Family Locates Grave of Residential School Student Who Died in 1943
Roseann Kiyawasew located the grave of her brother Johnny, an 11-year-old who died at a residential school in Alberta in 1943. The Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation is now working with researchers to identify other children who died due to poor conditions.
In 2013, Roseann Kiyawasew, assisted by a private investigator, successfully located the gravesite of her brother, Johnny Kiyawasew. Johnny was an 11-year-old boy from the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation who died in 1943 at a hospital in High Prairie, Alberta. He had been enrolled at the Catholic-run St. Francis Xavier Residential School in Calais, Alberta, and never returned home.
Provincial records indicate that Johnny died of pulmonary tuberculosis. He is buried more than 75 kilometres away from the residential school where he lived. His family was not informed of his death until decades later. Robert Kiyawasew, another sibling, stated that their parents were never told about Johnny’s passing and that a death certificate was written without their knowledge. Robert, himself a day school survivor, noted that he experienced harms similar to his siblings, including punishment for speaking his native language.
The discovery of Johnny’s grave has spurred further investigation into the fate of other children. The Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, in collaboration with the University of Alberta, is conducting extensive research to identify students who died at the school due to poor living conditions. Sheldon Sunshine, chief of the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, said that research shows many children enrolled at St. Francis Xavier died from tuberculosis and malnutrition.
A 1943 document cited by the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation (NCTR) described the school as "falling to ruin" and a "source of danger for the health of Indian children as well as a fire hazard." The document attributed some student deaths to "the lack of comfort" resulting from inadequate heating. At least five children are reported to have died at the school in 1943.
Efforts to uncover these histories face significant challenges. Raymond Frogner, senior director of research at the NCTR, described residential school records as disorganized, inconsistent, and unreliable. These records were managed by separate church, provincial, and federal entities that did not communicate effectively, complicating attempts to find closure for families.