The elderly sister of a young girl who died while at St. Joseph’s Mission residential school at Fort Resolution is desperate to honour a promise she made to their mother.
That was to have the young girl’s remains exhumed, to be re-interred beside her mother gravesite at Fort Smith.
However, Tu Nedhé – Wiilideh MLA Richard Edjericon told the NWT Assembly on Tuesday the identified grave at the former school site is classified as an archeological artifact, which can’t be disturbed.
“I want to share the story of a young girl named Alma, who is one of many victims of residential school, whose remains have been blocked from returning home,” Edjericon said, noting a rotting cross with the girl’s nameplate was found in the Fort Resolution cemetery.
“Alma died at St Joseph’s school at the age of five years old in the late summer. Alma’s mother went to meet the boat from Fort Resolution at the dock in Fort Smith, but Alma didn’t get off the boat. Alma’s mothers asked the other children, why Alma wasn’t there, and she was told the nuns said she had gone to Heaven.
“The cause of the death, of residential school are most often listed as TB by the nuns or priests recording the death even is the child because of injury. Alma’s mother never stopped grieving and was later hospitalized.
“Alma now is 88 years old. Her sister had promised her mother that she would find Alma and bring her remains back to Fort Smith to be buried beside her mom.”
In 1903 the St. Joseph’s Mission School was built by the Roman Catholic church. When St. Joseph’s residence and day school were closed in 1957, resident students and staff mostly transferred to Breynat Hall in Fort Smith.
As of December 2023, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation Memorial Register listed that 75 students died while attending St. Joseph’s Residential School.
Tu Nedhé – Wiilideh MLA Richard Edjericon in the NWT Assembly on February 26th. (Photo courtesy of Assembly livestream)
Education, Culture and Employment Minister Caitlin Cleveland said ancestral remains from that time are protected under the Archeological Sites Act, which is in the process of being updated.
That work is being done with Indigenous governments in the Intergovernmental Council, as it’s likely similar situations exist with families across the NWT.
Please see the information sheet at the bottom of this post for more information on St. Joseph’s residential school gravesites and missing children.
Also in the Assembly on Tuesday, Inuvik Boot Lake MLA Denny Rodgers said in his reply to the 2025-2026 budget, the NWT is missing out on energy projects in the Beaufort Delta region that could help change the territory’s current “resource rich and cash poor” situation.
“Between 2011 and 2017, we missed the boat on a major gas development opportunity,” said the rookie MLA, who previously worked with Town of Inuvik, Inuvialuit Development Corporation, and Inuvik Housing Authority.
“We had an Indigenous led pipeline group that were forced to sit helplessly as the regulatory regime slowly choked the life out of what could have been a monumental game changing project for our territory.”
Rodgers said the energy income could have funded wellness and housing projects and created jobs.
“(Not to mention) the influx of others wanting to move to our amazing territory to work in these industries, bringing with them spouses and partners that may be nurses, teachers, doctors, or early child care workers, any many other professions that we so desperately need.”
Rodgers noted the current national political situation, which could see a change in government this year.
Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins in the NWT Assembly on February 26th. (Photo courtesy of Assembly livestream)
He noted the Conservatives have pledged to repeal roadblocks to energy development and fast track LNG projects.
At present, Cryopeak LNG Solutions Corporation, based in Richmond, BC, uses a Super B-Train trailer to transport LNG to Inuvik. This as there are trillions of cubic metres of gas under the Northern tundra and Arctic Ocean.
“I understand there is a lot of political rhetoric here, but as a territory rich in resources, we have to be prepared in this budget to engage — and indeed incentivize — to ensure that we are tracking those national and international companies to our territory,” he said.
“My fear is that with no meaningful economic growth in any sector other than the government, much of our talent will leave or have already left. We must streamline our regulatory regime so that national and international businesses do not look at us as a place with too much regulatory burden that require too much time and the costs that come with that burden.”
Rodgers acknowledged there are paths for renewable energy and emission reductions, “but we need to step back and look at the big picture.”
And Yellowknife Centre MLA Robert Hawkins pleaded for cabinet to better appreciate the struggles employers face filling jobs in the NWT. This especially considering Ottawa’s decision to slash the territory’s immigrant worker nominee allotment for this year to 150 from 300.
“I talk to employers, they talk about their struggles of getting anyone to work,” he said, noting he had just met with the Yellowknife Chamber of Commerce.
“They are fearful about what’s actually happening with the nominee program because their membership … is struggling to find people to fill jobs. They don’t care where they’ve come; we’re dying to have anybody here with a pulse in these jobs to do these jobs because we’re struggling.”
