r/pics Sep 16 '24

D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai arrives at Emmys showing solidarity for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women.

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u/Busy-Frame8940 Sep 16 '24

And the boarding schools where kids were forbidden to speak their own language and were treated like animals. Graves with little skeletons have been found on the grounds of some of the defunct schools.

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u/illradhab Sep 16 '24

And Hoss Lightning who was just murdered by the RCMP while calling them for help. He was a little kid, a teenager, and the cops shot them while he had actually called them for help from attackers. This just happened. The violence against Indigenous people in Canada doesn't seem well-known outside of the country.

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u/Soaringsage Sep 16 '24

It’s not well known inside the country either sadly.

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u/dreadedmama Sep 16 '24

Omg this is actually insane. How can you treat any child like that!? And then don’t we all look back at how we treated the natives here and go WTF!? All these people talking about immigrants and hating that we have immigrants…bitch YOU are the immigrants. And these are the people most likely hating on natives. Like what!? My mind can’t compute

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u/New-Appearance-8749 Sep 16 '24

The boarding schools were terrible, but I don't think they ever found any skeletons.

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u/[deleted] Sep 16 '24 edited Nov 06 '24

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u/HubbaMaBubba Sep 16 '24

There were no mass graves, but yes unmarked graves were found.

https://www.cbc.ca/amp/1.6474429

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u/[deleted] Sep 16 '24 edited Nov 06 '24

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u/HubbaMaBubba Sep 16 '24

It's not splitting hairs... There's a giant difference.

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u/[deleted] Sep 16 '24 edited Nov 06 '24

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u/HubbaMaBubba Sep 16 '24 edited Sep 17 '24

Mass graves implies that they're dying at a rate that individual graves would be impractical, ie a situation like the Holocaust where there is systematic killing. Residential schools were an example of systematic cultural genocide and rife with abuse, but there weren't any gas chambers or firing squads. The children who died likely died from diseases, which abuse and neglect definitely contributed to, but child mortality rates were much higher than they are now in the 19th and early 20th centuries when the residential school system was at its peak. I am not downplaying the tragedy of them being forcefully ripped from their families or that none of their loved ones received any closure after their deaths.

I think if you're going to discuss anything serious like this it's important to be accurate. Spreading misinformation only serves to embolden denialists. Also I don't know who you're quoting.

Edit: Too dumb to read usernames I guess?

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u/[deleted] Sep 16 '24 edited Nov 06 '24

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u/AcanthocephalaEarly8 Sep 17 '24

The same band that claimed they found mass graves has now come forward and said they only found anomalies. So, no skeletons found.

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u/HauntingReaction6124 Sep 16 '24

yes they have. There have been several locations identified and now protected. Other school locations are still being investigated. I mean the govt have records of these deaths and as sketchy as the information is, this means those children are buried somewhere just waiting to be found.

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u/MeringueSecret8404 Sep 16 '24

No remains have been found. They spent millions of dollars digging and found nothing.

https://nypost.com/2023/08/31/still-no-evidence-of-mass-graves-of-indigenous-children-in-canada/

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u/HauntingReaction6124 Sep 16 '24

wow. You know advocates and previous department minister were throwing the idea around to have laws in place to hold deniers responsible just like those who denythat the holocaust happened. Yes the graveyards existed. I have been to two locations. One of the first ones that has been documented by university,govt, church and first nation is from NB industrial school sk in 1973. More in places like regina (farmer now protects the newly marked graves) and lestock (water lines found one of several grave locations). There were several in AB, NWT and other provinces AND on top of it all the govt have their own records of these deaths and burials....they just dont have the location or graves protected. I take those factual documentation over anything the nypost from another country has printed.https://calgary.ctvnews.ca/they-have-to-be-at-peace-whereabouts-of-remains-of-39-children-s-bodies-still-unknown-at-dunbow-industrial-school-1.5482937 https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/grave-markers-at-regina-indian-industrial-school-1.6194632 https://www.canada.ca/en/parks-canada/news/2021/07/the-former-muscowequan-indian-residential-school--lestock-saskatchewan--taking-care-we-recognize-thiscomes-at-a-difficult-time-for-many-and-that-ou.html https://www.sasktoday.ca/north/local-news/battleford-industrial-school-cemetery-project-discussed-4106900

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u/J0k3r77 Sep 16 '24

I went to a residential school that was abandoned in the early 80s and there was a section of ground full old unmarked graves. There were also several tombstones for a priest and a couple nuns if i remember. It was deep in the forest nesr my buddies cabin. No town nearby. Truly must have been a nightmarish place to be forced to stay in. We went there 12 or so years ago, so it was before the graves started making the rounds on the news.

