The remains of 215 children have been found buried on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops, B.C. Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlups te Secwépemc First Nation says in a news release that the remains were confirmed last weekend with the help of a ground-penetrating radar specialist.
Casimir calls the discovery an "unthinkable loss that was spoken about but never documented at the Kamloops Indian Residential School.".
She says the children, some as young as three and were students at the school, once the largest in Canada’s residential school system.
Casimir says the leadership of the Tk’emlups community "acknowledges their responsibility to caretake for these lost children.".
Casimir says band officials are informing community members and surrounding communities that had children who attended the school.
The federal government took over the operation from the church to operate as a day school until it closed in 1978.
The nearly 4,000-page account details the harsh mistreatment inflicted on Indigenous children at the institutions, where at least 3,200 children died amid abuse and neglect. »
