Last Monday, two other churches, also in reservations of indigenous inhabitants, burned to the ground. It is being investigated whether the two youngest fires have anything to do with this. The fires come after hundreds of anonymous children’s graves were discovered at boarding schools where indigenous children were once sent to teach them ‘civilization’.
The two churches that went up in flames on Saturday were old, and both made entirely of wood. “Luckily no one was injured,” Keith Crow, an indigenous leader of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band, told the newspaper. Vancouver Sun.. According to Crow, people from his own community also went to the burned-out St. Ann’s Church and were deeply moved by both the fires and the discovery of the graves. “A lot of people are concerned. It’s heartbreaking.’
Excuses
A few weeks ago, the remains of 215 children were found near a boarding school in Kamloops, British Columbia, and last week 751 graves have been found at the former Marieval boarding school (Saskatechewan). Both institutions were run by the Catholic Church. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau this weekend called on Pope Francis to apologize on behalf of the church for the crimes it has committed against Canada’s indigenous people.
From the nineteenth century to the late 1990s, at least 150,000 indigenous children in such boarding schools were forced to adapt to the culture of white Canadians. The children were completely neglected: there was sexual abuse, malnutrition, mistreatment, poor hygiene and infectious diseases, and thousands of children are said to have died. The Canadian federal government, which has itself formally apologized, has earmarked Canadian dollars 27 million for research. With that money, local communities use radar technology to search for hidden graves.
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