15 ‘potential’ gravesites found near former Yukon residential school

Editor’s Note: This article contains details that may be distressing to some readers. The Indian Residential School Survivors Society operates a 24-hour crisis line to support survivors and families across the country. The Lamathut Crisis Line can be reached by calling 1-800-721-0066.

An investigation into unmarked graves and the deaths of children who attended the former Choutla Residential School in Carcross, Yukon, has found 15 “potential” gravesites at or near the school.

Researchers say they’ve also used archival documents to identify 33 students who either died at the school or shortly after being injured there.

Brian Whiting, with B.C.-based company GeoScan which performed the ground-penetrating radar search, says “more invasive” work would be required to confirm if the sites are graves, but their location is consistent with accounts from survivors.

Whiting says Geoscan searched more than 37,000 square metres of land and all 15 potential sites were found within 58 square metres of the former school site.

Nicole Marion, with the research group Know More, says their work began in January of 2022 and included 4,500 archival documents and various access to information requests. Marion says they have “very poor” information on where the 33 children they identified were buried.

According to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, students from a school at Forty Mile, Yukon, were moved to a small school in Carcross in 1903. The federal government built the Choutla school in 1911.

“The school had a reputation for poor health, harsh discipline, poor food, and unpleasant living quarters,” the NCTR explains.

The centre says the Carcross (Choutla) residential school burned down in 1939 and was rebuilt in 1944. A new school was built nearly a decade later, in 1953, before it closed in 1969.