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It's amazing to me that for the last couple days Canadians have been mourning the state sponsored massacre of 215 children, yet then turn around and still say "We don't need a right to free speech or to bear arms. The government knows what's best for you and your children. The Police are your friends. Trust the state. Vote for more state power." It wasn't some priests showing up to reserves and stripping children away from their parents. It was the RCMP. Ordered to do so by the Federal government. That's what the state enforcers do, they follow the orders of the state. They're not magical ethical arbiters trained in philosophy of right and wrong, they're thugs who do whatever is told to them by the ones who pay their salary.
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According to all records, slavery and cannibalism were rampant at the time. “Maquinna is notable also for having kept European slaves on a number of occasions. The most detailed account is told in the writings of John R. Jewitt, one of two slaves kept for several years after the crew of the ship Boston was massacred by Maquinna and his men. A Narrative of the Adventures and Sufferings of John R. Jewitt, only survivor of the crew of the ship Boston, during a captivity of nearly three years among the savages of Nootka Sound: with an account of the manners, mode of living, and religious opinions of the natives is one of the first published glimpses into the social and cultural life of the Pacific Northwest peoples. Jewitt refers to Maquinna throughout as "king" and those beneath him as "chiefs". Maquinna required Jewitt to learn the Nuu-chah-nulth language, and told him that the ship Boston was taken in response to several depredations committed by earlier American and Spanish visitors. Jewitt was rescued in 1805 by Samuel Hill, captain of the brig Lydia.”
Check out the cannibalistic details at https://i.imgur.com/InzlPVI.png
The Narrative also describes an earlier, less fortunate, group of European slaves who were eventually sentenced to death by Maquinna after they attempted to escape to the lands of the Tla-o-qui-aht (Clayoquot) whose chief was Maquinna's rival, Wickaninnish. The one slave who had not tried to escape was eventually sold to Chief Wickaninnish and reportedly died shortly after hearing of the taking of the Boston.
- It's true. It's true that people were buried outside of an institution, just like it's true of any prison, asylum, etc. in all of western history. 215 isn’t that many over 90+ years of operation when you take into account typical child mortality of the time.
Was it in fact a mass grave? Or were children buried in unmarked graves over a period of 80 or 90 years? There is a huge difference between the two.
Likely the latter, but even so, being buried in an unmarked grave implies malfeasance. Who did those 215 kids belong to, and why weren't they returned to their parents?
They didn't even dig up the bodies. We don't even know if the 215 number is accurate.
Don't be pedantic. Would 210 unmarked graves result in a significantly different conversation? What's your threshold body-count for taking an interest?
If the implication is that they died from being mistreated then I would want to see evidence of that.
I'm also skeptical of them being unmarked graves. From what I've heard, they were marked in some way at the time. It's possible that over the course of time the markings (likely made of wood) rotted away as the gravesite became overgrown due to not being kept up by anyone. Or perhaps markings were stolen or vandalized as often happens in graveyards.
I don't know, but I would like other explanations to be considered before jumping to the conclusion that this was somehow nefarious.
And the reason they weren't sent back to their parents is that quite often they couldn't find their parents and they became the sole caregiver. So what do you do when you have no one to send the body back to? I imagine they received some sort of burial service and were respectfully burried in these places.