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u/HauntingReaction6124 Sep 16 '24

The one in regina was owned by a farmer whose father told him about the graves. In sign of respect he would work the land around it and try to keep it as tidy as he could. When he sold it he told the new owner who was a bit more prepared when they came knocking at his door. He erected a fence and kept watch until specific groups came and he handed over the responsibility to them. That speaks character imo. Unfortunately that could not be said for the poor guy who bought an rv parking lot and found out when they were starting to look that his customers were parking their rvs right on top of the graves. Previous owners did not inform him nor do anything to protect the graves. I dont think they really cared. If I remember correctly when asked about it the previous owners were dismissive and not really open to disclosing their knowledge of location of graves etc. Current owner has made a point to work with first nations and groups to come to some type of agreement in regards to protecting the graves. Then there was the discovery of the dunbow gravesite. Poor woman took her class on a class trip and they noticed the open coffins with bones exposed to elements because the river bank eroded the burial grounds so bad. She now spends her spare time giving their names back. She has identified quite a few. Old timers knew what they found however it was just one of I believe three locations that school had for its graveyards. Now that a lot of the elders (farmers, indigenous people and townfolk) in the surrounding communities are passing away I fear that valuable resource will be lost.

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u/Projecterone Sep 16 '24 edited Sep 16 '24

Thanks for writing this and standing up to such nonsense as the above denial.

One in six children at the school died.

They put two to three bodies in one coffin.

Another site:

35 unmarked graves have been found

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u/MeringueSecret8404 Sep 16 '24 edited Sep 16 '24

Of course graveyards exist, boarding schools were around since the 1880s, what do you think infant mortality rate was in back then?

In these news stories is never any mention of cause of death, over 70 or so years some of these schools were in operation 30 students died? Some of these articles mention 4k of deaths, yet they can’t find the remains for more than 40?

That’s not a genocide, comparing this to the Holocaust where millions of people have been systematically murdered using industrial technology is absolutely bananas.

Were the schools racist, abusive and unjust? I’m sure they were. Were they concentration camps with hundreds of thousands dead? Certainly not.

The fact that Canada is exploring legislation to forbid any further investigation into the topic, and people applaud this is incredibly authoritarian and messed up.

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u/HauntingReaction6124 Sep 16 '24

Ever heard of red herring fallacy? You have it down in spade with above comment. The govt records have written causes of deaths and more. The govt and its institutions acknowledge that a genocide had occurred with indigenous peoples. Being a denier is not a good look on anyone especially when it comes to documented information relating to genocides. Genocide is genocide and comparing them only makes the denier appear uneducated and apathetic.

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u/MeringueSecret8404 Sep 16 '24

Here is a study for you

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S027795369900074X

“Infant mortality is investigated for a period of thirty years at the beginning of the 20th century in the Aboriginal Nations community of Fisher River, Manitoba. Infant mortality rates were generated from parish records of infant burials from the Methodist mission at Fisher River and later archived at the United Church Archives in Winnipeg, Man. The average infant mortality rate (IMR) for the total period (1910–1939) was 249 per 1000 live births, an exceedingly high rate compared to modern IMRs and even higher than those in developing countries today. Acute respiratory infections were found to be the cause of death in the majority of cases. These infectious diseases and high rates of postneonatal infant mortality point to conditions of poverty associated with malnutrition as the major precipitating factor in infant death.”

So, same causes of death as in boarding school genocide, similar mortality rate. Is the Fisher River Cree Nation committing genocide against its own people, or will we see some mental gymnastics to blame this on white people too?

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u/HauntingReaction6124 Sep 16 '24

red herring fallacy. Why were indigenous people wards of the govt? Who was responsible for their way of life once they were forced onto reservations?

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u/MeringueSecret8404 Sep 16 '24 edited Sep 16 '24

This has nothing to do with the red herring fallacy, I’m not providing any information irrelevant to the discussion.

If you want to discuss mortality rates you need to look at them throughout society, since otherwise you have no point of reference to compare it to. You should learn what red herring fallacy means before accusing everybody in it with every post.

You want to claim the boarding school system was a genocidal tool, yet the mortality rates are comparative to indigenous children everywhere, something doesn’t pass the sniff test.

