Today, and every day, we remember, Native American children who were torn from their homes and families in an attempt to erase their culture. Growing up in the PNW, my great-great-grandparents formed friendships with Native families when they homesteaded in Kingston, PortGamble and Poulsbo, and those bonds have carried through generations—my children are now friends with their great-great-grandchildren. I hold their stories, their culture, and their resilience close to my heart, and I will never forget that every child matters.
Across Turtle Island — both in Canada and the United States — Indigenous children were taken from their families and forced into residential and boarding schools. Beginning in the early 1800s and continuing for more than a century, these schools were built with one devastating goal: to erase Native identity. Government officials and church leaders openly declared their mission was to “kill the Indian in the child.”
In Canada, more than 150,000 First Nations, Inuit, and Métis children were placed in residential schools. At least 4,000–6,000 children are confirmed to have died in these institutions, though the real number is believed to be much higher as unmarked graves continue to be found across the country. The last federally run residential school in Canada, the Gordon Residential School in Saskatchewan, did not close its doors until 1996.
In the United States, the boarding school system was even larger. By 1926, nearly 83% of Native American school-aged children were enrolled in one of 367 government-funded Indian boarding schools. These schools, often run by churches under federal contracts, carried out the same assimilation policies — forbidding Native languages, cutting children’s hair, banning ceremonies, and enforcing military-style discipline. Many endured physical, emotional, and sexual abuse. Some never returned home. The legacy of these schools stretches into living memory: the last federally run institution, the Chilocco Indian Agricultural School in Oklahoma, closed in the 1980s.
These numbers are not just statistics. They represent lives, families, and generations altered forever. Children as young as four were taken from their parents. Their songs silenced, their braids cut, their ceremonies forbidden. What was called “education” was, in truth, an act of cultural genocide.
And yet — despite everything meant to break them — Indigenous peoples continue to rise. Survivors tell their stories with courage. Communities are reclaiming language, culture, and ceremony. The children who were taken live on through their descendants, their songs, and the land itself.
When I reflect on this history, I picture the ancestors wrapping their arms around the children whose voices were stolen. Their light — both earthly and celestial — reminds us that creation itself holds them close. I see children in a meadow. Some represent those whose lives were cut short, while others embody the next generations carrying healing forward. They remind us that under their ancestors protection, their spirits live on — in balance with the land, the ancestors, and the stars.
When I walk through my Childs school I see the tribes culture celebrated for my white children to learn, when we drive home we see the culture teaching their children now to canoe, fish, and have pow wows that they welcome us all to attend and learn and celebrate with them. Their culture is a big part of our culture and what a great blessing this is for us all, blessed to be part of a community and culture they were not able to wipe away.
The mountains, the eagle, the deer, the bison, and the flowers whisper the same truth:
🌱 Every Child Matters. 🌱
This truth is more than remembrance. It is responsibility.
We are called to listen to Survivors.
We are called to tell the stories that were hidden.
We are called to honor the children who never came home.
🧡 They are remembered.
🧡 They are loved.
🧡 They matter.
Let us ensure their legacy is one of truth, healing, and strength — a future where love, culture, and ceremony rise stronger than the systems that once tried to erase them.
#EveryChildMatters #OrangeShirtDay #NeverForgotten #HealingForTheChildren #TurtleIsland
