More possible Indigenous burial sites suspected in Canada

BY Barry Ellsworth

TRENTON, Canada (AA) - At least 14 unmarked graves are suspected at the site of the former Gordon's Indian Residential School in the Canadian province of Saskatchewan.

George Gordon First Nations chief Byron Bitternose announced in a statement Wednesday.

"In upcoming months this area will be a priority, an area for continued searching," said Bitternose. "It is my hope that one day we will be able to tell our children the whole story of what their great-grandparents, grandparents, parents and siblings endured."

The number is likely to grow as the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation lists 49 names of children who died at the school.

The details of unmarked graves, mostly children, uncovered at former Indian Residential Schools have shocked Canadians as the discoveries in the past year have inched toward 2,000.

About 150,000 First Nations, Metis and Inuit were arbitrarily taken from their homes, sometimes forcefully, and sent to one of 139 schools located across Canada.

Most were youngsters and at least 4,300 are thought to have died from malnutrition, disease and other causes and buried at school sites. In some cases, parents never found out what happened to their children.

The first school was set up in the 1820s and the last closed in the 1990s as the Canadian government tried to stamp out Indigenous culture. The George Gordon school opened in the 1880s and was shuttered in 1996.

Many schools were run by religious orders, with the Catholic Church overseeing about 60% of the schools.

Some were subjected to sexual, mental and physical abuse and the Gordon school was notorious for its treatment of children.

"This was a horrible residential school in terms of physical, in terms of sexual abuse," Eddie Bitternose, member of George Gordon First Nation and a residential school survivor, told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

In 1941, records show that 11-year-old Andrew Gordon ran away from the school and froze to death.

The Indian reservation was created in 1874 and named after Chief George Gordon. Today, about 1,100 people live on the reservation.