PRINCE GEORGE, B.C. — Chief Robert Michell says relief isn't the right word to describe his reaction as the search begins for unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school he attended in northern British Columbia.
"And once the announcement came, then the hard conversation started as to where do we look? What are we looking for?" Nadleh Whut'en Chief Beverly Ketlo said many at the gathering are looking to the Tk'emlúps te Secwépemc Nation for advice since their May 2021 announcement that ground-penetrating radar had discovered 215 possible unmarked graves at the Kamloops Residential School site.
About 7,850 Indigenous children attended Lejac school, and the Nadleh Whut'en band said there were 38 documented deaths at the facility that was razed in 1990. "To have all of them gather and exchange stories, exchange ideas, exchange processes going forward on how to deal with the findings and what to do next goes a long way."