Human remains of 182 discovered at Kootenay Indian Residential School near Cranbrook
By Lone Sheep Publishing
There has been another discovery of remains linked to the former residential school system, this time in the Kootenays.
In a media release Wednesday, the Lower Kootenay Band says a search using ground-penetrating radar located 182 human remains in unmarked graves of a site near the former St. Eugene’s Mission School outside Cranbrook.
The St. Eugene’s Mission School, known as the Kootenay Indian Residential School, was operated by the Catholic Church for almost 100 years from 1873-1970.
The band said the community of ?aq’am began using the technology last year to search, finding graves that were shallow, between 90 centimeters and 1.2 meters deep.
The findings is the third major discovery of unmarked graves at former residential schools.
Last month near Kamloops, the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation saida survey on the grounds of the former Indian Residential School uncovered the remains of 215 buried children.
Last week the Cowessess First Nation in Saskatchewan located 751 unmarked graves at a cemetery near the former Marieval Indian Residential School.
The Lower Kootenay Band says it’s believed the remains are those of people from the bands of the Ktunaxa Nation, which includes the Lower Kootenay Band ?aq’am and other neighbouring First Nation communities.
The Lower Kootenay Band said it is in the early stages of receiving information from the reports on what has been found, and it is asking for the public to respect its privacy.
