By Anderson Cooper, Image: CBS News, CBS News, February 6, 2022
Last year, when archeologists detected what they believed to be 200 unmarked graves at an old school in Canada, it brought new attention to one of the most shameful chapters of that nation's history. Starting in the 1880's and for much of the 20th century, more than 150,000 children from hundreds of indigenous communities across Canada were forcibly taken from their parents by the government and sent to what were called Residential Schools. Funded by the state and run by churches, they were designed to assimilate and Christianize indigenous children by ripping them from their parents, their culture, and their community. The children were often referred to as savages and forbidden from speaking their languages or practicing their traditions. Many were physically and sexually abused, and thousands of children never made it home.
The last of Canada's 139 residential schools for indigenous children closed in 1998. Most have been torn down, but the Muskowekwan residential school in Saskatchewan still stands. Its windows boarded up, Its rooms gutted. A reminder to a nation that would rather forget. A three-storey tombstone for generations of children who died here.
Leona Wolf: Sometimes, I wish it would be gone for all what happened here.
Anderson Cooper: You wish this had been torn down?
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