Star Blanket Cree Nation to begin ground-penetrating radar searches at site of former residential school
CBC
Star Blanket Cree Nation is beginning the journey of searching the site of a former residential school that many of its members were forced to attend.
There has already been months of preparation and ceremony. The grounds of the former Lebret Indian Industrial School were purified by a smudge walk carried out on the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.
All that remains of the school is a gymnasium in the village of Lebret, Sask. It now serves as a gathering centre for the nation's activities.
The school went by many different names after it opened in 1884. At various times it was known as Qu'appelle, St. Paul's and Whitecalf.
It didn't close its doors until 1998, making it one of the last residential schools to do so in Saskatchewan.
In its final years the school was not a federally run institution — administration was transferred to the Qu'Appelle Indian Residential School Council in 1973.
WATCH| Star Blanket Cree Nation, Sask. honours the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
Now, using ground-penetrating radar, Star Blanket Cree Nation will begin looking for children who never returned home.
Star Blanket Cree Nation is one of many Indigenous groups across Canada that is in the process of searching former residential school sites 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.
Star Blanket members are not sure what they will find and expect the work to take years.
Shledon Poitras, the Cree Nation's project leader for the search, previously told CBC News that lessons and stories from the past will help inform the search.
The band has consulted with elders to hear the stories they were told about who may be buried there.
More than 55 acres on the reserve will need to be examined. Star Blanket has been able to secure agreements with some landowners as it prepares to search areas once operated by the residential school.
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