Residential Schools: The Search Continues

It has been almost a year and a half since the horrific past of residential schools first sparked mainstream attention when leaders of Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation announced that 215 bodies of former students were found at a residential school site in Kamloops, BC.

With the count now well into the thousands in Canada, the search for bodies has now reached America.

The site of a former residential school in Fairway, Kansas will be the next location searched to figure out if any Indigenous children were buried there.

This search is being conducted by the University of Kansas Center of Research per the request of The Kansas Historical Society who currently holds ownership of the site. Ground penetrating radars will be used to comb the 15 acre property for unmarked graves.

This site is only one of the hundreds of schools run

by the government and religious groups throughout the 1800s and 1900s. Countless Indigenous children were ripped from their families and placed in these schools as a way of assimilation. Heartbreaking stories from survivors shed light on what was happening. These children had their clothes taken, hair cut, languages tortured out of them, and other unmentionable horrors.

Last year, the U.S. Interior Department announced that it was investigating the nation’s treatment of Indigenous children at the boarding schools. A federal report released in May determined more than 500 student deaths at the institutions, but officials said that figure was expected to reach into the thousands as searches continue.

Officials of the Shawnee Tribe said in a statement that they were not consulted about the Historical Society’s project proposal before it was announced.