KAMLOOPS - A First Nations leadership group says attempts to minimize “well-documented atrocities” at residential schools since the announcement that potential graves had been found in Kamloops, B.C., five years ago represent “racism, white supremacy and colonial violence.”

The Union of British Columbia Indian Chiefs says the Tk’emlups te Secwepemc First Nation took a “courageous step” to share what the union calls “commonly held truth among First Nations” that residential schools were responsible for the deaths of Indigenous children.