Leaders of Indigenous groups in Canada say investigators have found 751 unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school for Indigenous children.
- A search got underway in May around the former school in Marieval, Saskatchewan
- The Marieval residential school hosted Indigenous children between 1899 and 1997
- Weeks earlier, the remains of 215 children were found at a former school for Indigenous children
“This was a crime against humanity, an assault on First Nations,” said Chief Bobby Cameron of the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous First Nations in Saskatchewan.
Mr Cameron said he expects more graves will be found on residential school grounds across Canada and that he also expects more bodies to be located.
“We will not stop until we find all the bodies," he said.
The latest graves were discovered at the Marieval Indian Residential School — which operated from 1899 to 1997 — where the Cowessess First Nation is now located, about 136 kilometres east of Regina, the capital of Saskatchewan.
Chief Cadmusn Delmore of the Cowessess said that the graves were marked at one time, but that the Roman Catholic Church that operated the school had removed the markers.
“An apology is one stage in the way of a healing journey.”
The discovery comes after the remains of 215 children, some as young as 3, were found buried on the site of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school near Kamloops, British Columbia.
Following that discovery, Pope Francis expressed his pain over the discovery and pressed religious and political authorities to shed light on “this sad affair.”
But he didn’t offer the apology sought by First Nations and by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
From the 19th century until the 1970s, more than 150,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend state-funded Christian schools, the majority of them run by Roman Catholic missionary congregations, in a campaign to assimilate them into Canadian society.
The Canadian government has admitted that physical and sexual abuse was rampant in the schools, with students beaten for speaking their native languages.