3rd Annual Every Child Matters/Orange Shirt Day Comes to Nevada ...

Join your neighbors and the California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project on Saturday, September 28th, 4-7 pm, for Nevada County’s 3rd Annual Every Child Matters/Orange Shirt Day to learn about the legacy of the Residential Indian Boarding Schools and its impact on the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe and other Native American groups. 

Although this day is a time of education and reflection about a damaging time in our past and recent history in California, it is a peaceful gathering for sharing, healing, food, children’s activities, and music, for families to stand in solidarity to recognize the Indigenous children and Native communities who were impacted and suffered due to the Federal and private Indian Boarding Schools. 

The closest such school to Nevada City was in Greenville CA, but some local children were sent as far as Haskell, Kansas. Not all children returned home safely: Secretary of the Interior, Deb Haaland’s 2024 research summary estimates that at least 973 children perished at these schools in the US between the 1880s through 1960s.  In Canada the numbers of missing children and unmarked graves are estimated to be almost 10,000, but it is important to note that our Canadian neighbors have been actively researching and uncovering evidence of Residential School abuse since 2013, while we have just recently begun gathering information from Native Tribes and Communities in the United States.

In Canada, their first official National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (from the Orange Shirt movement) was in 2021.  This day, which is recognized on September 30th, is the day the First Nation children were forcefully removed to Residential Schools each year.  Besides also being called Every Child Matters Day, the term “Orange Shirt Day” is used because the founder in Canada, Phyllis Webstad, a six-year-old First Nation girl, wore a new orange shirt to her first day at the St. Joseph Mission Residential School in British Columbia. The school staff took her shirt and replaced it with the school’s uniform. This was in 1973, and Phyllis could not stand to wear orange until in 2013 when she decided to make it a color of empowerment for herself and other Residential School survivors.

You may be wondering why my husband, Rick Waller, and I helped to bring Every Child Matters/Orange Shirt Day to Nevada County in 2022.  As wildlife and nature photographers, we travel throughout the US and Canada fairly often, and we were in British Columbia the week after Canada’s first official day of Truth and Reconciliation in 2021.  We were impressed, yet saddened by the thousands of small orange shirts hanging in yards and in front of community centers, as well as the kids’ shoes lining bridges and sidewalks, all to represent those who did not return home from Residential Schools. 

Rick and I have close Native American friends here on the West coast of the US, so we knew that the Indian Boarding School history was not too different from Canada.  We asked to meet with the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe through the California Heritage: Indigenous Research Project (CHIRP) to see if they would be interested in having our assistance to organize Every Child Matters/Orange Shirt Day in Nevada County.  Their Spokesperson, Shelly Covert, and her staff were enthusiastic and told us some stories of Boarding School abuse that effected the Nisenan Tribe, including the death at Haskell Indian Boarding School of Shelly Covert’s great-uncle, with no explanation ever given to his family and the Tribe. 

Our first Every Child Matters/Orange Shirt Day was held outside at Sierra Pines United Methodist Church on September 30th, 2022, with a successful turnout of families and about 40 people.  The second gathering was held last year on September 30th, an unusually rainy day, at Yuba River Charter School, with food, music, education, beading and a Nisenan “marble/rock” game.

This year the host location will again be Sierra Pines United Methodist Church, 22559 W. Hacienda Dr., Grass Valley, near Lake of the Pines.  There will be important words from Shelly Covert and others from the Nevada City Rancheria Nisenan Tribe, more music, short videos from CHIRP and about Orange Shirt Day, age-appropriate stories and coloring for children, food and soft drinks for everyone, beading, and a return of the popular Nisenan Marble game.  Please join us and bring your friends and family.