Today is a day of mourning and remembrance for Indigenous people across the U.S. and Canada. National Truth and Reconciliation Day or Orange Shirt Day is used to promote awareness around the maltreatment that occurred in residential boarding schools in the two countries, where Native children were subjected to forced assimilation and high rates of emotional, physical and sexual abuse.
Seneca Gaming is hosting its annual Every Child Matters Walk tonight, starting at the Seneca Niagara Casino, where CEO Kevin Nephew said survivors, family and non-Indigenous people can have a place of healing and education.
“As we go through, we are resilient, and even with those atrocities, our people remain and we remember," said Nephew. "But as we remember, we also want to heal, and we want to move forward. We don't want to forget though, because it's always important to never forget the past, so to make sure we don't start down those same paths.”
The Thomas Indian School was operated by New York State on the Seneca Cattaraugus Territory until the 1950s. Governor Hochul recently made a visit to the former school grounds, and apologized for the “ethnic cleansing" at the hands of the state.
"I think that's been a question that's been raised, you know, because with the acknowledgement, it's awareness of it, but it's difficult, right? How do you repair that? And I don't know necessarily what that path is, but I think opening that door to have the conversation which I don't even know that conversations have begun in the past," said Nephew. "And I think the apology is that initial step to determine that path forward. I think working with the Native nations in in a way to chart that, because it is difficult."
The residential boarding school system was a way for the U.S. and Canadian government to erase Native culture from the continent, part of a plan of assimilation. The founder of America's foremost such school in Carlisle, Pennsylvania, General Richard Henry-Pratt, said the government must "kill the Indian... to save the man."
The last Native residential school in Canada to close didn't occur until 1997.
A U.S. Department of Interior report from 2024 estimated nearly 1,000 Indigenous children died in federally-run or supported boarding schools. A Washington Post report months later put that number at around 3,000. Researchers for both believe the death toll to actually be higher.
Nephew said he believes this is the fourth year Seneca Gaming has hosted an event for Orange Shirt Day. When the first one occurred, the scope and shared intergenerational trauma of the boarding school system is what hit him the most.
"I had so many individuals from other Native nations, other than the Seneca Nation, come up and tell me how much they appreciated the walk, because it was a moment of healing. And what I didn't realize, and it kind of transcended the moment, was that there were so many different Native nations. We had people from the Tuscarora Nation, Tonawanda Seneca Nation, Mohawks and Oneidas, you can name them. Even people from Native nations, from Canada. It was a moment of healing. It was very, very powerful to see that happen."
Participation in the event is encouraged from Native and non-Native people alike, who will march through downtown Niagara Falls starting at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday, with traditional singing and dances happening midway through the route next to the iconic waterfalls.
