Members of the Red Lake Nation of Minnesota who survived a school shooting are in Newtown, Connecticut, to lend their support for a grieving community

Ashley Lajeunesse, Leah Cook, Justin Jourdain and Whitney Spears were in the ninth grade when a student killed seven people at their school on the reservation in March 2005. Survivors of the 1999 Columbine shooting in Colorado came to visit in the wake of the tragedy.

"We were all hopeless after what happened to us," Cook, who is now 22, told The MInneapolis Star Tribune. "But they showed us they were getting on, and it gave us a lot of hope seeing people who'd been through something so traumatizing who were overcoming it."

The four survivors, along with other tribal members, plan to meet with teachers and families from the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting today. They are bringing a tribal flag and a memorial plaque that the Columbine students brought back in 2005.

Twenty-six people, including 20 first-grade students, were killed at the Sandy Hook shooting last Friday. The gunman took his own life at the school and killed his mother prior to heading to the school, according to authorities.

Get the Story:
Red Lake: A tragic tie to Sandy Hook (The Minneapolis Star Tribune 12/20)
Red Lake shooting survivors make Connecticut rampage connection (Minnesota Public Radio 12/19)
Red Lake School Shooting Survivors on Road to Newtown (WDIO-TV 12/19)
Red Lake Shooting Survivors Head to Tragedy in Connecticut (Valley News Live 12/19)
Red Lake school shooting survivors head to Newtown (AP 12/19)
Red Lake School Shooting Survivors Head to Newtown (KSTP-TV 12/19)