English River First Nation grappling with more potential graves found at residential school site

< warm>WARNING: This story contains inside information of experiences at residential schools.

Katrina Maurice, a fellow member of the english people River First Nation in northern Saskatchewan, has a connection with the Beauval Indian Residential School site that runs deep, like many others from the area.

A lot of the parents from her community, and even people from her own generation, were forced to attend Beauval, which opened as a boarding school in 1897 and continued to operate as a residence until 1995, according to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.

"Some of us are just learning and identifying the hurt that was caused from here," said Maurice, who works with English River's Returning Home Society as a researcher and site supervisor at the Beauval residential school site.

"We're so hurt, we don't even know we're hurt."

On Thursday, English River announced that a ground-penetrating radar search at the site that began in 2021 has identified dozens more anomalies at the site of the school.

An estimated 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Métis children were forced to attend the government-funded, church-run residential schools across Canada, which were largely overseen by the Catholic Church. The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation has recorded the names of more than 4,000 who died, but many experts believe the number to be higher.

In 2023, when it reported earlier findings from the search, English River said it had identified 93 graves at the Beauval site — 79 children and 14 infants.

On Thursday, it said at least 60 more anomalies, which are not yet confirmed to be graves, have been found.

Some of the graves previously found were in a graveyard at the site, and believed to have been properly marked graves at one point, but time has deteriorated the old crosses that marked them.

Other anomalies more recently found in different areas at the school site will be more thoroughly investigated with cadaver dogs and other technologies, the First Nation says.

But all of the graves will be indicated with markers to honour them, and ensure that they will never be forgotten again.

English River, which is about 425 kilometres northwest of Saskatoon, began its ground-penetrating radar search in 2021, based on guidance from elders and survivors.

In August 2023, the First Nation said it had found 83 "areas of interest" consistent with what were believed to be possible unmarked graves. Later that month, the First Nation said it had done further work to determine that there were 93 such areas, and they were indeed graves.

While serving a four-year term as a councillor for English River, Maurice was appointed to the portfolio for the Beauval grounds.  

She said for years, the elders from her community would tell stories about Beauval, and when a ground-penetrating radar team was invited to the school site, the scans confirmed what the community already knew.

"We're losing a lot of our elders now, and how beautiful it would be to be alive and to be validated about all the things you were put to shame for, and to find that peace within yourself," she said. 

"A lot of evil took place all across Canada within residential schools, especially prior to us knowing. We call it 'the code of silence.'"

Jacquie Bouvier, a third-generation survivor of Beauval, attended school there from 1958 to 1962, then day school from 1962 to 1966.

She said her sisters were buried there in unmarked graves. After attending the school herself, her mother, Elizabeth, stayed on to work there as a seamstress. One daughter, born in 1927, was just six months old when she died. The other, born in 1930, died at nine months old.

"My mom's dying wish was for us to find the baby sisters," said Bouvier, whose mother died in 1999, at age 92.

Bouvier said her mother also asked her to find her brothers, one of whom was taken during the Sixties Scoop and lives in the United States, she said. The other lives in Saskatoon. 

Bouvier's mother also asked that there be closure for her sisters buried at the Beauval site.

She said when she first heard about the findings of the ground-penetrating radar search two years ago, she was shocked. She reached out to community members, and started working with them to help locate her sisters' graves, using old archives. 

Last month, the community put in markers for the unmarked graves at the school site.

"'Finally,' is what I said," said Bouvier. "I prayed every morning and at night, I said, 'Finally, baby sisters. We will see you when I'm up there.'"

Maurice was given the responsibility of creating the grave markers for her community. 

They're in the shape of an owl feather and coloured white to represent protection. That was significant, Maurice said, because when a second ground-penetrating search started at the site, a white owl was seen on the grounds almost every day. 

"I thought: they're here with us, they're watching over us, they're protecting us, giving us their blessing," she said.

The hand on the marker represents missing and murdered Indigenous people.

The marker also has points across the top to represent the 16 communities whose members were affected by the Beauval residential school. 

Meanwhile, an eagle on the marker represents protection, a heart represents universal love, and the "returning home" symbol at the top represents warriors returning home, said Maurice.

When she started looking for companies that could make the markers, she found Pro Metal Industries, which is wholly owned by Pasqua First Nation. 

She told them about her design, "and the next thing you know, I got an email back from Pro Metal stating that 'we are honoured to contribute your design and will cover the fee,'" she said. 

She was shocked and thankful, she said, when she saw an invoice indicating that fee was more than $15,000.

Mark Brown, Pro Metal's CEO, said three years ago, the company undertook an initiative to help mark graves by donating markers to First Nation communities and residential school survivors.

He said they were excited when Maurice reached out.

"I was completely blown away by the amount of thought they put in and how special and meaningful they wanted these grave markers to be," said Brown.

"I really hope Canadians can really learn from what's happening right now about the atrocities that happened to our First Nation people."

A national 24-hour Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available at 1-866-925-4419 for emotional and crisis referral services for survivors and those affected. 

Mental health counselling and crisis support are also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat.

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