Family locates 1943 residential school boy's grave, sparks broader search
Robert Kiyawasew’s sister found their brother Johnny’s 1943 grave in Alberta, prompting the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation and researchers to seek other missing children.
Johnny Kiyawasew, an 11-year-old from the Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation, vanished after enrollment at the Catholic St. Francis Xavier Residential School in Calais, Alberta, and died of pulmonary tuberculosis in a High Prairie hospital in 1943. In 2013, his sister Roseann, aided by a private investigator, located his solitary grave after a caretaker pointed them to the site. His brother Robert says the family was never informed of his death and only learned of it decades later.
Chief Sheldon Sunshine says many children at the school died from disease and malnutrition, and the nation, together with the University of Alberta, is now conducting extensive research to identify other missing students. Raymond Frogner of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation notes that fragmented records make the task difficult, especially when church archives are inaccessible.
Why it matters
It highlights ongoing efforts to uncover the fates of Indigenous children lost in Canada’s residential school system.
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