Search for unmarked graves at Blue Quills finds 19 sites that could be unmarked plots

WARNING: This story contains distressing details.

A search for unmarked graves at the former Blue Quills Residential School in eastern Alberta found 19 sites that contained anomalies consistent with burial plots.

The property, located about 150 kilometres northeast of Edmonton, was once a Roman Catholic-run institution. It now operates as University nuhelot'įne thaiyots'į nistameyimâkanak Blue Quills, which is governed by the seven First Nations communities that surround it.

An investigation using ground-penetrating radar uncovered "reflections'' in the soil that are indicative of human burials or graves. The initial findings of the survey were released Wednesday morning as community elders, knowledge keepers and university officials gathered for a ceremony on campus. 

Bertha Janvier Moir, 69, a former student at the institution, said the search for the graves of her former peers must continue. 

The children who were buried at residential schools need to be honoured and "brought home," Moir said Wednesday.

Moir spent four painful years as a student at Blue Quills and said she was taught to feel shame for her heritage and her language. 

She speaks fluent Dene but said she never taught it to her children due to the shame she learned to carry inside the classrooms of Blue Quills. 

There was a time when she was afraid to walk the halls of the large brick building, fearing the doors would lock behind her.

But Wednesday, taking solace in her children and grandchildren, she said she is no longer afraid and doesn't want to feel anger. 

Instead, she wants to find acceptance for herself and build understanding among all Canadians.

"We can't move on by ourselves," she said. "Canada needs to move on with us.

"Canada needs to hear it so we are treated as human beings because we are human beings. We bleed the same." 

At the invitation of the university, Kisha Supernant — the director of the Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology at the University of Alberta — led the survey.