Every Child Matters walk taking place on Monday

Seneca Gaming Corp. will host the fourth annual Every Child Matters walk in downtown Niagara Falls on Monday, joining communities across the U.S. and Canada in a growing effort to raise awareness and healing for the abuse faced by generations of Indigenous children at residential schools that operated across both countries.

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 U.S. and Canada, including the Thomas Indian School, which operated on the Seneca Nation's Cattaraugus Territory in Irving from 1855-1956. Children at the schools were systematically stripped of their names, traditional language and culture, and were often the victims of physical abuse. Thousands of children are known to have died at the residential schools. It is believed that the deaths of hundreds — if not thousands — more were never documented.

Hundreds of walkers wearing orange t-shirts took part in the "Every Child Matters" walks in Niagara Falls each of the past three years, making a visible and powerful statement of community support.

"The journey toward healing is long and difficult," said Seneca Gaming Corp. President & CEO Kevin Nephew, a member of the Seneca Nation. "Even now, decades after the residential school doors finally closed, there are generations of Native people who still carry pain and darkness with them every day because of what they experienced at the schools. There are Native communities everywhere that still bear the weight of that trauma. We want people to understand what happened and, as important, we want every individual and community that were forever changed by the residential school movement to know that we are walking that healing journey with them."

Participants for this year's walk are asked to gather at Seneca Square, in front of the Fourth Street entrance to Seneca Niagara Resort & Casino, starting at 2 p.m.