Muskowekwan First Nation recognizes 35 unmarked graves at residential school site
The Muskowekwan First Nation has laid out 35 pairs of children’s moccasins and shoes to honour each unmarked gravesite located at the site of its former residential school.
The First Nation said the shoes will also honour the 215 children whose remains were found at a Kamloops residential school site last week.
The last residential school in Saskatchewan to close its doors, called Muscowequan Indian Residential School, was located on Muskowekwan First Nation. It opened in 1886 and closed in 1997.
A sign that reads "We Support Kamloops" hangs on the front of the Muscowequan Indian Residential School, the last residential school to close its doors in Saskatchewan in 1997. (Stefanie Davis/CTV Regina)
On Tuesday, dozens of people gathered at the school site to pay tribute to residential school attendees and survivors across the country.
Roland Desjarlais attended the Muscowequan Indian Residential School for nine years. He was taken from his family when we was only seven.
“I thought I was only going to come here to visit because I live so close, but I couldn’t go home,” Desjarlais said. “When you’re just a little child, you’re crying day after day after day.”
His family lived just metres away from the school.
“The thing about me being here is that I could see my mother doing laundry outside,” he said. “Being seven or eight years old and not being able to go see her, to go join her – how come I can’t just go home? You absolutely do not understand any part of that.”
He remembers playing sports during his days at the school, which he said he enjoyed. But he also remembers physical abuse when he was caught trying to learn his language from other students.
Desjarlais said his father spoke Cree. He never got to learn much of the language because of his time at the residential school. Now he wishes he could pass it on to his children and grandchildren.
GROUND RADAR FINDINGS
In 2018 and 2019, the First Nation worked with the University of Saskatchewan and the University of Alberta to use ground-penetrating radar to find unmarked or unidentified graves of children who attended the school.
Through that process, along with water line construction done in the 1990’s, the First Nation has identified at least 35 graves. It said there are likely more still waiting to be found.
“Our elders have told us that there’s a lot of areas here that haven’t been explored and eventually we will do that,” Cynthia Desjarlais, a councillor on Muskowekwan First Nation, said at the ceremony on Tuesday.
She said the universities will come back to explore more of the land, but there have been delays due to funding and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Now the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations (FSIN) and the Saskatchewan government are calling on the federal government to help fund radar ground searches at residential schools in Saskatchewan.
“Then we deal with the findings. Obviously closure and that healing journey would continue for so many families,” FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron said.
Cameron said he’s proud of Saskatchewan for being one of the first regions to “hit the ground running” with organizing radar ground searching and to have the support of the premier.
“We met and discussed [on Monday] with three radar ground search companies who are ready to do the work,” Cameron said.
Cameron said he’s hopeful the process could start by next week.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Quebec nurse had to clean up after husband's death in Montreal hospital
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
What is changing about Canada's capital gains tax and how does it impact me?
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
'Anything to win': Trudeau says as Poilievre defends meeting protesters
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
Northern Ont. lawyer who abandoned clients in child protection cases disbarred
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
Boeing's financial woes continue, while families of crash victims urge U.S. to prosecute the company
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Bank of Canada officials split on when to start cutting interest rates
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
Fair in Ontario, flurries in Labrador: Weather systems make for an erratic spring
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Police tangle with students in Texas and California as wave of campus protest against Gaza war grows
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.