Radar search at northern Alberta residential school uncovers 88 suspected graves

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

Sucker Creek First Nation Chief Roderick Willier remembers never feeling safe during the decade he spent at a residential school in northern Alberta.

"I always had to stay on high alert when I was there," Willier said, as he recalled his time between the age of seven and 17 at St. Bruno's Indian Residential School in Joussard, Alta., about 335 kilometres northwest of Edmonton.

"I was always told, 'Oh, you got to be careful of them [at residential school]."'

University of Alberta researchers recently found evidence of 88 suspected unmarked graves near the former school.

Kisha Supernant, director of the U of A's Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology, led the search. She said the project focused on the areas pointed out by residential school survivors and elders of the community.

Supernant's team surveyed 4,500 square metres of land, using ground-penetrating radar to look for pits or grave shafts.

She said the team found signs of unmarked graves outside of the school cemetery area at two locations — one of them close to the workshop on the school's grounds and the other near a root cellar.

Supernant, who has family roots in Joussard, said the research team recommends further investigation for graves found outside of a cemetery on the grounds of a school.

"What is going on here? What are graves doing in these locations that are not inside of a known cemetery area?"

Talisha Chaput, an anthropology professor at the U of A, cautions that findings made through the ground-penetrating system are limited.

Chaput said there are alternate methods to confirm whether the graves are actually present.

"Ground-penetrating system is one way of looking underneath the ground. It is not an end-all-be-all technology," she said.

Some other ways to confirm the suspected graves are through testimonies, historical records and school attendance records of students. Excavation or bringing trained dogs to smell human bones buried in the ground could also help confirm the unmarked graves.