First Nations delegates say they believe Pope Francis will apologize for residential schools

First Nations delegates left a two-hour meeting at the Vatican Thursday saying they believe Pope Francis will soon apologize for the Roman Catholic Church's role in the residential school system.

The 14 delegates from the Assembly of First Nations met privately with Pope Francis at the Apostolic Palace. During the meeting originally scheduled for one hour delegates said they could hear First Nations drumming and singing from St. Peter's Square inside the room.

While Pope Francis didn'tstate clearly he would be issuing an apology, the words he used left delegates with a strong belief it will happen, said former Assembly of First Nations national chief Phil Fontaine.

"We heard the Holy Father say very clearly, "The Church is with you," Fontaine said.

Fontaine, a residential school survivor,said he believes Pope Francis could issue an official apology as soon as this summer.

WATCH | Indigenous leaders optimistic Pope will issue an apology:

Indigenous leaders optimistic about papal apology, reconciliation

2 years ago

Duration 3:01

The Assembly of First Nations delegation met with Pope Francis on Thursday, hearing him express sorrow for the Catholic Churchs role in residential schools. Former AFN regional chief Phil Fontaine says hes optimistic the Pope will commit to an apology soon.

Fontainemet with Pope Francis' predecessor Pope Benedict XVI in 2009 in the Vatican. Pope Benedict issued an expression of regretat the time, but did notofficially apologize.

The First Nations delegation presented Pope Francis with a cradle board a traditional tool for carrying infants as a symbol ofevery child who attended the institutions and those who never returned.

The delegation asked the Pope to care for the cradle board and reflect on its meaning before returning it Friday during a larger planned audience with all Indigenous representatives.

"We stated to his Holiness, 'How you treat this cradle board will demonstrate how you treat our people in the future,'" said Grand Chief Mandy Gull-Masty of the Cree Nation of Eeyou Istchee in Quebec.

"By returning the cradle board to the delegation, he will demonstrate his commitment to our people."

Fred Kelly, the delegation's spiritual adviser from theOjibways of Onigaming First Nation, presented the Pope with a white feather.

"I told him in my language, 'You are now known as white feather, to commemorate the eagle that has joined and now flies toward the white dove toward peace and harmony,'" he said.

Tk'emlps te Secwpemc Kkpi7 (Chief) Rosanne Casimir told CBC News the delegates told thePope about the children who went missing from residential schools.

Last year, Tk'emlps te Secwpemc reported the discovery of more than 200 unmarked graves near the former Kamloops Indian Residential School in B.C.

"He heard the impacts the importance and significance of things that need to be acknowledged and that have to be worked on moving forward," Casimir said.

Pope urged to revoke Doctrine of Discovery

The delegates also urged the Pope to release all residential school records held by his church and revoke centuries-old papal decrees used to justify the seizure of Indigenous land in the Americas by colonial powers.

Two papal bulls issued in 1455 and1493 gave the church's blessing to explorers'claims to Africa and the Americas.

The Doctrine of Discovery is based largely on those papal bulls, issued by Pope Nicholas V and Pope Alexander VI.

"If you look at our history ... what happened since they landed on our shores, then basically it's genocide," said Gerald Antoine, Dene national chief-elect and AFN regional chief of the Northwest Territories.

"We need to right the wrong."

WATCH | Elder Wilton Littlechild after Vatican meetings:

Elder Wilton Littlechild spoke to a crowd following a day of meetings at Vatican City

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Littlechild offered words of hope as he spoke of reconciliation and a new relationship between First Nations communities and the Catholic Church.

Scrapping the doctrine would fulfil the Roman Catholic Church's role in theTruth and Reconciliation Commission's call to action 49, which urgesall religious and faith groupsto repudiate concepts used to justify European sovereignty over Indigenous lands and people.

The Doctrine of Discovery declared lands held byIndigenous Peoples to beterranullius Latin for "nobody's land."

Kaluhyanu;wes Michelle Schenandoah, a member of the Oneida Nation, said the basis for the doctrine was the belief thatnon-Christian Indigenous Peoples werewithout souls.

"Because we didn't have souls, that gave the right for these explorers to do whatever they wanted with Indigenous Peoples murder, rape, enslave," she said.

Schenandoah said the doctrine has shaped the mentality and behaviour of Western culture for centuries.

Pope called upon to 'take the first step'

She also said there'sa direct connectionbetween the doctrineand the disappearances and deaths of Indigenous women in Canada.

In many pre-contact Indigenous nations, she said, women had the final say on how the land was used making them obstacles to European exploration and settlement.

"When you look at how these countries have treated Indigenous women, we are on the bottom rung,"Schenandoah said. "Because the doctrine has placed us in this place of being invisible and dispensable, therefore the countries treat us this way.

"What gives any human or nation the right to claim dominion over any other human or nation anywhere in this world?"

The doctrine worked its way into law and influenced Canada's Indian Act, land claims and the residential school system.

Bruce McIvor, partner at First Peoples Law in Vancouver, said the Pope could change things in Canada byrenouncing the doctrine.

"It would create impetus in Canada for the courts and governments to get serious about addressing this fundamental lie that's at the foundation of non-Indigenous claims to Indigenous lands in Canada," he said.

McIvor said the federal government could also pass a law revoking the doctrine.

"If the Pope took the first step, that would create impetus for the federal government to do the same thing," he said.

McIvor said he believes the lingering influence of the doctrine is the reason reconciliation continues to fail in Canada.

"When we hear the word reconciliation, what most Canadians don't realize is that is invoking the Doctrine of Discovery," McIvor said.

"Because when the courts and ... government sayreconciliation, they mean reconciling with this fundamental lie that colonizers can just show up and claim Indigenous lands."