Quote:
Originally Posted by Cecil Terwilliger
On the other hand, I don't struggle at all to see how this happened.
I have my doubts that children were being systematically murdered. At least on a large scale.
In all likelihood, most deaths were the result of negligence. Disease, poor health, malnourishment, unsafe living conditions and, yes, some due to outright physical abuse from the caretakers at the schools. However, I honestly doubt that was the leading cause of death.
The fact they are buried in unmarked graves is equally unsurprising. If you're willing to treat a child like a meaningless savage whose life doesn't count for much, willing to stuff them into cramped, dirty, diseased living conditions with no access to health care or medicine, you're probably not going to show a lot of respect when it comes time to bury them when they've succumbed to the rampant disease.
I'd also venture a guess that in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, unmarked graves were quite a bit more common than they are today.
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To really know the abject conditions these children lived under, one has to read the stories of the survivors. One of the worst residential schools was called the Mush Hole. Russell Moses attended that school. You can read about the school at the link below.
Also, there is a link of a letter that Russell Moses wrote about his experiences. You really must read that letter, hard as it might be.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opin...ticle24767645/
These children were treated as "its", as "nothings" in life and that kind of treatment continued with their death.