BUFFALO, N.Y. — Seneca Gaming Corporation and executives gathered Friday in Niagara Falls for their second annual Every Child Matters walk, bringing awareness of the tragedies that took place.
The event, which began at 5:30 p.m., featured special guest speakers with motivational speeches. After that, the walk took place.
People dressed in orange, making a visible and powerful statement to bring brightness.
The remains of roughly more than 1,000 children have been discovered on the grounds of three former residential schools in two Canadian provinces since May. Unmarked graves have even been discovered inside of the residential boarding schools.
The Every Child Matters walk allowed people of the Indigenous community come together for remembrance and to help heal one another.
"Beginning in the 1800s and lasting well into the 1990s, tens of thousands of Native American children were forced to attend residential schools across the United States and Canada, where they were forced to unlearn their names, unlearn traditional language and unlearn their culture. They were often the victims of physical abuse and sexual abuse," a statement for the event said.