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<\/p>\nFive years ago, Rosanne Casimir, Chief (K\u00fakpi7) of the Tk\u2019eml\u00faps te Secw\u00e9pemc First Nation, issued a 600-word press release that broke the country\u2019s heart. The announcement said that using radar technology, her community had found the remains of 215 former residential school students, some as young as three years old.<\/p>\n
The announcement touched off an unprecedented period of national grieving. Ottawa lowered flags for five months, established the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and sent hundreds of millions of dollars to First Nations searching for missing victims of residential schools. Across the country, people held vigils, tied orange ribbons to power poles and fence posts, created symbolic displays of kids\u2019 shoes outside churches and government buildings. Pope Francis apologized to residential school survivors in 2022. <\/p>\n
But five years on, the country is still trying to understand what it is the First Nation found at the Tk\u2019eml\u00faps site, in an old apple orchard. The truth remains buried by two acres of dirt and a Tk\u2019eml\u00faps leadership that has, so far, resisted demands to bring up the dead.<\/p>\n
The number \u2018215\u2019 became a symbol of mourning across Canada in 2021, when the Tk\u2019eml\u00faps te Secw\u00e9pemc First Nation said that it found human remains near a former residential school.<\/p>\n
Fred Lum\/The Globe and Mail; Darryl Dyck\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Chief (Kukpi7) Rosanne Casimir, right, went to the Vatican in 2022 for an audience with the Pope about the graves. Months later, he was in Canada to apologize for the Church\u2019s role in residential schools.<\/p>\n
Fabrizio Troccoli\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n
Since the announcement in 2021, the story of the Tk\u2019eml\u00faps 215 has moved from certainty to ambiguity. Ms. Casimir\u2019s first press release said the community had located \u201cthe remains of 215 children.\u201d Her latest, issued on Feb. 17 of this year, is a model of equivocation: \u201cAs with any investigation, circumstances evolve as assumptions are tested, data is verified and new information emerges,\u201d it states. \u201cWhile the investigation has been more complex than we initially thought, we are making progress and will continue adapting our methodologies and information as it advances.\u201d<\/p>\n
The uncertainty has given rise to a loud contingent of skeptics and denialists. Many insist that the community\u2019s reluctance to provide more information \u2013 or conduct an archeological dig that would prove, once and for all, whether bodies lie beneath the site \u2013 is proof of a vast hoax that warrants a serious reassessment of the country\u2019s broader push for reconciliation. B.C. MLA Dallas Brodie, who was expelled from the provincial Conservative Party caucus last year over her views on residential schools, has called the Tk\u2019eml\u00faps discovery \u201cthe greatest lie in Canadian history.\u201d <\/p>\n
Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Children who died at the residential school are known as Le Estcwicw\u00e9y\u0313 (the missing) in Secwepemcts\u00edn, the language used on this stop sign near the site.Alison Boulier\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n But hundreds of pages of governments documents obtained through access-to-information legislation, along with interviews with members of the First Nation, and a video recording of a seminar on the investigation all undermine those disparagements and give insight into the delays. <\/p>\n Facing relentless requests from international media and growing skepticism around their claims, the community initiated an informal media black-out, leaving the narrative around the site to conjecture. But behind the wall of silence, they were following federal guidance, conducting new searches and laying out a detailed plan to dig the site by 2027 \u2013 all on their own terms and timeline. <\/p>\n And regardless of what they find, the fact remains that more than 3,500 children are named on the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation\u2018s registry of students who died as a result of the residential school system, which operated in Canada for more than 160 years. <\/p>\n But even knowing that, Canadians have become impatient for news of the investigation. An Angus Reid poll last summer found that 63 per cent of Canadians won\u2019t accept that children are buried at the Tk\u2019eml\u00faps site until excavation provides further evidence. On social media, a more toxic tone has taken hold, with accounts posting the slogans \u201c#stopthegrift,\u201d \u201cEvery Hoax Matters\u201d and \u201cDig Up or Shut Up.