A day of remembrance: artists paint a mural in Art Alley for Orange Shirt Day

BISMARCK, N.D. (KFYR) – When Phyllis Webstad was six, in 1973, she was sent to an Indian boarding school.

She wore the orange shirt her grandmother bought her on her first day.

When she arrived, she and the other children were forced to change into new clothes, and her shirt was taken away from her. She never saw it again.

In 2021, Canada declared September 30 as the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, known more commonly as Orange Shirt Day. It’s not officially recognized as a holiday in the U.S. yet, but many people wear orange shirts and remember those affected by the injustices of the Indian boarding school system.

This year, relatives of boarding school survivors are creating a mural to remember both those who did and didn’t come home.

“People tend to think of it as historical, and doesn’t touch our generations today, but it does. The purpose of this mural is not only to educate. The purpose of Orange Shirt Day is so that even our non-native neighbors will have an understanding of what our people, indigenous people, have endured,” said Agnes Yellowbear, one of the artists creating the mural and a daughter of a boarding school survivor.

Melanie Moniz and her daughter in front of the mural she and Agnes Yellowbear are painting for... — Melanie Moniz and her daughter in front of the mural she and Agnes Yellowbear are painting for Orange Shirt Day(KFYR-TV)

In 1879, the Carlisle Indian Industrial School opened in Pennsylvania. Thousands of students from more than 140 tribes walked through the school’s doors before it closed in 1918, but the effects of the trauma inflicted on many of the students who attended still have a lasting impact today.

According to the Carlisle Indian School Project, Carlisle was one of at least 408 federal Indian boarding schools in the U.S. The schools were meant to assimilate indigenous children into American society by erasing their native heritage.

Two indigenous boys who lived in North Dakota, Edward Upright and Amos LaFromboise, were sent to Carlisle in 1879. They were among the 186 children who died at the school, and their bodies are only just now coming home.

The project’s website said that many students were subjected to both physical and sexual abuse at Carlisle and the other boarding schools.

“My father has shared a lot, from his first years in life until he was six years old when authorities came to take him and his two younger siblings. He told me about the day, he remembers all of it. He remembers the punishment, the cruelty,” said Yellowbear.

Yellowbear said the trauma inflicted on her father has carried over into following generations, and it was a cycle she had to break.

She said the butterflies and dragonflies in the mural she’s been working on with fellow artist Melanie Moniz represent resilience and strength.

Moniz said they’re also seen as carriers of spirits.

The 18 flowers in the mural represent the 18 Indian boarding schools that have been identified so far in North Dakota alone.

“The hope and the goal of this mural is to empower those most impacted and bring awareness because ultimately we can’t create a better North Dakota if we don’t have all of the truth and all of the discussions on the table,” said Melanie Moniz, the other artist working on the mural and daughter of a boarding school survivor.

In 2022, the Interior Department reported that more than 500 children had died across the 400 schools identified in the U.S. They said they found 50 gravesites, but that they’d likely find more.

A Remembrance Walk will be held tomorrow from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. starting at Custer Park. The finished mural will be unveiled around 3:30 p.m. at Art Alley.