Sask. first Nation announces discovery of 751 unmarked graves near former residential school

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

The Cowessess First Nation announced a preliminary finding Thursday of 751 unmarked graves at a cemetery near the former Marieval Indian Residential School.

The Marieval Indian Residential School operated from 1899 to 1997 in the area where Cowessess is now located, about 140 kilometres east of Regina. Children from First Nations in southeast Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba were sent to the school. The First Nation took over the school’s cemetery from the Catholic Church in the 1970s. Earlier this month Cowessess started using ground-penetrating radar to locate unmarked graves. It was not immediately clear if all the remains are connected to the residential school. Cowessess Chief Cadmus Delorme spoke at a virtual news conference Thursday morning.

“This is not a mass grave site. These are unmarked graves,” Delorme said. Delorme said there may have at one point been markers for the graves. He said the Roman Catholic church, which oversaw the cemetery, may have removed markers at some point in the 1960s.

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He said it was not immediately clear if all of the unmarked graves belonged to children, but that there were oral stories within Cowessess First Nation about both children and adults being there.

He said some of the remains discovered may be people who attended the church or were from nearby towns.

Delorme said some 44,000 square metres of area were searched by technical teams from Saskatchewan Polytechnic, which the First Nation partnered with for the search. Teams were unable to confirm if there were more remains, but said there were 751 “recorded hits” at the site and noted there could be more than one set of remains at each “hit.” He said the penetrating radar work has a 10 to 15 per cent error rate.

Technical teams would be able to provide a verified number in the coming weeks, Delorme said. Thursday’s announcement marked “Phase 1” of the First Nation’s search efforts, he said. The community would continue search efforts in the area based on oral history.. ........................