Identifying, repatriating remains in Kamloops, B.C. grave sites will be costly and slow: experts
Warning: This story deals with disturbing topics that may upset and trigger some readers. Caution is advised.
As Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation prepares to begin excavating work on more than 200 suspected unmarked graves at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, the same experts in Manitoba are doing shed light on what that job looks like.
Earlier this week, First Nation said it would work to eventually use DNA to identify and repatriate the remains believed to be at the site, after first gathering information from survivors and adults. age and perform important archival work.
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It’s a process similar to what Eldon Yellowhorn, an archaeologist and professor of Indigenous Studies at Simon Fraser University, did at a former Brandon Indian School grave site.
Crews there also use ground-penetrating radar to identify unmarked burial sites.
“We’ve identified 104 burials in the cemetery and we’ve been working on this project since 2019 so we’re actually pretty well ahead, have made progress in our research and so far, I was able to recover the identities of 98 children who were buried in that cemetery,” Yellowhorn said.
Manitoba First Nation working to identify 104 potential graves at old Brandon residential school
That identifying work was done through archival research and public consultation, as the team has yet to excavate the site.
Yellowhorn said researchers have not yet been able to name each burial site, but are confident they have identified the majority of people buried there.
“We can take documents and records, double check them with oral histories, people who know their relatives were buried there to verify that,” he said.
“It’s a case of verifying, verifying, verifying and trying and getting as accurate as possible.”
Once the burials have been excavated, experts can take DNA samples and try and cross-check them with a dataset.
Yellowhorn said that process will hopefully provide answers for many families, but some of the remains may be old enough that there are no longer family or community connections for identification.
Tk’emlups te Secwepemc Nation approached Yellowhorn for a specialist check a few months before starting its own ground-penetrating radar search, uncovering at least 200 suspected graves.
BC RCMP also opened a case with First Nation as lead official.
Nationally, the RCMP will receive $5.1 million in federal funding to create four positions to improve relationships with Indigenous communities and support their investigations.
According to Emily Holland, a forensic anthropologist and associate at Brandon University, that could prove a huge task.
“There could be 3,000 to 4,000 children buried in graves across the country,” she told Global News.
Surveying suspected grave sites across the country would be a large and complex undertaking, with no one-size-fits-all approach, she said.
Individual indigenous communities may have different wishes about whether to shuffle graves, along with different preferences and processes – all of which should be at the heart of any decision. which decision.
To complicate matters further, many former residential school properties have been sold to private owners since they were decommissioned.
The cost of investigating locations across the country can also run into the tens of millions of dollars, she said.
“Part of that will be the recognition that more funding is needed… and also support is needed not just for the work, but for the people involved,” she said.
“We need to make sure there are mental health supports in place for the communities involved and all survivors and families.”
Part of the solution, she said, could be for Indigenous communities to partner with academic institutions who can both provide expertise and apply for funding. But she says a commitment of federal funding is also required for the process.
The job won’t be quick either.
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Holland says the process of investigating a site, from initial consultation with the affected community to archival research to actual excavation and finally to the slow process of decoding and matching DNA, can may take 5 years or more.
Applied to scores of suspected grave sites around the country, it’s an endeavor that could take a generation.
“This is not something that will happen in a year or two,” said Yellowhorn.
“Actually, I would say we should plan for 30 or 40 years, the kind of time to complete all the necessary research.”
The Boarding School Crisis Line in India (1-866-925-4419) is available 24 hours a day for anyone experiencing pain or distress as a result of their residential school experience.
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