Star Blanket Cree Nation prepares to launch search of former Lebret Indian Industrial School

With the a blazing sun above them, members of Star Blanket Cree Nation walked side by side around the grounds of the former residential school in Lebret, Sask., on Thursday. 

They came together to mark the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation and to prepare as a community as they begin their own search for what happened to the children who never returned home from what was once known as the Lebret Indian Industrial School. 

Every member of the group — old and young — wore an orange shirt with Every Child Matters emblazoned on the front.

All followed the leader, who carried with him an old paint can with smoke pouring out of it. 

"The smudge walk was meant to purify the ground because we're not sure what we're going to find in the search. We do believe that we are going to find something," said Sheldon Poitras, the man in charge of the nation's efforts to examine the site of the residential school.

Star Blanket Cree Nation is one of many Indigenous groups across Canada planning to search the sites of former residential schools in the wake of a discovery earlier this year by Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation in B.C.

In May, the First Nation announced it had confirmation of a burial site adjacent to the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, with preliminary findings indicating the remains of 215 children.