Investigators working with the Deninu K’ue First Nation have found seven unmarked graves at Mission Island. Five of the unmarked graves belong to children and two of the unmarked graves belong to adults. The sites were found as part of an investigation into the deaths of missing children who attended St. Joseph’s Residential School.
Chief Louis Balsillie made an announcement about the tragic finding on Aug. 7.
“While growing up I heard stories of children who were mistreated at the school — children who got sick and died because of malnutrition or abuse,” said Chief Balsillie.
“We know that during the 1940s, eight children died at the school — seven of them were girls.
Statistically, that cannot happen without a cause. What happened to these girls?” said Chief Balsillie.
“Now we are finding children buried on Mission Island. I am committed to continuing our investigation into what happened at the schools to bring about so many deaths.’
Many people in the community have expressed concerns that Mission Island is a likely burial ground for victims. The “mission school” was in operation on the island from 1857 to 1890 before the residential school was built in Fort Resolution which eventually became known as St. Joseph’s Residential “school.”
According to the Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, the school was run as a mission school between 1903 to 1957.
During the over 50 years of the school’s operation, documented experiences of periodic fires, outbreaks of illness, an acetylene plant explosion, and food shortages took place.
“A hospital school associated with the mission operated near the residential school until 1939. In the 1940s and 1950s inspection reports noted the dilapidated state of the school buildings. The school was closed in December 1957,” noted the Centre for Truth and Reconciliation.
To date, the names of 75 students and the date of their death while attending the school are documented on the Centre for Truth and Reconciliation’s memorial page.
In 2022, Deninu Kue First Nation started an investigation into missing children and unmarked burials associated with the St. Joseph Residential School.
“Students who attended St. Joseph’s came from communities across the Northwest Territories. These communities and related extended families are in the process of being identified through the compilation of names taken from St. Joseph’s quarterly reports, Roman Catholic Church records, and, of course, additional “Indian Affairs” correspondence, among other sources,” said DKFN in a February announcement.
