5/30/21 215 Indigenous Children's Bodies Found at Canadian Residential School

Devastating proof of the mistreatment of native children has been discovered underground at a closed residential school in Kamloops, British Columbia.

Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation said in a news release that the remains of 215 children were confirmed last weekend with the help of ground-penetrating radar.

251 children! And the search for lost children isn't over: There is more land yet to be studied.

Starting in the 19th century, Canada's native children were taken from their families and sent to state-funded Christian schools, where they were trained in what they needed to be able to assimilate into the larger culture. Many of the children were beaten for using their native language and were abused physically, sexually, and verbally.

The Kamloops school was run by the Catholic Church from 1890 to 1969, when the federal government took it over for a different use. It closed in 1978.

A committee of Truth and Reconciliation a half a decade ago reported that there had been "at least" 51 deaths at the school in Kamloops, British Columbia, which was the largest of the schools, between 1915 and 1963. Nationwide, it said, at least 3,200 children had died of abuse and neglect.

The First Nations Health Authority called the discovery of the children’s remains “extremely painful” and said in a website posting that it “will have a significant impact on the Tk’emlúps community and in the communities served by this residential school.”

The Authority attributes the high levels of alcoholism and drug use among native groups to the isolation, abuse and neglect of these schools.

I've always thought of Canada as a kinder, gentler nation when it comes to native rights. This discovery gives me pause. We know that White America had similar schools and that they were severe, but the number of deaths at Kamloops is extreme. The only comparison to it in the United States -- that I know of -- was in a school for wayward boys in Florida called the Dozier School. About 81 unmarked graves were found there.

What do you believe Canada is obligated to do in response to these lost children? Pay reparations? Build a monument? A chapel for reflection? A formal cemetery with gravestones?

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kamloops-school-bodies_n_60a95fc5e4b019ef10dad726?fbclid=IwAR2BrjBK1JKkWYuonJew2fpCCcTy2Zqjy-iJ-rBb4DcUy5rZK5N-7pnHF8k