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South Okanagan Photos

Another 182 bodies found – in Cranbrook at St. Eugene’s School

There has been another discovery of human remains in unmarked graves at the site of a former residential school in B.C.

The Lower Kootenay Band confirmed Wednesday that ground-penetrating radar revealed 182 human remains in unmarked graves at the site of the old St. Eugene’s Mission Residential School in Cranbrook, B.C.

The band said some of the remains were buried in shallow graves only three and four feet deep.

According to the Ktunaxa Nation, the residential school operated for 60 years between 1910 and 1970. Thousands of children attended the school. In 2000 the site reopened as the St. Eugene Resort, within the Ktunaxa Community of ʔaq̓am, near Cranbrook, B.C.

The Indian Residential School History and Dialogue Centre says the Kootenay or St. Eugene’s residential school opened in 1890 and was replaced with an industrial school in 1912. There were recurring outbreaks of influenza, mumps, measles, chicken pox, and tuberculosis at the school.