Grief, sorrow after discovery of 215 bodies, unmarked graves at former B.C. residential school site

[glorybebe]

Sorrowful reaction is pouring in following the discovery of more than 200 children in unmarked graves at a former residential school in B.C.’s Interior.

On Thursday, the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in Kamloops announced that ground-penetrating radar uncovered the remains of 215 children who were students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School

https://globalnews.ca/news/7902306/unmarked-graves-kamloops-residential-school/

Just makes my heart ache.   Those poor children 

[+susieice]

This story is such a tragedy. I hope now the graves of these children will receive a proper marker and their tribes can hold a proper burial ceremony. My heart goes out to them. 

[glorybebe]

See, maybe because I am Canadian, this is the racism that affects me the most.  This is recent history.  This residential school was closed in 1978.  There were residential schools right up to the 90s.  It wasn't history that happened 150 years ago.  I know people who went to these schools and tell horrific stories.  When Brocket 99 surfaced, it brought home how the white community thought of the natives. And that was in 1989.  We need to learn about and confront history to keep from repeating our same mistakes.    

[+susieice]

Things like this were happening in the US also.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Indian_boarding_schools

The last Indian residential school closed in 1996. Children between the ages of 4-16 attended Indian residential school.

[Grim Reaper 6]

4 hours ago, glorybebe said:

Sorrowful reaction is pouring in following the discovery of more than 200 children in unmarked graves at a former residential school in B.C.’s Interior.

On Thursday, the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in Kamloops announced that ground-penetrating radar uncovered the remains of 215 children who were students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School

https://globalnews.ca/news/7902306/unmarked-graves-kamloops-residential-school/

Just makes my heart ache.   Those poor children 

This is an absolute tragedy, and while this is terrible it's only a small part of the wholesale genocide that occurred in the Americas after the first European contact. When I think of minorities trying to force reparations for mistreatment and then when I consider how the governments of the Americas did try to destroy and entire race of people, I think the other minorities claims are trivial. No other group of people suffered more in the Americas than the indigenous people of these continents suffered and continue to do so.

Edited May 29, 2021 by Manwon Lender

[glorybebe]

5 minutes ago, Manwon Lender said:

This is an absolute tragedy, and while this is terrible it's only a small part of the wholesale genocide that occurred in the Americas after the first European contact. When I think of minorities trying to force reparations for mistreatment and then when I consider how the governments of the Americas did try to destroy and entire race of people, I think the other minorities claims are trivial. No other group of people suffered more in the Americas than the indigenous people of these continents suffered and continue to do so.

Exactly!

[Tatetopa]

I know several people my age or a little younger that were shipped off to boarding schools in the US.  None of the three have any good memories of their days there.  They were the US version of re-education camps for kids.

[Likely Guy]

In a related article I read that the death rate at residential schools was comparable to that of Canadian soldiers who died in Nazi POW camps during WWII.

So sad.

[Eldorado]

Related.... from Ireland:

In 1975, two 12-year-old boys were playing at the site of the former Mother and Baby Home. They found a hole or chamber "filled to the brim" with children's skeletons underneath a concrete slab. One of them later said he had seen about twenty skeletons. The slab was believed by some to have covered the former Home's septic tank.

Locals speculated that these were the remains of victims of the Great Famine, unbaptised babies,and/or stillborn babies from the Home. The number of bodies was then unknown, but was assumed to be small. It was re-sealed shortly afterwards, following prayers at the site by a priest.

For the next 35 years the burial site was tended to by a local couple, who also built a small grotto there.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bon_Secours_Mother_and_Baby_Home#Mass_grave

[Likely Guy]

The thing is, is that this is one of about maybe one hundred residential schools in the country.

This can't be the only instance.

Edited May 31, 2021 by Likely Guy

[Tatetopa]

[glorybebe]

Technology uncovered remains at B.C. residential school but secrets still remain beneath the soil

https://globalnews.ca/news/7909761/ground-penetrating-radar-kamloops-residential-school/

Are there more bodies?  Now other provinces are wanting to investigate their residential schools.  And they should.  

[Myles]

On 5/28/2021 at 10:08 PM, glorybebe said:

Sorrowful reaction is pouring in following the discovery of more than 200 children in unmarked graves at a former residential school in B.C.’s Interior.

On Thursday, the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation in Kamloops announced that ground-penetrating radar uncovered the remains of 215 children who were students of the Kamloops Indian Residential School

https://globalnews.ca/news/7902306/unmarked-graves-kamloops-residential-school/

Just makes my heart ache.   Those poor children 

So sad.  Any word of how they died?   I know that is minor when compared to all the children found, but I am curious.  

[glorybebe]

1 hour ago, Myles said:

So sad.  Any word of how they died?   I know that is minor when compared to all the children found, but I am curious.  

Unless they excavate, they can't tell how they died.  But, according to survivors me or my daughter talked to, there was extreme violence from both priests and nuns.  Girls would become pregnant and many stories about them and their babies not surviving have circulated.  I will not go into detail what one friends mom told us, it was too horrifying in it's details, but, no child should ever have had to experience what they did.

The odd thing is that we were in Kamloops three weeks ago.  My daughter and I were talking about the buildings and I took her over to them to read the plaque that is there.  The band has made them into offices.  One member told me they were taking the negativity and turning it into positivity by not letting the past own them.  It was sad just being there knowing how children were torn from their families to stop them from being 'savages'.  And who were the savages?  These religious people used the children for sexual and  sadistic gratification.

