A First Nation group has discovered 79 suspected child burial sites and 14 potential infant grave sites at a former residential school in Saskatchewan, Canada, local media stated.
“This number isn’t final. It hurts to think that there are probably more,” said Jenny Wolverine, Chief of the English River First Nation, during a press conference in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan’s capital, on Tuesday.
“We didn’t know what to expect or what we’d find. But we did know the stories that have been passed down over generations about how the students were treated and those students who never made it home,” Wolverine added.
The report mentioned that the chief of the English River community has appealed to both federal and provincial governments for resources to support their search effort.
Starting in August 2021, English River initiated the search at the former Beauval Indian Residential School using ground-penetrating radar. The research team is now gearing up for the second phase of their investigation.
Established in 1860, the Beauval Indian Residential School operated for over a century, as per the University of Regina.
In 2013, a former dormitory supervisor at the school was found guilty of indecent assault and gross indecency for abusing young boys between 1959 and 1967, reported CTV News.
This site is the latest among several Canadian locations being investigated for possible unmarked graves of children who lost their lives while attending residential schools.
