Warning: this story contains distressing and traumatic details regarding residential schools. Anyone experiencing trauma or impacted by the tragedy can reach out to the 24 hour Residential School Crisis Line at 1 866 925 4419.
An investigation into a trio of former residential schools and an associated hospital has confirmed the deaths of at least 158 Indigenous children.
Conducted by the Stó:lō Nation, the investigation covered the St Mary’s, Coqualeetza, and All Hallows schools, located in the Fraser Valley.
Phase one put a heavy focus on reviewing archival documents and oral histories, revealing horrifying accounts of the conditions attendees faced.
Survivors spoke of murders, children being forced to bury other children, starvation, capital punishment, forced child labour to the point of consumption, and many other tragedies.
Archival data alone revealed 37 deaths at Coqualeetza, 20 at St Mary’s and 5 at All Hallows, where only girls were sent.
But, it also uncovered an additional 96 deaths at Coqualeetza after the school was converted into the Coqualeetza Indian Hospital in 1969.
At that time, the cemetery located at the site for residential school children was split and relocated to a number of neighbouring cemeteries.
Geophysical work also revealed anomalies consistent with unmarked graves under most sites, which must still be reviewed further.
To date, just 3 percent of the total investigation area has been probed, and less than half of the 70,000 relevant documents have been reviewed.
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