CanadianSchoolGrave1

Mass grave containing the remains of 215 children found at indigenous school in Canada.Preliminary finding represented unthinkable loss that was never documented by the school's administrators. Canada's residential schools were compulsory boarding schools run by the government and religious authorities during the 19th & 20th Centuries with the aim of forcibly assimilating indigenous youth.Opened under Roman Catholic administration in 1890, the school had as many as 500 students when enrollment peaked in the 1950s. The central government took over administration of the school in 1969, operating it as a residence for local students until 1978 when it was closed."To our knowledge, these missing children are undocumented deaths, some were as young as 3 years old"A commission launched in 2008 to document the impacts of this system found that large numbers of children never returned to their home. More than 4,100 children who died while attending a residential school have been identified.