158 Unmarked Graves Found in Mission BC

Photo Credit: Patrick Penner/Mission Record via Hope Standard

On Sept. 21, 158 unmarked graves were found at St. Mary’s Residential School in Mission B.C. The graves were found as part of the 3-year plan declared by the Stó:lō Nation at the beginning of December 2021 to search for possible grave sites in Fraser Valley.  

The residential school program was a part of the Indian Act which removed children as young as four away from their families and cultures, leaving children isolated from their Indigenous traditions. The schools operated in Canada from 1831 to 1996, with approximately 150,000 children attending them, according to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.

To this day, the children of residential survivors grapple with distant parents and isolation from their cultures and communities.

However, many residential school students did not survive these institutions. A significant number of children were buried in mass grave sites located near the schools. “It is a great open secret that our children lie on the properties of the former schools,” said Sol Mamakwa, an Indigenous member of the Ontario legislature. 

Historical records from the Stó:lō nation state that the St. Mary’s site is the burial place of Indigenous children from four institutions: three residential schools and one hospital. There are 37 children who died at Coqualeetza Industrial Institute/Residential School in Chilliwack, five from All Hallow School in Yale, 96 children from Coqualeetza Indian Hospital, and 20 from St. Mary’s Residential School. A large majority of the children are assumed to have died from illnesses such as tuberculosis and pneumonia.

"The heaviness of the work today cannot be summed into words," Chief David Jimmie, president of the Stó:lō Nation Chiefs Council, told CBC News.

Photo Credit: Galt Museum and Archives

St. Mary’s Residential School was opened in 1867 in the Fraser Valley by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate. In its early days, the school was run by the Catholic Church, where punishment was more lenient; once it had joined the federal residential school system in 1961, the use of corporal punishment increased. The institution closed in 1984, and was the last residential school to close in BC. According to the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR), there were 22 documented deaths at the institution, most of which occurred after 1961.

The graves were found using ground penetrating radar (GPR). GPR sends electromagnetic waves into the earth to survey what’s under the surface, collecting data about the subsurface from reflected wavelengths. It can tell the difference between the reflected wavelengths of two individual materials, and is commonly used to detect air pockets, pipes, rocks and obstacles. This approach does not break the ground and is considered to be less intrusive than other methods.

In an interview with Global News, researcher Dr. David Schaepe described St. Mary’s Residential School as a place of punishment, starvation, abuse, intentional confinement and child labour. Survivors of St. Mary’s continue to live with the trauma of their experiences at the school.

Cyril Pierre, 68, is a survivor of St. Mary’s, is still upset about the residential schools, but also the injustice that followed the school’s closure. When speaking to CBC News, he said, "We got sentenced to life, the predators got away with a couple, or a few years. They call that justice? Nah, not by a long shot.”

“Now it hurts — when they found those bodies, it hurt even more,” said Victor Underwood in an interview for Saanich News. Underwood was taken from his family and endured many of the horrors of residential schools, including having all of his teeth removed without anesthetic as practice for a dental student while at the school.

Ralph Leon, another St. Mary’s survivor, stated during his visit to the school for APTN News that “no amount of money, no counselor could ever take that away from my mind because it’s always going to be there.”