In honor of the National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools, which is observed annually on September 30, we share the following article with permission from Living Lutheran. The original post can be found here.

BEYOND REMEMBRANCE: ELCA TAKES ACTION ON TRUTH TELLING

Sept. 30 is the National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools

In 2025, the ELCA Churchwide Assembly committed to encouraging and equipping congregations, synods and affiliated ministries to observe the National Day of Remembrance for U.S. Indian Boarding Schools annually on or near Sept. 30. The action also calls for continuing education, research, truth telling, healing and repair related to the church’s involvement in Indian boarding schools.

One year later, Indigenous Ministries, part of the Ministries of Diverse Cultures and Communities (MDCC), is drawing attention again to the Indigenous children who were forcibly removed from their families and communities and sent to schools designed to suppress their languages, cultures and identities. The day also recognizes boarding school survivors, descendants, families, tribal nations and communities still living with the consequences of a system in which Christian churches, including Lutheran bodies, participated.

Sept. 30 is also observed as Orange Shirt Day, named for boarding school survivor Phyllis Webstad’s account of having her orange shirt taken from her on her first day at a residential school. Wearing orange has become a visible way to remember Indigenous children affected by boarding schools and the loss of culture, identity and belonging those institutions sought to impose.

A personal story

Wanda K. Frenchman, a member of the Oglala Lakota and Lenape tribes, currently serves as the interim director of Indigenous Ministries. Here she shares her story:

“One day in September, the 30th, is set aside to remember Indigenous children who died, those who survived and the families and communities impacted by the federal boarding school era. As an Indigenous person who was raised by Catholic boarding school survivors, that one day becomes every day.

“My Lakota grandparents were raised at Holy Rosary Catholic Mission in Pine Ridge, S.D., in the 1930s by German-speaking Catholic nuns and priests. They weren’t offered God’s love as grace and kindness but shown God in the worst light possible through punishment for the sin of being born as Lakota people.

“My grandparents weren’t parented by their own Lakota families. Therefore, they parented their kids much as they were raised. The cycle of generational trauma was started with young children at boarding schools and continues still today.”

Frenchman’s family history with Indian boarding schools extends beyond her grandparents’ experiences as students. Her mother taught at the federally operated Phoenix Indian School in the early 1970s, and her paternal grandmother worked there as a dorm matron in the 1960s.

Truth seeking and truth telling

Frenchman’s story and others like it are the impetus for remembrance, truth seeking and truth telling.

The 2025 Churchwide Assembly approved the ELCA resolution on boarding schools by a vote of 779-7 after memorials were submitted by 22 synods. The first of six actions call on the churchwide organization to encourage and equip ELCA congregations, synods and affiliated or related ministries to observe the National Day of Remembrance. The remaining actions extend beyond Sept. 30 through education about Christian and Lutheran involvement in boarding schools, continued research into the church’s history, preservation and responsible access to records, healing and repair, and funding to sustain the work.

Central to those efforts is the Indigenous Ministries’ Truth Seeking & Truth Telling Initiative. Launched in September 2022, it organizes Lutherans to research and acknowledge Lutheran and broader Christian involvement in Indian boarding schools and their continuing impact on Native peoples.

“They weren’t offered God’s love as grace and kindness but shown God in the worst light possible through punishment for the sin of being born as Lakota people.”

The initiative began with 15 synods across four Midwestern states and expanded in 2023 to 27 synods across 10 additional states. In 2026, the work is expanding to synods nationwide. More than 100 laypeople and rostered ministers have participated in the initiative through gatherings, discussions, research and educational efforts.

The project connects research into boarding and day schools sponsored or supported by Lutherans with opportunities for worship and learning, all as part of an ongoing process of truth and healing. This research requires the church to examine its own history. The ELCA acknowledges that many white Christians, including Lutherans, participated in the physical and cultural genocide of Native peoples and supported boarding and day schools that separated Native children from their languages, cultures, families and communities.

Researchers have identified Bethany Indian Mission and School in Wittenberg, Wis., which was operated by ELCA predecessors with federal funding. The ELCA holds extensive archival materials related to the school and is digitizing them.

The assembly action also addresses what should happen to information uncovered through this research. It affirms that the boarding school records belong to survivors, their descendants, communities and tribal nations and can support healing. It also calls for survivors and their families to have responsible access to the records and related research. In addition, the action calls for funding to support continued research and the digitization and labeling of Indian boarding school records held by the ELCA Archives.

Healing in community

The work of addressing generational trauma is also taking place within Indigenous communities served by ELCA ministries.

At Native American Urban Ministry in downtown Phoenix, a weekly Talking Circle launched in August 2024 has grown into an intergenerational community of about 50 people. The circle provides a culturally grounded space for Indigenous people seeking community and support while navigating experiences that include substance abuse, domestic violence, grief, homelessness and loss of culture.

Participants gather for conversation, prayer and traditional practices. Frenchman said six established leaders now help sustain the circle each week, which incorporates singing in participants’ tribal languages, prayer, tobacco offerings and ceremonial smudging. Some participants have expressed surprise at being able to practice Indigenous traditions openly within a Christian church.

