Children's boots sit at the base of a monument that commemorates the original Indian Residential School at George Gordon First Nation on April 20.Michael Bell/The Canadian Press
A Saskatchewan First Nation has located 14 possible burials on the grounds of a former Anglican-run residential school, the 10th community to make such an announcement since last May.
George Gordon First Nation, located 100 kilometres north of Regina, is one of roughly 70 communities currently searching the sites of former residential schools for unmarked graves.
On Wednesday, community leaders said that a ground-penetrating radar company had searched four sites around the former Gordon’s Indian Residential School and found 14 subterranean anomalies that are likely burials.
B.C. residential school’s story starts with abuse, ends in fire, but points toward justice
What would it mean to forensically investigate the unmarked graves at residential schools?
“It is my hope that one day we will be able to tell our children the whole story,” Chief Byron Bitternose told a news conference.
No further technical details were provided concerning the size, depth or shape of the anomalies. None of the suspected burials were located on or near known cemeteries.
The search began in the fall and, according to Sarah Longman, a George Gordon member overseeing the search, will take years complete.
“This is probably going to be at least a 10-year journey,” she said. “We’re dealing with more than 100 years of history. There’s a lot of work and area to cover to find what we’re looking for.”
If human remains are recovered, they may never be identified, she said, owing to technological and archival limitations. Though the community has been in constant dialogue with the Anglican Church, Ms. Longman said it has yet to receive all the school records it needs.
Sarah Longman, chair of the George Gordon First Nation Indian Residential School Committee, and Eddie Bitternose, knowledge keeper, speak to media during a public announcement at the George Gordon Education Centre on April 20.Michael Bell/The Canadian Press
Anglican Church of Canada spokesman Joseph Vesci said in an e-mail that all residential school records were submitted to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and are available online.
“We know there are sites at Anglican residential schools where some graves are unmarked or where records are incomplete,” Mr. Vesci said. “We are committed to working with Indigenous communities to assist to recover whatever information is available and to join in advocating for ground searches of those burial sites.”
The Anglican Church apologized for its part in residential schools in 1993 and 2019.
Fifty-four potential graves found at two former Saskatchewan residential schools
George Gordon is one of dozens of First Nations that began searching residential school grounds last year after the B.C. First Nation of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc announced it had discovered 215 unmarked and previously undocumented gravesites using ground-penetrating radar in May.
The figure was later revised to 200 “probable burials.”
The Tk’emlúps revelation initiated a period of reflection and mourning across the country. Flags on federal buildings were lowered to half-mast for five months. International media followed the story closely, including a lengthy segment on the CBS news program 60 Minutes, hosted by Anderson Cooper. Much of the scrutiny focused on the Catholic Church, which operated most of the country’s residential schools.
Different factions of the Anglican Church administered Gordon’s from when it opened in the 1880s to 1969, when it was taken over by the federal government, and eventually closed in 1996.
The original school bell sits atop a monument dedicated to the Indian Residential School at George Gordon First Nation on April 20.Michael Bell/The Canadian Press
During the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement process, government researchers found four criminal convictions of staff members for sexual abuse. Among them was William Peniston Starr, who served as director of the school’s residence from 1969 until 1984. In 1993, he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting 10 boys between the ages of 7 and 14.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission singled out the school dozens of times in reports for a lengthy history of sexual and physical abuse, poor nutrition and generally bad management.
In the 1920s and 30s, the school struggled to prevent runaways and truants. One 11-year-old boy, Andrew Gordon, ran away from school during a 1939 cold snap. His father discovered his frozen corpse three days later.
The Commission found evidence that a culture of corporal punishment persisted at the school long after the practice had been phased out elsewhere. Staff strapped and struck students well into the 1980s, according to the reports.
The recent federal budget included $209.8-million over five years to help communities locate burial sites at former residential schools. On Wednesday, Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Marc Miller committed $326,000 toward searches at the former Shubenacadie Indian Residential School in Nova Scotia.
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Patrick White