This postcard from 1911, shows the students, staff, and important visitors in front of the main building at the Red Deer Indian Industrial School, and was created as propaganda for the residential school. (Red Deer & District Archives DA971)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

more gravesites 'inevitable'

Red Deer Indigenous voices: Kamloops discovery only the first domino

Jun 3, 2021 | 3:00 PM

The co-founder of Red Deer-based Remembering the Children Society, says the country will repeatedly relive the pain experienced this week following the discovery of 215 childrens’ bodies at a former residential school site in Kamloops, B.C.

Lyle Keewatin Richards says it’s an inevitability that thousands more will be found across the country which was once home to around 140 such schools.

That includes in Red Deer, where a residential school operated from 1893 to 1919. He says 42 bodies have historically been accounted for from a graveyard at its former location, but missing records for 1915-1919 mean there are likely many more yet to be unearthed.

Red Deer should be at or near the front of the line, he says, once the province begins doling out money announced this week to conduct recoveries at Alberta’s 25+ former residential school sites.

“When they first found the graves here in Red Deer, I described it as the pain you feel when you take the knife out. I was surprised that after the finding in Kamloops, I felt the same way. I thought I’d already gone through those emotions,” says Keewatin Richards, who was adopted as part of the infamous 60s Scoop.

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“Red Deer was notorious. It had one of the highest death rates of all the schools in Canada. We don’t really know how many went.”

An archaeological survey was done in 2008, leading to the discovery of 19 graves, notes Keewatin Richards.

“They were buried two to a grave,” he laments.

“We must find them and do the ceremonies. That will allow us to walk away and start to heal. That’s not to mention that reconciliation will be much easier without this hanging over our heads.”

Keewatin Richards describes what happened to kids who attended residential schools as not just criminal, but genocide.

“It wasn’t just cultural or linguistic, but it was murder of children. It’s something we must face as a nation and that will be hard for us,” he says, adding that who’s to be held accountable should come to the fore swiftly.

“It was a federal initiative by John A. MacDonald, who talked about the savage nature of these children. Then the churches came along.”

Tanya Schur, Community Facilitator for Red Deer’s Urban Aboriginal Voices Society, says Canada needs to stop dragging its feet on reconciliation.

“There haven’t been significant changes at the systemic level. It’s great to hear government is making money available for different things, but all this work needs to be Indigenous-led,” she says.

“The municipality has also made a commitment to truth and reconciliation with the protocol agreement we all signed in 2017, so radar work at the remaining Red Deer gravesite is something they should be advocating for to be done right away.”

Schur agrees with Keewatin Richards, saying days of recognition and lowering flags is positive, but there must be more concrete action.

“Telling our stories is good, but we’re living in a province that is struggling with how to tell that story and how to include the stories as part of the education system,” she says. “Telling these stories must be grounded in the Indigenous truth and told from our point of view.

“History is not to be whitewashed or told from one perspective, and that’s really what this province is trying to do, erase some of that dark past. But that dark past is also what’s led us to where we are now. The resiliency, commitment and contributions of Indigenous people in this province, since time immemorial, must be acknowledged.”

With future discoveries anticipated, better dealing with intergenerational trauma caused by residential schools is also key.

“Our elders tell us culture is the prevention and culture is the cure. Intergenerational trauma needs to be dealt with by cultural methods, and what that looks like is supporting agencies to provide places for ceremony. Very few organizations have the funding to do that.”

June 11 is Remembering the Children Day, an annual day of recognition led by Keewatin Richards’ organization. The date was chosen because it was June 11, 2008 when former Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized on behalf of all Canadians to students of residential schools.

“People who’ve historically denied this should have a really hard time doing so now,” says Keewatin Richards. “Moving forward, people need to be patient and understanding. For those who understand the seven stages of grief, keep that in mind as we watch the reactions of First Nations and survivors, because you’ll see every single one of those stages over the next months and years, and it’ll happen again and again.”

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The National Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide 24/7 support to residential school survivors and others who are affected. Call 1 (866) 925-4419.

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