No data was found

Red Lake shooting survivors travel to Connecticut to support Newtown community

Share :
Facebook
X
No data was found

red_lake_shooting_survivors.jpgA group of survivors from the 2005 shooting at Red Lake High School traveled to Connecticut in late December to offer support to residents of Newtown, who are dealing with the aftermath of a shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School that killed 26 people.

Ashley Lajeunesse was in 9th grade at Red Lake when the shootings occurred. Ten people, including the 16-year-old shooter, a student at the school, died in those incidents.

Lajeunesse said the Red Lake group offered their condolences at a funeral service for Olivia Engel, age 6.

"It was a week ago today and still everybody is very sad, just crying tears," Lajeunesse said of the atmosphere in Newtown. "I remember how it felt for us though, the same way we were, tears for about a month before we could actually go out anywhere."

The group also offered the community the gift of a plaque.

red_lake_shooting_survivors_3.jpg"Jefferson High School gave it to Columbine and Columbine gave it to us," Lajeunesse said. "We brought it here and we did a few songs and made our closing statement that we hope this is the last school it will have to go to."

The former Red Lake students’ journey echoed a trip that survivors of the 1999 shooting at Columbine High School had taken to Red Lake after the shootings there. The Jefferson High School shooting in 1992 claimed the lives of two students in Brooklyn, NY.

"It made us feel very hopeful that we’ll be able to get through it, the students from Columbine really gave us hope," Lajeunesse said. "And that’s what we came here to do, is get this community hope."

This reporting is made possible by readers like you.

The Circle is a nonprofit newsroom with no tribal affiliation, no corporate ownership, and no paywall. Independent Native journalism depends on reader support.

Recent Stories

More From Latest Reservation NewsReservation News

Red Lake language camp rebuilds Ojibwe traditions

By John Enger/MPR News All Photos by Monika Lawrence/MPR News The Red Lake Band of Chippewa held its sixth annual Ojibwe Language camp in late July. Kids from all across the reservation gathered in the remote backwoods of Ponemah to learn about plant medicines, and language and traditional native lacrosse. Or at least, to try […]

The Largest Inland Oil Spill in U.S. Happened in Minnesota

By Winona LaDuke Most Minnesotans don’t realize that the largest inland oil spill in U.S. history was here. On March 3, 1991, the Line 3 pipeline ruptured near Grand Rapids, spilling over 1.7 million gallons of oil into the Prairie River, after a delayed response by Lakehead Pipeline, Enbridge’s predecessor. The Prairie flows to the […]

Red Lake Nation holds first indigenous food summit

Hundreds of tribe members and others from around the region spent the weekend on the Red Lake Nation reservation in northern Minnesota learning how to grow and gather indigenous food. The three-day event was the Red Lake Nation’s first Intertribal Food Summit which tribal leaders hope will spur the momentum of a movement among their […]

No data was found

Search The Circle

Find stories, columns, events, and magazine features.