A Muskowekwan First Nation Band Councillor is calling for both the federal and provincial governments to search the grounds of all residential schools across Canada to find the missing children. Cynthia Desjarlais spoke at a tribute today (Tues) at a residential School northwest of Melville, honouring the 215 children whose remains were found at a former Kamloops residential school and to the 35 found at the former Muscowequan Residential School in Saskatchewan.

Desjarlais says the outcome from the abuses in the schools is reflected in the justice system, the incarceration rates, in hospitals and with intergenerational trauma. She notes that the Muscowequan Residential school began as a wooden building in 1896, and then a brick building was built in 1931. It was closed in 1997. The children came from across central Saskatchewan and as far north as Dene territory.

Desjarlais says the children were found on the Muskowekwan First Nation through ground penetrating radar, with help from the Universities of Saskatchewan and Alberta and back in the early 1990s some graves were found from water line construction. It is believed there are at least 60 more unmarked graves on the site.

In 1999, First Nation elders rejected the federal government’s offer to demolish the building. Desjarlais explains that they wanted to keep the proof that these schools existed and as a reminder to government what happened to the children.

A preservation project is being planned, but in the meantime, construction on a Family and Healing Wellness Centre is under way, to bring families together instead of separating them.