“The cycle of generational trauma was started with young children at boarding schools and continues still today.”

In Fargo, N.D., The Way (formerly Native American Christian Ministry) gathers Indigenous community members weekly for Native and Christian worship with traditional singing, prayer, food and fellowship. The Eastern North Dakota Synod identifies caring for people in recovery and those experiencing addiction as a central focus of the ministry. Frenchman said The Way also helps community members attend a weekly sweat lodge by providing transportation to the ceremony, including for some participants experiencing substance abuse and homelessness.

Both ministries offer examples of communities restoring traditions, relationships and cultural practices that boarding schools and colonization worked to suppress.

Continuing the work

MDCC Indigenous Ministries has developed the “ELCA Truth-seeking and Truth-telling Initiative on Indian Boarding Schools Learning Toolkit” and other resources to help congregations, synods, educational institutions and organizations participate in the work.

Resources include a prayer service honoring children who were taken to boarding schools, workshop materials, educational handouts, and tools for congregational and organizational learning. The initiative also welcomes people interested in research, data collection, education, organizing and leadership to participate in gatherings, educational opportunities and research projects.

For the ELCA, the National Day of Remembrance offers an annual opportunity to remember. The initiative and the work of Indigenous ministries across the ELCA also demonstrate ways that remembrance can continue through education, research, truth telling, cultural restoration, healing and repair throughout the year.

For more information, see elca.org/indianboardingschools.

Joan Pinnell

Joan Pinnell is a communications consultant for the ELCA Ministries of Diverse Cultures and Communities team.

In observation of National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools which is observed in the United States September 30, we share the following which is cross-posted from Living Lutheran online. The original post can be found here.

The National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools

Learning more about the ELCA’s Truth and Healing Movement

September 30, 2025

In observation of National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools which is observed in the United States September 30, we share the following article which is cross-posted from the Women of the ELCA website. The original post can be found here.

The National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools in the United States is Monday, September 30. It originated in Canada as the National Day of Truth and Reconciliation in 2021 when the Government of Canada passed Bill C-5, making it a federal holiday. Canada has done work in healing its Indigenous people and the trauma inflicted by residential schools by designating a day to honor the survivors, their families, and communities.

Why do we need a Day of Remembrance?

Residential or boarding schools inflicted trauma on Indigenous children that is still being felt today, generations later. Indigenous children were taken from their families, some as young as four years old. These children were often put on trains and taken as far away from their community as possible. Many of these children died and were buried on the grounds of the schools. Many that survived were no longer accepted in their own communities. Many of these children were forced to believe in Christianity and weren’t allowed to speak their language, sing their songs, or dance their ceremonial dances. This forced erasure of Indigenous culture is still felt in every tribal nation across the country.

As an Indigenous person, I am a descendant of four residential school survivors, my grandparents. I grew up listening to the stories of how the nuns treated the children at the mission school and how they forced them to cut their hair, learn English, and worship Jesus. In any other context, children worshipping Jesus would be a good thing, but when people are indoctrinated into a belief by force, later there can be some resentment.

I am grateful every day that I received, learned, and was shown the love of God in the way it was intended so that I can help my people heal with God’s good love. I am grateful to be a leader in a church, the ELCA, which is leading the way in reconciliation with Indigenous people.

Monday, September 30, 2024 is the National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools. Learn ways you can support this day by wearing orange and more. Visit ELCA.org/IndianBoardingSchools

Use hashtags #ELCA #FaithAndHealing #DayofRemembrance #WELCA

Learn more about the Indian Boarding Schools: ELCA Truth Seeking and Truth-Telling Initiative

Wanda K. Frenchman is an Indigenous leader in the ELCA. She is a member of the Oglala Lakota (South Dakota) and Lenape (Oklahoma) tribes and serves as the vicar for Native American Urban Ministry in Phoenix, Arizona.

A version of this blog post appears on the Cafe (https://Boldcafe.org) website.

To purchase the orange logo t-shirt, click here

To commemorate the 9th anniversary of the martyrdom of the Emanuel 9 – Clementa C. Pinckney, Cynthia Marie Graham Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lee Lance, DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel Lee Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, and Myra Thompson, our beloved siblings in Christ who were murdered by a self-professed white supremacist and ELCA parishioner while they were gathered for Bible study and prayer at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church (often referred to as Mother Emanuel) in Charleston, South Carolina on June 17, 2015 – Desta Goehner, Board President of the ELCA Association of White Lutherans for Racial Justice to share some thoughts about this day of repentance.

For more ELCA resources visit: Commemoration of the Emanuel Nine — June 17 – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (elca.org)

Worship Resources: Prayers_Litanies_Laments_Emanuel_Nine_Commemoration.pdf (elca.org)

As I gather with my congregation every Sunday for worship, my heart often turns to the Emanuel Nine. On June 17, 2015, nine faithful Black Christians were tragically shot and killed during Bible study at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. This day stands as a somber reminder of the devastating consequences of racial hatred and violence.

