Embracing Orange Shirt Day’s call to promote healing can inspire lasting and meaningful impacts on the relationship between Tribal and non-Tribal communities.
Orange Shirt Day is commemorated every Sept. 30 to remember Tribal students who did not return home from Canadian residential and U.S. boarding schools. In total, beginning in the early 1800s, over 210,000 Native children attended 367 schools across the country in 29 states. With support of the federal government, 14 religious denominations operated boarding schools impacting Native Tribes.
In 2025, Orange Shirt Day represents an opportunity for Tribal and non-Tribal communities to examine the question: What is the health of our relationship? In the divisive political climate we are all a part of now, how can we oppose that narrative by building healthy relationships?
Orange Shirt Day represents a day of healing for those who attended these schools and either witnessed or experienced life-altering trauma.
Some may claim everyone experiences trauma — a death of a family member, a bad car accident, a broken friendship — but Orange Shirt Day is about healing the intergenerational trauma imposed on Native people in the U.S. and Canada since the 1800s, when government and religious organizations sought, in General Pratt’s words, to “kill the Indian and save the man.” The tool utilized to accomplish this was education.
Photo courtesy of MOHAI, Ferdinand Brady Photographic Postcards, Lib1988.11.83
History is history. It cannot be undone or changed. However, it can be recognized, acknowledged, and, most importantly, prevent future harm. As the aphorism goes: Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.
Here in the Northwest, we are fortunate to have concepts that have built upon our shared history of Tribal and non-Tribal communities in Washington state. There are champions from our community, past and present, who have prioritized the need to have a strong relationship: Past governors like Booth Gardner who had a vision that acknowledged Tribal history, culture, and governments; past legislators like John “lulias” McCoy who understood that Tribal history is Washington history interwoven together; and past leaders like Billy Frank Jr. who understood that the idea of co-management of resources could also be applied to how we live together.
So, in honor of Orange Shirt Day, wear an orange shirt in recognition of OUR children and the vision of a healthy relationship.
daniseten Michael Vendiola is the youngest child of Rodolfo and Diane Vendiola who raised a family of educators. He is the Chief Operations Officer and Education Co-Director of Children of the Setting Sun Productions. He is an enrolled member of the Swinomish Indian Tribal Community.