\u201d<\/p>\n One First Nations leader says only the truth can stop that sentiment from metastasizing. \u201cA lot of the comments call me a grifter and call other leaders grifters, saying that we\u2019re just out to take taxpayer dollars,\u201d said Aaron Pete, Chief of Chawathil First Nation, a St\u00f3:l\u014d community located 170 kilometres southwest of Kamloops, who has interviewed many Tk\u2019eml\u00faps critics on his podcast. \u201cI understand that it\u2019s a small minority, but if those comments don\u2019t get responded to with open dialogue and debate, my fear is that those voices will continue to grow and build the divide between Canadians and Indigenous people.\u201d<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Tk\u2019eml\u00faps means \u2018where the rivers meet\u2019 in Secwepemcts\u00edn, a language the residential school forbade children from speaking. Some survivors of the school grew up hearing stories of burials nearby.Alison Boulier\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n The old orchard overlooks the Secwepemc\u00e9tkwe, or South Thompson River, a wide stretch of water meandering through a valley that has served as the arid backdrop for movies set in Afghanistan, Mexico and California.<\/p>\n Last summer, an area of fencing placarded with \u201cKEEP OUT\u201d warnings was the only suggestion of the tragedy and controversy surrounding the site.<\/p>\n Much of the area around the orchard is easily accessible. Sculpted animals representing cultural values surround the inside perimeter of a large open-roofed log roundhouse that hosts the nation\u2019s annual summer powwow. <\/p>\n Inside the band office halls, just a short walk from the powwow grounds and adjacent to a museum and heritage park, Ms. Casimir greeted a reporter. <\/p>\n For nearly five years, she had not responded to Globe interview requests. Those requests began in the days immediately after the announcement, when it became clear that the nation had yet to uncover any physical remains. Instead, an archeologist hired by Tk\u2019eml\u00faps, Sarah Beaulieu, had used a ground-penetrating radar device to locate 215 underground abnormalities that she said were consistent with the size, depth and layout of human burials. <\/p>\n At a press conference held seven weeks after the original announcement, Dr. Beaulieu tried to clarify precisely what she had and had not found. After reviewing a previous dig that had uncovered no remains on a portion of the orchard site, she revised the number of suspected graves down to 200 while injecting uncertainty: \u201cWith ground-penetrating radar we can never say definitively that they are human remains until you excavate,\u201d she said, \u201cwhich is why we need to pull back a little bit and say that they are probable burials.\u201d <\/p>\n How does ground-penetrating radar work?<\/p>\n \t\t Ground penetrating radar, or GPR, is increasingly <\/p>\n being seen as an effective tool to locate <\/p>\n unmarked gravesites, such as those believed to <\/p>\n be present around Canada\u2019s residential schools. <\/p>\n But experts say the work requires careful meth-<\/p>\n odology, protocols and standards to ensure the <\/p>\n findings are accurate and warn that the stakes <\/p>\n are high.<\/p>\n Sites are divided into grids to ensure accurate data collection <\/p>\n High-<\/p>\n frequency<\/p>\n radio waves<\/p>\n GPR works by passing back and forth over a <\/p>\n gridded survey site with a portable cart-mounted <\/p>\n unit. The control unit emits a continuous series of <\/p>\n high-frequency radio waves, which pass through <\/p>\n the ground. The strength and rate at which this <\/p>\n electromagnetic energy is reflected back from <\/p>\n various materials is measured. Different substanc-<\/p>\n es have various capacities to store or reflect elec-<\/p>\n trical energy; metal has a high capacity to reflect <\/p>\n energy, while dry sand has much less. The data is <\/p>\n then displayed as a radargram that can be inter-<\/p>\n preted by experts.<\/p>\n Example of<\/p>\n a GPR cross-<\/p>\n sectional <\/p>\n radargram <\/p>\n JOHN SOPINSKI AND murat y\u00fckselir \/THE <\/p>\n GLOBE AND MAIl, sources: leica; geomodel <\/p>\n inc. (radargram); sensors and software <\/p>\n inc.; groundpenetratingradar.co.uk; geo-<\/p>\n physical.com<\/p>\n \t\t Ground penetrating radar, or GPR, is increasingly <\/p>\n being seen as an effective tool to locate unmarked <\/p>\n gravesites, such as those believed to be present <\/p>\n around Canada\u2019s residential schools. But experts say <\/p>\n the work requires careful methodology, protocols and <\/p>\n standards to ensure the findings are accurate and <\/p>\n warn that the stakes are high.<\/p>\n Sites are divided into grids to ensure accurate data collection <\/p>\n High-<\/p>\n frequency<\/p>\n radio waves<\/p>\n GPR works by passing back and forth over a gridded <\/p>\n survey site with a portable cart-mounted unit. The <\/p>\n control unit emits a continuous series of high-fre-<\/p>\n quency radio waves, which pass through the ground. <\/p>\n The strength and rate at which this electromagnetic <\/p>\n energy is reflected back from various materials is <\/p>\n measured. Different substances have various capaci-<\/p>\n ties to store or reflect electrical energy; metal has a <\/p>\n high capacity to reflect energy, while dry sand has <\/p>\n much less. The data is then displayed as a radargram <\/p>\n that can be interpreted by experts.