Cowessess First Nation, 95 km south of Yorkton, has announced the finding of 751 unmarked graves at a cemetery near the former Marieval Indian Residential School.
Cowessess Chief Cadmus Delorme made the announcement today.
“In 1886, the Roman Catholic Church arrived on Cowessess First Nation, and that is when the gravesite began. In 1898 the Marieval Residential School opened its doors, and it closed its doors in 1996.”
Delorme adds that this is not a mass grave but rather unmarked gravesites.
“Those that lay here are 1 meter by 1 meter apart in some cases. We cannot affirm that they are all children, but there are oral stories that there are adults in this gravesite as well.”
Cowessess started using ground-penetrating radar to locate graves earlier this month.
