Marieval Indian Residential School, former Canadian Indian residential school in Saskatchewan (1899–1997)
Marieval Indian Residential School was a boarding school for Indigenous children located on the Cowessess Reserve in Saskatchewan, operating from the late 1800s to the late 1900s. After the main buildings were demolished in 1999, the site today remains largely open land, with the church, rectory, and cemetery still standing.
The school opened in 1899 as a Catholic boarding institution run by religious sisters and later the Canadian government. The Cowessess First Nation assumed control in 1981, and the school finally closed in 1997 after nearly a century of operation.
The name Marieval comes from early French settlers in the region. The church and cemetery that still stand today were central to daily life at the school and remain visible features of the site.
The site is open and accessible to visitors, with the church, cemetery, and surrounding open land where you can walk and reflect. Visitors should dress respectfully and approach the space with sensitivity, as it is a place of mourning and remembrance.
In June 2021, over 700 unmarked graves were discovered on the site using ground-penetrating radar, believed to be children who attended the school. This finding was the largest in Canada at that time and marked a turning point in confronting the residential school system's history.
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