Why Orange Shirt Day matters
From 1819 to 1969, more than 400 Indian boarding schools operated in the U.S. Thousands of Indigenous children were taken from their families, many never returned home, and unmarked graves are still being found today. Oregon is part of this history. Schools operated in Warm Springs, Siletz, Grand Ronde, Klamath, Umatilla, and Chemawa Indian School in Salem, which is still open today. Chemawa is now a modern high school serving Native students from across the country, but its history reminds us of the painful past.
Orange Shirt Day started from the story of a child whose new orange shirt was taken away on her first day at a residential school. That shirt represented her family’s love and pride—taken from her, just like so many children’s connections to their culture were taken.
Wearing orange is a way to say: Every Child Matters.