Monday, September 30 is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. This day honours Survivors of Canada's residential school system, their families, and communities, and those who did not make it home. It helps ensure public commemoration of the history and legacy of residential schools in our country and is an important step in the process toward reconciliation.
There were 140 federally run residential schools in Canada that operated between 1867 and 1996. In the East Kootenay, the day is honoured significantly. Several events are scheduled around the region.
At the ʔaq̓am community near Cranbrook, Ktunaxa Nation citizens and guests will join together for a meaningful hike Monday morning to mark the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. The walk will begin and end at the St. Eugene resort, formerly the Kootenay Indian Residential School, and stop midway at a viewpoint on a ridge above the ʔaq̓am community known as Crying Hill.
It’s there Ktunaxa and Indigenous children forced to attend the school would first get an unobstructed glimpse of the building. The Kootenay Indian Residential School, composed of the St. Eugene's and St.
Mary's mission schools, was a part of the Canadian Indian residential school system and operated near Cranbrook between 1890 and 1970.[ school, run by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate of the Roman Catholic Church, first opened in 1890. It was replaced by an industrial school in 1912 that continued to operate until it was closed.