A lawyer in North Battleford, Saskatchewan is determined to give residential school students who died in the area the burial they deserve.
Following a Law Society of Saskatchewan event discussing the Truth and Reconciliation Commission calls to action and final report, Ben Feist started looking into the paperwork and realized one of the items listed had to do with missing children and unmarked burials.
The Battleford Industrial School opened 1884, more than a decade before Saskatchewan became a province in 1905, and it remained open until 1914. The cemetery associated with the school opened the same year the school did.
It wasn’t until the 1970s when excavation was done at the site by the department of anthropology at the University of Saskatchewan that the remains of 74 people were discovered.
Mr. Feist told the CBC, “They actually excavated the site and found 74 people buried there and they were only able to identify about 50 of the students’ names who were buried at that cemetery.”
See photos and read the rest of the story in this CBC report.
One correction to your post. Saskatchewan didn’t become a province until 1905
Thanks, Shelley! (I should have known better…) I have revised the blog post to include the correct date.