New report coming of hundreds of unmarked graves at former Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan

According to APTN journalist Dennis Ward, the number will be "the most significantly substantial to date"

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      Warning: this article contains information that could be triggering for some readers.

      Less than a month after a horrific revelation in connection with the Kamloops Indian Residential School, there will be another similar announcement in Saskatchewan.

      APTN journalist and newscaster Dennis Ward tweeted today that it will come from the Cowessess First Nation.

      According to Ward, it will concern the "horrific and shocking discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at the site of the former Marieval Indian Residential School".

      "The number of unmarked graves will be the most significantly substantial to date," the Federation of Sovereign Indigenous Nations stated in a news release.

      According to the Regina Leader-Post, the Cowessess First Nation has been using ground-penetrating radar to find and identify remains at a communal gravesite.

      The Catholic Church operated the Marieval Indian Residential School from 1898 to 1969 in the Qu'Appelle Valley, according to the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre.

      In 1969, the federal government took over the administration and in 1987, it was turned over to the Cowessess First Nation.

      The school closed in 1997.

      Author Robert Kakaway's memoir, Thou Shalt Not Be an Indian: A Residential School Survivor's Story, included horror stories of his six years at the school.

      On May 27, Kúkpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation revealed the existence of the remains of 215 Indigenous children on the grounds of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School.

      "There is an urgent need to ensure that all records related to the Indian Residential School System and its operations by the church are made available, without exception, to appropriate entities to support the identification of missing children and to ensure that protocols can be followed for the investigation of a mass grave," the Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre stated in a June 9 discussion paper. "The religious congregations that operated the Kamloops Indian Residential School must immediately make all records available and accessible to Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation."

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