By Roman Hayter
A new fundraiser is trying to raise money for the creation of a plaque honouring those who died due to the influenza pandemic or the Spanish Flu of 1918–1920.
The fundraiser was created by Solomon Ratt and Teron Roberts, whose goal is to raise up to $5000 for the bronze plaque that will feature the names of people in Stanley Mission who died due to the virus.
“The mass grave is encircled by a fence, but as far as I know there is no mention of who is buried there; there is no plaque or anything like that, so in essence it is an unmarked grave. So, Teron and I thought that we would organize a campaign to try to raise money for a memorial, and the memorial is going to cost us $5000,” said Ratt.
The memorial will be in Cree and English and will feature the names of the 36 people recorded as being buried at the gravesite.
“It didn’t come to Stanley Mission until about 1919, and it killed a lot of our people at that time; some people were buried on their traplines where they passed on, and some people were buried in the church graveyard, and these 36 were buried in the mass grave in the spring of 1920,” said Ratt.
Once completed, the plaque is expected to be placed near the Holy Trinity Anglican Church. Those wishing to donate to the fundraiser can go to the Facebook pages of both Ratt and Roberts to find the link to the duo’s online GoFundMe campaign. As of the end of March, the fundraiser has raised approximately $1000.