James Smith Cree Nation residents hope Sanderson will turn himself in

Darryl Burns had a message for Myles Sanderson late Monday afternoon.

“If Myles is hearing this, give yourself up, bud,” Burns told Global News. “There’s a lot of people back here that are hurting and we want to start healing.”

Sanderson is a suspect in the stabbing deaths of nine people on the James Smith Cree Nation and one in the nearby community of Weldon on Sunday.

The search has been on for Sanderson since the stabbings were first reported to the Mounties on Sunday. A search of the James Smith Cree Nation on Tuesday didn’t find any trace of the 32-year-old suspect.

One of the people who was killed was Burns’ sister, Gloria Burns. Darryl spoke to Global News after the body of another suspect — Sanderson’s brother, Damien — had been found in a field on the James Smith Cree Nation.

Burns feels community members are still coming together after the weekend’s events. He also said they’re still trying to heal after all the information came out over the past year about the tragic role the residential school system played in their community.

“I was talking before about the healing that’s happening already in our community,” Burns said. “I was talking about the residential schooling impact and how it has stolen our identity and made us into a second-class citizen.

“The one thing I want to say is that a lot of our community members are healing. It’s not all bad in our community. Our last powwow, we had over 700 singers and dancers in our community. When you have that many singers and dancers, you know they’re coming to celebrate their identity.”

As a result of Sunday’s events, Burns told Global News he’s quitting his job as an addictions counsellor and will be focusing on doing more about drug and alcohol abuse on the First Nation.