Grave of boy who vanished at residential school found decades later, First Nation looks for others like him
The family of a First Nations boy who died at a residential school decades ago has finally located his gravesite. Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation is now working with the University of Alberta to research the fates of other children who never returned home from these institutions.
Why it matters
This highlights the ongoing process of truth and reconciliation regarding the systemic abuse and high mortality rates at residential schools in Canada.
Forced to enrol at Catholic-run St. Francis Xavier Residential School in Calais, Alta., Johnny never returned home, and it was decades before his brothers and sisters learned what happened to him.
"My parents, like my dad, was never told about nothing. They wrote a death certificate without his knowledge or nothing," said Robert Kiyawasew, Johnny's younger brother.
"It's not right… the church should have told my dad that he had passed away."
After years of unanswered questions, Robert Kiyawasew said his older sister Roseann, with the help of a private investigator, found Johnny's gravesite in 2013.
"That caretaker said, 'I know exactly where he's buried and I'll show you where,'" said Robert Kiyawasew.
According to provincial records, Johnny died of pulmonary tuberculosis in a hospital in High Prairie, where he is buried, over 75 kilometres away from the residential school.
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