Bylaw passed to make Sask. residential school cemetery a municipal heritage site

The Rural Municipality of Battle River has passed a bylaw to make the cemetery at the Battleford Industrial School a municipal heritage site.

According to a proponent who called for the designation, an excavation in the 1970s found 74 people buried at the residential school cemetery but only about 50 could be identified.

The cemetery has at least 20 unmarked graves.

Last May, North Battleford lawyer Ben Feist told CBC Radio's Afternoon Edition he was determined to guarantee preservation of the site, along with other residential school cemeteries in the Battlefords area.

On Friday, the RM of Battle River confirmed councillors had passed a bylaw to designate the cemetery a municipal heritage site.

The school was open from 1883-1914.

When it opened, Battleford Industrial School took around a dozen students. After the Riel Resistance, there were at least 100 students each year.

The cemetery associated with the school was opened in 1884.

When the school closed in 1914, the principal of the school at that time wrote to the Department of Indian Affairs and expressed concerns about it not being appropriately marked and the possibility that people would forget about it.

CBC News has been unable to reach the reeve of the RM for comment.