182 unmarked graves found near former residential school outside Cranbrook, B.C.

Young journalists club

News ID: 52133
Publish Date: 23:16 - 30 June 2021
Wednesday, 30 June 2021 (YJC) _First Nations group reports finding more graves at former school for Indigenous students in Canada.

182 unmarked graves found near former residential school outside Cranbrook, B.C.Another Indigenous community in B.C. says ground-penetrating radar has found human remains near a former residential school.

In a statement released Wednesday, the Lower Kootenay Band said remains of 182 people were found in unmarked graves close to the former St. Eugene's Mission School near Cranbrook.

The statement says the Aq'am community conducted the search in 2020. It also says the residential school operated from 1912 to the 1970s.

"Some of the findings had the human remains buried in shallow graves only three to four feet deep," the statement says, explaining the Lower Kootenay Band is a member band of the Ktunxa Nation.

"Many Lower Kootenay Band members were forced to attend the St. Eugene's Mission School."

About 100 band members attended that residential school, the statement says.

The announcement comes just over a month after the Tk'emlups te Secwepemc First Nation announced the remains of 215 children were found buried on the site of a former residential school in Kamloops.

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