Hundreds of Bodies of Indigenous Children Found Buried in Canada in Unmarked Graves Where Government “Boarding Schools” Once Stood

June 28, 2021 | revcom.us

 

Twice in less than a month, news of horrific discoveries in Canada reached world attention. On June 23, in the province of Saskatchewan, the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations announced¹ that ground-penetrating radar had discovered unmarked graves near what had been the Marieval Indian Residential School, which had operated for decades under the control of the Catholic Church.² The next day it was revealed that there were 751 graves, “mainly Indigenous children.”³ This news came shortly after the remains of 215 children in unmarked graves were found near the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in the province of British Columbia⁴ on May 28. The Kamloops “residential school” had been in operation from 1890 to the late 1970s. It was run by the Catholic Church until 1969, when it was taken over by the Canadian federal government.

After the report of the Kamloops graves became public, Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde said, “The outrage and the surprise from the general public is welcome, no question. But the report is not surprising. Survivors have been saying this for years and years—but nobody believed them.”⁵

More than 130 of these residential schools (also known as “boarding schools”) operated across Canada for over 100 years. Sir John A. Macdonald, Canada’s first prime minister, stated their blatantly white supremacist goal in 1883: “When the school is on the reserve, the child lives with its parents, who are savages, and though he may learn to read and write, his habits and training and mode of thought are Indian.” He said the children should be removed “from the parental influence” and put in schools “where they will acquire the habits and modes of thought of White men.”⁶ About 150,000 children went to these schools where they were prevented from speaking the languages and practicing the traditions of their peoples.⁷

A “Truth and Reconciliation Commission” set up by the Canadian government to investigate these schools concluded in 2015 that what happened in them was akin to “cultural genocide.”⁸ According to CNN, the report included details on “decades of physical, sexual and emotional abuse suffered by children in government and church run institutions.”⁹ According to the BBC, “An estimated 6,000 children died while attending these schools, due in large part to the squalid health conditions inside. Students were housed in poorly built, poorly heated, squalid and unsanitary facilities.”¹⁰ How many more grave sites, how many more bodies exist, is now unknown.

The U.S.: Same Genocidal Criminality

Similar Native boarding schools existed in the U.S., and about 150,000 children were forced into them for over a century.¹¹ Students were forced to convert to Christianity, to cut their hair, change their names, and stop speaking their native languages. The mission of cultural genocide of these nightmarish dungeons was captured in a statement by Army Col. Richard H. Pratt, who founded the first of these schools in Carlisle, Pennsylvania: “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.”¹²

Think about that quote for a minute and think hard. Think about all that is concentrated in that, and what it says about this “greatest country in the world,” whose founding they’ll be telling us to celebrate next week.

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition says that estimates indicate that there were “nearly 500 government-funded Indian boarding and day schools across the U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries.... Indian children were forcibly abducted by government agents, sent to schools hundreds of miles away, and beaten, starved, or otherwise abused when they spoke their native languages.”¹³

Genocide of indigenous peoples, both literal and cultural, across the North American continent is one of the most monstrous of the many crimes against humanity the system of capitalism-imperialism has perpetrated.

 

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1. “Hundreds of Unmarked Graves Discovered at Former Residential School in Saskatchewan, Indigenous Federation Says,” Toronto Star, June 23, 2021.  [back]

2. “Why Canada is Mourning the Death of 215 Children,” BBC, Updated June 24, 2021.  [back]

3. “Hundreds More Unmarked Graves Found at Former Residential School in Canada,” New York Times, June 24, 2021.  [back]

4. “‘Unthinkable’ Discovery in Canada as Remains of 215 Children Found Buried Near Residential School,” CNN, June 1, 2021.  [back]

5. “The Children Can No Longer be Ignored,” Winnipeg Free Press, June 7, 2021.  [back]

6. “What to Know About Canada’s Residential Schools and the Unmarked Graves Found Nearby,” Washington Post, June 24, 2021.  [back]

7. Washington Post, June 24, 2021.  [back]

8. Washington Post, June 24, 2021.  [back]

9. CNN, June 1, 2021.  [back]

10. “Canada: 751 Unmarked Graves Found at Residential School,” BBC, June 24, 2021.  [back]

11. “American Crime Case #40: Kill the Indian, Save the Man,” Revolution, June 4, 2018. [back]

12. Carlisle Indian School Project.  [back]

13. National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition.  [back]

People honor memorial of shoes for the 215 children in unmarked graves found near the site of the Kamloops Indian Residential School in the province of British Columbia on May 28. Photo: AP

The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition estimates “nearly 500 government-funded Indian boarding and day schools across the U.S. in the 19th and 20th centuries... Indian children were forcibly abducted by government agents, sent to schools hundreds of miles away, and beaten, starved, or otherwise abused when they spoke their native languages.” Native American students at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, around 1900. Photo: Wikimedia Commons