Laying Down Prayers With Our Feet: Remembrance Run 2026

Yerington NV – August 18, 2026

By Misty Stevens (Part 1) and Paige Bethmann (Part 2)

Part 1: Remembrance Run 2026 Pre-run Camp. By Misty Stevens

I loved seeing everyone again and meeting new journeyers.

Thank you Jen Keats and Rene Rogers from the JOM Parent Committee for the delicious dinner, the Yerington Paiute Tribe Cultural Committee for the cake and sweets, and the folks at Kuuk Water and Bloom for the cool refreshments!! (The Johnson O’Malley (JOM) Program provides supplemental educational support to eligible tribal enrolled students in preschool through high school.)

Our partner FunFlicks killed it with the seamless screening setup for Remaining Native; it was surreal watching Ku run on the screen with the actual Rez stretching out behind the screen.

Everyone had huge smiles, showing off their new Remaining Native gear from Laika Press, thank you Rachel.

Much gratitude to the Yerington Paiute Tribe for hosting our campers in the park.

We stayed up late making tobacco ties to carry to the children’s cemetery at Stewart, and enjoying each others company.

Photos shared by Misty:

Click on a photo to enlarge, then scroll.

Part 2: The Journey. By Paige Bethmann

This year marked the 6th Remembrance Run, and the 4th year of the event being open to the wider community. Since 2021, Ku and his family have brought hundreds of people together both Native and Non-Native to lay down prayers with their feet to honor the children who ran, survived, and didn’t make it home from Indian Boarding School. Each year is a reminder of the importance and power of community when spaces are created around healing, joy, and collective action.

It has been an honor to be a part of this journey year after year and a privilege to document Ku’s story through Remaining Native. To witness the community growing around the run and the film has been deeply meaningful and has brought up new reflections for me as I think about this past weekend.

For the first time, I was there without a camera and film crew. I covered close to 15 miles running and walking, of course with accepting help along the way. As a non-runner person, it was physically demanding and as a descendant of a boarding school survivor, I felt both spiritually and emotionally exhausted. It was as hard as I remembered, but this time without the camera between me and the experience, I had room to breathe. I felt the hard ground beneath my feet, the sounds of the birds and bugs flying in the air, the moments of wind aiding me in my recovery, and pats on the back from others, it gave me a clearer view of my own growth since this all started.

Delmar Stevens, Ku’s father, has often told me “your spirit doesn’t move as fast as you do, you must find time to connect it” and the run has always served as that vital tether. For me, this was about taking a step back (I guess in this case taking many steps forward) to see what I’ve been a part of this whole time and I am in awe by the view.

Thank you to The Stevens family, Remaining Native Film Team, Remembrance Runners, all of our volunteers, partners, and community members who have shown up repeatedly over the years.

And forever grateful to my family and support system. Niawen.

Paige Bethmann wrote & directed the award-winning, feature-length Remaining Native, “A documentary told from the perspective of Ku Stevens, a 17-year-old Native American runner, struggling to navigate his dream of becoming a collegiate athlete as the memory of his great-grandfather’s escape from an Indian boarding school begins to connect past, present, and future.”