According to an Indigenous nation in Canada, the remains of 182 people were discovered near the grounds of the former residential school in British Colombia.
The Lower Kootenay Band said it is too early to say if the remains belonged to former students of the school. However, this discovery adds to a rising tally of such unmarked grave sites across the country.
These grim discoveries have prompted national outrage and fuelled calls by some to cancel the 1 July Canada Day Holiday, seeing as many indigenous people do not recognize the holiday and the fact that this sentiment is growing amid the discoveries.
Indigenous leaders have stated that they expect more graves will be found as investigations continue.
Ground-penetrating technology was used to uncover the recent gravesites close to the former St Eugene’s Mission School, some of the remains were found in shallow graves that were only 3-4ft deep.
St Eugene’s was operated by the Catholic church from 1912 until the early 1970s, it was one of more than 130 compulsory boarding schools funded by the Canadian government and run by religious authorities with the aim of forcibly assimilating indigenous youth.
However, the latest remains were found on the grounds of the Aq’am cemetery, which dates back to 1865, making it difficult to establish if the graves contain the remains of children who attended the St Eugene’s school.
In May, the remains of 215 children were found in unmarked graves in Kamloops, Canada. Then last week, leaders for the Cowessess First Nation stated that the remains of 751 bodies, mostly children, were found at another former school site in Saskatchewan.
