July 10, 2021
Re: Residential Schools Missing Children
June 10, 2021
The Chief and Council and Piikani Nation is expressing its deepest condolences to the Tk’eml¨ups the Secwepemc Peoples. We also mourn the deaths of the 215 children that died in the care of Canada and the Churches at that residential school on their reserve.
Although nothing can soften the horrors experienced by the families of those children that never came home, we pray that the families and survivors of those residential schools can gain some semblance of of peace through this grin, tragedy.
Sadly, these recent revelations remind us of the terrible actions the Crown and Church has had on all our indigenous peoples during the dispossession of our lands, the taking of our children, and the brutal extent in which the Crown administered its policy to take the Indian out of the child and “get rid of the Indian problem”.
Yet, along with the sorrow, we hold gratitude for our ancestors that bad the strength and resolve to survive the onslaught brought upon our peoples that we still carry with us today. We support the Tk’eml¨ups the Secwepemc Peoples through this tragedy and hope that better clays lie ahead.
