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Indigenous Canadians wary, hopeful as pope prepares apology
Friday, July 22nd 2022, 4:23 PM EDT
Updated:

Eugene Alexis plays the drum at the conclusion of the rededication ceremony for Sacred Heart Church of the First Peoples on July 17, 2022, in Edmonton, Alberta. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)
PETER SMITH
MASKWACIS, Alberta (AP) -- Indigenous Canadians are voicing a range of skepticism, wariness and hope as Pope Francis prepares to arrive in their country next week.
He's scheduled to deliver a historic apology for abuses at Catholic-run residential schools.
Generations of Indigenous children were sent to the schools in a system designed to sever them from their tribal families and traditions. Thousands died from disease, fire and other causes at Catholic and Protestant-run schools.
Francis apologized in April to a Canadian Indigenous delegation at the Vatican for the "deplorable conduct" at the schools.
Now he'll be apologizing on Canadian soil at the site of a former residential school.