AKWESASNE — The Saint Regis Mohawk Tribal Council is joining an increasing number of advocacy groups, tribal communities, agencies, and others who are calling for the full accountability of Indian Residential Schools.

The call for a complete review and investigation grows louder, as the remains of more indigenous children continue to be discovered across Canada and the United States, said a press release from the Saint Regis Mohawk Reservation.

What started with the discovery of 215 unmarked graves of First Nations children at the Kamloop Indian Residential School in British Columbia, Canada in May 2021 has increased to 1,363 as of June 23.

With 139 residential schools located in Canada and 365 Indian Boarding Schools in the United States, the full extent of the atrocities that were committed against Indigenous children has yet to be known, said the press release.

Beginning in the early-1800, both Canada and the United States forcibly removed Indigenous children from their families and communities in an attempt to assimilate them into western society, the tribe said. At distant schools, indigenous children were separated from everything associated with their cultural identity, which often included being violently reprimanded for speaking their own Native language as they struggled to learn a foreign one.

According to Canada’s National Truth and Reconciliation Commission, approximately 150,000 Indigenous children were abducted and relocated to residential schools between 1883 until 1996. It is estimated that up to 6,000 of the children who were forced to attend Canadian residential schools went missing. This includes the remains of 751 Indigenous children that were discovered on June 24th at the former-Marieval Indian Residential School in Saskatchewan, Canada.

With the majority of the residential schools located in the United States, it is estimated that upwards of 450,000 Indigenous children were forced to attend — though there is no clear estimate on the number of children who never came home, said the press release from the tribe. It is clear however, that the abuse and violence committed against them during their time at the schools have contributed to the intergenerational trauma that indigenous communities continue to experience today.

The Tribal Council is demanding a full investigation and accountability for the shared policies of genocide that took place across both countries, the tribe said.