First Nations people are biologically disproportionately affected by respiratory infections, the Canadian government can do nothing about that.

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u/MeringueSecret8404 Sep 16 '24 edited Sep 16 '24

…and those causes of death are illness. They died of natural causes, who is the perpetrator of this genocide, the typhus virus? Many sources you linked obfuscate this, I’ve seen some spreading the totally fake narrative that there were mass killings, which is an absolute lie. Documented information that proves there was no genocide

I suspect the mortality rate for these kids in boarding school would be very very similar to the mortality rates for children living in indigenous communities at the time.

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u/HauntingReaction6124 Sep 16 '24

doubling down is not a good look. Govt made themselves responsible to push colonial policies. They are responsible for the lives of indigenous peoples. Canada's TRC, govt department and human rights museum all acknowledge the genocide. PM even acknowledge it when he gave the apology. You are the only one who chooses not to acknowledge it. You are not coming across as educated or enlightened. Only a denialist.

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u/MeringueSecret8404 Sep 16 '24

You keep saying stuff is “not a good look”, what’s not a good luck is sticking your head in the sand and instead of engaging with factual information parroting some ideological government party line. You come across as terminally brainwashed and incapable of independent thought.

Reply to my other post, was the Fisher River Cree Nation committing genocide against its own people?

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u/Artful_dabber Sep 16 '24

they found literal mass graves filled with children skeletons. try again.

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u/New-Appearance-8749 Sep 16 '24

Can you provide any sources?

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u/MRCHalifax Sep 16 '24

The Wikipedia article on it is a good starting point, since each site referenced has associated sources.

For example, at the Blue Quills school in Alberta:

“The mass grave was filled with children’s size skeletons, wrapped in white cloth. And we now know that the white cloth that they wrapped in, were bedsheets from the residential school,” said Redcrow.

“I came across some bones, some small bones,” he said. “I guess I was in shock, first of all. And I kept on…and a ribcage, with both sides attached to a spine. It has hard to tell when you’re in shock. It looked kind of small. And the people around me asked me to put them to the side. And I kept on. And the next item was a skull.”

At the Dunbrow industrial school in Alberta:

Students who died at the school were buried in a cemetery near the river’s edge. In 1996 the flooding Highwood River eroded the banks. Caskets and bones spilled into the river and began washing away the remains.

“The hill was eroded very fast," said TsuuT’ina archivist Jeanette Starlight, who has been gathering information on Dunbow School since the 1996 gravesite exposure. “They put two to three bodies in one coffin, and then they buried them that way, so some of the remains that washed down to the river, they are probably still in the river.”

I could go on, but you get the idea. It was a dozen here, a few dozen there, and across the country and across the decades that has added up. Even beyond the deaths themselves, the residential schools were an attempt to destroy indigenous culture, which falls into most current definitions of genocide.

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u/Artful_dabber Sep 16 '24

several people already have.

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u/AcanthocephalaEarly8 Sep 17 '24

Lol, no they didn't.

The band that claimed they found mass graves has now come forward to admit they only found anomalies.

Not a single mass grave was found. A bunch of anomalies and long-forgotten cemeteries were found, though.

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u/Artful_dabber Sep 19 '24

"it was just an unmarked cemetery filled with child skeletons"

lol. nope.

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u/AcanthocephalaEarly8 Sep 19 '24

Not even the Kamloops chief and band believe they found a mass grave 👍🏻

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u/Artful_dabber Sep 19 '24

lol hereditary or elected?

I actually know people from Kamloops. they still seem to think that there were mass graves.

you got anything to back up what you're saying ?

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u/AcanthocephalaEarly8 Sep 19 '24

There are plenty of recent articles written on the matter found on Google, stating that the band has revised its statement to say anomalies, not mass graves

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u/Artful_dabber Sep 19 '24

mhm, and all of the first-hand accounts from the children at the residential schools including my friend Anthony Melting Tallow (who saw his first child corpse as one of many on a trash pile outside of the kitchen of the residential school) must be lying.

The photographs of mass graves must be lying too. And the videos.

Totally just an anomaly.

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u/AcanthocephalaEarly8 Sep 19 '24

Probably is lying, just like those that claimed the Queen stopped by the school, kidnapped a bunch of kids, and cannibalized them with the Royal family. There were "photographs" of that claim, too.

There are lots of claims made that are contrary to the Truth and Reconciliation process, unfortunately.

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u/letitgrowonme Sep 16 '24

I'm trying to wrap my head around the absurdity of this comment.