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Canadas Residential Schools Missing Children and Unmarked Burials is the rst systematic effort to record and analyze deaths at the schools and the presence and condition of student cemeteries within the regulatory context in which the schools were intended to operate. As part of its work the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada established a National Residen- tial School Student Death Register. Due to gaps in the available data the reg- ister is far from complete. Although the actual number of deaths is believed to be far higher 3200 residential school victims have been identied. The analysis also demonstrates that residential school death rates were signi- cantly higher than those for the general Canadian school-aged population. The failure to establish and enforce adequate standards of care coupled with the failure to adequately fund the schools resulted in unnecessarily high death rates at residential schools. Senior government and church of- cials were well aware of the schools ongoing failure to provide adequate levels of custodial care. Children who died at the schools were rarely sent back to their home community. They were usually buried in school or nearby mission cemeteries. As the schools and missions closed these cemeteries were abandoned. While in a number of instances Aboriginal communities churches and former staff have taken steps to rehabilitate cemeteries and commemorate the individuals buried there most of these cemeteries are now disused and vulnerable to accidental disturbance. In the face of this abandonment the trc is proposing the development of a national strategy for the documenta- tion maintenance commemoration and protection of residential school cemeteries. Canadas Residential Schools The Legacy describes what Canada must do to overcome the schools tragic legacy and move towards reconciliation with the countrys rst peoples. For over one hundred and twenty ve years Abo- riginal children suffered abuse and neglect in residential schools run by the Canadian government and by churches. They were taken from their families and communities and conned in large frightening institutions where they were cut off from their culture and punished for speaking their own lan- guage. Infectious diseases claimed the lives of many students and those who survived lived in harsh and alienating conditions. There was little compas- sion and little education in most of Canadas residential schools. Although Canada has formally apologized for the residential school sys- tem and has compensated its Survivors the damaging legacy of the schools continues to this day. This volume examines the long shadow that the resi- dential schools have cast over the lives of Aboriginal Canadians who are more likely to live in poverty more likely to be in ill health and die sooner more likely to have their children taken from them and more likely to be imprisoned than other Canadians. The disappearance of many Indigenous languages and the erosion of cultural traditions and languages also have their roots in residential schools. 6 M Q U P S P R I N G 2 0 1 6 I N D I G E N O U S S T U D I E S C A N A D I A N H I S T O R Y S P E C I F I C AT I O N S McGill-Queens Native and Northern Series January 2016 978-0-7735-4658-5 27.95A 27.95A 18.99 paper 978-0-7735-4657-8 100.00S 100.00S 69.00 cloth 6.75 x 9.75 272pp 11 graphs 6 tables Ebook available also available in French Canadas Residential Schools Missing Children and Unmarked Burials The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Volume 4 S P E C I F I C AT I O N S McGill-Queens Native and Northern Series January 2016 978-0-7735-4660-8 29.95A 29.95A 20.99 paper 978-0-7735-4659-2 110.00S 110.00S 76.00 cloth 6.75 x 9.75 392pp Ebook available also available in French Canadas Residential Schools The Legacy The Final Report of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Volume 5