Some missing residential school students disappeared into arranged marriages, report says – CBC

Dec 03, 2024

Researchers say more investigation needed to find out total numbers affected

Some children who disappeared from residential schools ended up in arranged marriages organized by school principals and the government, according to the final report from the special interlocutor for missing children and unmarked graves and burial sites associated with Indian Residential Schools.

Leah Redcrow believes her grandparents, who were married at Sacred Heart Indian Residential School (later called Blue Quills) in Alberta in 1928, may have been one of an unknown number of couples whose marriages were arranged by authorities.

Researchers who study the issue say a large scale study is needed to find out how many people were affected and when it ended. Still, there are records showing arranged marriages of residential school students in the 1890s and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) collected testimony from survivors who said they faced arranged marriage as late as the 1950s.

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/indigenous/arranged-marriages-residential-schools-1.7396200