Biden administration to review Native American boarding schools' dark history
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
The federal government will investigate its past oversight of Native American boarding schools and work to “uncover the truth about the loss of human life and the lasting consequences” of policies that over the decades forced hundreds of thousands of children from their families and communities, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced Tuesday.
The unprecedented work will include compiling and reviewing records to identify past boarding schools, locate known and possible burial sites at or near those schools, and uncover the names and tribal affiliations of students, she said.
“To address the intergenerational impact of Indian boarding schools and to promote spiritual and emotional healing in our communities, we must shed light on the unspoken traumas of the past, no matter how hard it will be,” Haaland said.
A member of New Mexico’s Laguna Pueblo and the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, Haaland outlined the initiative while addressing members of the National Congress of American Indians during the group’s midyear conference.
She said the process will be long, difficult and painful and will not undo the heartbreak and loss endured by many families.
Starting with the Indian Civilization Act of 1819, the U.S. enacted laws and policies to establish and support Indian boarding schools across the nation. For over 150 years, Indigenous children were taken from their communities and forced into boarding schools that focused on assimilation.
Haaland talked about the federal government’s attempt to wipe out tribal identity, language and culture and how that past has continued to manifest itself through long-standing trauma, cycles of violence and abuse, premature deaths, mental health issues and substance abuse.
The recent discovery of children’s remains buried at the site of what was once Canada’s largest Indigenous residential school has magnified interest in the troubling legacy both in Canada and the United States.
In Canada, more than 150,000 First Nations children were required to attend state-funded Christian schools as part of a program to assimilate them into society. They were forced to convert to Christianity and were not allowed to speak their languages. Many were beaten and verbally abused, and up to 6,000 are said to have died.
After reading about the unmarked graves in Canada, Haaland recounted her own family’s story in a recent opinion piece published by the Washington Post.
Haaland cited statistics from the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, which reported that by 1926, more than 80 percent of Indigenous school-age children were attending boarding schools that were run either by the federal government or religious organizations. Besides providing resources and raising awareness, the coalition has been working to compile additional research on U.S. boarding schools and deaths that many say is sorely lacking.
Interior Department officials said aside from trying to shed more light on the loss of life at the boarding schools, they will be working to protect burial sites associated with the schools and will consult with tribes on how best to do that while respecting families and communities.
As part of the initiative, a final report from agency staff is due by April 1, 2022.
Chuck Hoskin Jr., principal chief of the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma, which had about 80 boarding schools, called the announcement encouraging and said anything that can be done to address those “troubling chapters of history” is a positive thing.
“I hope we don’t discover gruesome incidents like were discovered in Canada. I just think it’s good in this country to have conversations about what happened to Native American children,” Hoskin said.
Navajo Nation President Nez also offered his support for the initiative, noting discrimination against Native Americans continues today on many fronts — from voter suppression to high numbers of missing and murdered people.
“Last week, Congress and President Biden established ‘Juneteenth’ as a national holiday, in observance of the end of slavery, which I fully support as a means to healing the African American community,” Nez said. “Now, from my perspective as a Navajo person, there are so many atrocities and injustices that have been inflicted upon Native Americans dating back hundreds of years to the present day that also require national attention, so that the American society in general is more knowledgeable and capable of understanding the challenges that we face today.”
This is not the first time the federal government has attempted to acknowledge what Haaland referred to as a “dark history.”
More than two decades ago, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Kevin Gover issued an apology for the emotional, psychological, physical and spiritual violence committed against children at the off-reservation schools. Then in 2009, President Barack Obama quietly signed off on an apology of sorts that was buried deep in a multibillion-dollar defense spending bill; the language had been watered down from the original legislation introduced years earlier.
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Haaland talked about the federal government’s attempt to wipe out tribal identity, language and culture and how that past has continued to manifest itself through long-standing trauma, cycles of violence and abuse, premature deaths, mental health issues and substance abuse.
there are so many atrocities and injustices that have been inflicted upon Native Americans dating back hundreds of years to the present day that also require national attention, so that the American society in general is more knowledgeable and capable of understanding the challenges that we face today.”
Very little is actually taught in the schools today about Native American history and the abuses the Tribes/Nations/People have had to suffer. This "investigation", IF directed by Haaland, will bring to light many of those.
Question is - can the American people handle, understand and come to grips with the past they have place on the Tribes/Nations/people???
I am truly glad for this investigation. It has been ignored for too long.
Yes certainly can.
I hope that the investigation by Deb Haaland not over covers the US government's role in the so-called ''schools'' but also the religious groups that were a part of this, especially the Catholic church.
The government "administrators" of the schools were, from what I've read and heard, not as abusive as the "religious" groups. Yes, they need to be taken into serious account.
After finding another 215 childrens bodies in BC, the Pope didn't apologize. Just a bunch of dead Indian kids at the hands of the Church.
I have to agree. When is the Catholic Church going to apologize for the deaths of these children. We are not talking about events that happened hundreds of years ago but within the last 60 years.
Perrie - the church can't even issue a remand of the Bulls they issued where they stated the non-Christianized could be killed with impunity and that Indians were nothing more than savages and animals.
Never stop rising up, my ethnic society will crush you if you do stop.
Native American boarding schools were nothing more than an attempt at cultural genocide.
The motto used by the Pratt, who started them was, ''Kill the Indian save the man''...
Cultural genocide for starters then physical abuse, sexual abuse, and death.
Pratt's thoughts on Indians. Remember that Carlisle was considered one of the very best Indian Boarding Schools.
Over 10,000 Indian children were sent to Carlisle in the short time it was open. 158 graduated and the courses taught were nothing to help with education. In fact many of the children were ''lent out'' to farms to work the land as free labor.