Over 960 unidentified Indigenous graves found in Canada

750 other unidentified graves have been located near a boarding school in Canada.. The new discovery shocked society in this country, already moved by the context of the event.

The chief of the Cowessess tribe, Cadmus Delorme, he reported that we do not know for the moment if these are graves of miners. However, the oral tradition of the tribe indicates the presence of indigenous children in the place.

It is still unclear whether the new find is related to the Native Children’s Residential School that operated there. for the forced incorporation of this population into society.

Delorme confirmed that “This is not a mass grave”, but “nameless graves”. The cemetery was supervised until 1960 by the Catholic Church, which according to the Indian leader would have withdrawn the identifications.

The Cowessess tribe, involved in the research process, consider the place to be a “crime scene”.

Some of the Indigenous Peoples of Canada started investigating in the immediate vicinity of these schools with ground penetrating radars to locate the gravesAs is the case with Cowessess, something experts have already anticipated will lead to more discoveries of this caliber.

The native boarding school of Marieval, where the graves were found, operated from 1899 to 1996 in the area where the Cowessess tribe now resides, approximately 140 kilometers east of the city of Regina, capital of the province of Saskatchewan. Although the school was demolished, the church and the cemetery remained.

These types of schools were created in the 19th and 20th centuries to forcibly integrate young Indians into society. The project was funded by the state and managed by religious organizations.

Recent investigations and body discoveries have caused an uproar across the nation. The controversy led the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, to demand that the Catholic Church “assume its responsibility”.

May find

At the end of May, an investigation revealed the remains of 215 children in a Canadian school mass grave closed in 1978 and raised to facilitate the integration of the indigenous population.

The bodies were found in the Kamloops Indian Residential School, in British Columbia, where coroners are already working to determine the exact cause and date of deaths, Canadian public television reported, Radio-Canada.

The discovery was announced by the chief of the Indian tribe Tk’emlups te Secwepemc. “As far as we know, those of these lost children are death without papers. Some were only three years oldSaid the Kamloops community leader, Rosanne Casimir, in statements to the British channel BBC.

The preliminary results of the investigation should be published in a report in junesaid Casimir.

These types of schools were created in the 19th and 20th centuries to forcibly assimilate indigenous youth and have been state funded and run by religious organizations.

Kamloops was the largest in the country, opened in 1890 under a Catholic administration, and hosted a few 500 students at its peak, in the 1950s. In 1969 the federal government took over the management and transformed it into a student residence and this is how it operated until it closed in 1978.

“It breaks my heart”the Canadian Prime Minister said on Twitter, Justin trudeau. “It’s a sad memory of this dark and regrettable chapter in our history. My hearts go out to all who are touched by this heartbreaking news, ”wrote the president, who made the point. reconciliation with the first peoples of Canada one of its priorities since taking office in 2015.

(With information from EUROPA PRESS)

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