Ho-Chunk Nation employees and community members joined Indigenous communities across North America on September 30 in recognizing Orange Shirt Day, a day dedicated to honoring survivors of Indian boarding schools.

     Orange Shirt Day began in Canada in 2013 and grew from the story of residential school survivor Phyllis Webstad, a member of the Stswecem’c Xgat’tem First Nation.

     When Webstad was just six years old, her grandmother bought her a new orange shirt to wear to her first day at St. Joseph Mission Residential School in British Columbia. After arriving at the school, the shirt was taken from her along with her other belongings.

     Her experience later became a symbol of how Indigenous children were stripped of their identities, languages, cultures and connections to their families while attending residential and boarding schools.

     This history is especially significant for many Ho-Chunk elders, relatives, and generations of families who continue to carry the stories and impacts of these schools.

     The Tomah Indian Industrial School operated in Tomah, Wisconsin, from 1893 to 1941, was one of 11 Indian boarding schools that operated in Wisconsin. The school housed hundreds of Native children, with many of its children coming from the Ho-Chunk Nation.

     Children at boarding schools were separated from their families and subjected to assimilation policies intended to replace their Native languages, cultures and traditions with mainstream American society. The former Tomah school grounds have also served as a gathering place for Orange Shirt Day commemorations.

     Today, orange shirts are worn each Sept. 30 under the message “Every Child Matters,” honoring those who survived the boarding school system, those who did not return home and the generations of Native families who continue to feel its effects.