"The students who did not return have come to be known as the Missing Children."

[Floyd R. Turbo]

KAMLOOPS — A B.C. First Nation has confirmed that the remains of 215 children who were students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School have been found on the reserve using ground-penetrating radar.

In a news release, Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation Chief Rosanne Casimir calls the discovery an “unthinkable loss that was spoken about, but never documented by the Kamloops Indian Residential School,” which was the largest school in the country’s Indian Affairs residential school system.

“We had a knowing in our community that we were able to verify. To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths,” Casimir said. “Some were as young as three years old. We sought out a way to confirm that knowing out of deepest respect and love for those lost children and their families, understanding that Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc is the final resting place of these children.”

B.C. Premier John Horgan issued a statement early Friday, saying he was “horrified and heartbroken” to hear about the burial site.


https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/remains-of-215-children-found-at-former-kamloops-residential-school-first-nation

[Hugh_Lebowski]

1. Sounds like they all disappeared before 1978 but the rather long article has very few dates

Doesn't explain anything about the timeframe of when the kids died (or were killed).

School was open it sounds like for many decades starting in the late 19th century.

The Kamloops Industrial School (later known as the Kamloops Indian Residential School) was opened, under Roman Catholic administration, in 1890. It was part of the Canadian residential school system, established as part of the government policy of forced assimilation that resulted in the oppression of generations of Indigenous children. It was one of more than 130 such schools that operated in Canada between 1874 and 1996.

Located on the traditional territory of the Secwépemc people, hundreds of Secwépemc and other First Nations children attended the Kamloops school. Students were sent there from as far away as Penticton, Hope, Mount Currie, Lillooet and even outside the province. Enrolment peaked in the early 1950s at 500. Children were forcibly removed from their homes once attendance became mandatory by law in the 1920s, with their parents under threat of prison if they refused. Students lived at the school from September to June, alienated from their family except for Christmas and Easter visits.

It became the largest school in the Indian Affairs residential school system. In 1969, the federal government took over the administration of the school, which no longer provided any classes and operated it as residence for students attending local day schools until 1978, when the residence was closed.

[secondwind]

2. Could they have died from measles, or other childhood diseases back then?

[Floyd R. Turbo]

6. Possibly!

[stopdiggin]

3. I don't quite understand

there was zero accounting or record of these 'deaths?' Or the remains were just not repatriated to parents and community? Notification?

(Don't even Catholic institutions have to record deaths?)

Edit:

The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) noted that large numbers of Indigenous children who were sent to residential schools never returned to their home communities. Some children ran away and others died at the schools. The students who did not return have come to be known as the Missing Children. The Missing Children Project documents the deaths and the burial places of children who died while attending the schools. To date, more than 4,100 children who died while attending a residential school have been identified.

This is still pretty disconcerting. Unmarked or undocumented burials?

[Scrivener7]

4. This is heartbreaking. Lots of comments in the comments section on the article bending over

backward to say this is no big deal, but these were children who were forcibly taken from their parents for no reason at all, and sent away to a place where they died. Children as young as 3.

And there is this:

To date, more than 4,100 children who died while attending a residential school have been identified.

After having been taken away from their families. Children as young as 3.

The heartbreak that represents, inflicted for no reason whatsoever, paralyzes me.

[stopdiggin]

5. yes. at the heart of this 'tragedy'

is a really, REALLY ugly policy -- imposed by really bigoted and ugly system (government)

U.S and Australia (to name two) had similar ideas, systems and policy.

[Scrivener7]

7. And I'm sure there are thousands upon thousands of "forgotten children" who will

never be forgotten in our two countries too.

Honestly, this story just gut-punched me.