It seems every week there is a new "discovery" of residential schools that have "turned" into graves of indigenous people. Is this the tip of the iceberg?
The article seems to be saying that one particular "discovery" is not part of this pattern. That is, an actual cemetery in Cranbrook.
Among the pieces of context, the article says that graves are "unmarked" had wooden markers once.
They were "burned or deteriorated", but it doesn't say who burned them and how/why.
“What happened in these other places is these remains have been found not in graveyards, that’s the big difference,” Pierre said. “It’s horrible.”
“To just assume that every unmarked grave inside a graveyard is already tied to a residential school, we’ve got to be a little bit more respectful of our people who are buried in our graveyards,” Pierre said.
“We just buried one of our people there last month,” Pierre said. “Anyone who died in my community would be buried there.”
"she said the findings at the cemetery near Cranbrook isn’t the same as the other findings at other residential schools throughout the country"
From the Truth And Reconciliation report there are about 6,000 unacknowledged dead children from about 150,000 children over close to 100 years - IIRC. They are without marked graves and their parents were not notified or given no information. There are more to find. But these aren’t the ones as the noted in the article.
The new discoveries are because people are finally looking for them, using ground-penetrating radar. They've examined only a dozen or so of the 100+ residential schools. The others are nearly certain to have unmarked graves as well.
Yes. Indigenous peoples use wooden markers and have been for hundreds of years. With technologies like underground radar, hundreds of thousands of unmarked graves can be found.
