Lost Souls Found: Residential School Children Home at Last

The Deninu Kųę́ First Nation is spearheading efforts to locate and repatriate children who died at the Fort Resolution residential school. This intensive process, which takes years and significant funding, involves ground-penetrating radar and DNA testing to identify unmarked graves. These efforts are bringing closure to families, allowing them to bring their loved ones home for burial near relatives.

Access to historical church records, particularly those from the Mackenzie-Fort Smith diocese, has been pivotal in identifying burial sites. This crucial assistance, not readily available elsewhere in the country, combined with the smaller scale of the Fort Resolution school, has accelerated the identification process. The Northwest Territories government has also facilitated the process, overcoming previous legislative hurdles that treated ancestral remains as artifacts.

To date, at least five children have been successfully repatriated, with more expected to follow. These efforts provide hope and encouragement to other families engaged in similar, often painful, searches for their missing loved ones. The work ensures that children who tragically died away from home can finally be honored and laid to rest with their families.