Letitia John died at a residential school. Her identity was lost until now

When the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) unveiled its student memorial register in 2019 of children who died in residential schools, those behind it acknowledged it was far from complete.

Among the 2,800 names on the register at the time, at least one raised eyebrows. One entry was not even truly a name: "Indian girl 237."

After combing through hundreds of annual reports, correspondence and death certificates from residential schools and records supplied by White Bear First Nation in Saskatchewan, we now know her name was Letitia John. 

"We come from a place that has much history and to be able to move forward we need to address some of that," said former White Bear First Nation chief Annette Lonechild. 

"It's only fitting that we have this privilege because of others' research, to bring closure for someone."

Raymond Frogner, head of archives for the NCTR, said both the online memorial register and the red cloth banner that features the names of children who died in Canada's residential schools are "living documents."

"We always expected that this would happen; if there are errors, if there are mistakes, we are very clear that we will remove that and make it as accurate as possible," Frogner said. 

"In terms of the banner itself, it'll have to be redone and recrafted over time, but again, these are living documents. Over time as our knowledge increases, as the investigations continue and as we understand who was lost and the circumstances of their loss, we'll continue to add to that." 

Frogner said "Indian girl," and "no. 237 from White Bear's Band" were the only pieces of information found in correspondence between school and government officials marking Letitia's death, which is why Letitia was listed as a number on the register.

He said the NCTR is still analyzing documents to revise the list of children who died in the institutions.

Archivists with the national centre used algorithms to find names of people associated with residential schools in documents kept in its archives. The list was scrubbed to remove duplicates and names of people believed to be staff. What's left though, is a long list of names "under a million" but "well into the six figures," says Frogner, that need to be thoroughly researched.

Letitia John was born in 1897 or 1898 and would have been roughly five or six years old when she was first taken from her parents and registered at the Qu'Appelle Industrial School in Lebret, Sask., about 70 kilometres east of Regina, in 1903. 

Her family would have had no say in their daughter being taken to the institute, thanks to clauses in the Indian Act making attendance mandatory. 

Nine years later, a teenaged Letitia would die of tuberculosis at the school where she spent most of her short life, just over 150 kilometres away from her home in White Bear.