Canada: Hundreds of graves found at Indigenous boarding school

Cowessess First Nation announced the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves on the grounds of former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Chief Cadmus Delorme said they have likely found “751 unmarked graves. This is not a mass grave site. These are unmarked graves,” he said in a press conference on Tuesday.

The gravesite was administered by the Roman Catholic Church, Delorme said. He said there were once likely gravestones marking the graves, which could have been removed.

Removing gravestones is a crime in Canada, Delorme said, and the area is being treated as a crime scene.

He continued: “We cannot confirm they are all children. But there are oral stories that there are adults in this gravesite, as well.”

The discovery comes weeks after the discovery of over 200 children’s remains at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, which shocked the nation.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau described that discovery as heartbreaking.

Delorme said the machine used to discover the grave had a error rate of roughly ten percent to 15 percent, but at least 600 graves had been confirmed.

“It’s real. It’s there”, Delorme said, going to say Canada needs “truth and reconciliation” about its historic treatment of Indigenous people.

This is a developing story. More to come.