Indigenous leaders in Canada react to the Pope’s death with a mix of gratitude and unresolved pain

Every night since she last spoke with Pope Francis, Marie-Anne Day Walker-Pelletier has unwrapped a ceremonial cloth covering a pair of children’s moccasins and prayed with the little shoes cradled in her arms.A former chief of Okanese First Nation, Ms. Day Walker-Pelletier had presented the moccasins to Francis during an Indigenous delegation to Rome in March, 2022 – a symbol of the children who died attending Catholic-run residential schools. He assured her he would sit and pray with them every day until he could deliver an apology on Canadian soil.