Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation Chief Pauline Frost, seen here being sworn in in January, said it will take time to ‘just sit and absorb’ the news about the Chooutla search. (Vuntut Gwitchin Government)
“We now have some identified locations and we can start pinpointing, you know, the missing children,” she said.
“I certainly cried. I cried for the young children. I cried for the children that never made it home. I cried because it was a relief to finally share with the rest of Yukon, share with the world, that the dark history is finally coming to light.”
Kwanlin Dün First Nation Chief Sean Smith said it was also important to look beyond the pain and trauma, and find ways for citizens to feel supported and connected.
He encouraged people to speak with elders and practice traditional ceremony and prayer.
“It’s also remembering what we can do as people, how we bring that power back to us as people — bring back those things that make us good people, right? Because those are cultural ways of knowing and understanding,” he said.
“[There are] many different pieces that we can bring into this modern time … to empower ourselves and to empower others.”
Barb Joe, chief of the Champagne and Aishihik First Nations, said her own community is also grieving two citizens who died recently. She knew news about the Chooutla search was coming, so the First Nation ensured there were counselling supports available.
“It’s hard to prepare because it triggers myself, and it triggers a bigger community of our citizens who are either intergenerational survivors, or survivors,” Joe said.
Joe’s father attended Chooutla, and her mother went to day school in Dawson City.
“I was thinking about that on Tuesday, going back to those stories and thinking about the pain, the pain in the family, the pain in the other families and thinking back to the kids that never made it home,” she said.
“We know these kids were probably put in the ground without ceremony. In our culture, the funeral… there’s a process we have to go through. And those poor babies, children, youth never had that. So what do we do? So we need to think about that side of things.”
‘Just the opening’
Frost and Benoit are also thinking about what comes next. There are plans to search other sites in the Yukon, but no timeline as yet.
There is also the question of further research at the Chooutla site. The ground search identified 15 “potential” grave sites, but the researchers said it would require more “invasive” work to confirm the presence of human remains — for example, by excavating the site and taking DNA samples from the soil. They said doing that work would be a decision for the community to make.