This summer the ELCA Churchwide Assembly passed a memorial to address the legacies of our church’s role in Indian Boarding Schools. For 150 years, over 500 Indian boarding schools operated in the United States, where Native children were forcibly taken from their families and communities, prohibited all expression of Native language and culture, and required to perform manual labor, with a goal to “Kill the Indian in him, and save the man.” Religious organizations collaborated with the federal government in operating more than half of these federally-funded schools, including predecessor denominations to the ELCA.

The first action step in the ELCA’s memorial is to raise awareness about Indian Boarding Schools and Christian and Lutheran roles in perpetuating this policy against our Native siblings.  Join this effort by wearing orange on September 30, the National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools, marking this day in worship, and learning more about the ELCA’s Truth Seeking and Truth Telling Initiative on Indian Boarding Schools.

Learn more and find resources: elca.org/IndianBoardingSchools