Edited June 1, 2021 by glorybebe

[Myles]

6 minutes ago, glorybebe said:

Unless they excavate, they can't tell how they died.  But, according to survivors me or my daughter talked to, there was extreme violence from both priests and nuns.  Girls would become pregnant and many stories about them and their babies not surviving have circulated.  I will not go into detail what one friends mom told us, it was too horrifying in it's details, but, no child should ever have had to experience what they did.

The odd thing is that we were in Kamloops three weeks ago.  My daughter and I were talking about the buildings and I took her over to them to read the plaque that is there.  The band has made them into offices.  One member told me they were taking the negativity and turning it into positivity by not letting the past own them.  It was sad just being there knowing how children were torn from their families to stop them from being 'savages'.  And who were the savages?  These religious people used the children for sexual and  sadistic gratification.

I wonder if there were many disease outbreaks and many died due to being left to fight it without treatment.   Whether smallpox or something else.  

[glorybebe]

22 minutes ago, Myles said:

I wonder if there were many disease outbreaks and many died due to being left to fight it without treatment.   Whether smallpox or something else.  

Not likely.  We want to believe in the goodness of human beings, but, the children were looked down upon because they were not white.  

[glorybebe]

TRC requested $1.5M to find mass graves at residential schools. The feds denied the money in 2009

https://globalnews.ca/news/7907424/trc-mass-graves-residential-school-federal-funding/

Kamloops is just one of many schools.  Stories cam out about the abuse, but everything was hushed.  The government is to blame, yes, but not surprisingly the church has been very quiet since this story made international headlines.  I wonder what they will finally release once they realize this is going to not go away and now survivors and their families are wanting other residential school locations to be investigated with this technology. 

[odas]

On 5/29/2021 at 2:30 AM, Manwon Lender said:

This is an absolute tragedy, and while this is terrible it's only a small part of the wholesale genocide that occurred in the Americas after the first European contact. When I think of minorities trying to force reparations for mistreatment and then when I consider how the governments of the Americas did try to destroy and entire race of people, I think the other minorities claims are trivial. No other group of people suffered more in the Americas than the indigenous people of these continents suffered and continue to do so.

What else has been done to the native americans/canadians that is hidden?

I always say, I am not afraid of what we are told, I am afraid of what we are not.

It is safe to say that no other people have suffered more than the americas natives in the world, in the history of mankind. Many have suffered throuout history but the natives if the americas the most.

[+OverSword]

snip 

Edited June 1, 2021 by OverSword

[Grim Reaper 6]

10 hours ago, odas said:

What else has been done to the native americans/canadians that is hidden?

I always say, I am not afraid of what we are told, I am afraid of what we are not.

It is safe to say that no other people have suffered more than the americas natives in the world, in the history of mankind. Many have suffered throuout history but the natives if the americas the most.

Let me be clear apparently I wasn't, and for that I am sorry. My comments were comments were based upon what occurred in The Americas since the Europeans for came to America. They were in no way intended to reflect upon the atrocities that have occurred throughout history in the rest of the world. Spenting my life as Soldier I understand and I have seen what men will do to their fellow man if they actions go unchecked.

So please except my apology for not being clear in my original post, take Care my friend.

[Myles]

11 hours ago, odas said:

What else has been done to the native americans/canadians that is hidden?

I always say, I am not afraid of what we are told, I am afraid of what we are not.

It is safe to say that no other people have suffered more than the americas natives in the world, in the history of mankind. Many have suffered throuout history but the natives if the americas the most.

I'm not doubting this, but I think there were others who suffered the same or worse through history.  

[glorybebe]

Well, as I am only a second generation Canadian,  it was not my ancestors who did this, but, European descent people came to a land and eradicated multiple societies.  Their way of life was deemed 'savage' and they had to be re-educated. That is where these schools came in: to take the Indian out of the child.  There were not allowed to keep their traditions or beliefs,  they had to become Christians and even then they were lower than the white people.

15 minutes ago, Myles said:

I'm not doubting this, but I think there were others who suffered the same or worse through history.  

So, I think the Native North Americans were treated atrociously.

[Grim Reaper 6]

26 minutes ago, Myles said:

I'm not doubting this, but I think there were others who suffered the same or worse through history.  

Are your comments based only in the Americas or are they based on human populations worldwide??

Because this conversation is based upon the History of the Americas, and this thread Is also based upon that!

 

JIMO

 

[Myles]

8 hours ago, Manwon Lender said:

Are your comments based only in the Americas or are they based on human populations worldwide??

Because this conversation is based upon the History of the Americas, and this thread Is also based upon that!

 

JIMO

 

I was just responding to this:

 no other people have suffered more than the americas natives in the world, in the history of mankind. Many have suffered throuout history but the natives of the americas the most.

[odas]

8 hours ago, glorybebe said:

Well, as I am only a second generation Canadian,  it was not my ancestors who did this, but, European descent people came to a land and eradicated multiple societies.  Their way of life was deemed 'savage' and they had to be re-educated. That is where these schools came in: to take the Indian out of the child.  There were not allowed to keep their traditions or beliefs,  they had to become Christians and even then they were lower than the white people.

So, I think the Native North Americans were treated atrociously.

I immigrated to Canada 22 years ago however when I read about what has been done to the native population I cannot feel anything other then anger and shame. I cannot understand how one group of people can treat the other group like that. Robb them of their culture, freedom, religion, land and lives. And it still continues.