NORTH BATTLEFORD — This was an important week for Battlefords Agency Tribal Chiefs as they continue to seek answers, and reconciliation, regarding the area’s residential school legacy.
Tuesday, they welcomed Bishop Stephen Hero from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Prince Albert, who joined BATC chiefs and other attendees for a meeting at Chapel Gallery, North Battleford.
The meeting began with a pipe ceremony in which Bishop Hero participated, followed by a talking circle.
According to Karen Whitecalf, project manager for the searches at the Delmas Thunderchild (St.Henri) Indian Residential School and at Battleford Industrial School, everyone who participated in that circle had a chance to speak their minds.
“There was a couple of people who are still upset with what happened with our people and they voiced their frustration and their hurt. But altogether, our talking circle raised some issues, and the chiefs asked the bishop for assistance with healing and with releasing some of the records.”
Bishop Hero pledged to do his best to assist them. The bishop also indicated he wanted to participate in the feast in Delmas for the children of the residential school, so the plan is for BATC to extend an invitation.
Following the talking circle, there were comments from Chief Lori Whitecalf, and from Bishop Hero.
Whitecalf said Bishop Hero expressed his personal apology for all the harm caused by residential schools.
Afterwards they watched a documentary by Floyd Favel called Ashes and Embers, based on the fire at the Delmas residential school. They ended the morning with a lunch.
Whitecalf, the meeting was months in the making and took a monumental effort in planning.
“We had to co-ordinate the seven chiefs and their schedules with the Bishop’s schedule,” said Whitecalf.
BATC has been involved in the project to look for residential school graves for those who attended the Delmas residential school and the Battleford Industrial School.
In their search for records for the Delmas school, Whitecalf emailed the Prince Albert Diocese and got a response from the bishop’s assistant.
A phone meeting was then set up with Bishop Hero, and in that conversation the bishop said he wanted to help them look for those records. But the bishop also indicated he wanted to address the BATC chiefs and residential school survivors.
The plan was to hold that meeting in December but that was postponed to February due to COVID-19, and then was postponed again with the fourth wave.
Finally, after Premier Scott Moe lifted COVID-19 restrictions, the meeting went ahead on March 15. BATC chiefs brought two survivors each to the meeting.
As for next steps in the search for residential school graves at Delmas, Whitecalf says there are still a couple of areas they want to search. The task has been complicated, she said, because the graves have been moved so many times. The belief now is that there might be graves located behind the residential school, but there is a complication.
“We all know what runs behind the residential school now — it’s the twin highway,” said Whitecalf.
She said the plan now is to contact Saskatchewan Highways to find out if any unmarked graves were uncovered during the building of the highway, and if they were found, whether the graves were moved from the highways to the river.
There is also ] more investigative work to be done, and once that is done, mark out where the unmarked graves might be and do the sonar work.
BATC also wants to deal with the Anglican Church regarding the Battleford Industrial School. BATC believes there are 114 recorded deaths at Battleford Industrial School but only 72 graves have been found.
The intention is to search the ridge area, and the plan is for a feast in May and for the ground penetrating radar search to happen there after that.
Whitecalf said the meeting with the bishop met her expectations.
“It did meet my expectations, because we wanted to have a peaceful meeting with the bishop, and we did have a peaceful meeting. There were some people that voiced their emotions but that’s to be expected, you know ‑ you can’t hide hurt feelings, you shouldn’t hide hurt feelings. Those emotions are expected and Bishop Hero really provided good answers for these people that expressed their emotions. He was sorry they still felt that way. I think it’s just work in progress for us.”
