SHEPHERD: A disconnect in claims around the latest residential schools grave investigation

The Tseshaht First Nation of central Vancouver Island, BC, announced Tuesday afternoon that they believe 67 children have died while attending the Alberni Indian Residential School (AIRS). However, the surveyor they hired to scan the site with ground-penetrating radar found only 17 ground disturbances, which the nation interprets as unmarked graves.

How can we understand these two different numbers?

The Port Alberni-based First Nation hired BC surveyor GeoScan to scan the site of the former AIRS site with ground-penetrating radar in July 2022 to detect ground disturbances that Aboriginal advocates believe are the graves of deceased Indigenous children. The school operated under various names from 1892 to 1973.

GeoScan also used LiDAR, a drone-based laser scanning instrument, as well as other geophysical scanning technologies.

“We are not seeing any human remains using geophysics,” pointed out Brian Whiting, head of GeoScan Geophysics Division, during the Tseshaht announcement. “There is no such thing as a geophysical bone detector. We are looking for very indirect evidence: breaks in [soil] Layers, reflections of things like possibly coffins if there were any.”

Retired anthropologist Hymie Rubenstein of the University of Manitoba explained: “It’s important to understand that ground-penetrating radar can only detect the presence of disturbed ground. It cannot identify bodies, let alone count them, determine their age at death, or answer whether the bodies were “disposed of” or properly disposed of.”

While GeoScan found 17 soil disturbances across the 12 hectares of land they surveyed, the Tseshaht First Nation believes 67 children died at the school, based on personal interviews with boarding school residents and school archives. The National Center for Truth and Reconciliation has recorded 29 student deaths at AIRS, but Tseshaht Chief Councilor Ken Watts noted the number should have been 24.

Caption: Screenshots from the Tseshaht First Nation livestream explaining the numbers they found on how many students died.

“Please remember, two different numbers…these are two independent ways of getting to the bottom of the truth,” said Brian Whiting.

Tseshaht First Nation Executive Director Vicky White stressed that they do not rank the various forms of evidence in a hierarchy as this is a “colonial tendency”.

To understand the numbers, think of it this way: The nation says 67 children died as students in the AIRS, although many of them died in hospital or at home. The figure of 67 presented by the nation includes the 29 already known to have died at school, as declared by the National Center for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR). Unfortunately, however, the NCTR list is not accurate and the Tseshaht Nation itself has corrected this number to 24, although independent researcher Nina Green has found further errors in the NCTR data. The Tseshaht Nation’s criteria for who else is included in that number of 67 is unclear, although they emphasize that their research was based on stories from hostel survivors.

Figure 17 presented by GeoScan relates to soil anomalies found on the former school site, although they are not necessarily “unmarked graves” of missing children, as the region scanned may have been a known burial site, and the fact that possible burials may actually contain the bodies of church members, school staff, or other community members – not necessarily Indigenous school children.

Here’s a takeaway: Children lived in cramped quarters in boarding schools, leading to many sadly dying of disease. Sometimes these sick children died at home or in the hospital, but some may have been buried on school grounds. However, this cannot be confirmed without excavation, and no excavation has been carried out.

“On the subject of missing students, missing children,” said Tseshaht Nation research director Sheri Meding, “many, many students who attended AIRS were ill, were in the infirmary, and were either discharged home and died at home, or were hospitalized one infirmary dismissed from the three Indian hospitals in the province.”

Meding explained: “The cause of death was predominantly due to medical problems.”

Frances Widdowson, author of many books and articles on Indigenous issues, says: “It seems to be the ‘motte and bailey’ tactic again. The uncontroversial claim (that children died of disease) is used to support the unsubstantiated, implausible claim that there are 17 clandestine burials. We won’t know if the “17 ground disturbances” are burials until there are digs, but the band will be reluctant to do them. This is because excavations in the past have not found any clandestine burials. However, the suggestion that there are clandestine burials is being used to get more referrals from the government for more ground penetrating radar work, ‘research’, trauma help, etc.”

Renowned author and professor emeritus of political science Tom Flanagan also notes that the Tseshaht First Nation has not carried out any exhumations, nor does it have a timeline for doing so.

“The fact remains that there were no exhumations anywhere,” he says. “Honestly, I doubt they ever will.”

“As long as the media swallows these holus-bolus stories, why should they exhume, why should they dig up?”

The Tseshaht First Nation’s announcement comes a year and a half after the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation of Kamloops, BC presented their ground-penetrating radar findings. The Tk’emlúps band’s original 2021 announcement that they had discovered “confirmation of the remains of 215 children who were students at Kamloops Indian Residential School” sparked shame across the country, although the Tk’emlúps Band later downgraded the number to 200 from ground disturbances. The Tk’emlups band and their research team also admitted that they would probably never really know how many “burial sites” there are because they are not currently planning any excavations.

“The mainstream media keeps repeating these stories over and over…they don’t do any real on-the-spot investigations…they allow themselves to be used as props in the drama. It’s very discouraging,” Flanagan says.