969.”
Over the summer, Pine Creek First Nation became one of the first Indigenous groups in Canada to begin excavating the site of a former residential school after a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey revealed dozens of anomalies. Survivors of the school recalled that the bodies of children who had died while in attendance were sometimes stored in the church’s basement. (Chris Corday/CBC)
But survivors of the school shared what they described as horror stories: the bodies of children stored in the basement, and burials, when the ground outside was too cold to dig.
Two years after the first discovery of possible unmarked graves at another former residential school in Kamloops, B.C., Pine Creek First Nation is among the first Indigenous groups in Canada to begin excavating a similar site. What they find and the lessons they learn could have a profound impact on decisions to excavate by other Indigenous groups.
“You know, we take no disrespect intended at all to those who wanted to leave it alone, but we believe that this is a healing journey,” said Pine Creek Chief Derek Nepinak. “And we think the community would be better overall in the long run if we go on this healing journey together in this way.”
Sharing the results
The next day, under a blue sky dotted with clouds, community members gather behind the church to hear the results of the excavation and to culturally mark the project’s end. A bonfire burns nearby and a drum circle is held.
Speaking to his people, Nepinak acknowledges the project took a toll on everyone, himself included. He is the son, grandson and great-grandson of survivors; his family tree is weighed down by hard memories at the school. With his emotions close to the surface, Nepinak announces the final results: The search of the basement found no evidence of human remains.
Pine Creek chief on results of excavation of possible unmarked grave site: 1:09
Click on the following link to view the video:
Standing among her fellow community members, Brenda Catcheway, who helped organize the project, listens intently and has her own take on the announcement. She is a third-generation survivor whose mother and grandmother went to Pine Creek Residential School.
Her feelings were summed up in one word: Relief. “I’m happy that there’s no human remains found,” said Catcheway. “And we do have quite a few people that come and say, ‘I wish, I hope they don’t find anything.’”
She remembers the community’s initial anxiety and fear about excavating at the church. Some community members wanted to go there en masse and start digging themselves. But this rashness also signalled something else, Catcheway said. “I sensed the urgency that we needed to find out for sure if those anomalies were human remains.”
‘We have a history’
Last year, Pine Creek was one of many First Nations across Canada to conduct a ground-penetrating radar (GPR) survey in the wake of the first discovery of some 200 potential unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C.
While the Kamloops announcement shone a spotlight on the dark history of Canada’s residential school system, it didn’t come as a shock to the First Nations whose family members were forced to attend the institutions.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission that investigated the country’s residential school system and its legacy estimate around 6,000 Indigenous children died at the federally funded institutions. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation maintains a student memorial register that includes more than 4,000 recorded names. Many experts believe the actual number to be much higher, in large part due to poor record keeping.
The issue certainly wasn’t foreign to Pine Creek members.
“Our elders, right away, said we have a history here that needs to be told, that needs to be shared. People need to know the truth,” recalled Nepinak. “There have been a lot of historical narratives passed through oral tradition from one generation to the next.”
They launched internal and external public consultations to determine next steps. Nepinak acknowledges that opinion was split about searching for, and potentially excavating, human remains.
Some wanted the past left in the past; for things to be left alone. Others, however, thought there was more at stake. “I think the vocal majority in the room, in the community engagements, wanted certainty. They wanted to find the truth. They wanted people held accountable,” Nepinak said. “And to that end, you know, we prioritized that, that voice.”
RELATED LINKS
- How do you bring home children’s remains from residential schools? Ask the youth who’ve done it
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- International commission looks to ease fears over unmarked graves contract
There were also other First Nations that had to be consulted, because their children had attended the school here, too. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation recorded the deaths of at least 21 students who were at the Pine Creek school.
“This has been very, very difficult for me, as a boy from this community. You know, it’s not been easy,” said Nepinak. “And what makes it even more difficult is that because my heart is exposed to the process — I’m vulnerable. “I’m vulnerable to the criticisms of those who did not want to go this way.”
In May 2022, ground-penetrating radar was deployed at the site to search and map the area. In all, 71 anomalies and reflections were found: 57 on the grounds outside the church and 14 in the church basement.
Revelations from an excavation near a former residential school
WATCH | Pine Creek’s revelations after deciding to excavate at the site of a former residential school: 12:03
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The basement quickly became a focus because anomalies in the soil were one metre deep and 1.25 metres in length, said Nepinak, consistent with other ground searches of potential unmarked burials in Canada and elsewhere. Plus, there were the survivors’ stories.
