Rosanne Casimir, community leader in Kamloops, British Columbia, said the initial discovery was an unthinkable loss that had never been documented by school administrators.

Canadian boarding schools were compulsory boarding schools run by government and religious authorities during the 19th and 20th centuries with the aim of forcibly assimilating indigenous youth into European culture.

Kamloops Indian Residential School is the largest in the system. Opened under Catholic administration in 1890, the school had 500 students at its peak in the 1950s.

The central government took over management of the school in 1969, turning it into a residential area for students from the area until 1978, when the school closed.

First Nation Tk’emlups te Secwepemc said the bodies were found with the help of ground penetrating radar during a search of the school.

“As far as we know, these missing children died without any documentation,” said Casimir.

“Some are still three years old.”

“We are looking for ways to affirm this with the deepest respect and love for the missing children and their families, understanding that Tk’emlups te Secwepemc is the final resting place for these children.”

Indigenous peoples say they are looking for indigenous peoples whose children go to school. They hope to announce preliminary findings in mid-June.

British Columbia Chief Medical Examiner Lisa Lapointe told Canadian broadcaster CBC that “we are at the beginning of the information gathering process.”

The reaction to the discovery was shock, sadness and regret.

“News leftovers have been found in the former Kamloops Residential School breaks my heart,” Trudeau wrote on Twitter.

Canada’s Minister for Indian Affairs Carolyn Bennett said boarding schools were part of a “shameful” colonial policy. The government promised to “remember those innocent lost souls,” he said.

Terry Teegee, regional head of British Columbia’s First Nations Assembly, called the find an “urgent piece of work” that “renews the pain and loss” of communities in the region.

This view has been shared by other indigenous groups, including the First Nations Health Authority (FNHA). “The fact that this situation exists is, unfortunately, not a surprise and illustrates the harmful and lasting impact the boarding school system continues to have on First Nations people, their families and communities,” CEO Richard Jock wrote in a statement.

From about 1863 to 1998, more than 150,000 Indian children were taken from their families and placed in these schools.

Children are often not allowed to speak their language or experience their culture, and many are abused and abused.

A commission launched in 2008 to document the impact of this system found that a significant number of indigenous children never returned to their home communities.

The famous Truth and Reconciliation Report, released in 2015, said the policy amounted to “cultural genocide”.

In 2008, the Canadian government officially apologized for the system.

The Missing Children Project documents the deaths and burials of children who died while at school. To date, more than 4,100 children who died while attending boarding schools have been identified, the report said.

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