# Many hundreds of unmarked graves of Indigenous children discovered at Canadian residential schools **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 5, 2021, 2:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674 "2021-06-05T14:04:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 1:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/202 "2021-06-15T01:43:12Z")
[Or something…](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/drdeth-is-a-fuckin-jackass/933971/1040) ---
**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/203 "2021-06-15T02:21:34Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Well the term “Cultural genocide” is both fairly new, and rather disputed. I Okay, would you like to propose a word for “the deliberate elimination, using the power of the state, to cause the forced end of a culture”? ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/204 "2021-06-15T02:37:26Z")
I did, and two that are commonly used- > [@DrDeth](#): > > Ethnocide or Cultural Cleansing ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 2:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/205 "2021-06-15T02:44:50Z")
  nvm ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/206 "2021-06-15T03:24:22Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > And it is one of those issues that if you do not agree 100% with the ire, you become the enemy, and people start describing your posts are saying that it was a good thing and wonderful, whereas I have said just the opposite. It was a bad idea by the Government, they should not have done it. It was often handled poorly, with terrible, horrible results. A travesty that should be looked into fully. So, where do we disagree? You think it was a good idea, perhaps? Not horrible? What? I do not understand the ire. Is the only possible post here “we are the chorus and we agree, we agree?”. Should we dig up the various Popes, have a trial, cut off their fingers and throw their bodies in the Tiber? I hope not, but then what? What post would make you happy? So I think maybe the term “genocide” is overused and may not fit this incidence. Sure, that is something we can disagree on like sensible adults without namecalling. We are in 99% agreement, does it have to be 100% or else you get into a frothing rage? ---
**Author:** ![Skywatcher](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skywatcher/32/254_2.png) [@Skywatcher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skywatcher)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 2:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/207 "2021-06-15T14:39:30Z")
Article 2 of the Genocide Convention defines genocide as (bolding mine) > … **any of the following acts** committed with [intent to destroy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocidal_intent), [in whole or in part](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genocide#.22In_whole_or_in_part.22), a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such: > > (a) Killing members of the group; > > (b) **Causing serious** bodily or **mental harm** to members of the group; > > (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part; > > (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group; > > (e) **Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.** You’re saying none of that happened in Canada? ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [June 15, 2021, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/208 "2021-06-15T22:02:19Z")
And this Canadian atrocity has been defined as Cultural Genocide by the Canadian government and our leaders. So, sorry if anyone else does not like the term, but that’s the way it is. Time to move on from the semantic quibbling. ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2021, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/209 "2021-06-21T05:10:57Z")
> **[Kamloops residential school has woken up world to ‘genocide’ in Canada,...](https://www.theglobeandmail.com/amp/politics/article-kamloops-residential-school-has-woken-up-world-to-genocide-in-canada/)** > > There needs to be investigation, remembrance and commemoration of all sites following the discovery of children’s remains in B.C., outgoing AFN National Chief says ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/210 "2021-06-24T00:09:10Z")
[More unmarked graves found at a former residential school in Saskatchewan.](https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/hundreds-of-bodies-found-in-unmarked-graves-at-former-saskatchewan-residential-school) These schools did not keep good records of children who died in their care, and tossed them into unmarked graves. Or, they did keep records, and have been deliberately witholding them for decades, refusing to release them. I really wonder how many of these children were the victims of deliberate murder - either from horrific abuse, or to shut them up after they were raped. The coverups from the churches continue to this very day. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/211 "2021-06-24T02:30:28Z")
Thursday they are going to reveal some Saskatchewan numbers and it won’t be pretty. It’s said to be a high number. ---
**Author:** ![Euphonious\_Polemic](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/euphonious_polemic/32/3002_2.png) [@Euphonious\_Polemic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Euphonious_Polemic)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/212 "2021-06-24T04:20:30Z")
And sadly, they won’t be the last unmarked graves discovered. Some church authorities are [finally allowing release of some of their records.](https://www.timescolonist.com/news/local/first-nations-win-access-to-archives-of-sisters-of-st-ann-1.24334675) About fucking time. And these records are only going to be released after intense pressure and lobbying. The Sisters of St. Anne were sure as hell not even talking about these records for the past several decades. ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 7:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/213 "2021-06-24T07:57:53Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Thursday they are going to reveal some Saskatchewan numbers and it won’t be pretty. It’s said to be a high number It is expected to be over three times as many as the previous find: [Hundreds of bodies found in unmarked graves at former Saskatchewan residential school | Montreal Gazette](https://montrealgazette.com/news/canada/hundreds-of-bodies-found-in-unmarked-graves-at-former-saskatchewan-residential-school/wcm/08bfbff5-7547-4f74-873b-598c6862d39e) "Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) determined that at least 3,200 Indigenous children died while attending residential school, and that general practice was “not to send the bodies of students who died at schools to their home communities.” “Many students who went to residential school never returned. ­They were lost to their families. Th­ey died at rates that were far higher than those experienced by the general school-aged population. ­Their parents were often uninformed of their sickness and death. Th­ey were buried away from their families in long-neglected graves,” reads the 2015 TRC report." ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/214 "2021-06-24T13:54:45Z")
