Initial Hurdle Overcome As Legislation Passes Senate Committee That Would Investigate Native Boarding School History In The U.S.

The Senate’s Indian Affairs Committee has given unanimous bipartisan approval to a proposed law that urges Congress to probe the U.S. government’s past policies on Indian boarding schools. These policies, implemented from 1819 to the 1960s, were intended to terminate and assimilate Native Americans.

This proposed legislation, known as the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States, was initially put forth by Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) on May 18. It garnered bipartisan backing from 26 senators, most of whom are Democrats. Senator Warren advocated for the bill at the Senate Committee business meeting, stating, “It is high time that survivors and other community members are given the chance to be thoroughly heard.”

Should the proposed legislation be enacted, it would result in the formation of a commission. This body, appointed by the President, would offer recommendations “on actions that the Federal Government can undertake to sufficiently accept responsibility for, and provide reparations and healing for, the historical and intergenerational trauma caused by the Indian Boarding School Policies,” according to the bill’s text.

The recommendations would encompass actions such as safeguarding unmarked graves, endorsing repatriation, and curtailing contemporary policies related to the removal of Indian children.

“This bill would provide the commission with several years to investigate the policies and learn from survivors and their descendants by providing this forum, (and) holding culturally respectful and meaningful hearings,” Warren told the committee. “Throughout this process, the commission would also develop recommendations for the federal government to acknowledge and heal trauma caused by this (federal boarding school) policy.”

Senators emphasized the critical role of this proposed legislation in fostering healing processes within Indigenous communities.

“S. 1723 will help our Native and indigenous communities by creating a Commission to help guide the healing journey, and will do so through acknowledging the lasting impacts of forced assimilation through the Indian Boarding schools and developing recommendations to the federal government that will focus on native voices being heard,” Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), a senior member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, said at today’s hearing. “To get to this result, we know that we have to not hide from the past. Generations of Tribal communities need to achieve justice and heal, and the truth must be acknowledged.”

Deborah Parker, a member of the Tulalip Tribes and CEO of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition (NABS) - an organization that has been pushing for this bill since its inception - praised the senators for their efforts to advance the legislation.

“We are grateful to Senator Warren for reintroducing this bill and to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for working with us to make it even stronger,” Parker said in a statement. “The leadership from Senator Schatz and Senator Murkowski has been crucial in making this historic bill bipartisan.”

The committee took into account over 100 written submissions from tribes, Native communities, organizations, and individuals to refine the legislation. Feedback was also provided by Murray Sinclair, the former Chief Commissioner of the Indian Residential School Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada.

“For over a century, the federal government knowingly perpetuated violence and trauma with the goal of assimilating Native children by destroying family and communal bonds, their languages, their cultures, and their very identities. The impacts of this shameful history are felt by survivors and their descendants to this day,” Schatz said in a statement. “Without the guidance and support of Native communities across the country on this important bill, a culturally respectful and meaningful path to truth and healing would not be possible.”