<\/p>\n Example of <\/p>\n a GPR cross-<\/p>\n sectional <\/p>\n radargram <\/p>\n JOHN SOPINSKI AND murat y\u00fckselir \/THE GLOBE AND <\/p>\n MAIl, sources: leica; geomodel inc.(radargram); <\/p>\n sensors and software inc.; groundpenetratingra-<\/p>\n dar.co.uk; geophysical.com<\/p>\n \t\t Ground penetrating radar, or GPR, is increasingly being seen as an <\/p>\n effective tool to locate unmarked gravesites, such as those believed <\/p>\n to be present around Canada\u2019s residential schools. But experts say <\/p>\n the work requires careful methodology, protocols and standards to <\/p>\n ensure the findings are accurate and warn that the stakes are high.<\/p>\n High-<\/p>\n frequency<\/p>\n radio waves<\/p>\n Sites are divided into grids to ensure accurate data collection <\/p>\n GPR works by passing <\/p>\n back and forth over a <\/p>\n gridded survey site with <\/p>\n a portable cart-mounted <\/p>\n unit. The control unit <\/p>\n emits a continuous series <\/p>\n of high-frequency radio <\/p>\n waves, which pass <\/p>\n through the ground. The <\/p>\n strength and rate at which <\/p>\n this electromagnetic <\/p>\n energy is reflected back <\/p>\n from various materials is <\/p>\n measured. Different sub-<\/p>\n stances have various <\/p>\n capacities to store or <\/p>\n reflect electrical energy; <\/p>\n metal has a high capacity <\/p>\n to reflect energy, while <\/p>\n dry sand has much less. <\/p>\n The data is then displayed <\/p>\n as a radargram that can <\/p>\n be interpreted by experts.<\/p>\n JOHN SOPINSKI AND murat <\/p>\n y\u00fckselir \/THE GLOBE AND <\/p>\n MAIl, sources: leica; geo-<\/p>\n model inc. (radargram); <\/p>\n sensors and software inc.; <\/p>\n groundpenetratingradar.<\/p>\n co.uk; geophysical.com<\/p>\n Example of<\/p>\n a GPR cross-<\/p>\n sectional <\/p>\n radargram <\/p>\n Interpreting ground-penetrating radar readings is an imprecise science \u2013 more like interpreting a weather map than, say, reading an MRI. <\/p>\n Inconsistencies in the soil \u2013 such as rocks, water and roots \u2013 show up as indistinct radar blips that have to be interpreted for size and density. Like a meteorologist predicting the next cold snap, an archeologist will assign probabilities for each blip. Depending on its shade and shape \u2013 wavy, conical, vertical \u2013 an experienced GPR technician can surmise what the anomaly is. It\u2019s a science, but one built on probabilities. Even the weatherman doesn\u2019t always get it right. <\/p>\n Recently in Tulsa, Oklahoma, archaeologists used ground-penetrating radar and oral stories to pin-point what they believed was a mass grave from the city\u2019s 1921 race massacre. When they excavated the area in 2020, they found construction debris, artifacts and dirt, but no remains.<\/p>\n \u201cIt demonstrated exactly why you don\u2019t claim too much from anomalies,\u201d said state archeologist Kary Stakelbeck in an interview. The Tulsa search has since uncovered remains in other areas.<\/p>\n There are ways of limiting the uncertainty without excavating. When radar is combined with two other search methods \u2013 human-remains detection dogs and a new technology called soil spectroscopy \u2013 searchers can determine with almost 100-per-cent certainty whether buried remains are present, according to Kisha Supernant, Director of the University of Alberta\u2019s Institute of Prairie and Indigenous Archaeology.<\/p>\n \u201cIf all those methods coalesce around a specific location, that\u2019s about as close as we can get to saying there\u2019s a human burial in that location without excavation,\u201d said Dr. Supernant, who has worked on more than a dozen school searches over the past four years.<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Kisha Supernant is an expert in searching for buried human remains, and has worked on several searches of residential school sites.Jason Franson\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n With soil spectroscopy, a light-emitting probe capable of detecting the fatty acid salts associated with decayed remains is inserted in the ground. As it moves through the soil, the thumb-sized probe sends back instantaneous chemistry readings, meaning the salts can be detected with little ground disturbance.<\/p>\n The company behind the technology, Ohio-based S4 Mobile Laboratories, has tested the probes in at least seven First Nations and sold three units to groups searching for unmarked graves in Canada.