> [@Dr\_Paprika](#): > > Thursday they are going to reveal some Saskatchewan numbers and it won’t be pretty. It’s said to be a high number. And this is probably the tip of the iceberg. They need to check the sites of all of these schools. (I expect at least some of that is in progress, or will be soon.) ---
**Author:** ![puzzlegal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/puzzlegal/32/3827_2.png) [@puzzlegal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/puzzlegal)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 2:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/215 "2021-06-24T14:38:33Z")
Yerk. Yes, this is feeling very iceberg-tippy. I think this is going to uncover some really really bad stuff. 😢 ---
**Author:** ![Ike\_Witt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ike_witt/32/283_2.png) [@Ike\_Witt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ike_Witt)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/216 "2021-06-24T16:40:21Z")
> [@Euphonious\_Polemic](#): > > These schools did not keep good records of children who died in their care, and tossed them into unmarked graves. Or, they did keep records, and have been deliberately witholding them for decades, refusing to release them. It’s disturbingly disrespectful, inhuman really, how these children and their families were treated. How do you make amends for something so terrible? ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/217 "2021-06-24T16:51:50Z")
751 graves were found at the Saskatchewan school, it was announced today. > [@](#): > > The Cowessess First Nation announced a preliminary finding Thursday of 751 unmarked graves at a cemetery near the former Marieval Indian Residential School. > > The Marieval Indian Residential School operated from 1899 to 1997 in the area where Cowessess is now located, about 140 kilometres east of Regina. People from southeast Saskatchewan and southwestern Manitoba attended the school. > > The First Nation took over the school’s cemetery from the Catholic Church in the 1970s. > > Earlier this month Cowessess started using ground-penetrating radar to locate unmarked graves. It was not immediately clear if all the remains are connected to the residential school. > > Cowessess Chief Cadmus Delorme spoke at a virtual news conference Thursday morning. > > “This is not a mass grave site. These are unmarked graves,” Delorme said. > > Delorme said there may have at one point been markers for the graves. He said the Roman Catholic church, which oversaw the cemetery,may have removed markers at some point in the 1960s. > **[Sask. First Nation announces discovery of 751 unmarked graves near former...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/cowessess-marieval-indian-residential-school-news-1.6078375)** > > The chiefs of the Cowessess First Nation and the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations spoke about the discovery of a "substantial" number of unmarked graves at the site of the Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2021, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/218 "2021-06-24T20:02:56Z")
2 down, 137 school grounds to go. Do the math. Over 30,000 children. This is only the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![Dr\_Paprika](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dr_paprika/32/3042_2.png) [@Dr\_Paprika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr_Paprika)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2021, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/219 "2021-06-25T00:34:19Z")
Il sait porter la croix! Ton histoire est une epopee - de plus brilliants exploits! ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [June 25, 2021, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/220 "2021-06-25T23:33:33Z")
“It is readily acknowledged that Indian children lose their natural resistance to illness, by habitating so closely in these schools, and they die at a much higher rate than in their villages. But this alone, does not justify a change in the policy of this department, which is being geared towards the final solution of our Indian problem. It is quite within the mark to say that 50% of the children who passed through these schools did not live to benefit from the education they received therein.” Duncan Campbell Scott Deputy Superintendent General of Indian Affairs 1913-1932 My flag will remain unfurled this Canada Day. ---
**Author:** ![Gorsnak](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gorsnak/32/7587_2.png) [@Gorsnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gorsnak)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2021, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674/221 "2021-06-26T02:40:46Z")
Bit of “vandalism” here today. The news story crops the image and makes it rather less impactful than what the photographer had originally posted on Facebook. Originals below have been circulating on social media here. Photographer is credited in the news story. > **[Saskatoon Catholic cathedral covered with paint after discovery of 751...](https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/saskatoon-catholic-cathedral-covered-with-paint-after-discovery-of-751-unmarked-graves-1.6079950)** > > The doors of a Roman Catholic cathedral in downtown Saskatoon were splattered with paint Thursday afternoon after the discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at the former Marieval Indian Residential School. [![](https://i.imgur.com/7LVzjHc.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/7LVzjHc.jpg) [![](https://i.imgur.com/6FkOnGc.jpg) ](https://i.imgur.com/6FkOnGc.jpg) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/many-hundreds-of-unmarked-graves-of-indigenous-children-discovered-at-canadian-residential-schools/943674.md?page=12)