A southeastern Montana Catholic boarding school for Native Americans says it found no evidence of unmarked graves on its grounds after a year-long investigation.
The St. Labre Indian School launched the investigation after Native American boarding schools in Canada, run by the Catholic Church, found evidence of hundreds of previously undocumented graves in 2021.
Topographic scans of St. Labre’s three sites on and near the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations turned up no evidence of unmarked graves. But, the investigation documented 113 student deaths from 1884 to 1960, largely from disease and illness.
St. Labre chartered a commission of five independent members to lead the investigation, including Walter Fleming, Chair of the Montana State University Native American Studies Department.
“It’s a part of a need to heal, to reconcile,” Fleming says.
Fleming says many people who attended St. Labre and federal boarding schools brought up painful memories during listening sessions the commission conducted. He says at least three generations of children were separated from their families while the United States worked to assimilate Native Americans.
“I think that we understand that that historic trauma still has an impact today,” Fleming says.
The investigation also found that St. Labre students had “relatively frequent” contact with their families, in contrast with most federal Native American boarding schools.