<\/p>\n In its February update, Tk\u2019eml\u00faps said it has used detection dogs and LiDAR, a remote-sensing method using laser pulses, but makes no mention of soil spectroscopy. <\/p>\n Ms. Casimir declined to speak with the Globe reporter in-person and referred an interview request to Jeanette Jules, manager of the Tk\u2019eml\u00faps unmarked grave investigation, and a former band councillor. The offices of the investigation, called Le Estcwicw\u00e9y\u0313 (\u2019The Missing\u2019), are nestled in the basement of the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, which holds a commanding physical presence atop a small hill. <\/p>\n Ms. Jules agreed to meet as long as the conversation remained off the record, wanting to vet the reporter prior to granting an interview. She ultimately declined an on-the-record conversation, citing the need to prioritize information-sharing with community members over the media.<\/p>\n The Tk\u2019eml\u00faps announcement touched off dozens of similar searches across the country. First Nations scoured archives and hired radar units. Eventually, most adopted the same impenetrable communication strategy, intent on working according to their own customs and timelines with as few external distractions as possible. <\/p>\n In recent years, a cottage industry of podcasts, blogs, YouTube videos and books have sprouted to fill the gaping information void. <\/p>\n One popular theory questioning the presence of remains comes from an anonymous blog called Graves in the Apple Orchard. Drawing on historical blueprints of the residential school, the author hypothesized in 2022 that Dr. Beaulieu\u2019s radar had actually captured a defunct septic system.<\/p>\n Ms. Casimir addressed the notion earlier this year, saying in a news release that radar and LiDAR scans had \u201cruled out the presence of utility lines and clay tiles in these locations.\u201d <\/p>\n Other critics have fixated on the lack of any digging at Tk\u2019eml\u00faps to show for the millions of dollars in federal funds committed to Le Estcwicw\u00e9y\u0313. Ms. Brodie, the B.C. MLA, has declared that the entire sum should be returned to Ottawa with interest. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n \u2018Dig them up\u2019 was a common call across Canada in 2021, when this graffiti appeared near a Toronto statue of Egerton Ryerson. (The 19th-century educator was a leading proponent of residential schools.)Fred Lum\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n But records obtained through access-to-information legislation show the funds were earmarked for a range of activities that included, but did not require, excavation. The documents consist mainly of funding requests and agreements with the federal government. While they provide a broad-strokes description of expenses the community thought it would incur during the project, precise spending details have been redacted. <\/p>\n Tk\u2019eml\u00faps made its initial request to the federal government\u2019s Residential Schools Missing Children Support Fund on July 5, 2021 and requested $9,541,302 over two years. The attached workplan shows myriad activities and hires with dollar figures redacted: forensic archeologists, mapping technicians, knowledge keepers, micro-fiche scanners, medicine gathering, four security guards, two communications staff and DNA sampling \u2013 among other costs. It anticipated 65 days of specialized fieldwork in 2021-22, followed by another 1,720 hours of \u201canalysis and reporting\u201d in 2022-23. It also mentions conducting a \u201cForensic Archeological Excavation of the 215 ancestors.\u201d Three months later, Ottawa approved 77 per cent of the request, or $7,386,566. <\/p>\n By March, 2026, the federal commitment to Tk\u2019eml\u00faps through the Fund had reached $9.5-million, according to the office of Crown-Indigenous Relations Minister Rebecca Alty.<\/p>\n But excavation was not mandatory under the agreement. A federal funding letter stipulated that the sums dedicated to each activity could be reallocated, as long as they still went toward locating, documenting, maintaining or commemorating burial sites linked to former residential schools.<\/p>\n Tk\u2019eml\u00faps explained in a 2022 expenditure report to the government that it had been unable to complete all of its initial objectives \u201cdue to Covid-19, and delays in hiring Program Managers.\u201d Two-thirds of the federal money budgeted for the first year of the project went unused, according to the report, and would be rolled over into the next fiscal year in compliance with Ottawa\u2019s fixed funding rules.<\/p>\n Ms. Alty\u2019s office confirmed to The Globe that excavation was not required under the terms of the funding. <\/p>\n \u201cIt is important to note that communities determine how best to advance their work, whether that includes fieldwork investigations, archival research, community engagement, cultural events, mental health supports, memorialization initiatives, or other steps guided by Survivors and Elders,\u201d said Alec Wilson, press secretary for Ms. Alty\u2019s office. \u201cExcavation is not required, nor is it appropriate in all cases.