Pimicikamak Cree Nation Chief David Monias said ground radar searches for children’s graves at potential residential school burial sites found 187 anomalies.
“For us, it’s quite shocking to hear that many, because you wonder how many missing children are there,” he said at a news conference held in the community Wednesday afternoon.
The community of about 10,000 people, located roughly 530 kilometres north of Winnipeg, is also known as Cross Lake. It began trying to research, locate and commemorate children who died at the two local residential schools in 2021, after the announcement that anomalies — potential remains — were found at a First Nation in Kamloops, B.C. Pimicikamak secured federal funding for a search in March 2022.
Cross Lake residential school outbuildings and church in 1947. (La Société historique de Saint-Boniface)
The Catholic-run Cross Lake School housed First Nations children from 1912 to 1969. A smaller school known as the Notre Dame Hostel operated from 1960 to 1967.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission documented the deaths of 30 children at the main school. The local diocese presented documents in August 2021 that revealed 54 other children died at the main school.