Forensic anthropologist Emily Holland and her crew from Brandon University, who had assisted police with other excavations, were brought in to conduct the project. The dig began about a year later, in late July.
CBC News was given access to witness the excavation in the final week of the process, when 11 of 14 sites in the church basement were already complete.
The basement was cool, a contrast to the warm air outside. Natural light poured in through small open windows, mixing with the fluorescent light illuminating the area. A damp, musty smell emanated from the dirt floor and stone walls.
The dig was done largely by hand, each rectangular anomaly marked off with white string. Teams would carefully scrape at the ground with small tools, gathering soil, rocks and other material into a small pile to be scooped into buckets and taken outside for further examination.
“There were 14 reflections identified in this basement, and when we were making the plans for doing this work, we had to plan as though we were going to find 14 graves, with 14 people,” explained Holland.
While no remains were found, the dig revealed other small bits of the site’s history: Old nails. Glass and ceramics. Large rocks. Animal bones. Layer of ash. Holland points to a dark horizontal line on the wall of one hole — a cauterized scar from when the original church burned down decades before.
CBC News was given access to witness the excavation in the final week of the process, when 11 of 14 sites in the church basement were already complete. While no human remains were ultimately found, the search revealed other bits of the church’s history, including large rocks, ash, broken ceramics and more. (Chris Corday/CBC)
How GPR works
Ground-penetrating radar is a geophysical survey that sends electromagnetic waves into the ground. It is most commonly used to find infrastructure pipes for gas and water. Those waves can find disturbances — typically called “reflections” or “anomalies” — in the soil that differentiate it from the surrounding area, explained Holland.
“We always have to remember that GPR cannot tell us for sure that it’s a grave or that the reflection contains human remains. It’s just beyond the technology,” she said. “The only way to really understand what’s in a reflection … is to excavate.”
When asked how this excavation might impact others planned at similar sites across Canada, Holland stressed that this one is too unique to compare.
“It’s not something where I think you can draw direct parallels between the work here, or even the reflections that have been identified outside of the church,” she said. “And certainly you can’t draw direct parallels to any other work that’s going on in these kinds of investigations in Canada.”
Nepinak also cautions that each search is unique and should not be compared. He offers this message for Indigenous communities doing similar work involving ground-penetrating radar — be very cautious that it’s one step in a long journey.
“Take the next steps you need to promote the well-being of your community,” he said. “And sometimes the well-being of your community might be best promoted by doing the excavation, like we’ve done here. Or you know, letting things rest, like I know some communities will choose to do.
“But do not let the ground-penetrating radar numbers be the conclusive evidence that you need to arrive at your healing pathway.”
Beginning to heal
Indigenous people have built up a lot of anger inside them about this issue — and they need to begin to let it go now, said Nepinak. “The anger that we hold on to is preventing us from being the best version of ourselves in this lifetime,” he said. “We are still living in the aftermath of that trauma that was there, and that continues to be there.”
Catcheway makes her way down the grass path to an open field about 200 metres behind the church. Here, there are 57 more spots identified by GPR as having reflections and anomalies are spread across the field. Bright flags, with Every Child Matters written on them, flutter in the breeze, marking each hit.
The community hasn’t yet decided whether these will be excavated or not.
Catcheway wonders how the news of no human remains being found underneath the church will be received outside the community — and whether the survivors’ memories that led to the basement being searched will be taken into context.
Though she understands more people may now disagree with the decision to dig, Catcheway is firm in her belief it was the best path forward.
“We needed to do it so that a lot of our people can begin that process of healing,” Catcheway said. “So I feel like, yeah, this is just one … phase. So we need to still continue.”
A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available to provide support for survivors and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour service at 1-866-925-4419.
Mental health counselling and crisis support are also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat.
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About the Author
Wawmeesh Hamilton
Wawmeesh Hamilton is an award winning Indigenous affairs reporter with CBC Vancouver. He reports on Indigenous people, communities and issues in B.C. and across Canada. His work about Indigenous people and reconciliation has also been published on CBC the National, CBC Radio, CBC Online and CBC Indigenous. His radio documentary Not Alone (CBC The Current) won the 2020 Jack Webster Award for best feature and enterprise reporting. Wawmeesh is a graduate of the UBC Graduate School of Journalism (2016). He lives in Vancouver and is a member of the Hupacasath First Nation in Port Alberni, B.C.