More unmarked graves located at St. Eugene’s Mission School (CANADA)

Students and staff from a Mi'kmaw high school in Nova Scotia are honouring the stories of missing and murdered Indigenous people in Canada with a song and music video. https://t.co/o8hDChP90A pic.twitter.com/PyyPLpJf70

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182 unmarked graves found at third former residential school

UPDATED: Graves are located near the site of a former residential school located on Ktunaxa Nation territory in British Columbia
 Jun 30, 2021

APTN National News

St. Eugene's Residential School is also known as the Kootenay or Little Red Brick School.

WARNING: This story has disturbing details about residential and boarding schools. If you are feeling triggered, here is a resource list for trauma responses from the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition in the US. The National Indian Residential School Crisis Hotline in Canada can be reached at 1-866-925-4419. If you're in Treaty 4 territory, call 306-522-7494.

Kathleen Martens
APTN National News

Another First Nation is reporting the discovery of unmarked graves near the site of a former residential school, St. Eugene’s Mission School.

It follows two other reports of similar massive findings at two other such church-run schools, one of more than 600 unmarked graves at the former Marieval Indian Residential School and another of 215 bodies at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

The community of ʔaq’am, also known as St. Mary’s band, situated within the traditional territory of the Ktunaxa Nation near Cranbrook, British Columbia, located 182 unmarked graves in 2020 using ground penetrating radar. It is close to the former St. Eugene’s Mission School, which was operated by the Catholic Church from 1912 until the early 1970s.

But it only recently notified the nearby Lower Kootenay First Nation about the find.

Cranbrook is 524 miles east of Vancouver

“In the ground search conducted by the community of ʔaq’am, the findings revealed 182 human remains in unmarked graves,” said a news release from Lower Kootenay shared with APTN News Wednesday. Some unmarked graves were about 3 feet deep, it said.

“It is believed that the remains of these 182 souls are from the member Bands of the Ktunaxa nation, neighbouring First Nations communities, & the community of aqam.”

Chief Jason Louie of the Lower Kootenay Band, which is also a member of the Ktunaxa Nation, called the discovery “deeply personal” since he had relatives attend the school.

“Let’s call this for what it is,” Louie told CBC radio in an interview. “It’s a mass murder of Indigenous people."

“The Nazis were held accountable for their war crimes. I see no difference in locating the priests and nuns and the brothers who are responsible for this mass murder to be held accountable for their part in this attempt of genocide of an Indigenous people.” KEEP READING

 

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(Related: 751 unmarked graves is ‘a wake up call’)