The radar search for unmarked graves continued on July 18. (Angela Brown/battlefordsNOW staff)

By battlefordsNOW Staff

Looking for closure

Radar search for graves at site of former residential school in Delmas a long process

Jul 19, 2021 | 3:31 PM

The radar search for graves at the former residential school site at Delmas could take many more months before it is fully complete.

Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs project lead on the ground searches, Karen Whitecalf, says more areas for this site still need to be searched.

She said the land changed hands so it is not easy to know where the graves would be located exactly.

“The school was destroyed, so it was bull-dozed over. The graveyard was there but the land was sold, and people built on that land,” she said. “So there was a lot of work done to the land, which disturbed a lot of the unmarked graves. It’s a very unique situation we have in Delmas.”

Whitecalf says the results from this past weekend’s searches will likely be available after the data is processed in about a week or two.

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But additional searches will need to be done at the hay field at the further end of the property as well as on the grounds on the other side of Highway 16. The entire process for the Delmas site may take as long as a year before conclusive results are available.

“They will give us [the findings] as they complete the report after each site they check out,” she said. “So we will have periodic reports from SNC (SNC-Lavalin).”

Whitecalf said she was pleased with the progress made in the searches on July 17 and 18, and the support from the community, and surrounding community.

BATC executive director Neil Sasakamoose says FSIN and BATC Senator Jenny Spyglass is looking for her five-year-old brother who died at Delmas residential school many years ago.

Sasakamoose says the whole search for graves for the Delmas school is a big project.

“We’ll be into it into next year,” he said. “It will be probably until next summer we’ll be doing it.”

He said he doesn’t know whether they we will get to the former site of the Battleford Industrial School this year to continue searching for more unmarked graves there.

Landowner Doug Montgomery says it was “scary” for him to learn what was believed to be on the property he owned at Delmas.

“Living in a graveyard is not anybody’s cup of tea, I’m sure,” he said.

Montgomery said he and his wife Donna would go forward as caretakers of the land, if there are graves found through the searches. He said they would only sell the land if specifically First Nations people were the buyers.

Elder Ethel Stone, a residential school survivor, says her parents, and aunts and uncles attended residential school at the Delmas site. She attended a sharing circle before the search on Sunday.

“I feel sad, and glad that it’s happening,” she said. “It’s time that we as First Nations people tell these stories. Now the truth is coming out, now they believe us. This should have happened a long time ago.”

Elder Ethel Stone, a residential school survivor, says her parents attended residential school at the Delmas site. (Angela Brown/battlefordNOW staff)

Stone says her father would only speak about the abuse he suffered at the Delmas school when he was inebriated.

“It is something I can’t forget. It’s hard to hear that pain,” she said, while wiping away tears.

When her seven brothers and sisters were taken away to attend Beauval residential school, Stone was six years old at the time. She managed to escape by hiding under the bed. She was 12 years old when she was taken away to Onion Lake residential school. She said parents could be arrested at that time if they did not give up their children to residential school.

“It’s something that I think about. It could have been any of us buried in these places,” Stone said. “Our parents, our grandparents. It’s hard to look at.”

Sweetgrass First Nation Chief Lori Whitecalf had family who attended the Delmas and Onion Lake residential schools.

Sweetgrass First Nation Chief Lori Whitecalf stands beside the tombstone of one of her ancestors. (Josh Ryan/battlefordsNOW staff)

She said a tombstone of one of her ancestors was found near the Delmas search site previously.

“This is Canada’s truth,” she said. “Those were our kids. Those were my mooshums and kookums.”

Sweetgrass First Nation Chief Lori Whitecalf showed a tombstone of one of her ancestors that was found previously near the site of the Delmas school search. (Josh Ryan/battlefordsNOW staff)

Chief Wayne Semaganis, from Little Pine First Nation, said Saturday as a chief he worries about the relationship with Canada failing First Nations peoples. He blames the federal government for not listening to First Nations.

“If he [Prime Minister Justin Trudeau] is going to be the leader of Canada, he needs to come and meet the leaders of the First Nations people, talk business and straighten the relationship. We cannot afford to have a tomorrow that repeats what happened in the past.”

Semaganis calls on all leaders across Canada to come together and make that change.

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