Former Kamloops Indian Residential School designated a national historic site

The former Kamloops Indian Residential School, where, in 2021, Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc shared that preliminary findings from a ground-penetrating radar survey had found some 200 potential unmarked graves on the institution's grounds, has been designated as a national historic site.

The former residential school was nominated to become a national historic site by Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc, and the federal government worked with the First Nation to determine its significance, Parks Canada said in a news release Wednesday. 

National historic sites are appointed as places that have shaped Canada — be it good or bad — to help Canadians understand the country's past and present. 

"The designation symbolizes hope and the vision of our ancestors for a prosperous future for our children, and those not yet born," Tk̓emlúps te Secwépemc Kúkpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir said in a statement.

Many of the buildings at the site have been preserved and are used for education, including on Secwépemc language and culture. 

The Kamloops Indian Residential School was in operation from 1890 to 1969, after which the federal government took over administration from the Catholic Church to operate it as a residence for a day school, until it closed in 1978.

Up to 500 students would have been registered at the school at any given time, according to the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation, and those children would have come from First Nations communities across B.C. and beyond. 

It was one of many residential schools and day schools across the country; more than 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were forced to attend church-run, government-funded residential schools between the 1870s and 1997. 

The National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation estimates about 4,100 children died at Canadian residential schools, based on death records, but has said the true total is likely much higher. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission said large numbers of Indigenous children who were forcibly sent to residential schools never returned home.

Several other former residential schools have also been designated as national historic sites, including the Muscowequan, Portage La Prairi, Shingwauk and Shubenacadie residential schools.

In a statement, Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change and minister responsible for Parks Canada — which deals with historic sites — said the designation acknowledges the harms perpetrated against those who forcibly attended the institution. 

"The designation of the Former Kamloops Indian Residential School as a site of national historic significance will serve as a testament and memorial to the children who were forced to live there and who died there," Guilbeault said. "The legacy of their stories will resonate throughout future generations."