Another mass grave found at site of Canadian indigenous boarding school

An indigenous community in Canada reported Tuesday that it has identified 169 potential graves at the site of a former boarding school, adding to a growing number of grisly finds that rocked the country last year.

The Kapawe’no First Nation in northern Alberta posted on its website the results of a six-day search using deep-range radar in the Grouard Mission village, 370 km northwest of Edmonton.

The boarding school, also known as St. Bernard Missionary School, was opened by the Catholic Church in 1894 and operated until 1961.

The Institute of Prairie and Archeology at the University of Alberta, which led the investigation, reported the that its findings are “the beginning of a long road to find answers to what happened to children who never came home from the Saint Bernard   Boarding School.”

“There are remnants of a lack of justice and responsibility for what happened,” the institution said. “There is more work to be done to find those answers.”

Numerous investigations into former boarding schools are underway across the country, with more than 4,000 children believed to be missing, according to authorities.

The Kapawe’no First Nation finds bring the total number of mass graves found to more than 1,500.

In all, some 150,000 indigenous children were boarded from the late 19th century to the 1990s in 139 residential schools across Canada, spending months or years isolated from their families, language, and culture.

Many of them were physically and sexually abused by administrators and teachers, and thousands are believed to have died from disease, malnutrition, or neglect.

A truth and reconciliation commission concluded in 2015 that the school system amounted to “cultural genocide.”

A group of Canadian Native American representatives and leaders will meet with Pope Francis at the end of March to discuss the tragedy of the boarding schools.