The Canadian indigenous Lower Kootenay group he said of having discovered the remains of 182 people buried near a former boarding school for indigenous children near Cranbrook, British Columbia (Canada). It is the third case of its kind in just over a month. At the end of May, one had also been discovered in British Columbia mass grave with the remains of 215 indigenous children and had been discovered last week 751 anonymous graves near another former boarding school in the province of Saskatchewan.
In a statement, the Lower Kootenays said bodies were found in pits excavated about a meter deep near St Eugene’s Mission School, which was run by the Catholic Church and operated from 1912 to the early 1970s. However, it is still early to know if the remains belong to indigenous children who had attended the boarding school, also because they were found in a cemetery that dates back to 1865.
It has been calculated that starting in the 19th century, more than 150,000 First Nations children – the name by which indigenous peoples in Canada are called – were forced to move to Christian boarding schools like this, where they lived and attended classes, but above all they had to undergo strict government-approved cultural assimilation programs. To date, there are no precise estimates, but thousands of them are thought to have died from disease, malnutrition, neglect or suicide.
– Read also: The story of the anonymous tombs discovered in Saskatchewan
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