Williams Lake First Nation releases report on school search [Video]

If you are a former residential school student in distress or have been affected by the residential school system and need help, you can contact the 24-hour Indian Residential Schools Crisis Line at 1-866-925-4419.

A British Columbia First Nation says at least 55 children died or disappeared while attending a residential school near Williams Lake, more than triple the number recorded for the institution in the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation memorial register.

The higher figure is contained in an interim report into the St. Joseph’s Mission Indian Residential School by the Williams Lake First Nation.

It says investigators will finalize ground-penetrating radar surveys this year and hold meetings on potential excavation, exhumation, repatriation, DNA testing, and genealogical mapping before any decision on digging up possible graves is made.

There are currently “no definitive processes planned” for excavation, it says.

It says no confirmed human remains have been found …