“Without truth, justice, and healing, there can be no genuine reconciliation.” - Truth and Reconciliation Commission Final Report, 2015
Seven years later, the full truth of what happened in residential schools is still not known.
TW
Our team spent a year investigating St. Michael’s Residential School in Duck Lake, SK. We found 290+ allegations of sexual and physical abuse across decades. We published names of dozens of alleged abusers, mostly priests and nuns.
We also discovered children died at the school.
Earlier this year, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation @NCTR_UM listed 52 children who died at St. Michael’s. With new research this spring, that number nearly doubled. They found evidence of 102 children who died at the school run by the Oblates.
We found others.
We found records of 10 student deaths at St. Michael's not accounted for by @NCTR_UM.
Some records list the cause of death, like consumption or TB. Others give no explanation.
In 1910, an Indian agent estimated that half of the children sent to the school died before age 18.
19 children from a nearby Cree community, the One Arrow First Nation, were enrolled at St. Michael’s in 1900.
By 1910, ten of those children had died, according to a letter written by an Indian Agent.
Some children were returned home while others were buried at the school.
We heard stories that some boys had to help dig graves.
In one lawsuit we saw, a survivor who attended St. Michael’s from 1917-1922 claimed he was forced to dig up remains that had already been buried.
There is momentum this fall to search the grounds where St. Michael’s once stood as well as other areas where the Oblates are believed to have buried children.
Ground penetrating radar could help reveal a more accurate count of the children who died and where they are buried.
But there are still many unanswered questions. How many children remain unaccounted for? Where were these children laid to rest?
Families and communities deserve to know the full truth.
#OrangeShirtDay
Listen: gimletmedia.com/shows/stolen
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