\u201d<\/p>\n The department has not asked for the money back and says Tk\u0313eml\u00faps is meeting all accountability requirements. <\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Jeanette Jules, a former Tk\u2019eml\u00faps band councillor, now manages the investigation of unmarked graves.Jeff Bassett\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n In an online seminar hosted by the National Advisory Committee on Residential Schools Missing Children and Unmarked Burials last June, Jeanette Jules and Thomas James, a Tk\u2019eml\u00faps project manager, provided a rare look into the investigation and touched on a number of complications that have prolonged the search.<\/p>\n Ms. Jules told The Globe that she thought the talk would be recorded as a private resource for other nations doing similar investigations. Instead, it was posted to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation\u2019s YouTube account, where it has attracted just more than 100 views. <\/p>\n In the video, she states that the nation has completed its radar work but continues to gather oral evidence from more than 100 school survivors while it considers other methods of remote sensing, including soil spectroscopy.<\/p>\n Perhaps the biggest reveal is that a site excavation is scheduled to proceed by 2027, pending consent from Tk\u2019eml\u00faps and the roughly 120 communities throughout western Canada that sent children to the school.<\/p>\n \u201cIt will have to be a forensic archaeological dig,\u201d Ms. Jules said during the presentation. \u201cAnd that means total blocking off \u2013 no contamination of the site, no contamination of the ancestors, the children that are found.\u201d<\/p>\n Children from several nations went to the school in Tk\u2019eml\u00faps over the decades. Some are still living, and their DNA could be used to identify whether remains belong to relatives. <\/p>\n Deschatelets-NDC Archives<\/p>\n Prior to excavation, the community has a major legal and scientific challenge on its hands. Ms. Jules laid out plans to collect DNA samples from members of Tk\u2019eml\u00faps and other nations that sent children to the school from 1890 until 1978. Scientists and genealogists will compare collected DNA to any DNA extracted from the excavation, checking for familial matches.<\/p>\n If there\u2019s a positive match, Tk\u2019eml\u00faps will work to re-connect the living and the dead, and, if desired, repatriate remains.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we cannot identify a match of children then there is the traditional adoption ceremony that we will need to do for the children so that they have that connection,\u201d Ms. Jules said in the video.<\/p>\n It\u2019s tricky work requiring layers of permission from dozens of communities and hundreds of individuals. But that consent will only be granted if both the ancestral remains and the collected DNA have ironclad legal protections against misuse. Mr. James, the project co-ordinator, said in the video that provincial legislation \u201cdenies Indigenous authority over ancestral remains and fails to adequately protect burial places.\u201d <\/p>\n Until such protections are put in place, the work could be compromised, the presenters said.<\/p>\n \u201cWe had people wanting to line up right at the beginning to give their DNA samples,\u201d said Ms. Jules in the video, \u201cbut I told them we need to get [consent issues] in place before we do that.\u201d<\/p>\n Ms. Jules declined further comment on the record saying she would not speak about the investigation until the Tk\u2019eml\u00faps membership was informed about the process at a general meeting.<\/p>\n Ms. Casimir also declined to comment.<\/p>\n The precise timeline remains uncertain. <\/p>\n But what if, like the Tulsa archeologists, they ultimately find nothing?<\/p>\n The lowered flags, the vigils, the hundreds of millions in government funding, the national reckoning \u2013 what if all of it was dedicated to 215 burials that don\u2019t exist?<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Garry Gottfriedson, one of the knowledge keepers advising Le Estcwicw\u00e9y\u0313, is a survivor of the residential school.Darryl Dyck\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n Garry Gottfriedson has an answer for that. <\/p>\n A Tk\u2019eml\u00faps cultural knowledge keeper and poet, Mr. Gottfriedson teaches a Shuswap language course to a group of local residents. He finds solace in the language, just as he does in the quiet moments of the dawn at his ranch in the mountains north of Kamloops. <\/p>\n He recalls the 24 hours after the grave story broke as \u201chell\u201d with thousands of people gathering before many in the community had even heard the news. <\/p>\n \u201cWe learned it in the media, really, and it sent horrific waves throughout the community,\u201d said Mr. Gottfriedson, who is part of an advisory group of knowledge keepers providing