‘It’s not going to be good:’ Search for unmarked graves at Battlefords-area residential school begins

Neil Sasakamoose has heard the stories from survivors that there are people buried in residential school sites in the Battlefords area.

“I’m in shock,” he said. “(It’s distressing) when you hear something and you hear it through years and years and (oral) stories … when you’re actually in the moment of time where you (say), ‘OK, it’s actually right now that there’s something that’s going on.’ … That’s what we’re witnessing now: Finding children.”

The sites Sasakamoose — the chief executive officer of the Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs (BATC) — was referring to are located in the Battlefords Industrial area, and in the northwestern community of Delmas.

Sasakamoose said BATC has moved ahead with mapping the Delmas area site, but it has been a difficult task.

BATC has located at least five potential sites where unmarked graves may be found. With help from survivor testimony, Sasakamoose said BATC has heard their recollections from their time at the site — specifically when the school burned to the ground in 1948.

“They were there … they work with us, they sit with us. They have been going through the mapping process saying, ‘I remember this part, I remember this area,’ ” Sasakamoose explained, before opening up about the issues with searching this site.

He said it’s a big area, it doesn’t have any enclosed spaces, it’s not fenced and is mainly on private or town land.

“There are at least five sites and we just don’t know what’s going to be there,” he said. “We’re hoping for the best, that there’s no one there. We honestly are. But when we talk to our group of older survivors and the Elders that were there as little kids and children, the day of the school burning down, they told us that there are people there. So we know there are people. How many? We have no idea.”

The records kept at the school, Sasakamoose said, are not accurate from the church and Indian Affairs.

“These burials are proving that the records are inaccurate. So we’re just assuming the worst now. We’re preparing people,” he said.

Sasakamoose said early results could be ready by July 17 or 18. Once Delmas is done, BATC will move over to the Battlefords Industrial School site.

Seventy-four unmarked graves were found there in the past, and the remains were relocated off the property.

Through these findings, Sasakamoose said he has struggled with the church.

“I can’t find the right words for the church,” he said. “The priests, the maintenance people, the staff people that weren’t part of the parishes, they were staff, people that were hired — those people were there …

“Some of the parents were there, the town was there. Of all these layers of people, a kid can’t go run and go knock on a door (and say), ‘I’m not safe’ … I’m having trouble adjusting. I’m having trouble with the church. I’m really struggling with people asking for an apology … Does it make it feel better? It actually doesn’t.”

Sasakamoose said asking for apologies consistently isn’t going to make it better if the church moves forward with a formal apology. He believes the Indigenous community shouldn’t have to ask for it.

It should have automatically come.

“We’re determining now how we co-exist,” he said. “I just need to walk forward again … Non-Indigenous people, just be patient. You’ll see people walking on the road, just be patient (with) all these people. There’s a whole bunch of sites that are going to get uncovered, and they’re going to change every month now.

“We know it’s not going to be good. I know it’s not going to be good.”

‘It’s actually a confirmation of what we’ve known’

Mosquito Grizzly Bear’s Head Lean Man First Nations Chief Tanya Aguilar-Antiman said she received a phone call about a month ago, asking about the radar search at the Battlefords Industrial School site.

Since that moment, it has all become a reality.

As the landlords of the property — which the Indigenous community purchased around 1 1/2 years ago — Mosquito Elders, Knowledge Keepers and survivors have shared their stories of the site.

Aguilar-Antiman said they were encouraging BATC to move forward.

“We do recognize that many of our Elders, it was their parents that were part of these schools. We’re mindful of that as well,” she said.

“It’s actually a confirmation of what we’ve known for 20, 30 years. We’ve been hearing this in our communities. We’ve been hearing our (Knowledge Keepers), our residential school survivors share some horrific stories of children being beaten in those schools and describing the trauma that they witnessed. These stories, it’s confirmation that this stuff really did happen.”

The Elders council and Knowledge Keepers meet on a weekly basis in the Battlefords and have been through the entire pandemic.

Maintaining that communication meant those lines were open for the residential school findings, said Aguilar-Antiman.

“It’s about time that we’re able to deal with the truth. It’s really important — as hard as it is — to move forward and to begin healing in our nations. And it really explains some of the dynamics that are going on throughout the country and what we’re faced with as Indigenous people,” she said, before listing some of the issues she sees as an extension of the trauma of residential schools.

These include incarceration rates, domestic violence and missing and murdered Indigenous women.

“This is the reality of what we’re faced with as leaders are these social issues,” she said. “It’s something we have to deal with on a personal and professional level … We see it every day. I really believe this is an opportunity for us as nations, as individuals and as a country to come together and heal.”