WARNING: This story contains distressing details.
Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc is calling on the government and the Catholic church to provide records and resources as the First Nation continues to uncover potential burial sites near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.
In a presentation Thursday, the First Nation renewed commitments to continue work at the site, where approximately 200 potential burial sites have been identified using ground-penetrating radar (GPR).
A ground-penetrating radar specialist says that number may be much higher since 64 hectares remain to be surveyed and more forensic investigation and excavation work needs to be done.
"This is heavy truth," Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir said as the presentation began.
Sarah Beaulieu, a sessional instructor at the University of the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, B.C., who has experience surveying Indigenous and city cemeteries and was the first to excavate First World War internment sites in Canada, said she surveyed two acres of a 160-acre area from May 21 to May 24.
Beaulieu, along with Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc leaders, on Thursday presented findings of their report, called the Kamloops Indian Residential School Le Estcwéý (The Missing) Report.
Beaulieu said an apple orchard near the school was chosen as the survey site after survivors brought forward stories of being woken up in the middle of the night to dig graves there.
During a presentation that outlined how ground-penetrating radar (GPR) science works, Beaulieu also said a juvenile tooth and rib were found in the area.
Beaulieu stressed that GPR is not necessary to confirm that children went missing at residential schools since there is copious oral history and documentation that confirms that fact.
"Remote sensing merely provides some spatial specificity to this truth," she said.
'We love you, we see you and we believe you'
Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir said during the presentation that it is critical to ensure survivors are finally heard when it comes to the death of children at residential school.
"We love you, we see you and we believe you," Casimir said.
She said while this is being referred to as a dark chapter, she wants Canadians to know that Indigenous people are living with the repercussions today.
"We are not here for retaliation, we are here for truth telling, we are here today to honour the children," Casimir said.
Casimir called for "full and complete disclosure" from the federal government and the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, the Catholic order that operated dozens of residential schools in Canada, when it comes to any information the entities have, in particular, records of student attendance.
"We have a responsibility and the obligation to identify the unmarked graves found within our jurisdiction."
She also called on the federal and provincial governments to provide immediate, ongoing funding and resources to go toward identifying, documenting, maintaining and protecting the site.
WATCH | Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Kukpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir calls on government for support:
After a preliminary report was released in May, the nation said it was working with the BC Coroners Service, contacting the children's home communities and working with museums to find records of these deaths.
The Kamloops Indian Residential School was in operation from 1890 to 1969, when the federal government took over administration from the Catholic Church to operate it as a residence for a day school, until it closed in 1978.
Up to 500 students would have been registered at the school at any given time, according to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR). Those children would have come from First Nations communities across B.C. and beyond.
Further searches
The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation estimates about 4,100 children died at residential schools in Canada, based on death records, but has said the true total is likely much higher.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission said large numbers of Indigenous children who were forcibly sent to residential schools never returned home.
In the wake of the preliminary discovery in Kamloops, the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan announced a preliminary finding of 751 unmarked graves at a cemetery near the former Marieval Indian Residential School, which was in operation from 1899 to 1997.
Cowessess also used ground-penetrating radar to locate the grave sites earlier this month. It was not immediately clear if all the graves are connected to the residential school, which is located about 140 kilometres east of Regina.
Earlier this week, the Penelakut Tribe in B.C.'s Southern Gulf Islands announced that more than 160 "undocumented and unmarked" graves have been found in the area, which was also once home to the Kuper Island Residential School. The tribe did not say how the graves were found, whether children's remains are suspected of being buried there or whether ground-penetrating radar was used.
The Williams Lake First Nation, located in the Cariboo region of the Central Interior region of B.C., is also preparing to search the site of another former facility, St Joseph's Mission, which is located a few kilometres from the nation's community core and operated as a residential school between 1886 and 1981.
Support is available for anyone affected by the lingering effects of residential school and those who are triggered by the latest reports.
A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for residential school survivors and others affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.
Do you have information about unmarked graves, children who never came home or residential school staff and operations? Email your tips to CBC's new Indigenous-led team investigating residential schools: WhereAreThey@cbc.ca.
'This is heavy truth': Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc chief says more to be done to identify unmarked graves - CBC.ca
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