Some searches are done, but other residential school sites in the northeast won't be checked for several years
CBC
Work is underway to see if there are any unmarked graves at former residential schools in northeastern Ontario.
Some searches are complete, others likely won't get started for several more years.
But at least one survivor is worried that honouring the missing children is no longer the focus.
Mike Cachagee, who attended three different residential schools in northern Ontario, worries that much of the funding from provincial and federal governments is going to pay administrators rather than honouring missing children.
"It's a money grab," said the 83-year-old, who as a young boy went to St. John's in Chapleau, Shingwauk in Sault Ste. Marie and Horden Hall in Moose Factory.
"You've got these big salaries floating around and everyone's lining up to get part of the action now.
"You know when you throw some money on the table, there's not much dignity in that."
Cachagee says he's also concerned to hear about some communities considering exhuming bodies or doing more invasive searching after the ground-penetrating radar identifies "anomalies" underground.
He says that would be a violation of his Cree spiritual beliefs where there is a "clear distinction" between this world and the next and you "don't cross that boundary."
"Identify where they are, give them a dignified and respectful ceremony and then leave them alone. And move on," said Cachagee, saying he hopes that in some cases family members can be found and notified.
He played a big part in fixing up the cemetery at the old St. John's school in Chapleau, where there are some markers and a list of names of who is buried there, but no one is certain if its accurate.
The CBC contacted the three First Nations in the Chapleau area, but did not receive a response.
The grounds of the Shingwauk residential school, now Algoma University, were scanned with radar in the fall.
Jay Jones, the president of the Children of Shingwauk Alumni Association, says the results are being analyzed right now, but won't be released until they've consulted with most of the 85 First Nations who sent children to the school, likely this spring.