WARNING: This story contains details of deaths at residential schools.
As First Nations communities in Canada continue to hone in on possible unmarked graves at the sites of former residential schools, some are now using human remains detection dogs to assist in that effort.
Since 2021, when the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc First Nation first announced ground-penetrating radar (GPR) had identified 215 anomalies at the former Kamloops Indian Residential School, Indigenous communities across the country began conducting their own searches and are now increasingly employing multiple tools, including cadaver dogs, to do so.
Our best case scenario is that we get three dogs to agree on exactly the same spot.– Kim Cooper, Ontario Search and Rescue Volunteer Association
GPR is limited and requires the ground to be mostly flat, said Chief Chris Skead of Wauzhushk Onigum Nation near Kenora, Ont. His community is in the middle of finalizing the number of anomalies detected near the St. Mary’s Residential School where more than 6,000 students attended between 1897 and 1972.
“We knew of heavily wooded areas that we wanted to search,” said Skead. “Our survivors mentioned that, so we had two rounds of cadaver dogs that came in to look and search.”
Cadaver dogs contracted by ISN Maskwa, an Indigenous-led company based in Sault Ste. Marie, Ont., and working with the Wauzhushk Onigum Nation, visited areas near the grounds of the former school twice, in August 2023 and this past May.
Dogs over radar
“I think [the dogs are] a better tool,” said former Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) Det. Mark Hutchinson, who’s now president of Investigative Solutions Network (ISN), which owns ISN Maskwa.
“Ground-penetrating radar indicates anomalies in the soil where these dogs only indicate on human remains, nothing else,” said Hutchinson.
The dogs alerted handlers in 28 different locations — many of those in areas where GPR had also indicated something in the ground. Collating that information is key, Hutchinson said.
When a body decomposes, volatile organic compounds leach into the ground. Trained dogs can detect those chemicals, he said.
Ottawa dogs assisting in searches
According to Ottawa-area dog handler and Ontario Search and Rescue Volunteer Association team manager Kim Cooper, the science around what a cadaver dog can glean from a historic grave is a little unclear.
“There is not yet science on these older graves as to what is coming off of them,” said Cooper. “We know from the dogs’ behaviour something is available to them, but what it is we just don’t know.”
CBC News recently met with Cooper and her dog Recce at an unmarked graveyard in Vars, a community in Ottawa’s rural outskirts, along with two other handlers and their dogs. Each dog was taken through the area separately and given time to sniff the ground. All three stopped, sat and barked at similar locations.
“When the dogs locate odour, they will give what we call a trained final response, a TFR, which is a behaviour that they have been trained to do to let us know that they found something,” said Cooper.
“Our best-case scenario is that we get three dogs agree on exactly the same spot,” she said. Even better if that spot is of interest to a GPR operator.
Since 2023, Cooper and her team have worked with 10 First Nations communities across the country, searching the sites of former schools and nearby areas.
Meaningful, important work
In between the trips, they’ve been meeting at historic graveyards to train the dogs. Three of them are certified by the North American Work Dog Association based in Massachusetts, and are recertified annually.
“When the news broke about Kamloops and the discovery of all the graves at that residential school, we instantly started thinking, ‘Hey, we’ve got these human remains detection dogs. Is there any chance that they might be an asset in, in any investigations in these schools?'” Cooper recalled.
“There aren’t a lot of great tools out there for discovering unmarked graves. GPR is a tool, but interpreting the results is a subjective thing and it’s very much dependent on the operator,” said Cooper.
She echoed Hutchinson’s idea that layering results from multiple methods such as GPR, survivor interviews and human remains detection dogs is helpful.
For us we do not exhume any bodies, that’s just not how we do things. – Wauzhusuhk Ongum Nation Chief Chris Skead
“The more tools you get that agree that a given spot is of interest, the higher the confidence is that this is something that we need to look at,” she said.
“We’re so grateful that we actually have a way to contribute,” said Cooper. “At times it’s also been pretty heavy to sit and listen to some of the stories that are told. That’s part of the job, to sit and listen to the stories that are told. We’re not just there to search.”
Next month, community members in Wauzhushk Onigum Nation will find out the number of possible unmarked graves at the former St. Mary’s residential school. It will culminate in a final report which is being released in a series of books, involving many survivors, organizations and authors.
But the community does not intend on digging up any ground.
“For us, we do not exhume any bodies. That’s just not how we do things. To me, they now belong to our community of Wauzhushk Onigum,” said Chief Chris Skead.
“I can’t speak for other communities on their process, but for us that’s not what we do in Wauzhushk Onigum.”
A national Indian Residential School Crisis Line is available to provide support for survivors and those affected. People can access emotional and crisis referral services by calling the 24-hour service at 1-866-925-4419.
Mental health counselling and crisis support are also available 24 hours a day, seven days a week through the Hope for Wellness hotline at 1-855-242-3310 or by online chat.