Saskatchewan: weitere Gräber indigener Kinder bei einer Internatsschule gefunden

Bei der Marieval Indian Residental School in der Provinz Sasketchewan/Kanada wurden nun ebenfalls hunderte namenlose Gräber auf dem Friedhof der Internatsschule gefunden. Es war bereits nach Kamloops allen klar, dass nun gerade die Spitze des Eisbergs zum Vorschein kommt. Ob in Kanada oder in den USA, die verbrecherischen Umerziehungsanstalten produzierten tausende an toten First Nation-Kindern und Jugendlichen. Da reichen einige lapidare Entschuldigungen der jeweils Regierenden nicht aus, um dieses historisch kollektive aber auch individuelle Trauma zu beenden. Die Wunden dieser Kolonialisierungsmaßnahme, die in den Indigenen den Indigenen/die Indigene töten sollte, aber den Mensch als umerziehbare Hülle leben ließ, war und ist Teil einer Genozidstrategie der Weißen. Die Dunkelziffer der Todesfälle ist hoch: Krankheiten, Selbstmorde, Misshandlungen, Tod bei der Flucht, Menschenversuche…. Es wird Zeit, dass das weiße Amerika auf die Knie geht und die Indigenen um Vergebung bittet und dabei endlich den Weg aus der anhaltenden Genozid-, Ethnozid- und Ökozidpolitik beginnt.

Saskatchewan First Nation announces hundreds of unmarked graves found at former residential school site    –    
Marieval Indian Residential School operated from 1899 to 1997  CBC News · Posted: Jun 23, 2021 5:14 PM CT |

 The Cowessess First Nation says it has found hundreds of unmarked graves at the former Marieval Indian Residential School gravesite. There are already also some marked graves at the site. (CBC) The Cowessess First Nation says it has discovered hundreds of unmarked graves at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan.

A news release Wednesday from Cowessess and the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous First Nations (FSIN), (“FSIN Mission: The Federation of Sovereign Indian Nations represents 74 First Nations in Saskatchewan. The Federation is committed to honouring the spirit and intent of the Treaties, as well as the promotion, protection and implementation of the Treaty promises that were made more than a century ago.   www.FSIN.ca  ) which represents Saskatchewan’s First Nations, did not give a specific number but said it will be the most found to date in Canada. Cowessess Chief Cadmus Delorme and FSIN Chief Bobby Cameron are scheduled to hold a news conference Thursday morning to provide more details of the findings.

 The Marieval Indian Residential School operated from 1899 to 1997 in the area where Cowessess is now located, about 140 kilometres east of Regina.  The First Nation took over the school’s cemetery from the Catholic Church in the 1970s.  Earlier this month Cowessess started using ground-penetrating radar to locate unmarked graves. The Marieval Indian Residential School operated from 1899 to 1997 in the area where Cowessess is now located. There are already some marked graves at the site. (CBC) Last month the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in B.C. announced the discovery of a burial site adjacent to the former Kamloops Indian Residential School that preliminary findings indicate contains the remains of 215 children.  Assembly of First Nations National Chief Perry Bellegarde said the news is tragic but not surprising.  “I urge all Canadians to stand with First Nations in this extremely difficult and emotional time,” he posted on Twitter Wednesday evening. Residential school survivor remembers a friend he never saw againBarry Kennedy, a residential school survivor who attended Marieval Indian Residential School, said he is shocked by the news but not surprised. 

“During my time at Marieval Indian Residential School I had a young friend that  was dragged off one night screaming,” he said.         Kennedy never saw his little friend again. “His name was Bryan…. I want to know where Bryan is.”   Kennedy said Wednesday’s news out of Cowessess is only the tip of the iceberg. “I would imagine that, you know, by the stories that … were told by our friends and fellow students that there is multiple locations, you know, per school.”

“We were introduced to rape. We’re introduced to violent beatings. We were introduced to things that weren’t normal with our families.”   ‘They deny us our right to grief,’ says one Saskatchewan chief  Chief Wayne Semaganis from Little Pine First Nation in Saskatchewan says hearing about the news so close to home is upsetting.    “Even today there is still dismissiveness from the general public — that it’s a history, it’s in the past,” he told CBC News.   “No it’s not in the past. It’s today. It’s ongoing.… [The children buried at residential schools] were murdered — because if there were accidents, if they died of natural causes, somebody would have been alerted.”  Semaganis said it’s frustrating that even now it’s Indigenous people who have to prove that they were hurt. “There is still too many of the great majority of Canada that don’t understand our grief,” said Semaganis. “They deny us our right to grieve. That is what really hurts.”    ‘Horrific truth’ of schools: Saskatoon mayor Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe issued a written statement Wednesday evening, addressing the news out of Cowessess. “Today, all of Saskatchewan mourns for those who were discovered buried in unmarked graves near the former Marieval Indian Residential School site,” he said.   “I understand many were children, and it is heart breaking to think that so many children lost their lives after being separated from their families, and away from the love and solace only a family can provide. ”  Moe said he spoke with FSIN Chief Cameron as well as Cowessess Chief Delorme, offering the full support of the provincial government.  In an interview with CBC Saskatchewan, Saskatchewan NDP Leader Ryan Meili said his heart goes out to the Cowessess First Nation and the trauma they must be feeling.  “We knew this was coming. We knew that this was the case,” the Official Opposition leader said.   “Yet you still get this pit in your stomach and just this heart-sinking feeling.” 

    More Sask. First Nations announce efforts to find graves of residential school students   Most say Saskatchewan’s residential school death toll is far higher than the 566 confirmed cases

Saskatchewan needs to listen to Indigenous leaders, elders and survivors, said Meili, and act on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 94 Calls to Action.   Meili also called on the Catholic Church to release all its records related to abuse at residential schools in order to tell the whole story.  “We need to work alongside the communities that continue to search the residential school sites and make sure we find all of these unmarked graves,” Meili said. “I think about my own kids…. I cannot imagine someone coming and taking thm away and having them come back from school months later, you know, broken and sad, or never come home at all.”  The City of Saskatoon announced its flags will be lowered to half-mast Thursday morning to honour all the children found in unmarked graves at the Marieval Indian Residential School.   “This brings the horrific truth of these schools right to our doorstep,” Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark said in a news release.  “Many of these children will have had direct relatives who now live in Saskatoon. They are the missing children that families have been trying to find over the decades.”