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I'm speechless.
Squamish Nation Territory ("Vancouver, Canada") - At a public ceremony and press conference held today outside the colonial "Indian Affairs" building in downtown Vancouver, the Friends and Relatives of the Disappeared (FRD) released a list of twenty eight mass graves across Canada holding the remains of untold numbers of aboriginal children who died in Indian Residential Schools.
Here are a few of them:
Lytton [BC] St. George’s Anglican school (1901-1979). Graves of students flogged to death, and others, reported under floorboards and next to playground.
Hobbema [AB] Ermineskin Catholic school (1916-1973), five intact skeletons observed in school furnace. Graves under former building foundations.
Fort Albany [ON] St. Anne’s Catholic school (1936-1964). Children killed in electric chair buried next to school.
6 Responses:
My first response is "That can't be true."
Which was immediately followed by "Why not?"
Much as I like to believe that Canada is a benevolent, wonderful place, I grew up on the Prairies and saw the racism that was endemic against the First Nations.
I hope, hope, hope, that they are wrong. But would not be surprised to learn they are right.
I also hope, hope, hope that the Government of Canada and everyone else named opens this up wide to the public and the press and allows as much scrutiny as possible.
If there's going to be any healing, there needs to be truth first.
chet, i went to a reservation boarding school in arizona. our teachers were what ever set of missionaries volunteered to spend some time in our neglected little bit of wasteland. one group (and i really can remember which one) had a sign over the teacher's desk that said:
Kill the Indian
Save the Child
then we began the day by singing the
good morning dear teacher
song.
it wasn't all bad. i survived. although i survived and graduated as an autodidact.
Kill the Indian
Save the Child
OMFG.
Chet,
It's all true. Maybe this time it won't get swept under again. It's one of those ugly things that is "known" but never acknowledged.
Kat
Why hasn't this hit the mass media? This has to be the story of the century.
Why hasn't this hit the mass media? This has to be the story of the century.
No Dr. Dawg, it would be the story of the century if it happened to a bunch of white kids.
Now, it's just another minority group complaining about something that happened 25 years ago.
They'll be lucky if they make the news at all until they actually start unearthing bodies.
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