Some searches are done, but other residential school sites in the northeast won't be checked for several years

Work is underway to see if there are any unmarked graves at former residential schools in northeastern Ontario.

Some searches are complete, while others likely won't get started for several more years.

But at least one survivor is worried that honouring the missing children is no longer the focus. 

Mike Cachagee, who was at three different residential schools in northern Ontario, worries that much of the funding from provincial and federal governments is going to pay administrators rather than honouring missing children.

"It's a money grab," said the 83-year-old, who as a young boy went to St. John's in Chapleau, Shingwauk in Sault Ste. Marie and Horden Hall in Moose Factory. 

"You've got these big salaries floating around and everyone's lining up to get part of the action now.

"You know when you throw some money on the table, there's not much dignity in that."

Cachagee says he's also concerned to hear about some communities considering exhuming bodies or doing more invasive searching after the ground-penetrating radar identifies "anomalies" underground.

He says that would be a violation of his Cree spiritual beliefs where there is a "clear distinction" between this world and the next and you "don't cross that boundary."

"Identify where they are, give them a dignified and respectful ceremony and then leave them alone. And move on," said Cachagee, saying he hopes that in some cases family members can be found and notified. 

He played a big part in fixing up the cemetery at the old St. John's school in Chapleau, where there are some markers and a list of names of who is buried there, but no one is certain if its accurate.

The CBC contacted the three First Nations in the Chapleau area, but did not receive a response.

The grounds of the Shingwauk residential school, now Algoma University, were scanned with radar in the fall.

Jay Jones, president of the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association, says the results are being analyzed right now, but won't be released until they've consulted with most of the 85 First Nations that sent children to the school, likely this spring.

"Sad to say it's an ongoing process and it will change with more opinions coming in," said Jones, whose parents both attended Shingwauk. 

He says he's heard from past students about animal carcasses and other things being buried around the school and worries that revealing how many "anomalies" or "potential graves" they find, could be retraumatizing for survivors and their descendents. 

"You don't want to announce a number that might be misleading. You want to be as precise as possible," said Jones.

The Children of Shingwauk received $404,744 from the federal government, while the nearby Garden River First Nation received $785,770.

Chief Andy Rickard says along with provincial funding, they have nearly $2 million to work with, but aren't in a hurry to start searching. 

"We need to be very careful, we need to be very sensitive and we need to be very slow in how we do this work, right? We just don't want to rush to it," he said.

Rickard says they are responsible for the former Shingwauk lands surrounding Algoma University that are managed by the Shingwauk Educational Trust, as well as the site of the former Wawanosh girls school on Great Northern Road in Sault Ste. Marie.

In recent years, that land has been home to the Royal Canadian Legion and is now planned to be the site of a new housing complex, which Rickard is hopeful they won't hold up while conducting their "due diligence."

"You know when you're looking at healing, generational trauma, those things are real when you're sitting in those chairs of leadership," he said. 

"There's not a road map to show you how to do this work... This work is going to be long. We just want to make sure that we're very sensitive to opening up a can of worms and we have all the proper supports in place." 

The Ontario government is providing $37 million for 22 projects across the province, but said in a statement that it won't disclose the list "out of respect for the privacy of Indigenous partners and the sensitivity of this difficult work."

Kashechewan First Nation received $675,215 from the federal government and the neighbouring Fort Albany First Nation, the home of the former St. Anne's Indian Residential School was given $1.3 million.

Neither community responded to CBC's requests for comment.

Former St. Anne's student Edmund Metatawabin says a gathering is planned for the end of Februrary to decide next steps for searching the former school grounds.

"We have to make sure that once we do, that we don't just yell and scream that 'We found another one, we found another one.' The important thing is for the spirit that is on hidden burial site... and the proper ceremony to send them on their way," he said.

"It's not trying to convince the Canadians any more what has happened. That's up to them. If they don't want to believe that, that's fine."

The Chiefs of Ontario received $741,320 as part of the federal funding program and the Anishinabek Nation was given $583,627.

Grand Chief Reg Niganobe says they've put together a team for the "reconciliation" side of the program, supporting the "caretaker communities" that have potential grave sites in their territory.

That includes Niganobe's home community of Mississauga, which along with Serpent River and Sagamok are focused on the former Spanish residential schools on the shores of Lake Huron, where no searches have taken place yet. 

"It is going to be a long process, just to get to the end of where they are hoping to go," he said. 

"And just hoping for the continued commitment from different varied levels of government to see an end or a resolution to all of this."