{"id":19527,"date":"2013-10-31T08:48:13","date_gmt":"2013-10-31T12:48:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/theredphoenixapl.org\/?p=19527"},"modified":"2013-10-31T08:48:13","modified_gmt":"2013-10-31T12:48:13","slug":"it-was-obviously-a-policy-not-to-report-them-new-research-finds-at-least-3000-confirmed-indian-residential-school-deaths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/2013\/10\/it-was-obviously-a-policy-not-to-report-them-new-research-finds-at-least-3000-confirmed-indian-residential-school-deaths\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It was obviously a policy not to report them\u2019: New research finds at least 3,000 confirmed Indian residential school deaths"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"A<\/a>
A tin marker, likely issued by the Dept. of Indian Affairs, marks the resting place of a student from the St Joseph’s Indian residential school in Chapleau, Ont., photographed on Aug. 12, 2012. New research has found at least 3,000 children are now known to have died during attendance at Canada’s disgraced Indian residential schools.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by<\/span>\u00a0Colin Perkel, Canadian Press<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

TORONTO \u2014 At least 3,000 children, including four under the age of 10 found huddled together in frozen embrace, are now known to have died during attendance at Canada\u2019s Indian residential schools, according to new unpublished research.<\/span><\/p>\n

While deaths have long been documented as part of the disgraced residential school system, the findings are the result of the first systematic search of government, school and other records.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThese are actual confirmed numbers,\u201d Alex Maass, research manager with the Missing Children Project, told The Canadian Press from Vancouver.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAll of them have primary documentation that indicates that there\u2019s been a death, when it occurred, what the circumstances were.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The number could rise further as more documents \u2014 especially from government archives \u2014 come to light.<\/span><\/p>\n

The largest single killer, by far, was disease.<\/span><\/p>\n

For decades starting in about 1910, tuberculosis was a consistent killer \u2014 in part because of widespread ignorance over how diseases were spread.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe schools were a particular breeding ground for (TB),\u201d Maass said. \u201cDormitories were incubation wards.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The Spanish flu epidemic in 1918-1919 also took a devastating toll on students \u2014 and in some cases staff. For example, in one grim three-month period, the disease killed 20 children at a residential school in Spanish, Ont., the records show.<\/span><\/p>\n

While a statistical analysis has yet to be done, the records examined over the past few years also show children also died of malnutrition or accidents. Schools consistently burned down, killing students and staff. Drownings or exposure were another cause.<\/span><\/p>\n

In all, about 150,000 First Nations children went through the church-run residential school system, which ran from the 1870s until the 1990s. In many cases, native kids were forced to attend under a deliberate federal policy of \u201ccivilizing\u201d Aboriginal Peoples.<\/span><\/p>\n

Many students were physically, mentally and sexually abused. Some committed suicide. Some died fleeing their schools.<\/span><\/p>\n

One heart-breaking incident that drew rare media attention at the time involved the deaths of four boys \u2014 two aged 8 and two aged 9 \u2014 in early January 1937.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Canadian Press report from Vanderhoof, B.C., describes how the four bodies were found frozen together in slush ice on Fraser Lake, barely a kilometre from home.<\/span><\/p>\n

The \u201ccapless and lightly clad\u201d boys had left an Indian school on the south end of the lake \u201capparently intent on trekking home to the Nautley Reserve,\u201d the article states.<\/span><\/p>\n

A coroner\u2019s inquest later recommended \u201cexcessive corporal discipline\u201d of students be \u201climited.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The records reveal the number of deaths only fell off dramatically after the 1950s, although some fatalities occurred into the 1970s.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe question I ask myself is: Would I send my child to a private school where there were even a couple of deaths the previous year without looking at it a little bit more closely?\u201d Maass said.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOne wouldn\u2019t expect any death rates in private residential schools.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

In fact, Maass said, student deaths were so much part of the system, architectural plans for many schools included cemeteries that were laid out in advance of the building.<\/span><\/p>\n

Maass, who has a background in archeology, said researchers had identified 50 burial sites as part of the project.<\/span><\/p>\n

About 500 of the victims remain nameless. Documentation of their deaths was contained in Department of Indian Affairs year-end reports based on information from school principals.<\/span><\/p>\n

The annual death reports were consistently done until 1917, when they abruptly stopped.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was obviously a policy not to report them,\u201d Maass said.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the 1990s, thousands of victims sued the churches that ran the 140 schools and the Canadian government. A $1.9-billion settlement of the lawsuit in 2007 prompted an apology from Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and the creation of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.<\/span><\/p>\n

The research \u2014 carried out under the auspices of the commission \u2014 has involved combing through more than one million government and other records, including nuns\u2019 journal entries.<\/span><\/p>\n

The longer-term goal is to make the information available at national research centre.<\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by\u00a0Colin Perkel, Canadian Press TORONTO \u2014 At least 3,000 children, including four under the age of 10 found huddled together in frozen embrace, are now..<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37775,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,21],"tags":[313,228,197,227,351],"class_list":["post-19527","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history","category-international","tag-canada","tag-colonialism","tag-imperialism","tag-racist-oppression","tag-world-history"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/redphoenix.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/residential_school_deaths_20130218.jpg?fit=620%2C465&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19527","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19527"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19527\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37775"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19527"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19527"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/redphoenix.news\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19527"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}