Haskell Indian Nations University held a walk, prayer, song and fellowship meal for the National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools, or Orange Shirt Day.
Haskell student Ishta Wabaunsee, Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, said students hosted the event Tuesday to remember the children who suffered, endured abuse or lost their lives in the federal residential school system as well as honor their relatives.
Juanica Sandoval, Pueblo of Santa Ana in New Mexico, said she showed up in solidarity Tuesday. Sandoval is a second year student at Haskell studying communications, possibly planning to focus on American Indian issues, business or both.
“All of us can come together and it’s almost like we’re healing in a way and honoring everyone and everything that’s happened,” Sandoval said. “I feel like a lot of this stuff is swept under the rug, so getting out here publicly is giving it its own story so we don’t have to keep hiding it or anything — not necessarily be proud of it, but let people know that we are still here and resilient.”
The university that today represents students of more than 140 tribal nations was founded as a federal Indian boarding school. Haskell opened as the United States Indian Industrial Training School in 1884.
Many children were killed or died at boarding schools, characterized as genocide. A 2022 federal report found that residential schools in the United States were responsible for the deaths of more than 500 students between 1869 and 1969, although more were unrecorded.
Native American children en masse were forced into these institutions to be assimilated into white American society. They were disallowed from speaking their languages, wearing traditional clothing and carrying out their customs.
At the Haskell Cemetery, on the east edge of the campus, 103 Native American children in marked graves there were buried between 1885 and 1943. Haskell underwent several phases before ultimately becoming a university in 1993.
Neveah Ewers, Cheyenne and Arapaho, said she learned about the boarding school era in school and from family stories. Like Sandoval, Ewers understood the history her whole life. Pursuing her degree in social work, she took a class last year where she was able to research the topic further.
“I just kind of learned more about it after coming up here,” Ewer said.
Dozens more people attended the event Tuesday. Many made poster signs and wore orange T-shirts that read “Every child matters,” urging the names of each child who was taken not to go unnoticed.
If local news matters to you, please help us keep doing this work.
Don’t miss a beat … Click here to sign up for our email newsletters
Click here to learn more about our newsletters first
Maya Hodison (she/her), equity reporter, can be reached at mhodison@lawrencekstimes.com. Read more of her work for the Times here. Check out her staff bio here.
Carter Gaskins (he/him) has been a photographer for The Lawrence Times since April 2021. He has also been a photographer for 10-plus years in photojournalism and sports.
Check out more of his work at Gaskins-Photography.com. See his work for the Times here.
More coverage — Haskell Indian Nations University:
August Rudisell / The Lawrence Times
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
Latest Lawrence news:
Molly Adams / Lawrence Times
