Manitoba to purchase private campground near site of former residential school

The Manitoba government is acquiring the campground where students who died at a residential school were buried. Every Child Matters flag during the second annual South Island Powwow at Royal Athletic Park in Victoria, Saturday, Sept. 30, 2023. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Chad Hipolito

BRANDON —

The Manitoba government is partnering with the province’s second-largest city to purchase a private campground where historical records show a cemetery for children who died at a residential school is located.

Premier Wab Kinew announced his government is working with the city of Brandon to acquire the Turtle Crossing Campground site, located south of the former Brandon Indian Residential School in western Manitoba.

A news release says the cemetery was used from 1985 to 1912 after the area was converted into a suburban park.

First Nations groups have long advocated for a search of the area to determine how many children were buried in the area and their identities.

Kinew says any future decisions regarding the site will be be done in consultation with residential school survivors, impacted First Nations and advocacy groups.

Chief Jennifer Bone of Sioux Valley Dakota Nation says any searches will be Indigenous-led and technical expertise and community knowledge will help guide the work.

“This is important work for our nation and for Indigenous Peoples across Canada,” she said in a joint statement with the province.

The First Nation previously worked with researchers to investigate unmarked graves at the former Brandon Indian Residential School.

It has said more than 50 are on the campground.

Church records and provincial vital statistics files have documented the cemetery for generations, a Tuesday news release said.

“These graves have been known about since long before the invention of ground-penetrating radar,” said Kinew.

In 2001, the land was sold and developed as Turtle Crossing Campground.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 29, 2026.

The Canadian Press