Nickel Belt News Volume 61 • Issue 26
Friday, July 2, 2021
Thompson, Manitoba
Serving the Norman Region since 1961
Confronting ugly history of residential schools and identifying grave sites painful but necessary, chiefs say
BY IAN GRAHAM
EDITOR@THOMPSONCITIZEN.NET
First Nations leaders in Manitoba spoke about the painful legacy of residential schools in Canada on June 24, the same day that a Saskatchewan First Nation announced that the remains of 751 people in unmarked graves were discovered at the site of a former school. Speaking during an online press conference during which he and Southern Chiefs’ Organization (SCO) Grand Chief Jerry Daniels shared their thoughts on residential schools and how to deal with the abuses committed at them and their effect on Indigenous people today, Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak (MKO) Grand Chief Garrison Settee said that acknowledging the country’s past is necessary. “It’s an ugly, harmful history,” he said. “Canadians must realize this country was founded on an aggressive assimilationist philosophy. You can’t erase this past. You must confront it and look at it for what it truly is.” Daniels said the mindset that motivated the creation of the residential school system still exists today in other institutions. “These institutions are looking to assimilate us continuously, even now today,” he said. “We have to be able to bring in the Indigenous, comprehensive, holistic approach to all these institutions to heal our nations. Canadians have to have our back in doing that.” Settee, who went to the site of a former residential school in Brandon last week where 104 Indigenous children were buried, 54 of whom were from First Nations that are now represented by MKO, said
Canada has no place criticizing other countries for human rights abuses on the international stage when it has not truly grappled with its own actions. “Canada can no longer hide the hidden truth,” he said. “We want the world to know that an atrocity was committed in this country.” He also said that churches need to make amends. “The onus is on them to fund some of these activities [aimed at identifying and investigating unmarked graves at other residential school sites],” said Settee. “In order for us to reconcile they have to meet us halfway and do their part. The churches should be ordered to give up any documents that would help in this process. I think the churches should not be allowed to hide anything now. The churches have to disclose all the information that they’ve hidden from us and the general public.” In a statement on the discovery of the 751 graves in Cowessess, Saskatchewan, Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs (AMC) Grand Chief Arlen Dumas said questions that need to be answered include what Canada and the Catholic Church are going to do about such discoveries. “I know in my heart this number will continue to rise across the country,” Dumas said. “These numbers are our people. They were our children, our loved ones, our ancestors. More stories will come out. Manitoba has already uncovered 104 in Brandon. They too will be painful but they are necessary. We will keep listening. We will keep offering space for support and healing where we can.”
Nickel Belt News photo courtesy of Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Manitoba Keewatinowi Okimakanak Grand Chief Garrison Settee and Sioux Valley Dakota Nation Chief Jennifer Bone on June 17 at the site of Brandon Residential School, where there are 104 unmarked graves, about half of which are for children from First Nations that MKO represents.
Residential school news could trigger mental health crisis, says community health representative BY DAVE BAXTER
LOCAL JOURNALISM INITIATIVE REPORTER, WINNIPEG SUN
Karen Prince believes the news of hundreds of Indigenous children’s bodies discovered recently in both B.C and Saskatchewan could trigger a mental health crisis in First Nations communities because she knows how greatly her late husband suffered for years from his time in a residential school. “Before we got married my husband had issues with anger and with drugs and alcohol, and I had no idea what was going on,” Prince, a resident of Brokenhead Ojibway Nation said. “And one day he finally told me, ‘I’m a residential school survivor,’ and then I knew where his pain was coming from.”
Prince said her husband James Allen Prince, who passed away in 2017, told her of physical and sexual abuse he endured while in a residential school in Kenora as a child, but also about how hungry he and others were all the time because they were never given enough to eat. “Anytime he would see an orange peel he would tell me not to throw it out, because when he was in residential school they used to hide the orange peels because that helped them to survive,” Prince said. “He told me, ‘We took off the orange peels and hid them so we could eat them later, but if they found that we had them we were punished, they would beat us.’” And because of the way he was treated as a child,
Prince said her husband found it almost impossible to show affection. “This is why my husband couldn’t say ‘I love you.’ He had a hard time to say that because they were always told what they could and could not say, and told they could not share their feelings.” Prince said that for years her husband dealt with “triggers” in his life that would bring up memories of his time at a residential school. “There are these triggers for so many survivors, and it can be something small like that orange peel or something big like this news now about these graves and these poor children.” And as the horrific news continues to come out about
unmarked graves found near former residential schools in Canada, Prince now said she hopes there are resources available in First Nations communities to help those who may be triggered. Prince works as the community health representative at the Brokenhead Medical Clinic, a full-service medical centre and pharmacy in the community, and said they offer mental health supports for those looking for help or to talk to someone. She said she hopes that those who may be struggling reach out for help. In the Keeseekoowenin Ojibway First Nation, about 100 km north of Brandon, Chief Normal Bone says he has those same fears about people in his community
dealing with mental health issues, because of the horrific news of the graves. “You see all the stories and the history of the residential schools and that is what is contributing so greatly to all this anger we see, and we have to find ways to respond to that,” Bone said. He said the community does deal with issues of violence and addictions and believes much of those issues stem from the residential school system’s effects. He also wonders if mental health issues could be triggered in some survivors who tried to tell people about the horrors they witnessed in the system but were often ignored. “For so long it seemed like no one wanted to listen
or even tried to listen, but now that we have found evidence, I hope this just wakes everyone up. “People can’t deny this anymore, they have to listen.” Residential School Crisis Line offers support An Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week in Canada for anyone experiencing pain or distress as a result of their residential school experience or the experience of someone they know. The crisis line can be reached at 1-866-925-4419. — Dave Baxter is a Local Journalism Initiative reporter who works out of the Winnipeg Sun. The Local Journalism Initiative is funded by the government of Canada.