MARQUETTE, Mich. (WZMQ) – Monday was National Orange Shirt Day, a memorial for Native American children subjected to inhumane conditions and treatment in boarding schools across the United States and Canada throughout the 1900s.
In Marquette members of local native tribes, and students and staff from NMU’s department of Native American studies, gathered at the Seven Grandfathers stone sculpture to recognize their friends and family affected by the schools.
“This isn’t an ancient history thing. Our people have suffered through this in most recent history,” said Tyler Laplaunt the vice chairman for the Sault St. Marie Chippewa Tribe. It’s not even 40 years ago that we still have people going into the boarding schools. So we have survivors of boarding schools still living today.”
For more information about National Orange Shirt Day check out the Orange Shirt Society website.
