Wearing Orange
As I talked about in worship last Sunday, the ELCA participates in an important annual Day of Remembrance, which is for Indian boarding schools.
In Canada, school children across the country wear orange every September 30th to honor the Indigenous children who lost their culture (and some their very lives) in these abusive schools.
Why orange? The symbol comes from the testimony of Phyllis Webstad, who at the age of six was stripped of the orange shirt her grandmother had given her for her first day of school. She was forced to dress in other clothes and never got her orange shirt back, a symbol of so many losses. Webstad’s testimony in 2013 launched Orange Shirt Day.
On September 30th, I heard a presentation from Vance Blackfox (Cherokee), former Director of Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations for the ELCA. You can watch the webinar recording here: https://youtu.be/shpOPiemYEk. In 2025, the ELCA Churchwide Assembly passed a memorial to carry out ongoing education and communication about this tragic era in North American and church history. The Truth Seeking & Truth Telling Initiative
(www.tstti.org) organizes Lutherans for truth-seeking and truth-telling about Lutheran and broader Christian involvement in Indian Boarding Schools in the US and their impact on Native peoples. Many white Christians, including Lutherans, participated in the physical and cultural genocide of Native peoples in the US, settling on stolen Indigenous lands and actively supporting Indian boarding and day schools that deliberately stripped Native children of their language, culture, and family/community ties. Now, the church commits to strengthening our anti-oppression efforts with a greater focus on realizing justice and equity for Indigenous people. This includes:
Repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery
Advocating for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women, Girls, and Relatives
Supporting Tribal nations in their work to preserve their languages
Beginning the practice of land acknowledgments at all expressions of the church.
This reckoning is tragically overdue, but faith allows us to pray that it is not too late.
with love, Pastor Chelsea