What weighs heavily on my heart is the realization that the perpetrator, someone who grew up in a Lutheran congregation like mine, could commit such a heinous act. It compels me to confront uncomfortable questions about the environments and influences that shaped him — the people he interacted with at home, at school, at church and at work. He was one of us.

This is why White Lutherans for Racial Justice exists within the ELCA. We recognize our collective responsibility as white members of a predominantly white denomination to address the systemic racism that permeates our congregations, our synods, our institutions and our own hearts. The ELCA has issued resolutions, statements and apologies, but we have done very little to repair the ongoing harms caused by racism.

The burden of dismantling racial injustice cannot fall solely on the shoulders of people of color. As a white person, I must actively engage in the work of racial justice and equity. Yet I often shy away from relinquishing my power, my influence, my comfort. I’ve been conditioned to fear discomfort and confrontation, but I cannot allow that fear to paralyze me.

I have succumbed to this fear many times and certainly will again. I have also been the person to ask the hard questions and have felt the repercussions of that. Whiteness tells me to crawl back into my enclave, but my faith calls me out of that space. I trust that the Holy Spirit will lead and guide me as I lament and repent of my participation in white supremacy as a white, liberal, progressive Lutheran cis woman.

Whiteness exerts immense pressure, but I must not let it crush my resolve. I have witnessed how the weight of whiteness has led white leaders to falter, inflicting harm upon others without adequate accountability or restitution. We must acknowledge the risks inherent in naming injustice and asking hard questions that challenge harmful systems and processes.

We need each other in this journey toward racial justice. We need relationships that hold us accountable, that challenge us to confront our biases and privileges. Who are you building relationships with that offer different perspectives? It’s through these connections that our hearts change.

We must follow the leadership of people of color within our church, amplifying their voices and advocating for change. As we approach the 2024 United States presidential election, we cannot wait until after the fact to take action. Black and brown lives are at stake every day, not just during moments of political turmoil.

Commemorating June 17 as a day of repentance within the ELCA is a meaningful step toward acknowledging the legacy of racism within our church. But our work doesn’t end there. Racial justice is not an abstract concept; dismantling the structures of inequality that perpetuate racism requires tangible action. Join us in this ongoing journey toward racial justice. Together we can create a more just and equitable world where the lives of Black and brown people are valued and protected.

Reach out to your ministry leaders and ask them to include prayers of repentance in worship, and use resources on the ELCA Racial Justice website. Invite your congregation to use these resources in worship, in Bible study, on social media and in newsletters. And then notice whether your congregation commemorates June 17. If they do, express your support! If they don’t, gently inquire why not and advocate for change.

We believe in the power of community and the transformative potential of collective action. White Lutherans for Racial Justice welcomes people at all stages of their racial justice journey. Join us!

Bio: Desta Goehner is president of the Association of White Lutherans for Racial Justice and the Director of Thriving Leadership Formation, with 27-plus years of serving in different expressions of the ELCA. She is a trauma-informed spiritual director and a professional Enneagram coach for people and teams in ministry, specializing in conflict resolution, facilitation, leadership and spiritual formation. Desta’s work is dedicated to fostering racial justice, personal growth and healthy, anti-racist leadership in faith communities. For more about her visit linktr.ee/destag.

For more information on The Association of White Lutherans for Racial Justice visit: website|Facebook

The following message is shared on behalf of Vance Blackfox (Cherokee), Interim Senior Director, Ministries of Diverse Cultures and Communities.

Indian Boarding Schools: ELCA Truth-Seeking and Truth-Telling Initiative

During September, we remember the survivors and descendants of U.S. Indian Boarding Schools. On Saturday, Sept. 30, we observe the National Day of Remembrance for Indian Boarding Schools. You can participate by wearing an orange shirt and posting a photo of yourself or members of your congregation or community on social media. Use the hashtags #ELCA #TruthAndHealing and #DayOfRememberance. If you would like to support the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS), you can purchase an orange shirt with their logo. However, any orange shirt will work.

Throughout September the ELCA’s Truth and Healing Movement has provided opportunities to learn about Indian boarding schools, including conversations with boarding school survivors and descendants of survivors, advocacy opportunities and more.

The ELCA is committed to understanding our role in the tragic and sinful history of Indian boarding schools so that we can begin to heal together. Further, our learning and advocacy related to Indian boarding schools will not end September 30. Our journey toward healing will continue through the Truth and Healing Movement and beyond. To learn more and get involved, visit www.elca.org/IndianBoardingSchools.

Next week there are two free online classes: “Introduction to the Truth and Healing Movement” on Tuesday, September 26, and “Indian 101” on Thursday, September 28. This will be your last chance to attend these classes during the Truth and Healing Movement. For more information and to join the classes, visit www.ELCA.org/TruthAndHealing.

For more information on the ELCA’s Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations, visit: Indigenous Ministries and Tribal Relations – Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (elca.org)

ELCA Racial Justice

Beyond remembrance: ELCA takes action on truth telling