cultural direction to Le Estcwicw\u00e9y\u0313. He comes from one of the 13 founding families that Tk\u2019eml\u00faps leaders are consulting for cultural protocols respective of Secwepemc laws as they navigate the investigative process. <\/p>\n Since then, he has chosen to fill the information vacuum with literature. A survivor of the Kamloops Indian Residential School, Mr. Gottfriedson grew up hearing the stories of other students buried on the school property. His 2024 award-winning book The Flesh of Ice describes in verse the crushing toll of abuses at the school. In one poem, he recounts entering a school barn and seeing a student \u2013 Kenny, he calls him \u2013 hanging dead from the rafters. Others relay keys to survival that students whispered, such as \u201cnever go pee alone\u201d because a brother with \u201cdevil desires\u201d lurks.<\/p>\n Regardless of whether there are children in the orchard, there are dozens of school survivors memorialized throughout his book. Their names have been changed, but their experiences of sexual abuse, beatings and death are all true, he said. <\/p>\n His work squares with the findings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. Between 1920 and 1950, the death rate at residential schools was up to five times higher than children in the general population, owing largely to unsanitary conditions, bad diets and high rates of tuberculosis. The Commission found that while some received proper burials many were buried in unmarked graves in formal or informal cemeteries.<\/p>\n Mr. Gottfriedson knows Tk\u0313eml\u00faps cynics might dispute his poetic testimony. That kind of thing used to bother him. \u201cIt challenges people\u2019s identity and concept of who they are as Canadians,\u201d he said. \u201cSo what do they do? They revert to denial.\u201d<\/p>\n Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n Kim Murray, a special interlocutor for unmarked graves, has used her federal post to advocate against \u2018denialists\u2019 of what happened at Tk\u2019eml\u00faps.Justin Tang\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n Kimberly Murray said she sensed a broader shift away from the TRC findings and towards denialism in 2022, shortly after the federal government appointed her as special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves. In an interim report she noted that \u201cdenialists\u201d had tried to break into the Tk\u2019eml\u00faps apple orchard \u201cin the middle of the night, carrying shovels.\u201d She urged Ottawa to implement penalties for such acts.<\/p>\n Ms. Murray finds the unrelenting demand for bones morbid and unnecessary. <\/p>\n Countless burial sites around residential schools have yielded remains over the years, she said.<\/p>\n When a flood washed out the Dunbow Industrial School\u2019s cemetery in Alberta in 1996, it exposed the remains of more than 70 children buried along the riverbank. Some of those bodies went into the river and were never recovered, Ms. Murray said.<\/p>\n \u201cI think a lot of denialism\u2019s roots go back to the fact that lots of these folks don\u2019t want to acknowledge or face the fact that atrocities happened to children,\u201d said Manny Jules, chief of Tk\u2019eml\u00faps through much of the 1980s and nineties. <\/p>\n In the months after the grave announcement, Mr. Jules chaired the committee of founding families. They decided remains should be exhumed so the dead could be given proper burials in their home communities. Years on, he still stands by that. <\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m confident in the processes that we\u2019ve laid out, that we will ultimately get to the point of excavation,\u201d said Mr. Jules, who is no longer involved in the investigation. \u201cWe\u2019re going to eventually get to the bottom of the situation in Kamloops.\u201d<\/p>\n Alison Boulier\/The Globe and Mail<\/p>\n Editor\u2019s note: The caption accompanying the photo of the healing ceremony held one year after the Tk\u2019eml\u00faps announcement incorrectly referred to the structure as a longhouse. It is an arbour.<\/p>\n Truth and reconciliation: More from The Globe and MailThe Decibel podcast<\/p>\n Pope Francis\u2019s death last spring was a chance for Indigenous people to reflect on his historic apologies for the Church\u2019s role in residential schools. Anishinaabe journalist Tanya Talaga spoke with The Decibel<\/a> about what those gestures meant and where reconciliation could go from there. Subscribe for more episodes.<\/a><\/p>\n Commentary<\/p>\n Tanya Talaga: First Nations must be treated as economic equals in Canada<\/a><\/p>\n Jody Wilson-Raybould: B.C.\u2019s UNDRIP law was doomed from the start<\/a><\/p>\n![](\"https:\/\/www.theglobeandmail.com\/resizer\/v2\/7MU3CYOH3FBYBCC3IDC5PAF5ZA.jpg?auth=37827bc446664fbb0686b63185ab8d258516dd5b32b27c21b8629bc38ae2e5db&width=600&height=400&quality=80&smart=true\")
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