Fort Simpson, N.W.T., reckons with 'wounds beneath the surface' as burial sites enter public discussion

WARNING: This story contains details and images some readers may find distressing.

There's a white fence visible from classrooms of Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ regional high school and elementary school in Fort Simpson, N.W.T.

It surrounds an area where human remains have been found. For decades, locals have known that in the heart of Fort Simpson, burial grounds remain uncovered, under the soil where the LaPointe Hall residential school hostel once stood. 

Children still attend class in the two buildings that once functioned as a federal day school and residential school.

LaPointe Hall has since been torn down, but the community's schools stand as a reminder and a skeleton of the past. 

Over centuries, Dene withstood epidemics, genocide, and attempts to eradicate their connections to land, family, community, and language. 

Elders believe it is likely that many who died during the Spanish Flu in the early 1900s are buried throughout the community, but there are outstanding questions.

How did a church-run residence end up over a burial site? Were the graves moved underneath the school? Who made these decisions, which show a disregard for Indigenous people in life and in death?

'The time is coming where the truth will come out'

The discovery of 215 children buried beneath the Kamloops Indian Residential School has triggered a reckoning across Canada.

Speaking to a crowd of hundreds gathered in Yellowknife on Friday to honour the lost children Deneze Nakehk'o, who is Dehcho Dene, demanded answers. 

"The time is coming where the truth will finally come out," he told marchers.

Nakehk'o said that there needs to be a national inquiry into unmarked graves to identify how children died, and where they remain now, so they finally have a proper burial. The inquiry needs to be properly funded by the church and federal government, he said.

"We have to be strong, we have to be together in this, but also, we have to start naming names," Nakehk'o said. "We have to start naming those names of the people who do not want to be named." 

'We knew' about unmarked graves

When news from Kamloops broke, Jim Antoine, Nakehk'o's father, reacted like many other Indigenous people across Canada. He felt the immense weight of grief, but he was not surprised. 

Antoine is a leader from Rabbitskin River, who spent over 10 years as Chief of Łı́ı́dlı̨ı̨ Kų́ę́ First Nation and three years as premier of the Northwest Territories. 

When he was six, he was taken to the Sacred Heart Residential School in Fort Providence by a tugboat that travelled down the Mackenzie River to collect children. Lately, he's been reflecting on his time there. 

"There is a big excitement in the media world, like a feeding frenzy over there," he said. But for residential school survivors and their families, the news of children going missing without a trace is a trauma that is felt first-hand. 

"We knew about it and we heard stories about it," Antoine said.

In 1918 and 1928, the Spanish Flu swept through the Dehcho. Antoine said nearly half of the Dehcho Dene population died from the epidemic, which he believes was the main cause of death for those who remain in unmarked graves underneath the site of LaPointe Hall.  

The now-fenced-off burial site was identified in 2015 as a location for a new health centre, and it was also considered for housing. 

However, Antoine does not know what came from those plans.

"Nobody explained to us what they were doing, or what they did with it, or nothing," he said. 

Antoine sharpened his axe as he spoke by phone. He said the federal and territorial governments need to fund efforts to investigate these burial sites, but Indigenous governments have to be involved.

For so long, families have been left in the dark, but that needs to change "right now," Antoine said.

"We need to try to identify who these children are and to have a proper ceremony to get their spirit into a good place." 

Unmarked graves 'ultimate symbol' of oppression

Cindy Gilday has been demanding answers for years. 

In 1992, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal People held a hearing in Fort Simpson. 

Speaking to the commissioner, Allan Blakeney, she asked him to step outside the room, located within LaPointe Hall, and to look behind the building. 

"There you will see unmarked graves," she told Blakeney. "No names on a grave is a very significant symbol of oppression, the ultimate symbol as far as the Dene are concerned."

Gilday described the gutting experience of trying to find where her mother was buried, only to find no answers. 

During her quest for information, she told the commission the government gave inconsistent answers.

She was deprived of her grieving rituals and denied the spiritual connection of mourning her mother at a grave marked with her name. 

"There are wounds beneath the surface that need to be dealt with," Gilday said. "You cannot cover them. They have to come up and they have to be dealt with."

'I got hurt in this very school'

In 2011, the National Truth and Reconciliation Commission came to Fort Simpson.

Survivors, seated in Bompas Hall, itself a former hostel for day school attendees, recounted trauma, abuse, and colonial violence inflicted by the church and the federal government.

"When you go to school, you thought you were going to be protected," one survivor said. "You thought it was a safe place to go, but for me, it wasn't. I got hurt, in this very school."

They described anger toward the education system and the building itself. They said they were robbed of the opportunity to learn. 

Another survivor described being afraid to go near the basement in LaPointe Hall, where they knew children had been buried underneath. 

Many survivors spoke of sexual abuse, consistent violence, neglect, and efforts to eradicate Dene identity, language, and culture. 

Father Henri Posset was an administrator at LaPointe for several years. He died by suicide in 1993 in Tulita, N.W.T., following allegations of sexual abuse. Former CBC journalist Patti-Kay Hamilton recalled covering his inquest in her 2018 memoir From Trapline to Deadline. 

"My notes were getting soaked with my tears because it was such a terrible, terrible story."

Antoine Mountain, in his 2019 book From Bear Rock Mountain: The Life and Times of a Dene Residential School Survivor, wrote that "it took this drastic act to convince our Dene Elders that, yes, a supposed man of God could do and did do that sort of thing." 

'Time to walk on new ground' 

A fire feeding ceremony marked the end of the Yellowknife march to honour the children who have been lost.

"When we were in the residential school, we were told this was not possible for us, to sing our beautiful songs, and to help each other," Norman Yakeleya, the Dene National Chief, told the crowd. 

"Today is the time to walk on new ground."

"We're not just looking at residential school sites," Yakeleya later told the CBC. In Fort Simpson, many people from other communities went missing after getting sent to the hospital there. 

He said children were mistreated, sometimes tied down to beds, and that babies were never found.

"They heard them cry and then the next day, there were no babies crying," he said.

"We call upon the churches in Canada to wake up once and for all," he said. "What more can we endure as native people? Enough is enough." 

Support is available for anyone affected by the effects of residential schools, and those who are triggered by the latest reports.

The Indian Residential School Survivors Society (IRSSS) can be contacted toll-free at 1-800-721-0066.

A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line has been set up to provide support for former students and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour national crisis line: 1-866-925-4419.

The NWT Help Line offers free support to residents of the Northwest Territories, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It is 100% free and confidential. The NWT Help Line also has an option for follow-up calls. Residents can call the help line at 1-800-661-0844.

In Nunavut, the Kamatsiaqtut Help Line is open 24 hours a day at 1-800-265-3333. People are invited to call for any reason. 

In Yukon, mental health services are available to those in both Whitehorse and in rural Yukon communities through Mental Wellness and Substance Use Services. Yukoners can schedule Rapid Access Counselling supports in Whitehorse and all MWSU community hubs by calling 1-867-456-3838.