'Most horrific': Alberta First Nation investigating after remains of children found
Warning: This story contains disturbing details.
Saddle Lake Cree Nation in eastern Alberta is "actively researching and investigating" the deaths of at least 200 residential school children who never came home, as remains are being found in unmarked grave sites.
"It was one of the most horrific residential schools in Canada," Eric Large, from the Acimowin Opaspiw Society, told reporters in Edmonton on Tuesday.
Large started combing through burial records in February related to the Blue Quills Indian Residential School, which was based near St. Paul, Alta.
He believes he's found documents for 215 students who died between the ages of 6-11, but whose remains are still unaccounted for.
"The amount of missing children is extensive...The institution was strife with violence, illness, starvation, abuse and death," said Large, who attended a residential school himself.
Some of the records that Large obtained are from the Catholic church. He said there are 12,000 nation members, and each family had accounts of four or five children who disappeared.
"We have also been collecting witness statements from members in our nation to try and piece together a complex puzzle in regards to our missing children who never came home," Large said.
A councillor in Saddle Lake said he has accidentally recovered bones of several children, while attempting to dig new graves in the local Sacred Heart Cemetery.
"There were children's sized skeleton remains that were excavated. None of these skeletal remains were in caskets, none of the graves had markings of any sort," Jason Whiskeyjack explained.
"I came across a small ribcage attached to a spine...and then more infilling, came across a small skull," he recalled. "When I hit a lot of these graves there's no supports for us."
Whiskeyjack called on the federal government to provide the Saddle Lake with funding for radar equipment to investigate further. He also wants a community wellness plan to be created to assist members experiencing renewed trauma.
In February, a Cree woman launched her own effort to mark graves in Saddle Lake by selling moccasins for charity.
The issue of unmarked graves around residential schools triggered international mourning last May, after a First Nation near Kamloops B.C. announced that ground-penetrating radar suggests about 200 children are buried near their former school.
If you are a former residential school student in distress, or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419, or the Indian Residential School Survivors Society toll-free line at 1-800-721-0066.
Additional mental-health support and resources for Indigenous people are available here.
With files from CTV News Edmonton's Joe Scarpelli
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
BREAKING Honda to get up to $5B in govt help for EV battery, assembly plants
Honda is set to build an electric vehicle battery plant next to its Alliston, Ont., assembly plant, which it is retooling to produce fully electric vehicles, all part of a $15-billion project that is expected to include up to $5 billion in public money.
BREAKING New York appeals court overturns Harvey Weinstein's 2020 rape conviction from landmark #MeToo trial
New York’s highest court on Thursday overturned Harvey Weinstein’s 2020 rape conviction, finding the judge at the landmark #MeToo trial prejudiced the ex-movie mogul with improper rulings, including a decision to let women testify about allegations that weren’t part of the case.
Residents of northern Alberta First Nation told to shelter in place
Residents of John D'Or Prairie, a community on the Little Red River Cree Nation in northern Alberta, were told to take shelter Thursday morning during a police operation.
Secret $70M Lotto Max winners break their silence
During a special winner celebration near their hometown, Doug and Enid shared the story of how they discovered they were holding a Lotto Max ticket worth $70 million and how they kept this huge secret for so long.
Remains from a mother-daughter cold case were found nearly 24 years later, after a deathbed confession from the suspect
A West Virginia father is getting some sense of closure after authorities found the remains of his young daughter and her mother following a deathbed confession from the man believed to have fatally shot them nearly two decades ago.
Monthly earnings rise, payroll employment falls: jobs report
The number of vacant jobs in Canada increased in February, while monthly payroll employment decreased in food services, manufacturing, and retail trade, among other sectors.
First in Canada procedure performed at London, Ont. hospital
A London man has become the first person in Canada to receive a robotic assisted surgery on his spine. Dave Myeh suffered from debilitating, chronic back pain that led to sciatica in his right now and extreme pain in his lower back.
Doctors say capital gains tax changes will jeopardize their retirement. Is that true?
The Canadian Medical Association asserts the Liberals' proposed changes to capital gains taxation will put doctors' retirement savings in jeopardy, but some financial experts insist incorporated professionals are not as doomed as they say they are.
Something in the water? Canadian family latest to spot elusive 'Loch Ness Monster'
For centuries, people have wondered what, if anything, might be lurking beneath the surface of Loch Ness in Scotland. When Canadian couple Parry Malm and Shannon Wiseman visited the Scottish highlands earlier this month with their two children, they didn’t expect to become part of the mystery.