“Every Child Matters Honor Walk” happening Monday in Seminole Nation

Trigger Warning: This story contains information about Indian boarding shools that may be distressing and disturbing for some individuals. Please proceed with caution and prioritize your mental and emotional well-being. If you need support, consider speaking to a mental health professional by calling 988, texting the Crisis Text Line at 741741, or reaching out to a trusted person in your life. 

(SEMINOLE NATION) September 30 is recognized as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day.

Originating in Canada, the day honors Indian boarding school survivors, their families, and the children who never made it home.

Native American culture and communities were violently destroyed by Indian boarding schools, located both here in the US and abroad. 

Between 1819 and the 1970s, government and privately funded Indian boarding schools forcibly removed Native children from their homes, communities, languages, religions, and culture. These boarding school students were frequently the victims of emotional and physical abuse, even death.

And though they were referred to as "schools", they were primarily vehicles of forced assimilation, rife with human rights violations and resulting in painful generational trauma that still impacts Native American communities today.

This Monday, a walk has been organized on the Seminole Reservation to honor these children and their families. 

Organizers say the walk will begin at the Mekusukey Mission on the Seminole Nation Reservation at 7:30 a.m. Opening words will be spoken at 8:00 a.m. and the walk is slated to begin at 8:45 a.m. 

A relay will begin at Johns Park where lunch will also be served. A caravan will follow to St. Gregory’s. 

Those who cannot walk the full 27 miles from Mekusukey Mission to St. Gregory’s are asked to walk the last mile. That last mile will depart from the intersection of North Kickapoo and West MacArthur around 5:00 to 6:00 p.m. 

This year’s walk is particularly meaningful as a Seminole child who died at Carlisle Indian School is finally being returned to Seminole Nation the following day. 

17-year-old Albert Mekko was at the Indian boarding school for roughly one and a half years before he died in 1881. 

In June 2021, the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative was announced by Deb Haaland. The initiative aims to address the generational trauma resulting from the damaging past of federal Indian boarding school policy.

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As part of the initiative, the federal government accepted responsibility for creation of the system, which included more than 400 schools in 37 states. Two volumes of their report were published from research conducted over the course of three years. The project concluded at the end of July this year.

Mekko is one of one of three Seminole children listed as deceased as part of the Federal Boarding School Initiative. 

The process of the Office of Army Cemeteries returning deceased children from Carlisle began in 2015, following a visit from Sicangu Youth Council of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe. 

More more information on Monday’s walk, email RedBear Williams at sredbear1491@gmail.com