Students, staff honor victims of residential school trauma

It wasn't yellow flags that dotted dry and brownish Whittaker Field Friday morning.

It was instead the orange shirts worn by La Conner students and staff that colored the school district's football field on Sept. 30 in honor of Native American youth who, over generations, suffered cultural trauma while attending residential campuses in the U.S. and Canada.

La Conner Schools is one of the first districts in western Washington to observe Orange Shirt Day, which in Canada is a national day of truth and reconciliation.

La Conner's school family assembled at Whittaker Field for an aerial photo, an emotional song and dance performance by the Swinomish Canoe Family and speakers' remarks.

Superintendent Will Nelson opened the ceremony with a bilingual message – alternating between his native Blackfoot language and English – that stressed the Orange Shirt Day movement's commitment to valuing all children.

"This is an important day for me," Nelson noted. "My mom, grandma and great-grandma all went to boarding schools. Members of my family are the people we are talking about. I could write a book about it."

Jae Jefferson, assistant director of cultural events for the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community, said support for Orange Shirt Day has become more widespread since the discovery in 2021 of more than 200 graves of indigenous children who had died while attending a residential school at Kamloops, British Columbia.

Dr. Kisha Supernant, a La Conner High School alumnus teaching at the University of Alberta, is heading up the effort to locate unmarked graves of other residential school students to help bring closure to their families.

Jefferson told La Conner students and staff that thousands of native children did not return from the boarding schools where they were placed.

"We honor those who survived and those who didn't make it back from the residential schools," Jefferson said. "It's an honor to be here today to start the healing process for our people. We do this in honor of those who didn't make it back and those who endured the trauma."

The boarding schools sought to assimilate native youth into white culture, a campaign that wrought many unintended consequences.

"The history of this day is marked with suffering and promoting awareness that can help us take more steps toward community building and cooperation," said Clarissa Williams, the district's community and cultural liaison, who coordinated Orange Shirt Day activities.

Williams credited Phyllis Webstad of British Columbia as the founder of Orange Shirt Day.

"In 1973, when she was six years old," Williams said of Webstad, "she was sent to a mission school near Williams Lake, B.C. She was excited to wear her shiny new orange shirt as she was to attend school for the first time. But her first day at the St. Joseph Mission Residential School was nothing like she expected. Her orange shirt was taken away from her, never to be returned."

Williams said Sept. 30 was tabbed across Canada and at various American locales as a day for truth and reconciliation because it was the time of year when children were removed from their homes and placed in residential schools.

"Phyllis emphasized the importance of continuing the conversation so that no one forgets the suffering endured by indigenous people due to racism and discrimination," said Williams.

"Today's remembrance and celebration," she added, "is an opportunity for indigenous peoples, local governments, schools and communities to all come together in the spirit of reconciliation and hope for future generations of children.

"It's a day," Williams said, "to reaffirm that every child matters."

Jefferson, who drummed with the tribal canoe family, expressed gratitude: "We thank the La Conner School District for honoring these children and our people."

As the canoe family drummed, Swinomish youth performed two dances around the cheer boxes on the stadium's track. Most wore orange shirts designed by Marcus Joe bearing the message "Every Child Matters."

Joe said the shirt design "was inspired by the many indigenous children who were stolen from their families and placed in residential schools. This shirt is meant to honor the survivors of these horrible circumstances that have cast a dark shadow over our indigenous history in the U.S. and Canada."

The program also featured students reading sections of an official school board proclamation recognizing Orange Shirt Day.

Nelson closed with two poetry readings. One piece was penned in 1933 by an anonymous writer lamenting the boarding school experience. The other was composed by Pawnee poet Abigail Echo-Hawk last year.

"I wrote this for our people," Nelson quoted Echo-Hawk as saying. "I wrote it because I couldn't quit crying as I read newspaper reports of this genocide against indigenous people. I wrote it because my heart was crying justice that my tongue couldn't shape words for, so my hand did."