Remembering the Legacy of Native American Boarding Schools: Orange Shirt Day Vigil in Washington, D.C.
Ramona Klein shared her experience of attending the Fort Totten Indian Industrial School in North Dakota during a vigil in Washington, D.C. She highlighted the challenges faced by Native children at federal Indian boarding schools, including separation from their families, abuse, and neglect. Orange Shirt Day is observed to remember the Native children who attended these schools with the aim of assimilating them into mainstream culture.
The National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition organized a vigil where Klein spoke about the physical, sexual, emotional, academic, intellectual abuse, and neglect suffered by students at these schools. The orange shirts distributed at the event bear the message "Every Child Matters" in honor of Phyllis Webstad, a survivor of a Canadian boarding school. The day serves as a way to acknowledge the impact of education as a tool used against Indigenous children.
From 1819 to 1969, over 400 Indian boarding schools were funded by the federal government, leading to the forced removal of Native children from their homes. The Interior Department's investigation revealed the deaths of over 973 American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children who attended these schools. The observance of Orange Shirt Day is a step towards healing and understanding the traumatic experiences endured by boarding school survivors and their descendants.
Nani Mahkuk-Guaman, a student leader at the University of Minnesota Morris, emphasized the resilience of Indigenous communities in the face of the boarding school system's attempt at cultural erasure. The recognition of boarding school survivors' stories is crucial for healing and preserving their legacy. Despite the long history of silence surrounding the boarding school atrocities, survivors like Klein are determined to ensure that their experiences are not forgotten and that the truth is acknowledged before it fades away.